When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.

Note: This first appeared here on The Blue Parrot on November 7, 2008.

Nostalgia can be funny stuff.

Memories of places, people and events can (and usually are) effected by the passing of time. What we may remember, may not be what actually happened.

I’ve been reading “The Fog of Gettysburg” by Ken Allers Jr. He takes the time to point out the truths and fictions among many legends from the battlefield in July of 1863. As someone whose ancestors fought and died there, I found this an effort well worth the while.

In the foreward, Thomas R. Flagel makes one very interesting point.

     “Of all that is lost to history, worse are the myths and legends that attach themselves to facts. Misconceptions are painfully tenacious, and the more popular they are, the harder it is to dislodge their firm grip on the public psyche. But we historians must charge into the powder smoke of assumptions and slam against the stone walls of apochcrypha.”

This statement is true not only of Gettysburg and the battle, but of nostalgia in general. As time passes, it is all too easy to simply rely on the good stories. Facts tend to give way to myths. The comfortable can out more than the uncomfortable.

Disney fans know that some of the company tales related about various parts of the corporate history have been bent to fit a vision that is less than clear. The safe and happy tends to be easier to digest and repeat for the public.

But the problem is that reality can sometimes be more illuminating. Diane Disney Miller put it best I think when she said that “the truth is more interesting than some of the legendary stories (or myths) that have become accepted as reality.” 

A case in point, from a visit to the offices of the Walt Disney Family Museum:

While looking over a case with a series of medals awarded to Walt, Diane made a comment that “stories get lost.” To illustrate that point, she shared the tale of a 1935 trip to Paris by Walt and Lillian along with Roy and Edna. Over the years since, the story about the trip had been told that Walt had specifically traveled to buy books about European fairy tales as reference materials for various Disney artists. Diane related how a transcript of a journal written by Edna, told of the trip and how one entry noted that “Lillian, Roy and I did this today, while Walt went off to buy more books.” As Walt was always collecting figures, books and other items, this was easy to accept as being the truth about that trip.

The real reason for the trip was that Walt was being awarded the French Legion of Honor medal. It came with recognition of Mickey Mouse as “a universal symbol of goodwill.” And of course, while she was telling that story, there was the 1935 Legion of Honor medal on display.

Disney archivist Dave Smith further related to Diane that it was on that trip that Walt noticed how the theaters in Paris were playing four and five Mickey Mouse cartoons at a time. And he thought, “Aha! People are finally ready for a feature length Disney cartoon.” 

It’s just that kind of thing that is driving Diane’s (and others) efforts behind the Museum – the chance to show the reality, rather than the myth.

And that is not such a bad goal. While we all have fond memories from some point in our lives, we need to recall things with a bit of clarity. The good and the bad balance out. In my own case, it’s easy to overlook hours of hard and dirty work that went into a project. Recalling the achievement rather the effort it took to get there is always easier.

With everything that’s happened in the last few days, one can only imagine how it will be remembered by people years from now. Will they look back and see only the result and not what it actually took to reach the goal?

One can only hope that they enjoy a vision of events a little clear of the fog of time.

__________________________________________________________________

Oh, yes… that quote at the top, today? 

From John Ford’s “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (1962)