The Walt Disney Company has altered photographs of Walt Disney displayed in Disney theme parks to remove the cigarettes between his fingers.
Numerous urban legends and myths surround Walt Disney and his legacy, the most prominent being that he was cryogenically frozen when he died in 1966, which Snopes fact-checked and found false in 1995.
Others include Disney receiving a dishonorable discharge from the military during World War II, claims that he was born out of wedlock, and reports that he left Disney executives explicit directions on how to run the company after his death. The Walt Disney legend seems to have grown as imaginative as the characters he created.
Add to those rumors that The Walt Disney Company supposedly had a longstanding practice of airbrushing out any appearance of cigarettes in photographs of its founder. The claim has circulated for years, consistently so on Reddit, like this instance from 2013, this thread from 2017, and this one from September 2024.
(Reddit)
A user in the WDWMagic.com forums suggested that the removal of cigarettes is more widespread within Disney properties: “Anyone who has eaten at Steakhouse 55 at the Disneyland Hotel knows it too. But at Steakhouse 55 they have airbrushed out all the cigarettes from all the people in the photos, not just Walt, and also airbrushed out the ashtrays too.”
The appearance of Disney holding cigarettes that were later allegedly airbrushed out of photos created the producer’s iconic “two-finger point” (see image above). Visitors of a Disney theme park will often find its employees — referred to as “cast members” — offering guests directions using a two-fingered point.
This claim drew wider mainstream media attention in 2013 following the release of the movie “Saving Mr. Banks,” in which Tom Hanks starred as Walt Disney himself. During an appearance on “Ellen,” Hanks recounted this claim and alleged it was true, though we have as yet been able to verify it. For this reason, we have rated the claim as research in progress.
In 2015, Huffington Post cited Hanks’ “Ellen” appearance and reported that an unnamed Disney cast member verified “the two-finger point is part of our training upon being hired in” and that not only is it an homage to Disney himself, it’s an intentional gesture to avoid a single-finger point that could be construed as rude.
Disney Co. has not yet responded to inquiries about this training procedure, but some of the Reddit threads included accounts of current or former cast members supporting the assessment, with one saying: “Not sure if it is true but I heard that Walt used to point at things a lot while smoking and supposedly that’s the origin of the two-fingered Disney point. Kinda makes sense. Source: I’m a cast member at WDW [Walt Disney World].”
Another said: “Today they keep the two-finger pointing because in some cultures it is impolite to point with one, so they enforce we use two fingers or the palm of your hand to indicate the way, but it definitely started out to cover up his smoking habits from children.”
Some photos do appear to be edited, such as the undated photograph of Disney exiting the Carthay Circle Theater, where “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” premiered in 1937.
However, a version of this photo hangs in Disneyland’s Carthay Circle Restaurant — constructed to replicate the look of the famous Hollywood theater — that clearly shows Disney holding a cigarette.
(919 Raleigh)
When Disneyland opened in 1955, one of the original storefronts on Main Street, USA was The Tobacco Shop, where visitors could purchase cigarettes, pipes, and other smoking accessories complete with Disneyland branding. The Tobacco Shop closed in 1990, turning artifacts like Disneyland matchbooks and pipes into collector’s items. Disney’s U.S. theme parks banned smoking as of May 1, 2019.
According to a Q&A on the Walt Disney Archives website, Disney requested he not be photographed smoking at all, though there was no mention of photo manipulation:
“Walt Disney smoked Lucky Strikes in the 1940s and French cigarettes, Gitanes, later in his life, but he never wanted to be photographed with a cigarette as he felt it set a bad example for children. He was a heavy smoker, and, in fact, died of lung cancer.”
Despite Disney’s alleged request, there is substantial photographic documentation as well as verbal accounts of Disney’s heavy smoking habit.
Photos of Disney with a cigarette in hand are available on Getty Images, including a photo from 1935 with a cigarette between his fingers, one from 1945 where he’s shown lighting up, an image from 1946 where he’s walking through Dublin enjoying a smoke, and another from 1951 with a cigarette burned down close to his knuckles.
This is in line with daughter Diane Disney Miller’s recounting of her father’s habit to author Neal Gabler in his book “Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination”:
“I just can’t picture him without a cigarette… He would forget to put them out… He would light them and get carried away with what he was thinking about and just hold them. Sometimes he would hold them in his mouth or in his hand and get an ash on it two inches long.”
In 1995, Disney Miller wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times in an effort to use her father’s addiction to remind the public about the dangers of smoking, saying:
“At the end of the Great War, he began to smoke cigarettes for the same reasons adolescents do today: to symbolize their independence, to appear older and more sophisticated, to look ‘cool.’ Like so many others, he became addicted to nicotine, although he never would have believed himself addicted to anything.”
Disney also suffered from a persistent cough, about which Gabler wrote:
“His hacking cough was dreaded not only among his employees, who had long regarded it as kind of a klaxon of Walt’s impending arrival, but among his own family. Sharon [adopted daughter of Walt and Lillian Disney] had once asked him not to attend a school play she was acting in because she said if she heard him cough, she would forget her lines.”
Given the substantial evidence of Disney’s smoking habit and the ubiquity of smoking in general during his lifetime, it seems likely there is some truth to the claim that many public-facing photographs of him were altered at some point. Getting confirmation about when the practice began, whose request it was, how widespread the practice became, and when — or if — the company stopped doing it, is ongoing.
In 2007, The Walt Disney Company issued a statement regarding the depiction of smoking in its films. CEO Bob Iger said at the time:
“The Walt Disney Company shares your concern regarding deaths due to cigarette smoking. We discourage depictions of cigarette smoking in Disney, Touchstone and Miramax films. In particular, we expect that depictions of cigarette smoking in future Disney branded films will be non-existent. In response to your suggestion, our Company will place an anti-smoking PSA on DVD’s of any future film that does depict cigarette smoking.”
According to the company’s social impact website, the policy reads:
“The Walt Disney Company actively limits the depiction of smoking in movies marketed to youth. Our practices currently include the following:
Disney has determined not to depict cigarette smoking in movies produced by it after 2015 (2007 in the case of Disney branded movies) and distributed under the Disney, Pixar, Marvel or Lucasfilm labels, that are rated G, PG or PG-13, except for scenes that:
– depict a historical figure who may have smoked at the time of his or her life; or
– portray cigarette smoking in an unfavorable light or emphasize the negative consequences of smoking.”
The only instance of Walt Disney smoking in “Saving Mr. Banks,” released in 2013, was Hanks briefly stubbing out a cigarette, though the two-fingered point made an appearance.