Walt Disney Research Paper

Improved Essays
Urban Legend
Was Walt Disney’s body really frozen? Is there really a black market for kidneys? The answer to both is no, these questions or rumors are called urban legends which majority of them are not true. Urban legends is a modern folklore and in 1981 Jan Harold Brunvand published several books pertaining to legends (Brunvand n.d.). In this paper I will be explaining what urban legend is and prove why these two questions are false.
Urban legends are a tradition of storytelling and starts from a rumor people tell. Also urban legends are folk history and gains credit from the time, place, and authorities (Nachbar & Lause, 1992, p.59). Moreover, urban legend is untrue stories that are bizarre and passed on either by mouth or electronically.
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According to Bruvand, an urban legend tries to give realistic stories and to entertain people (Nachbar & Lause, 1992, p.78). The stories can also be changed and repeated in different places. Moreover, urban legends come as lively, factual and told with lack of evidence.
First urban legend, was Walt Disney’s body really frozen? This story begins on December 15, 1966 when Walt Disney died due to a lung cancer (Blatty, 2014). After his death a rumor scattered saying, his body was frozen for preservation and is buried underneath Disney Land in Anaheim, California (Blatty, 2014). This rumor has no exact origin although one of the assumptions was that it started in 1969 Ici Paris article (Blatty, 2014). The rumor remains popular due to the biography made by Marc Eliot stating that Disney was interested on cryonics prior to his death.
As the rumor goes Disney’s daughter Diane denied her father being frozen. The true story was that Disney’s body was cremated on December 17, 1966 at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California (Blatty, 2014). The privacy of Disney maintaining his personal life, his death, and the private funeral has aided the urban legend that he was frozen. Disney’s story is considered an urban legend due to the popularity of Disney, the mystery of his funeral and his biographer’s rumors. What message from this story we can learn is to avoid listening to invalid
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This urban legend still continues till today. The rumor began in New Orleans on 1997 were there is a beware message saying there are criminals drugging tourist and stealing their kidneys (Emery, n.d.). Also the thieves would sell the kidneys in the black market. This message spread quickly that the New Orleans Police Department got involve and in the end found no clues to the crime. This incident also happened in Houston and Vegas prior to New Orleans. The story keeps going in different parts of the world with similar version to the original story. This story is considered urban legend because according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, there is no evidence that this story ever happened in the U.S. (Campbell & Davison, 2012). Moreover, what makes it harder to perceive is that it takes medical professionals to remove a kidney from someone. Furthermore, no victims confessed of being robbed of their

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