Adventures in Chicago - 1918

In the summer of 1955 Walt Disney was interviewed by journalist Pete Martin for a series of installments, which would eventually appear in the Saturday Evening Post. The Walt Disney quotes appearing in this post have come from an audio copy of that interview.

In the summer of 1918, some 37 years prior to the Martin interviews, 16-year old Walt Disney applied for a job as a letter carrier with the Post Office in Chicago. Disney recalled:

"I went down to get this job...another fellow and I went down together...he was no older than I was. When the fellow started interviewing us...this kid lied and said he was older. I couldn't lie. I said, 'Sixteen.' [The interviewer] said, 'I'm sorry, you're too young.' Well, I was really down. I went home...put on my dad's clothes...put on a different hat. I came back and got in line with the same guy and came up to him and he said, 'How old are you?' I said, 'Seventeen.' He sent me over to fill out an application. I felt I was in a disguise. I don't know whether he didn't care, or didn't recognize me, or what? So, I got the job."

1909 postcard showing the Chicago Federal Building. The Edison building, located on West Adams Street, is visible in the background on the right.

Disney began his new job as a mailman in the post office at the Federal Building on West Jackson Boulevard, in the so-called "Loop" district of downtown Chicago:

"I used to go to work...very early in the morning, about seven o'clock. I would work as a substitute. There were always two mailmen on a route. When one was sick, they'd put a substitute on. We'd sort the mail...then each man would start out with a load. The route was divided into sections. You made about three or four deliveries a day in the Loop area."

Sorting mail at the Federal Building post office, circa 1910. DN-0008875. Chicago Daily News negatives collection. Chicago Historical Society.

"I'd be through...about 3:30 to four in the afternoon. There were several places I'd go to earn more money...40 cents an hour I got. This was a gold rush for me. I'd run over to the special delivery and see if they needed any extra help. Another place I'd put in my request [was] at the pick-up, the horse and buggy. We'd go out and pick-up the mail. I could drive a car, so if they had anything I'd go out to the garage and get a car and they'd send me on...a pick-up route. Or, I'd go out to the barn and get a horse and pick-up."

Chicago post office trucks, November 1915. DN-0065426. Chicago Daily News negatives collection. Chicago Historical Society.

On September 4, 1918, a bomb ripped through the West Adams Street lobby of the Federal Building. The Lincoln, Nebraska Journal reported, "The bomb was hurled from across the street." The Mansfield News reported the bomb "was to have been exploded during the great Labor Day parade with the expectation that it would wipe out hundreds of lives." The article further stated, "The man who placed the bomb...is today reported under arrest. In the minds of the officials who have kept close watch over activities antagonistic to the government, there is no doubt that the crime lies at the door of the organization headed by Big Bill Haywood."

September 4, 1918. Aftermath of the bomb explosion, West Adams Street entrance to the Federal Building. DN-0070484. Chicago Daily News negatives collection. Chicago Historical Society.

Haywood was the general secretary treasurer of the Industrial Workers of the World, an organization opposed to America's entry into World War I. Haywood was in the Federal Building at the time of the explosion, having recently been sentenced to 20 years in prison for "obstructing the government's war program." Haywood fled to Russia after being released on bail, where he remained until his death. No members of the I.W.W. were ever charged with the bombing.

September 4, 1918. Firemen and other workers sift through the debris in a corridor inside the Federal Building, sometime after the explosion. DN-0070486. Chicago Daily News negatives collection. Chicago Historical Society.

Walt Disney was in the Federal Building when the bomb exploded:

"I was in the post office. I just got though sorting my mail, or finishing my route. I was walking out...going out a certain entrance...when it was bombed. I was right in the lobby when, FOOOOOM, this thing went off. Here comes the dust shooting out and everything. That was the way I went out every night. I missed that darn thing by about three minutes. There were several people killed. In fact, a mailman who worked just two desks away from me, he was on his way out and he got killed. We were locked up there until they made a thorough investigation. [They] wouldn't let anybody out."

Four persons were killed including letter carrier William Wheeler (the employee Disney referred to in the interview); clerk Edward Kolkow; 22-year old Navy recruit J. Ladd; and 19-year old Ella Mieblke, who was walking by the building when the explosion occured. The force of the blast also injured more than 75 others, killed a horse on the street, damaged a streetcar and shattered windows on nearby buildings.

September 4, 1918. Damage to the Edison building, located across from the West Adams Street entrance to the Federal Building. DN-00700485. Chicago Daily News negatives collection. Chicago Historical Society.

An article in the December 24, 1918 New York Times reported Dominick Costerella, the alleged leader of a so-called Black Hand extortion group, which operated between Milwaukee and Chicago, was accused by his wife with having been responsible for the Chicago Federal Building blast.

Post office employee emptying the contents of his mail wagon into a streetside mail chute at the Federal Building post office, circa 1908. DN-0053296. Chicago Daily News negatives collection. Chicago Historical Society.

Besides his regular duties, Disney's supervisors sometimes asked the youngster to work on Sundays:

"I took this big mailbag home with me. On Sundays...at 3:30 in the afternoon...I was to go out to the end of Grand Avenue pier. I'd ride out there in the streetcar. I'd collect all the postcards people were mailing. Then I'd ride back on the streetcar. There was the horse barn with all these mail wagons. I came in with this satchel full of mail. I hung it up on a peg in the stall. Then I got my horse out. I hitched him up to the wagon. I went out and collected boxes...at the different hotels, with this horse."

Located at the end of East Grand Avenue, the Chicago Municipal pier, later known as the Navy Pier, was built in 1916 at a cost of $4.5 million. The 3,300 foot long pier, which was serviced by its own streetcar line, was used by passenger steamers plying the waters of Lake Michigan. DN-0065714. Chicago Daily News negatives collection. Chicago Historical Society.

One day while at work, Disney was removed from his sorting station and was taken away by two postal inspectors for questioning:

"I was sitting in there sorting mail...when suddenly all the mailmen began to look at me. I looked behind me and here were two postal inspectors. They said, 'Disney, come on with us!' I had to walk down this long corridor, with all these postmen on either side sorting mail and all their heads watching me. I walked down between these two postal inspectors, downstairs to where their office was.

They sat me down in a chair. [They] said, 'On a certain Sunday...you collected a bag of mail at the Grand Avenue pier.' I said, 'Yes.' [They said,] 'What did you do with it?' I said, 'I put it in the mail chute.' They said, 'No you didn't. What did you do with it?' And they gave me the third degree. They said, 'Come clean now kid!' I was sweating. I was panicking. I saw visions of bars in front of me.

Finally, they began to smile and they said, 'We'll tell you what you did with it. You hung it on a peg in the stable and it's been hanging there for two weeks.' They said, 'Now be more careful with it, and get out of here!' They played it right up the hilt, by God I was just, I thought, 'Gee, I'm a criminal. I'm going to jail.' "

South Dearborn Street side of the Federal Building, circa 1911. This image shows early automobiles and a horse-drawn carriage. The large curbside boxes are mail chutes used by postal employees to empty their wagons after completing their "pick-up" routes. The Edison building is visible in the background. DN-009273. Chicago Daily News negatives collection. Chicago Historical Society.

While reflecting with Pete Martin on his time spent at the post office, Disney also recalled horse he had the pleasure of working with. Disney and this particular steed worked a pick-up route:

"The guy in the horse barn wouldn't let me touch the reins. He said, 'Now kid, leave that horse alone! He knows more than you do. He knows every box and he knows his way back to the barn. You keep your hands off those reins!'

So, we started out. I started down this ramp to the street. A streetcar came through. I started to grab the reins. This fella yelled, 'Keep your hands off those reins!' I did and the horse came right on down, he just stopped, let the streetcar go on by and he followed the streetcar. The horse knew every...street."

Horse traffic on the Rush Street Bridge, circa 1908. DN-0006503. Chicago Daily News negatives collection. Chicago Historical Society.

"[The] Rush Street Bridge used to open for boats. He'd come up to that [bridge]...they put a chain across [when] the bridge was opened. This old horse, he'd get right up, he'd just get right up and he'd be the first one at that chain. As soon as the bridge came back and they dropped the chain, that old horse would be the first one to cross that bridge. He took me all through the Loop.

He was tricky. I'd get the mail out of the box and I'd put it in the back of the wagon and I'd slam the gate. The horse woudl hear that and he'd start going. I had to run to get up in the darn wagon...you had to step on the hub. I had to outwit that horse. I had to quiety close the gate and get up there...then say, 'Go on.' But that horse knew everything. [He'd] take me right back to the post office. I'd put all the mail in...the chute...then I'd drive the horse all the way to the back of the barn and go on home."

In the fall of 1918, Walt Disney quit his job at the Post Office. On September 16, Disney and his friend Russell Maas successfully enlisted in the Red Cross Ambulance Corps. Disney was about to embark on his next adventure, this time in France, where he would practise his art, see the lights of Paris and begin a lifelong friendship with the matriarch of a Red Cross canteen.