Surprising theory behind why Disney employees always point with two fingers
Topics: Disney, TV And Film, Entertainment
Mia Williams
Featured Image Credit: Keystone/Getty Images
Topics: Disney, TV And Film, Entertainment
Former Disney employees have revealed why staff at the company tend to point with two fingers.
The Disney double point has been witnessed by the millions of visitors that attend the park each year.
It's just of one of the many unique quirks that staff have to abide by, but the double-finger point actually has a significant amount of history behind it.
There are many rumours about the company's founder, Walt Disney.
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People have previously claimed that he was frozen after his death, another is that he was heavily addicted to smoking.
But only the latter is true.
It turns out that Walt Disney was actually a chain smoker, and constantly had a cigarette in his hand.
He was often pictured as such, but the company collectively decided to edit the cigarettes out of any pictures - leaving just two of his fingers together, where the cigarette would have been.
Airbrushing cigarettes out of pictures created Disney's iconic 'two-finger point'.
But to hide the real meaning behind the bizarre concept, the founder reportedly made sure all staff adopted the same action.
And even to this day, all staff at Disney point with two fingers to give directions.
One former cast member on Reddit said: "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."
And while this theory is very possibly the origin, the reason it continues to be used by staff today is quite different.
Another cast member clarified this, saying: "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."
A Q&A on the Walt Disney Archives revealed exactly why he wanted all cigarettes to be edited out.
It read: "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."
His daughter, Diane Disney Miller, later revealed why he smoked to consistently.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, she said: "At the end of the Great War, he began to smoke cigarettes for the same reasons adolescents do today.
"To symbolise their independence, to appear older and more sophisticated, to look 'cool.'"