"There is a fascinating website I recently came across called “Midnight Freemasons” [1].  It’s interesting more for the fact that it’s just not that… interesting.  It claims to be a group of “Master Masons” who cover a myriad of topics from travel to history and everything and anything that interests them.  With all of the sometimes over-the-top sites claiming to hold all of the sacred knowledge of the Masons, it’s nice to read about it from a different (and potentially more accurate) perspective.

Recently, I was looking into the age-old question of whether or not Walt Disney was a freemason, which is much harder than you might think, and came across this site.  According to the Midnight Freemasons, “He was a great man, a great animator, he loved children, and he had an imagination that knew few limits. He often been cited as a Freemason, in fact, often he’s listed as a 33rd Degree. I’ve read a lot about Walt Disney, and he was widely admired and respected. He’s many things to many people, but one thing he was not, was a Freemason.

Now part of what may have cause the confusion is that during the 1950s, Disneyland sponsored various clubs for its employees, including a knitting club, a shooting club, a skiing club, bowling and softball teams. There was also a Masonic club at Disney, presumably for the employees who were Freemasons.

However, even though Disney wasn’t a Freemason, he did belong to Demolay as a boy, which is a fraternal organization sponsored by Masonry. While many Demolay do go on to become Freemasons, Walt Disney never joined a Masonic Lodge. Walt Disney was kind of a big deal in Demolay–he was only the 107th member to join the organization, and a member of the Mother Chapter. He was later inducted into Demolay’s Legion of Honor, and the Hall of Fame. He was very fond of the Demolay organization, and spoke out favorably about it often. In fact, he made his creation, Mickey Mouse, a member of Demolay!"