Why Walt Disney shows two fingers in all his photos

Studying the history of the Disney company, you can notice an unusual thing: the founder of the company Walter Elias Disney in the photos constantly points somewhere with two folded fingers of his right hand - middle and index. We explain what's the matter here. 

Moreover, if you come to one of the Disneyland amusement parks and ask employees to show you the way, they will stretch out their fingers just like Walt Disney in the photos. 

And the answer lies in this. The famous cartoonist smoked three packs of cigarettes a day: he became addicted to smoking when he worked as an ambulance driver during the First World War in France. When a person smokes so much, it is difficult to seize the moment and take a picture of him without a cigarette. Probably, this addiction is also caused by the famous Disney cough, which accompanied all his performances. The founder of the entertainment empire died at the age of 65 from lung cancer. 

All this does not fit into the image of a kind storyteller, which is drawn by his followers from Disney, and sets a bad example to children at Disneyland, therefore, in all official photos of the animator, the cigarette in his hands was retouched. And so that the resulting figure of fingers would not seem strange to park visitors, the workers were told to perform all index gestures with two fingers — this is the so-called "Disney gesture". In addition, pointing at something with one finger is considered impolite in many countries.

The gesture has also penetrated into modern cinema: Tom Hanks, who played Disney in the 2013 film "Saving Mr. Banks," folds his index and middle fingers in the same way as his hero in retouched photographs.