Would Disney Really Put Their Animators in a Zoo?

I didn't have a lot of access to professional cartoonists when I was a young aspiring artist. Probably the first time I ever saw a real live, professional cartoonist was during a family trip to Disney World in the early to mid 1970's . The animation studio tour was the highlight of the Disney experience for me. It was cool seeing animation cells and original sketches and drawings used to make famous Disney animated movies and TV shows. And the tour though the artist studio section to see actual animators at their drawing boards, drawing right before my eyes was an experience I'll never forget. We viewed the animators at their workstations through large glass panels that separated the visitor walkway from the actual art studio. I remember putting my hands up on the glass and just staring at them, watching their every move. Wow! Real Disney artists working on the next great animated movie! But as much as I was in awe of seeing actual artists on this tour, there are questions about this event that bother me to this day.

Seeing the animators in action was a great spectacle for the Disney visitors, but put yourself in the shoes and seats of these animators. Who would want to work in essentially a human zoo, behind glass, having zero privacy. I don't recall any of the people behind the glass looking up to see the crowds looking back at them. And why would they? Imagine trying to get high-pressure creative work done with hundreds of eyeballs watching you all day long. Just thinking about it makes my skin crawl. As much as I appreciated seeing the artists, I felt bad for them at the same time. 

So here are a few questions and thoughts about what was really going on there:

1. Were those people behind the glass drawing for the crowds really Disney animators or were they just actors putting on a show for the gawking tourists? The "artists" were just tracing drawings on the animation workstation tracing tables after all!

2. Or maybe it was part of the job as a Disney animator to put in some "zoo time' for the park patrons, and each week the artists would be a good little monkeys and go out to the zoo desks and perform for the visitors. Seems like a big waste of time. Skin crawling again.

3. Perhaps these were real Disney animators that were being punished or demoted for some sort of infraction. That would be pretty harsh in my book.

4. Maybe this was the bottom of the Disney artist ladder and to gain your own private art desk you had to "pay your dues" and draw in the zoo for a while. If so, how much time in the zoo did they have to put it? Years? ARGH!

As I think about it, the idea that these people were just actors seems the most plausible to me. After all, what real artist could and would work in such conditions? Artists in general are quite well-known for being naturally inclined to want to create in solitude. And these were cream of the crop DISNEY artists doing ultra-high quality work with all those extra eyeballs invading their work spaces all day? Imagine the distracting and creativity-sapping atmosphere that would be. Putting animators in a zoo just doesn't seem like something a place like DISNEY (who were known for being the best in animation) would do to prized creative people that produced the very product that they were known for. Certainly they wouldn't do such a thing, would they?

Do you remember seeing animators on display like this at the Disney Studios? Do you know the answer to any of these questions? If you do, please let me know. This has been bothering me for a very, very long time.