In return for Disney's information, J. Edgar Hoover, the Director of the bureau, allowed Disney to film in F.B.I. headquarters in Washington. For his part, Disney allowed Hoover access to some Disney scripts, and made slight changes in a few lesser-known movies and an episode of "The Mickey Mouse Club" television show to mollify the director. There is no evidence that revisions were requested in any of Disney's classic animated features.

Because of the information Disney provided the bureau, he was made a "full Special Agent in Charge Contact" in 1954. An "S.A.C. Contact" was usually a trusted informer who could provide transportation and equipment as well as public relations services to the bureau. Disney was not the only important informer in Hollywood; while president of the Screen Actors Guild in 1947, Ronald Reagan was designated "Source T-10" by the F.B.I., meaning he was a confidential source with the code name "T-10."

As a bureau contact, Disney reported on the activities of Hollywood actors, writers, producers, directors, technicians and union activists suspected of political subversion. The earliest communication between Disney and Hoover appears in a July 1936 memorandum in which Hoover writes, "I am indeed pleased that we can be of service to you in affording you a means of absolute identity throughout your lifetime." The meaning of "absolute identity" is unclear, but the document signifies the beginning of a long-term relationship between the two men.

In 1944, the battle lines were drawn against suspected Hollywood subversives with the creation of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, an anti-Communist group that consisted mainly of studio executives. Its officers included Sam Wood, a producer and director whose credits included "A Night at the Opera" and "Kitty Foyle," as president, and Disney, as first vice president. Among its members was Lela Rogers, the mother of Ginger Rogers, who testified during the hearings of the House Committee on Un-American Activities that her daughter had turned down many films -- including one based on Theodore Dreiser's "Sister Carrie" -- because they were "un-American." Data on 'Compic' Sought

A memorandum sent sent in 1947 from F.B.I. headquarters in Washington to its Los Angeles office said the bureau wanted to know about "Compic" (Communist pictures). That year, when the House committee began its hearings on Communist infiltration of the movies, Disney followed Mr. Reagan and the actor George Murphy as a principal witness. On the stand, he attributed the strike of studio animators to Communist union leaders and said he was smeared by such "Communist-front" organizations as the League of Women Voters. The next day, he sent a telegram to the committee saying he had made a mistake; he meant the League of Women Shoppers.