Walter Elias Disney was born on the 5th of December, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois. He spent his childhood on a farm near Marceline, Missouri. Walt started drawing at very early age and when he turned 7 he was already selling his sketches to the neighbors. Although, Walt Disney’s father worked hard to support his wife and five children, the family still had to count every penny. Walt had to start working young, selling candies and newspapers on the train that traveled between Kansas City and Chicago, Illinois. He also took some art lessons at McKinley High School in Chicago.
In 1918 Disney dropped out of high school to serve in World War I. Rejected because he was only 16 years old at the time, he still joined the Red Cross and was sent to France, where he spent a year driving ambulances. When people saw Disney’s ambulance they always followed it with a smile, because instead of the stock camouflage it was covered with Disney cartoons.
One setback after another…
After returning to the US, Disney won a scholarship to the Kansas City Art Institute. There he met one of his best friends Ub Iwwerks. Together they started their own company Laugh-O-Grams, which eventually fell bankrupt. In August 1923 with his suitcase, a few drawing materials and a twenty dollar bill, Walt Disney headed to Hollywood to meet his brother Roy O. Disney and to start anew. Ub Iwerks joined them shortly after. Soon they received an order from New York for the first “Alice Comedies”, distributed by M.J. Winkler. Business took off and Walt could afford to hire more people to join his team. On July 13, 1925, Walt married one of his first employees, Lillian Bounds and later on they would be blessed with two daughters, Diane and Sharon.
By 1927 the “Alice Comedies” started to lose their popularity and the brothers began working on a new animated character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. This series was successful, but in 1928, Walt discovered that M.J. Winkler and her husband, Charles Mintz had not only stolen the rights to the character from him, but also all of his animators, except for Ub Iwerks. The rights to the Oswald trademark, was now owned by Universal.
Birth of Mickey Mouse.
Taking the train back home and trying to take his mind of the fact that the people he had trusted and worked together with for so long had betrayed him, Walt started doodling on a piece of paper. The result of these doodles was a mouse named Mickey.
The first Mickey Mouse cartoons were produced by only Walt, Ub, Walt’s wife Lilly and Roy’s wife Edna, who helped them to ink in the animation cells. Just a few months later “Steamboat Willie” came out and immediately became a success. It was the first cartoon to use synchronized sound. Kids just loved the squeaky voice of Mickey Mouse, dubbed by no one else but Walt Disney himself. Walt Disney remained the voice of Mickey Mouse up until 1946.‘Wish Upon A Star’ and Then Do It!
Mickey Mouse brought Walt Disney and his studio popularity and worldwide acknowledgement, but for him it was only the beginning.
In 1932 Disney Studios released the first color cartoon, “Flowers and Trees”, which was also the first cartoon to win an Oscar.
In 1933, “Three Little Pigs”, another cartoon produced by Walt Disney became so popular that it was often billed above the feature films it accompanied and it won another Academy Award.
In 1934, Walt Disney started working on another new idea – a cartoon that ran the length of a feature film. Everyone in Hollywood was calling it “Disney’s Folly”. During the depths of the Depression, the production of the “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” cost the company $1,499,000. Three years later when the film was finally finished it instantly won the adoration of the public as well as one big and seven little special Oscars for Walt. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” also earned the Walt Disney Studios $8 million.
During the next five years, Walt Disney Studios completed other full-length animated classics such as Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942).
In 1955, he even opened a theme park in southern California: Disneyland. It was a place where children and their parents could take rides, explore, and meet the familiar animated characters, all in a clean, safe environment. It was another great success.
Walt also became a television pioneer, and was among the first to present full-color programming with his Wonderful World of Color in 1961.
And to top it all off, in 1964, Walt came out with the lavish musical fantasy “Mary Poppins”, which mixed live-action with animation.
Life of a big dream
Walt Disney was moving ahead with his plans for huge, new outdoor recreational areas when he died on December 15, 1966, at the age of 65 of lung cancer. His beloved wife Lilly died exactly 31 years to the day after the death of her husband.But it seemed that even death could not stop Walt’s dreams. His brother Roy carried on plans to build the Florida theme park, and it premiered in 1971 under the name Walt Disney World.
In the years following his death in 1966, the Walt Disney Company has continually expanded through the opening of Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney -MGM Studio Theme Park and the 2005 acquisition of Pixar Animations.
Ironically, the rights to “Oswald the Lucky Rabbit” that had been taken away from Walt, did eventually return to the Disney company more than seventy years later when the Walt Disney Company bought the rights from NBC Universal in 2006.
In his lifetime Walt Disney, along with members of his staff, received more than 950 honors and citations from every nation in the world, including 48 Academy Awards® and seven Emmys®. His personal awards included honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, the University of Southern California, and UCLA.
Walt Disney Quotes:
“All your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them.”
“If you can dream it, you can do it.”
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
“You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.”
“The era we are living in today is a dream of coming true.”
“I do not like to repeat successes, I like to go on to other things.”
“I have been up against tough competition all my life. I wouldn’t know how to get along without it.”
“I am interested in entertaining people, in bringing pleasure, particularly laughter, to others, rather than being concerned with ‘expressing’ myself with obscure creative impressions.”
