Walt Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 5, 1901 to Elias and Flora Call Disney.

When Walt was four, the family moved to Marceline, Missouri, where Walt lived most of his
childhood.
As a child, Walt enjoyed drawing, and when he was seven years old, he would draw and sell
sketches to his neighbors. His uncle was a train engineer, and living near the train station, Walt
worked a summer job with the railroad, selling newspapers, popcorn, and sodas to travelers.
In 1918, when the war broke, Walt attempted to enlist in the Army, because of his age; the Army
denied his enlistment. He and a friend joined the Red Cross, and deployed to France, where Walt
drove an ambulance for the Red Cross in support of allied troops. Walt decorated his ambulance
with cartoons he drew.

Upon returning from France in 1919, he chose to pursue a career

in art and animation.
Moving to Kansas City, he partnered with another cartoonist Ubbe Iwerks to form a company
called, Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists. The business stagnated and the two went to work
for the Kansas City Film Ad Company. While there, he found an interest in animation, and
partnered with another employee, Fred Harman, to start his animation company.
The two produced short cartoons, which they called Laugh-o-grams. They secured a deal with
local theatre owner Frank Newman to air their cartoons, which soon became a huge success in
the Kansas City area. Soon, Walt would be able to afford a studio and hire animators and staff to
produce more cartoons. Unable to successfully manage his new company, laugh-o-grams became
bankrupt and Walt decided to head to Hollywood, California to establish a studio there.
He partnered with his brother Roy, and started a new studio in Roys garage. He sent his
animated Alice Comedies to Margaret Winkler, a distributor in New York. She wrote back asking
for more. From 1925 to 1927, the Alice Comedies enjoyed great success. Walt opened Disney
Brothers Studio and hired some of his old talent from Kansas City.

He soon became a recognized Hollywood figure. On July 13, 1925, Walt married one of his first
employees, Lillian Bounds, whom he had hired to color and ink celluloid for his cartoons.
In 1932, the first color cartoon Flowers and Trees won Walt the first of his studios Academy
Awards. In 1937, he released The Old Mill, the first short subject to utilize the multi-plane
camera technique. On December 21, 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, considered one of
the greatest feats of the motion picture industry, premiered at the Carthay Theater in Los
Angeles. The film cost nearly $1.5 million to produce an astounding figure of that era.
Over the next five years, Walt Disney Studios completed other full-length animated classics such
as Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi.
All the while, Walt had an idea in the back of his mind to someday open an amusement park for
families. A place where adults and children could enjoy a pleasant and clean environment. In
1955, this dream came true, as Disneyland Park opened in 1955 in Anaheim California. Walt also
became a television pioneer beginning television production in 1954, and was among the first to
present full-color programming with his Wonderful World of Color in 1961.
Walt had another dream, to create the perfect city; he called it EPCOT (Experimental
Prototype Community of Tomorrow. Unfortunately, Walt would never live to see this
dream fulfilled, as on December 15, 1966 at 9:30 a.m., ten days after his sixty-fifth birthday,
Walt died of complications from lung cancer. He was cremated on December 17, 1966 and
his ashes reside at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
His brother continued the Florida project, naming it Walt Disney World, which opened in
October of 1971.
Try to imagine a world without Walt Disney. A world without his magic, whimsy, and optimism.
Walt Disney transformed the entertainment industry, into what we know today. He pioneered the
fields of animation, and found new ways to teach, and educate.
Walt's optimism came from his unique ability to see the entire picture. His views and visions,
came from the fond memory of yesteryear, and persistence for the future. Walt loved history. As
a result of this, he didn't give technology to us piece by piece, he connected it to his ongoing
mission of making life more enjoyable, and fun. Walt was our bridge from the past to the future.
During his 43-year Hollywood career, which spanned the development of the motion picture
industry as a modern American art, Walter Elias Disney established himself and his innovations
as a genuine part of Americana.
A pioneer and innovator, and the possessor of one of the most fertile and unique
imaginations the world has ever known. Walt Disney could take the dreams of
America, and make them come true. He was a creator, a imaginative, and aesthetic
person. Even thirty years after his death, we still continue to grasp his ideas, and his
creations, remembering him for everything he's done for us.

Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago Illinois, to his father, Elias
Disney, an Irish-Canadian, and his mother, Flora Call Disney, who was of German-American
descent. Walt was one of five children, four boys and a girl.
Later, after Walt's birth, the Disney family moved to Marceline, Missouri. Walt lived out most of
his childhood here. Walt had a very early interest in drawing, and art. When he was seven years
old, he sold small sketches, and drawings to nearby neighbors. Instead of doing his school work
Walt doodled pictures of animals, and nature. His knack for creating enduring art forms took
shape when he talked his sister, Ruth, into helping him paint the side of the family's house with
tar.
Close to the Disney family farm, there were Santa Fe Railroad tracks that crossed the
countryside. Often Walt would put his ear against the tracks, to listen for approaching trains.
Walt's uncle, Mike Martin, was a train engineer who worked the route between Fort Madison,
Iowa, and Marceline. Walt later worked a summer job with the railroad, selling newspapers,
popcorn, and sodas to travelers.
During his life Walt would often try to recapture the freedom he felt when aboard those trains, by
building his own miniature train set. Then building a 1/8-scale backyard railroad, the Carolwood
Pacific or Lilly Bell.
Besides his other interests, Walt attended McKinley High School in Chicago. There, Disney
divided his attention between drawing and photography, and contributing to the school paper. At
night he attended the Academy of Fine Arts, to better his drawing abilities.
Walt discovered his first movie house on Marceline's Main Street. There he saw a dramatic
black-and-white recreation of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.
During these "carefree years" of country living young Walt began to love, and appreciate nature
and wildlife, and family and community, which were a large part of agrarian living. Though his
father could be quite stern, and often there was little money, Walt was encouraged by his mother,
and older brother, Roy.
Even after the Disney family moved to Kansas City, Walt continued to develop and flourish in
his talent for artistic drawing. Besides drawing, Walt had picked up a knack for acting and
performing. At school he began to entertain his friends by imitating his silent screen hero,
Charlie Chaplin. At his teachers invitation, Walt would tell his classmates stories, while
illustrating on the chalk board. Later on, against his fathers permission, Walt would sneak out of
the house at night to perform comical skits at local theaters.
During the fall of 1918, Disney attempted to enlist for military service. Rejected because he was
under age, only sixteen years old at the time. Instead, Walt joined the Red Cross and was sent
overseas to France, where he spent a year driving an ambulance and chauffeuring Red Cross
officials. His ambulance was covered from stem to stern, not with stock camouflage, but with
Disney cartoons.

Once he returned from France, he wanted to pursue a career in commercial art, which soon lead
to his experiments in animation. He began producing short animated films for local businesses,
in Kansas City. By the time Walt had started to create The Alice Comedies, which was about a
real girl and her adventures in an animated world, Walt ran out of money, and his company
Laugh-O-Grams went bankrupted. Instead of giving up, Walt packed his suitcase and with his
unfinished print of The Alice Comedies in hand, headed for Hollywood to start a new business.
He was not yet twenty-two.
The early flop of The Alice Comedies inoculated Walt against fear of failure; he had risked it all
three or four times in his life. Walt's brother, Roy O. Disney, was already in California, with an
immense amount of sympathy and encouragement, and $250. Pooling their resources, they
borrowed an additional $500, and set up shop in their uncle's garage. Soon, they received an
order from New York for the first Alice in Cartoonland(The Alice Comedies) featurette, and the
brothers expanded their production operation to the rear of a Hollywood real estate office. It was
Walt's enthusiasm and faith in himself, and others, that took him straight to the top of Hollywood
society.
Although, Walt wasn't the typical Hollywood mogul. Instead of socializing with the "who's who"
of the Hollywood entertainment industry, he would stay home and have dinner with his wife,
Lillian, and his daughters, Diane and Sharon. In fact, socializing was a bit boring to Walt Disney.
Usually he would dominate a conversation, and hold listeners spellbound as he described his
latest dreams or ventures. The people that where close to Walt were those who lived with him,
and his ideas, or both.
On July 13, 1925, Walt married one of his first employees, Lillian Bounds, in Lewiston, Idaho.
Later on they would be blessed with two daughters, Diane and Sharon . Three years after Walt
and Lilly wed, Walt created a new animated character, Mickey Mouse.
His talents were first used in a silent cartoon entitled Plane Crazy. However, before the
cartoon could be released, sound was introduced upon the motion picture industry. Thus,
Mickey Mouse made his screen debut in Steamboat Willie, the world's first synchronized
sound cartoon, which premiered at the Colony Theater in New York on November 18, 1928.
Walt's drive to perfect the art of animation was endless. Technicolor was introduced to animation
during the production of his Silly Symphonies Cartoon Features. Walt Disney held the patent for
Technicolor for two years, allowing him to make the only color cartoons. In 1932, the production
entitled Flowers and Trees won Walt the first of his studio's Academy Awards. In 1937, he
released The Old Mill, the first short subject to utilize the multi-plane camera technique.
On December 21, 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated musical
feature, premiered at the Carthay Theater in Los Angeles. The film produced at the unheard cost
of $1,499,000 during the depths of the Depression, the film is still considered one of the great
feats and imperishable monuments of the motion picture industry. During the next five years,
Walt Disney Studios completed other full-length animated classics such as Pinocchio, Fantasia,
Dumbo, and Bambi.

Walt rarely showed emotion, though he did have a temper that would blow over as it blew up. At
home, he was affectionate and understanding. He gave love by being interested, involved, and
always there for his family and friends. Walt's daughter, Diane Disney Miller, once said:
Daddy never missed a father's function no matter how I discounted it. I'd say,"Oh,
Daddy, you don't need to come. It's just some stupid thing." But he'd always be there, on
time.
Probably the most painful time of Walt's private life, was the accidental death of his mother in
1938. After the great success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt and Roy bought their
parents, Elias and Flora Disney, a home close to the studios. Less than a month later Flora died
of asphyxiation caused by a faulty furnace in the new home. The terrible guilt of this haunted
Walt for the rest of his life.
In 1940, construction was completed on the Burbank Studio, and Disney's staff swelled to more
than 1,000 artists, animators, story men, and technicians. Although, because of World War II 94
percent of the Disney facilities were engaged in special government work, including the
production of training and propaganda films for the armed services, as well as health films
which are still shown through-out the world by the U.S. State Department. The remainder
of his efforts were devoted to the production of comedy short subjects, deemed highly
essential to civilian and military morale.
Disney's 1945 feature, the musical The Three Caballeros, combined live action with the
cartoon animation, a process he used successfully in such other features as Song of the
South and the highly acclaimed Mary Poppins. In all, more than 100 features were
produced by his studio.
Walt's inquisitive mind and keen sense for education through entertainment resulted in the
award-winning True-Life Adventure series. Through such films as The Living Desert, The
Vanishing Prairie, The African Lion, and White Wilderness, Disney brought fascinating
insights into the world of wild animals and taught the importance of conserving our
nation's outdoor heritage.
Walt Disney's dream of a clean, and organized amusement park, came
true, as Disneyland Park opened in 1955. As a fabulous $17-million magic
kingdom, soon had increased its investment tenfold, and by the beginning
of its second quarter-century, had entertained more than 200 million
people, including presidents, kings and queens, and royalty from all over
the globe.

isney, Walt (5 Dec. 1901-15 Dec. 1966), animator and motion picture producer, was born Walter
Elias Disney in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Elias Disney, a building contractor, and Flora Call, a
teacher. After a childhood near Marceline and in Kansas City, Missouri, Disney studied at the
Chicago Institute of Art in the evening while attending McKinley High School during the day. In
1918 he enlisted in the American Ambulance Corps, serving in France and returning to
employment as an artist at the Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio, where he befriended artist

Ub Iwerks. After learning the rudiments of animation at a subsequent job at the Kansas City Film
Ad Service, Disney began to produce his own animated films. In 1922 he formed Laugh-O-Gram
Films. He was soon joined by Iwerks and a staff, including Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising, to
produce theatrical and sponsored films.
In 1923 Disney relocated to Los Angeles and incorporated the Disney Bros. Studio in partnership
with his brother Roy. The signing of a contract with distributor Margaret Winkler to produce the
"Alice Comedies," which combined live action and animation in emulation of the successful
Fleischer "Out of the Inkwell" series, gave his product national distribution. Marriage in 1925 to
Lillian Bounds of the studio's ink and paint department followed. The union would produce two
daughters. Disney's distributor in 1927 arranged for the "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" series of
cartoons to be distributed through Universal, which gave Disney films regular access to theaters
and introduced the filmmaker to the benefits of product licensing through the merchandising of
"Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" chocolate bars. Disagreements with Charles Mintz (husband of
Margaret Winkler) resulted in Mintz hiring away many of Disney's animators in order to force
Disney to work directly for him, rather than as an independent contractor. Outraged, Disney
broke with Mintz.
While the artists now under contract with Mintz completed the last of Disney's Oswald films, Ub
Iwerks worked in seclusion animating Plane Crazy, the first of a projected series starring
Disney's new character, Mickey Mouse. Gallopin' Gaucho, the second of the series, was begun,
but no distributor could be found. Looking for some way to differentiate his new Mickey Mouse
cartoons from the silent Oswald series, Disney made an agreement with former Universal
executive Pat Powers to animate cartoons using the Powers' Cinephone sound process. The result
was Steamboat Willie (1928). Earlier sound animated films made by competitors Max Fleischer
and Paul Terry enjoyed limited success, but the coupling of synchronized sound with the
engaging new character made Steamboat Willie a sensation.
At the suggestion of his musical director Carl Stalling, Disney inaugurated the "Silly Symphony"
series with Skeleton Dance (1929). While the character-based "Mickey Mouse" films used music
as an accompaniment to the action, the "Silly Symphonies" created stories through the use of
music. Skeleton Dance was animated completely by Ub Iwerks. Since production costs were
rising faster than returns, Disney pressured his distributor for more money and urged Iwerks to
abandon the practice of animating straight through in favor of the more efficient technique of
drawing key poses and letting lower-paid assistants sketch the in-between poses. In 1930 the
disgruntled Iwerks accepted Powers's offer to set up a rival company, Celebrity Productions. Carl
Stalling resigned shortly after.
In contrast with the previous debacle with Mintz, Disney now owned the copyright to his
characters, and the popularity of Mickey Mouse ensured a quick transition of distribution to
Columbia. Prior to Iwerks's and Stallings's departures, Disney had been hiring experienced

animators from New York that were to include Bert Gillett, David Hand, Dick Huemer, Ben
Sharpsteen, and Grim Natwick. He also began training local talent such as Eric Larson,
Wolfgang Reitherman, Les Clark, Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball, Marc Davis, Ollie Johnston, Frank
Thomas, and John Lounsbery (later known as the "Nine Old Men"). A more significant move
was to expand his economic base, hiring Herman "Kay" Kamen in the United States and William
Banks Levy in the United Kingdom to act as merchandising agents. Licensing fees added
substantially to studio revenue, as did the introduction of Iwerks's Mickey Mouse comic strips,
continued after Iwerks's departure by Win Smith and then Floyd Gottfredson. Mickey Mouse
Clubs, which promoted Disney films and products, reached a peak membership by 1932 larger
than the Boy Scouts of America and the Girl Scouts combined.
The decline in popularity of Mickey Mouse in the mid-1930s was compensated by the
introduction of other characters such as Donald Duck, Pluto, and Goofy. With a stable financial
base, Disney sought expensive refinements to animation technique, introducing the "pencil test"
(in which the animator's original pencil drawings are photographed sequentially on motion
picture film and projected in order to test the action) to check work in progress. Story
development became an elaborate process, closely monitored by Disney himself. Through the
establishment of links to the Chouinard School of Art and in-house training sessions led by Don
Graham, the studio developed an unrivaled degree of expressive virtuosity. Disney was hailed by
critics as creating an American art form exhibiting "that same delicate balance between fantasy
and fact, poetry and comic reality, which is the nature of all folklore. In Disney's studio . . . by a
system as truly of the machine age as Henry Ford's plant at Dearborn, true art is produced" ("The
Big Bad Wolf," Fortune, 5 Nov. 1934, p. 88). Disney's moral homilies set in rural or small-town
surroundings, like The Three Little Pigs (1933), The Wise Little Hen (1934), and The Band
Concert (1935), were seen as embodying peculiarly American values by contemporary critics. In
contrast to the earlier "cartoony," gag-oriented, and often risqu films made by his New York
competitors, Disney's films were patterned after Hollywood live-action films, with linear
narratives, mimetic design, and, as Disney put it, "not an obvious moral, but a worth-while
theme" (quoted in Douglas W. Churchill, "Disney's 'Philosophy,' " New York Times Magazine, 6
Mar. 1938, p. 9).
A believer in technological progress, Disney was quick to embrace innovations, producing the
first cartoon using the three-color Technicolor process (Flowers and Trees, 1932) and assigning
camera department head William Garity to develop the multiplane camera, which allowed the
use of three-dimensional effects beginning with The Old Mill (1937). Increasing costs of the
films were met by more lucrative distribution contracts with United Artists and then Radio KeithOrpheum. Disney's banker, Joseph Rosenberg, authorized loans from the Bank of America that
underwrote the application of new skills and technology to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
(1937), which was the first animated feature film with sound and color.

Income resulting from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ($4.2 million from the initial release in
the United States and Canada alone) allowed Disney to build a state-of-the-art studio in Burbank,
California, as he proceeded with the even more elaborate Pinocchio (1940); Fantasia (1940),
which had the first stereophonic sound track; and Bambi (1942). The wartime loss of foreign
markets and the declining critical reaction to his increasingly ambitious projects led to the
company's first public stock offering in 1940 and to retrenchment during the war period with
modest productions like The Reluctant Dragon (1941) and Dumbo (1941). To ensure the success
of his films, Disney became an early user of George Gallup's audience research from the pre- to
postproduction stages of his films' development.
In the aftermath of a 1941 strike, talents such as Art Babbitt, Vladimir Tytla, David Hilberman,
Zachary Schwartz, and John Hubley defected to other studios, while Virgil Partch and Walt Kelly
left animation altogether. After the war, Disney appeared as a friendly witness before the House
Committee on Un-American Activities to name strike leaders as communists. During the strike,
following a request by John Hay "Jock" Whitney, director of the Motion Picture Section of
Nelson Rockefeller's Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, Disney went on a
goodwill tour of South America to develop markets to replace those lost in Europe and Asia
during wartime hostilities. This led to projects aimed at the Latin American markets, such as
Saludos Amigos! (1943) and Three Caballeros (1945). Production of government propaganda
and training films contributed to the war effort and kept the studio afloat financially. Disney selffinanced Victory through Air Power (1943), based on the book by aviation advocate Alexander
de Seversky. Winston Churchill arranged for Franklin Roosevelt to see the film at the Quebec
Conference in 1943. Roosevelt's subsequent order that Victory through Air Power be shown to
the Joint Chiefs of Staff may have influenced air strategy.
The war's end saw a declining market for short films with greater competition from animation
units at Warner Bros. and M-G-M. As animation became increasingly expensive in relation to
live action, Disney scaled down production of unprofitable shorts. At Roy Disney's urging, the
company increased live-action production in films like Make Mine Music (1946), Song of the
South (1946), Melody Time (1948), and So Dear to My Heart (1949). The release of the allanimated feature Cinderella (1950) was followed by the studio's first entirely live-action feature,
Treasure Island (1950), which began a string of live-action adventures, including The Sword and
the Rose (1953) and Twenty-thousand Leagues under the Sea (1954). A documentary series of
"True-Life Adventure" films began with Seal Island (1949). Other forms of product
diversification included film projects for Firestone and General Motors.
On Christmas Day 1950 NBC broadcast Disney's foray into television--a special on the making
of Alice in Wonderland (1951) called One Hour in Wonderland, which Roy Disney credited with
adding millions to the box office for the film, stating his belief that "television can be a most
powerful selling aid for us, as well as a source of revenue. It will probably be on this premise
that we enter television when we do" ("Interim Letter to Shareholders," 31 Mar. 1951).

Disney's entry into television synchronized his activities with those of his business allies.
Disney's company acquired a 34 percent interest in Disneyland, Inc., which was to develop an
amusement park in Anaheim, California. Plans for the park were commissioned in 1952, and it
opened in 1955. The other principal stockholders (later bought out) were American
Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres, Inc.; Western Printing and Lithographing Company; and Walt
Disney himself. ABC's financing of Disneyland was contingent upon the Disney production of a
weekly "Disneyland" series for the network, which marked an unprecedented commitment by a
major Hollywood movie studio to television production. It became ABC's first hit series. Western
Printing had held exclusive rights to reproduce Walt Disney's characters for juvenile books,
coloring books, and comics since 1932. Disneyland, Walt Disney Productions, the "Disneyland"
show on television, and publications based on the films, shows, and theme park would all
promote one another. Interlocking business relationships among these leisure industries created
interlocking systems of promotion. The Disneyland park and television series became the
linchpin of these systems.
Disney developed similar relationships among his ventures and those of the U.S. government and
major corporations. Monsanto, Atlantic Richfield, TWA, Douglas Aircraft, American Motors,
Pepsi-Cola, and other companies became sponsors of rides or exhibits at Disneyland. As part of
the "Atoms for Peace" program, the U.S. Navy and General Dynamics participated in the
construction of an "atomic submarine" ride at Disneyland, as well as in the production of the
"Disneyland" telefilm Our Friend the Atom (1957), which promoted the use of atomic energy.
Government scientists such as Willy Ley and Wernher von Braun cooperated in telefilms
publicizing government rocketry programs, such as Man in Space (1956) and Mars and Beyond
(1957), as well as with the design of the "Trip to the Moon" ride at Disneyland.
For the State Department during the Cold War, Disneyland became a convenient simulacrum of
America. One official observed that there really was no reason for showing foreign dignitaries
anything but Disneyland--everything was right there. Disney was also a consultant to the
American Exhibition in Moscow and the Brussels World's Fair, where the American pavilion
featured Disney's 360-degree film in its Circarama theater. For the New York World's Fair,
Disney technicians designed the Ford, General Electric, and Pepsi-Cola/UNICEF "It's a Small
World" exhibits, as well as developing the mechanized "Audio-Animatronics" system of
presidential effigies used in the Hall of Presidents. Disney was also active in the field of
education, being instrumental in the establishment in 1961 of the California Institute of the Arts,
to which he was to leave almost half his estate.
Disney's other ventures for ABC included "The Mickey Mouse Club" (1955-1959) and "Zorro"
(1957-1959). These and such "Disneyland" broadcasts as the Davy Crockett series led to a
bonanza from the licensing of such products as Mickey Mouse Club hats, Zorro swords and
capes, and Davy Crockett coonskin caps. Through careful market positioning of his product amid
those of major film corporations, Disney focused on family entertainment. Live-action films took

historical and often patriotic subjects in Johnny Tremain (1957), Old Yeller (1957), Tonka (1958),
The Swiss Family Robinson (1960), and Polyanna (1960). The Shaggy Dog (1959) began a series
of low-budget comedies such as The Absent Minded Professor (1961) and Son of Flubber (1963)
that became mainstays of the company's production. Popular fantasies like Darby O'Gill and the
Little People (1959) and Babes in Toyland (1961) led to the blockbuster Mary Poppins (1964).
Animation continued in Peter Pan (1953), Lady and the Tramp (1955), Sleeping Beauty (1959),
One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), The Sword in the Stone (1963), Winnie the Pooh and
the Honey Tree (1966), and The Jungle Book (1967).
In 1961 Disney changed his broadcasting alliance from ABC to NBC with "Walt Disney's
Wonderful World of Color" and the less successful "Disneyland after Dark" series. With more
than one-third of corporate income coming from the leisure park, Disney began development of
the Mineral King resort. Stalled by ecological concerns, Disney initiated a new theme park near
Orlando, Florida, in 1964. The project was awarded municipality rights by the Florida
legislature, giving it unprecedented powers for a corporation. This Disney World park was to be
built in conjunction with the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT). In
Disney's words, EPCOT was to be "a controlled community, a showcase for American industry
and research, schools, cultural and educational opportunities" (quoted in Holliss and Sibley, p.
87). While Roy Disney was to supervise the completion of Walt Disney World, which opened in
1971, final realization of the EPCOT project after Walt Disney's death in Burbank, California, of
acute circulatory collapse following lung cancer bore little resemblance to the original vision.
Years after his death, Walt Disney retains a centrality in American culture granted to few
twentieth-century figures, "because of the manner in which his work in film and television
is connected to other projects in urban planning, ecological politics, product
merchandising, United States domestic and global policy formation, technological
innovation, and constructions of national character" (Eric Smoodin, ed., "Introduction:
How to Read Walt Disney," Disney Discourse: Producing the Magic Kingdom [1994], pp. 45). Assessments are deeply divided. Earlier evaluations of Disney hailed him as a patriot,
folk artist, and popularizer of culture. More recently, Disney has been regarded as a
paradigm of American imperialism and intolerance, as well as a debaser of culture.
Publications on Disney, ranging from company-sponsored hagiographies to fanciful
exposs, are numerous enough to be categorized as an industry of their own. Disney
remains the central figure in the history of animation. Through technological innovations
and alliances with governments and corporations, he transformed a minor studio in a
marginal form of communication into a multinational leisure industry giant. Despite his
critics, his vision of a modern, corporate utopia as an extension of traditional American
values has possibly gained greater currency in the years after his death.

There may be no entertainment industry figure more influential than Disneys

eponymous founder. In his 65 years, Walt Disney succeeded in moving animation from a blackand-white novelty to a highly respected genre that would produce Oscar-worrthy feature films.
More than a few of his creations including Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy are
instantly recognizable global icons. And the small animation house he founded on October 16,
1923 is now valued at more than $42 billion.
Yet, despite his fame, Disney remains a relatively unknown figure. His story is overshadowed by
his achievements, and, sometimes, by outright myth. In honor of The Walt Disney Companys
90th anniversary, here are ten things you probably didnt know about the man behind Mickey
Mouse.
1. He dropped out of high school to join the army

During the first World War, a 16-year-old Walt Disney left school and attempted to enlist in the
army. He was rejected for being underage, but managed to find employment with the Red Cross
as an ambulance driver. The organization sent Disney to France for a year, but by the time he
arrived, the armistice agreement had already been signed.
2. Mickey Mouses original name was Mortimer

Mickey Mouse is virtually synonymous with Disneys company, but if the animators wife hadnt
intervened, he might have been represented by Mortimer Mouse instead. In the mouses first few
shorts, he was referred to as Mortimer Mouse, but Lillian Disney managed to convince her
husband that Mickey would be a more marketable name. Mortimer later became Mickeys
Brooklyn-accented rival (below), vying for Minnie Mouses affection.
3. He was the original voice behind Mickey Mouse

While mostly known for his skills as an animator, director and producer (not to mention his
business acumen), Disney also tried his hand at voice acting. From Mickeys inception in 1928,
all the way to 1947, the mouses voice was provided by Disney before being turned over to
English voice actor Jimmy MacDonald. Disney loved the character so much that he returned to
the studio in 1955 to voice Mickey Mouse shorts for his companys television show The Mickey
Mouse Club.
4. He was determined to produce a feature-length animated movie, even
when everyone thought the idea was crazy

When word got out that Disney planned to turn Snow White into a feature film, industry insiders
were convinced his efforts would fail, calling the project Disneys Folly. His detractors were

almost correct. Disney did in fact run out of funding during Snow Whites production, and was
forced to show loan officers a rough cut of the movie before he could secure additional
financing. Luckily for both Disney and his creditors, Snow White turned out to be a smashing
success. The film earned over $8 million during its initial release about $130 million today.
5. He could be the US governments best friend

Not only did a young Disney attempt to help America on the field of battle, but he also helped
several federal agencies throughout his career with animation. He created training films for the
US military, propaganda films urging Americans to pay their taxes, and multiple anti-Hitler
shorts meant to boost US morale at home. Disney also helped the State Department improve
relations with South America by making a 1941 goodwill tour (featuring a specially made movie
entitled Saludos Amigos), and later aided NASA by developing documentaries about the space
program.
6. He contributed to anti-communist hysteria

After the second World War, many in the U.S. were gripped by an overwhelming fear of
communist infiltration. Disney believed in the Red Menace, and in concert with other leading
industry executives, formed the anti-communist Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of
American Ideals (MPA). In addition to serving as the MPAs vice president, he testified in front
of the House Un-American Activities Committee against several labor organizers, who he
accused of motivating his animators to strike. Disney also accused the Screen Actors Guild of
being a communist front, and claimed their 1941 strike was a socialist plot.
7. He came close to building a major ski resort

After opening Disney Land in 1955, Walt set his sights on a ski resort in Mineral King Valley,
near Californias Sequoia National Park. The plan was to build a vacation spot featuring six ski
areas, all centered around a Swiss-style base village, with a total daily capacity of 20,000 skiers.
The project came relatively close to development, with Disney winning approval from the Forest
Service and forging a roads deal with the Governor of California. However, after Disneys death
in 1966, the company felt it could only handle one major project at a time. Wisely, they chose to
complete Disney World instead.
8. He received more Academy Awards and nominations than any other
person in history

Between 1932 and 1969, Disney won 22 Academy Awards and was nominated 59 times.
Included amongst this trove of Oscars are three awards created specifically for him one for
creating Mickey Mouse, another recognizing his contribution of music in the field of animation,
and a specially made prize honoring Snow White and the Seven Dwarves that featured a
traditional statuette, and seven miniature versions alongside of it.

9. His last words remain a mystery

That is to say, no one knows what they were supposed to mean. Shortly before succumbing to
lung cancer, Disney scribbled the words Kurt Russell on a piece of paper. According to
Russell, best known for his performance in The Thing and Escape from New York, the reasons are
mystery to him as well. At the time of Disneys death, Russell was a child actor working for the
studio and had yet to achieve widespread fame.
10. After his death, he was NOT cryogenically frozen

One fact that everyone thinks they know about Walt Disney is that his body has been preserved
through cryogenics. However, as Snopes long ago revealed, there is no truth to this urban legend.
All available documentation states that Disney was cremated after death and the first-ever
cryogenic freezings took place a month after Disney passed on.

You are a struggling entrepreneur and sometimes it feels like

you are pushing a 3 ton boulder up a steep hill. Costs keep
mounting and you are considering giving up. Well before you
do, check out these 10 setbacks that Walt Disney had, some
were financial nightmares that put him millions of dollars in
the red:

Walt formed his first animation company in Kansas City in

1921. He made a deal with a distribution company in New
York, in which he would ship them his cartoons and get
paid six months down the road. He was forced to dissolve
his company and at one point could not pay his rent and
was surviving by eating dog food.

Walt created a mildly successful cartoon character in 1926

called Oswald the Rabbit. When he tried to negotiate with
his distributor, Universal Studios, for better rates for each
cartoon, he was informed that Universal had obtained
ownership of the Oswald character and they had hired
Disney's artists out from under him.

When Walt tried to get MGM studios to distribute Mickey

Mouse in 1927 he was told that the idea would never
work-- a giant mouse on the screen would terrify women.

The Three Little Pigs was rejected by distributors in 1933

because it only had four characters, it was felt at that
time that cartoons should have as many figures on the
screen as possible. It later became very successful and
played at one theater so long that the poster outside
featured the pigs with long white beards.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was sneak previewed

to college students in 1937 who left halfway during the
film causing Disney great despair. It turned out the
students had to leave early because of dorm curfew.

Pinocchio in 1940 became extra expensive because Walt

shut down the production to make the puppet more
sympathetic than the lying juvenile delinquent as
presented in the original Carlo Collodi story. He also
resurrected a minor character, an unnamed cricket who
tried to tell Pinocchio the difference between right and
wrong until the puppet killed him with the mallet. Excited
by the development of Jiminy Cricket plus the revamped,
misguided rather than rotten Pinocchio, Walt poured
extra money into the film's special effects and it ended up
losing a million dollars in it's first release.

For the premiere of Pinocchio Walt hired 11 midgets,

dressed them up like the little puppet and put them on
top of Radio City Music Hall in New York with a full day's
supply of food and wine. The idea was they would wave
hello to the little children entering into the theater. By the
middle of the hot afternoon, there were 11 drunken naked
midgets running around the top of the marquee,
screaming obscenities at the crowd below. The most
embarrassed people were the police who had to climb up
ladders and take the little fellows off in pillowcases.

Walt never lived to see Fantasia become a success. 1940

audiences were put off by it's lack of a story. Also the final
scene, The Night On Bald Mountain sequence with the
devil damning the souls of the dead, was considered unfit
for children.

In 1942, Walt was in attendance for the premiere of

Bambi. In the dramatic scene where Bambi's mother died,
Bambi was shown wandering through the meadow
shouting," Mother! Where are you, Mother?" A teenage
girl seated in the balcony shouted out, " Here I am
Bambi!" The audience broke into laughter except for the
black-faced Walt who concluded correctly that war-time
was not the best time to release a film about the love-life
of a deer.

The sentimental Pollyanna in 1960 made Walt cry at the

studio screening but failed at the box office. Walt
concluded that the title was off-putting for young boys.

Walt was human, he suffered through many fits of anger and

depression through his many trials. Yet he learned from each
setback, and continued to take even bigger risks which
combined with the wisdom that experiencing failure can
provide, led to fabulous financial rewards

Of Failure and Success: The Journey of

Walt Disney
Ever feel like things aren't working out? Do you feel your life is a failure? Do you
wish you experienced more success?
When you think of success, it's easy to think of Walt Disney. Surely he was
successful. He created more than 81 feature films and hundreds of shorts. He
earned more than 950 honors, including 48 Academy Awards. He founded the
California Institute of the Arts. And he built Disneyland

But those honors came from difficult challengeseven failures. And, yet, from hard times came
important lessons and events, which would serve him later. Walt's life was filled with such
events. Painful, difficult moments. But out of them he grew and in many ways succeeded. For
comparative purposes, I've identified several such moments in Walt's life.

1. Walt's brothers were so frustrated about their relationship with their dad that they all one by
one ran away from home early in their lives. First it was Herb and Ray over a dispute about
money they had earned. Later it would be Roy, who at 19 felt treated like a little boy by his
father's domineering attitude. Eager to move on himself, Walt himself would lie about his age so
he could be an ambulance driver during World War I.
Still, despite the dysfunctionality he and his family experienced, Walt Disney became the leader
and the voice of family entertainment. Of Disneyland, he would comment how badly he wanted
a place where children and parents could enjoy time together. Millions of families come together
because of the entertainment Walt Disney and his legacy has produced. And he, along with his
brother, did their best to honor and support their parents until the day they died. Importantly, he
was a good son.
2. At age 22, Walt experienced bankruptcy after the failure of a cartoon series in Kansas City. He
headed to Los Angeles with $40 in cash, and an imitation-leather suitcase containing only a shirt,
two undershorts, two pairs of socks and some drawing materials. Feeling that others did
animation better, his goal was to be an actor out in Hollywood. It never occurred.
The upside was that he and his brother Roy realized there was no animation business
headquartered in California. They set up stakes and the rest is history. In time they became the
most successful team of brothers in Hollywood.
3. On the heels of a successful run with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Walt learned not only that he
did not hold ownership of the character, but that most of the artists who worked for him had
committed themselves to working for the distributor instead. Essentially, Walt's entire
organization was taken from him, with the exception of his artist Ub Iwerks.
Still, on a train ride back from that fateful meeting in New York, Walt created a new character in
Mickey Mouse, who would serve as symbol of the entire company. Iwerks himself would serve
to help design Mickey, and he supported Walt in pioneering many innovative achievements,
including the xerographic process adapted for cel animation and work for WED enterprises.
Most importantly, he was considered Walt's oldest friend.
4. In the early 1930s, Walt suffered what he called, "a heck of a breakdown." He was anxious
about the ability for cartoon shorts to really deliver serious profit. Beyond being irritable at his
employees, that breakdown included sleepless hours in bed at night. There were story sessions
where he was completely unfocused and unable to contribute. He would even plunge into crying
spells at a moment's notice. At the urging of others, he and his wife took a second honeymoon by
going on a long-anticipated voyage down the Mississippi River. But when they arrived at the St.
Louis waterfront, they found out that the Great Depression had wiped out the passenger trade.
They had to go elsewhere to vacation.
Ironic then, when Walt celebrated his and Lillian's anniversary days before Disneyland opened in
1955, they did so by taking their invited friends on the first trip down the Rivers of America on
the newly built Mark Twain Steamboat. I wonder if that steamboat would have been dreamed of,
much less built, if Walt hadn't wanted so badly to ride down the river on one.

And of course, returning from that second honeymoon, Walt was refreshed and ready to start on
something really ambitious: The development of a full-length animated feature we would know
as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It would be triumphant success.
5. From the windfall of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt and Roy built a home so their
aging parents could be close to them in California. Only poor construction and subsequent
attempts at repairing it by studio workmen ended in their mother dying one morning from carbon
monoxide poisoning. Walt and Roy were devastated by her death.
Nothing could fix or replace the loss of their mother in such a tragic manner. However, while
there may be little if any connection, it is interesting to note that one of Walt's last visions in life
was to build a community where many of the challenges of urban life would be resolved. That
extended from concepts like monorails to Utilidors. But for the man who hosted the "House of
the Future" at Disneyland, it also reexamined how homes would be safer and better constructed.
6. Walt and Lillian raised two daughters in the wake of what was known as "The Crime of the
Century". This was in reference to the abduction and murder of Charles Lindbergh's 20-month
old son in 1932. With Walt being not only a celebrity but a prominent individual in terms of
family entertainment, they became concerned about having their own children be seen in the
public eye. Even window screens on the Los Feliz house they owned were reinforced.
Mindful of protecting and cherishing their daughters, Walt and Lilly spent many nights at home.
They refrained from being Hollywood socialites. Walt and his wife deeply cherished their
daughters and they, in return, deeply loved their father. Walt himself would accompany his
children on daddy-daughter trips, many of which led him to early thoughts about building an
amusement park enterprise.
7. Just prior to World War II, Walt experienced an acrimonious strike by his animators. The
experience severed him from artists he had thought to be close to for years. To settle the strike,
his brother sent him away to South America on a good will tour for the U.S.
From this good will tour came the films Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros. More
importantly, Walt learned the importance of teamwork. He said: "Whatever we accomplish is due
to the combined effort. The organization must be with you or you don't get it done." Years after
he died, his artists would recall with great emotion the relationship and experience they had
working with Walt.
8. On the morning following December 7, 1941, the United States Army took over the Walt
Disney Studios as a repair shop for tanks and artillery. Walt's artists went to war. Worldwide
markets were closed to film distribution. And even Walt himself had to have a government ID to
get on his own property. Working on government projects, bookkeepers would question all
expenditures.
Working on one project for the treasury department, Walt created a film starring Donald Duck
called, The New Spirit. The film did much to inspire Americans to pay their taxes, something not
commonly done back then. Those monies served to help win the war.

9. The company had more than $4 million in debts, and business was still very slow in the
aftermath of World War II. The company was distributing films in Europe, but they had difficulty
getting monies to come back to the Studios in the United States. Described by Roy O. Disney as
"the lost years," after a heated exchange one night, he told Walt: "Look, you're letting this place
drive you to the nuthouse. That's one place I'm not going with you!" Still, Walt struggled to deal
with the stress he was facing.
With monies held in Europe, they began producing some of their first feature films across the
seas. This supported Walt as he learned to diversify his studio beyond doing animation. He also
took up a new hobby to deal with his stress: trains. And that interest in trains fed his interest in
building a park with a train running around it.
10. Walt could not find the money to build Disneyland. The only way he could see was in doing
television. But the major Hollywood studios put pressure on each other not to support television
production as it would ruin the movie business.
Walt took courage and went with television anyway. From it, we have classics like The Mickey
Mouse Club, Davy Crockett, and The Wonderful World of Color. Moreover, Walt gained the
financing to open Disneyland.
11. On July 17, 1955, Walt Disney dedicated Disneyland before a television audience of millions.
Meanwhile, forged tickets were bringing thousands of people into the park without his
knowledge. The newly poured asphalt melted the heels of women, and a plumber's strike kept
drinking fountains from being installed in time. Critics blasted it as "Black Sunday."
Walt resisted allowing the park to become poorly cared for. He held the park to high standards of
customer service as well as paying attention to detail. The result was that Disneyland became a
phenomenal success, spawning other parks, and creating a critical component of the Walt Disney
Company.
So beyond all that disappointment and learning came fantastic success. Walt would say, "Get a
good idea, and stay with it. Dog it, and work at it until it's done, and done right." In picking
himself up and in learning from his mistakes and moved on. He said: "To some people, I am kind
of a Merlin who takes lots of crazy chances, but rarely makes mistakes. I've made some bad
ones, but, fortunately, the successes have come along fast enough to cover up the mistakes. When
you go to bat as many times as I do. you're bound to get a good average."
So what's the lesson for you:
1. Do you see struggle as the road to opportunity?
2. Do you learn from your failures?
3. Do you seek to get up to bat as often as possible?

In the end, our own success is defined not by opportunity, but in our persistence in defeat. Here's
to vision, persistence, courage, and simply hard effort. Even in these more difficult times.
These are the ingredients of any Merlin. Surely they are the ones held by Walt Disney.

Inspirations to walt
Disney
As Walt Disney sat at a bench, at an amusement park, watching his daughters play, he noticed
how ragged and filthy the small amusement park was. He also observed people's reactions to
different rides, and noticed how children's parents had nothing to do. They would be anxious to
go home, while their children were still having fun, and playing.
This is where Walt was conjuring, and planning a new type of amusement park; one that would
be clean, and would have attractions for parents and children together. This was Walt Disney's
idea, which eventually turned to be Disneyland.
Walt once said:
"What this country really needs is an amusement park that families can take their
children to. They've gotten so honky tonk with a lot of questionable characters running
around, and they're not to safe. They're not well kept. I want to have a place that's as
clean as anything could ever be, and all the people in it [his park] are first-class citizens,
and treated like guests."
Years before Disneyland was constructed, Walt was thinking, generating, and creating everything
in his mind. He traveled the United States, and visited buildings of Americas most prolific
inventors and creators, such as Thomas Edison's Workshop, the Wright Brothers Bicycle shop,
and the home of the Dictionary magnate Noah Webster. While visiting these places, he was
formulating and dreaming of a "Mickey Mouse Park" with a western village, Main Street, and
more, these ideas would eventually form Disneyland.
Walt at Disneyland
On the opening day of Disneyland, Walt stood in his apartment, above the fire station on Main
Street, and looked out the window to see the crowds pour through the gates. Sharon Baird, a
mouseketeer, said this:
I was standing next to him at the window, watching the guests come through the gates.
When I looked up at him, he had his hands behind his back, a grin from ear to ear, and I

could see a lump in his throat and a tear streaming down his cheek. He had realized his
dream.
Right after Disneyland opened, Walt said: "We're gonna kick ourselves for not buying everything
within a radius of ten miles around here." He could visualize the growth around Disneyland.
Walt would often visit Disneyland a few times a week. Although, many times he would visit late
at night, when no one was there. Often times he would spend the night in his apartment in the
fire station, on Main Street. When he came before the park opened, he would make sure the park
was clean, and talk with the cast members.
Walt always wanted to know everything that was going on in the park. He knew about
everything. He knew where water pipes were, how tall buildings were, he knew how the park
ticked.
One time Walt visited the park, and noticed things were a little sloppy. He found the maintenance
engineer of the park, and told him "I want this place painted". The engineer agreed, and said
"We'll do it over the weekend." "No, I want it finished a painted by morning," ordered Walt.
Dozens of painting crews painted through the night, and finished before the park opened.
Even though Walt Disney wasn't able to see how his park prospered and grew into the 21st
Century, his legacy still lives on with us. Throughout Disneyland and throughout the entire
world, he will always be there.

Health issues and death

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Although, Walt Disney seemed to be a pretty healthy guy, he did have a few health problems
throughout his life that became a hindrance to his career. The biggest problem that Disney had
was caused by a polo accident. Disneys doctor advised him to start exercising more in order to
relieve some of his stress. Walt tried many different things such as, golf, boxing and wrestling,
but all of these caused him to be more stressed out. Nothing was working until he began riding
horses; however, this was not enough for Walt Disney. He needed something a little more.
Always a multitasker, Walt decided to combine is love of horseback riding with his desire to
integrate with Hollywood society by taking up the then popular sport of polo. At the time, Walt
quipped the to him polo seemed to be just golf on a horse (Sampson). He practiced a lot and he
even took lessons from a professional. Walt was never athletic and very uncoordinated so this
was extremely difficult for him. He went as far as building a polo cage at his studio so he and
his employees could practice during breaks. In addition he built a similar cage in his own back
yard. These cages consisted of fake wooded horses, wooded balls and goals. He would sit on the
wooden horse and practice hitting the balls into the goal. Walt had purchased a total of twelve
horses for the sole purpose of playing polo. He had even won a few different trophies. Things
seemed to be going really well for Walt until the accident occurred. During a polo match, Walt

was hit by a polo ball and knocked out of his saddle. Consequently, he shattered four vertebrae,
which lead to excruciating pain. After this accident, he sold his horses and never played another
game of polo for as long as he lived. Walt chose to go to a chiropractor rather than a doctor for
his injuries, but the chiropractor could not heal his back. If he would have gone to the doctor and
been put in a cast it would have healed. This decision and accident had lifelong consequences.
Calcium deposits began to build up near his neck, which eventually let to arthritis and pain for
the rest of his life. When the back pain flared up, Walt was often unpleasant in his interaction
with his staff (Sampson). Walt had officially lost his outlet to relieve stress, but more
importantly he lost something that he loved and a part of him was missing.
In addition to the polo accident, Walt was diagnosed with cancer towards the end of his life. In
November of 1966, he went to the doctor complaining of neck and back pain. They did an X-ray
and found tumors on his left lung. He was always a heavy smoker, which explains why he
developed lung cancer. The doctors said that it would be best to do surgery so Walt agreed;
however, he went back to the studio to ensure that certain things were taken care of. The surgery
confirmed that the tumor was cancerous and as a result his entire left lung was removed. Two
weeks later, Walt was released from the hospital. He spent Thanksgiving with his family and
when he arrived back home he collapsed and was brought back to the hospital. He died on
December 15 1966 at 9:30 in the morning. The cause of his death was a heart attack.

About Walt Disney

During a 43-year Hollywood career, which spanned the development of the motion
picture medium as a modern American art, Walter Elias Disney, a modern Aesop,
established himself and his product as a genuine part of Americana

David Low, the late British political cartoonist, called Disney the most significant figure in
graphic arts since Leonardo. A pioneer and innovator, and the possessor of one of the most
fertile imaginations the world has ever known, Walt Disney, along with members of his staff,
received more than 950 honors and citations from throughout the world, including 48 Academy
Awards and 7 Emmys in his lifetime.
Walt Disneys personal awards included honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, the University of
Southern California, and UCLA; the Presidential Medal of Freedom; Frances Legion of Honor
and Officer dAcademie decorations; Thailands Order of the Crown; Brazils Order of the
Southern Cross; Mexicos Order of the Aztec Eagle; and the Showman of the World Award from
the National Association of Theatre Owners.

The creator of Mickey Mouse and founder of Disneyland and Walt Disney World was born in
Chicago, Illinois, on December 5, 1901. His father, Elias Disney, was an Irish-Canadian. His
mother, Flora Call Disney, was of German-American descent. Walt was one of five children, four
boys and a girl.
Raised on a farm near Marceline, Missouri, Walt early became interested in drawing, selling his
first sketches to neighbors when he was only seven years old. At McKinley High School in
Chicago, Disney divided his attention between drawing and photography, contributing both to
the school paper. At night he attended the Academy of Fine Arts.
During the fall of 1918, Disney attempted to enlist for military service. Rejected because he was
only 16 years of age, Walt joined the Red Cross and was sent overseas, where he spent a year
driving an ambulance and chauffeuring Red Cross officials. His ambulance was covered from
stem to stern, not with stock camouflage, but with drawings and cartoons.
After the war, Walt returned to Kansas City, where he began his career as an advertising
cartoonist. Here, in 1920, he created and marketed his first original animated cartoons, and later
perfected a new method for combining live-action and animation.
In August of 1923, Walt Disney left Kansas City for Hollywood with nothing but a few drawing
materials, $40 in his pocket and a completed animated and live-action film. Walts brother Roy
O. Disney was already in California, with an immense amount of sympathy and encouragement,
and $250. Pooling their resources, they borrowed an additional $500 and constructed a camera
stand in their uncles garage. Soon, they received an order from New York for the first Alice
Comedy short, and the brothers began their production operation in the rear of a Hollywood real
estate office two blocks away.
On July 13, 1925, Walt married one of his first employees, Lillian Bounds, in Lewiston, Idaho.
They were blessed with two daughters Diane, married to Ron Miller, former president and
chief executive officer of Walt Disney Productions; and Sharon Disney Lund, formerly a member
of Disneys Board of Directors. The Millers have seven children and Mrs. Lund had three. Mrs.
Lund passed away in 1993.
Mickey Mouse was created in 1928, and his talents were first used in a silent cartoon entitled
Plane Crazy. However, before the cartoon could be released, sound burst upon the motion
picture screen. Thus Mickey made his screen debut in Steamboat Willie, the worlds first fully
synchronized sound cartoon, which premiered at the Colony Theatre in New York on November
18, 1928.
Walts drive to perfect the art of animation was endless. Technicolor was introduced to
animation during the production of his Silly Symphonies. In 1932, the film entitled Flowers

and Trees won Walt the first of his 32 personal Academy Awards. In 1937, he released The Old
Mill, the first short subject to utilize the multiplane camera technique.
On December 21 of that same year, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length
animated musical feature, premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. Produced at
the unheard of cost of $1,499,000 during the depths of the Great Depression, the film is still
accounted as one of the great feats and imperishable monuments of the motion picture industry.
During the next five years, Walt completed such other full-length animated classics as Pinocchio,
Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi.
In 1940, construction was completed on Disneys Burbank studio, and the staff swelled to more
than 1,000 artists, animators, story men and technicians. During World War II, 94 percent of the
Disney facilities were engaged in special government work including the production of training
and propaganda films for the armed services, as well as health films which are still shown
throughout the world by the U.S. State Department. The remainder of his efforts were devoted to
the production of comedy short subjects, deemed highly essential to civilian and military morale.
Disneys 1945 feature, the musical The Three Caballeros, combined live action with the cartoon
medium, a process he used successfully in such other features as Song of the South and the
highly acclaimed Mary Poppins. In all, 81 features were released by the studio during his
lifetime.
Walts inquisitive mind and keen sense for education through entertainment resulted in the
award-winning True-Life Adventure series. Through such films as The Living Desert, The
Vanishing Prairie, The African Lion and White Wilderness, Disney brought fascinating insights
into the world of wild animals and taught the importance of conserving our nations outdoor
heritage.
Disneyland, launched in 1955 as a fabulous $17 million Magic Kingdom, soon increased its
investment tenfold and entertained, by its fourth decade, more than 400 million people, including
presidents, kings and queens and royalty from all over the globe.
A pioneer in the field of television programming, Disney began production in 1954, and was
among the first to present full-color programming with his Wonderful World of Color in 1961.
The Mickey Mouse Club and Zorro were popular favorites in the 1950s.
ut that was only the beginning. In 1965, Walt Disney turned his attention toward the problem of
improving the quality of urban life in America. He personally directed the design on an
Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, or EPCOT, planned as a living showcase for
the creativity of American industry.

Said Disney, I dont believe there is a challenge anywhere in the world that is more important to
people everywhere than finding the solution to the problems of our cities. But where do we
begin? Well, were convinced we must start with the public need. And the need is not just for
curing the old ills of old cities. We think the need is for starting from scratch on virgin land and
building a community that will become a prototype for the future.
Thus, Disney directed the purchase of 43 square miles of virgin land twice the size of
Manhattan Island in the center of the state of Florida. Here, he master planned a whole new
Disney world of entertainment to include a new amusement theme park, motel-hotel resort
vacation center and his Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. After more than seven
years of master planning and preparation, including 52 months of actual construction, Walt
Disney World opened to the public as scheduled on October 1, 1971. Epcot Center opened on
October 1, 1982.
Prior to his death on December 15, 1966, Walt Disney took a deep interest in the establishment
of California Institute of the Arts, a college level, professional school of all the creative and
performing arts. Of Cal Arts, Walt once said, Its the principal thing I hope to leave when I
move on to greener pastures. If I can help provide a place to develop the talent of the future, I
think I will have accomplished something.
California Institute of the Arts was founded in 1961 with the amalgamation of two schools, the
Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and Chouinard Art Institute. The campus is located in the
city of Valencia, 32 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Walt Disney conceived the new
school as a place where all the performing and creative arts would be taught under one roof in a
community of the arts as a completely new approach to professional arts training.
Walt Disney is a legend, a folk hero of the 20th century. His worldwide popularity was based
upon the ideas which his name represents: imagination, optimism and self-made success in the
American tradition. Walt Disney did more to touch the hearts, minds and emotions of millions of
Americans than any other man in the past century. Through his work, he brought joy, happiness
and a universal means of communication to the people of every nation. Certainly, our world shall
know but one Walt Disney.