Walt Disney
Walt Disney’s early life
He was born on December 5, 1901, in
Chicago, Illinois. Disney was one of
five children. He lived most of his
childhood in Marceline, Missouri.
He began drawing there where he
was painting and selling pictures to
neighbors and family friends. Disney
went to McKinley High School in
Chicago, where he took drawing and
photography classes. He was drawing
cartoons for the school paper. At
night, he took courses at the
Chicago Art Institute. When Disney
was 16, he dropped out of school to
join the army but was rejected for
being underage. He then joined the
Red Cross and was sent to France
for a year.
“All our dreams can come true, if
we have the courage to pursue
them.”
-Walt Disney
Getting started
Disney returned from France in 1919.
He moved back to Kansas City to
become a newspaper artist. From
there, Disney worked at the Kansas
City Film Ad Company, where he
made commercials based on cutout
animation. Disney started to
experiment with a camera, doing
hand-drawn cel animation, and
decided to open his own business.
From the ad company, he recruited
Fred Harman as his first employee.
They got there cartoons to be shown
at a local theatre in Kansas City.
They called their cartoons Laugh-OGram. The cartoons became popular
and the partners hired more people.
They then created a series of seven
minute fairytales called Alice in
Cartoon land.
“All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me…
You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the
world for you.”
-Walt Disney
Obstacles
In 1923 the studio became buried in debt and
they became bankrupt. Disney and his brother
then got some money and moved to California.
Iwerks one of Disney’s employees also moved
to California with them. To distribute their
cartoons they made a deal with Margaret
Wrinkler. They also created a new character
called Oswald. Disney the hired an artist
named Lillian Bound who he later married. A
couple of years later Disney found out that
Wrinkler and her husband stole the rights to
Oswald and all of their animators except for
Iwerks. Disney and the rest of his group
quickly then created three cartoons. They
created silent Mickey Mouse cartoons but they
failed. When sound came into the film
industry Disney made another Mickey Mouse
cartoon and it did very well.
Achievements
In 1929, Disney created Silly Symphonies,
which included Mickey's newly created friends.
Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto.
One of their most popular cartoons, Flowers
and Trees, was the first to be produced in color
and to win an Oscar. Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs was Disney’s first full-length animated.
It was premiered in Los Angeles. It produced
$1.499 million, in spite of the Depression, and
won a total of eight Oscars. During the next five
years, Walt Disney Studios completed another
string of full-length animated films, Pinocchio,
Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi.
The next five years, Walt Disney Studios
accomplished another batch of full-length
animated films, which were Pinocchio,
Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi.” He continued to
create films including Cinderella which was
released in 1950, followed by Alice in
Wonderland (1951), Peter Pan (1953), a liveaction film called Treasure Island (1950), Lady
in the Tramp (1955), Sleeping Beauty (1959)
and 101 Dalmatians (1961).”(Walt Disney bio.)
In all, more than 100 features were produced by
his studio. Disney was also among the first to
use television as an entertainment medium.
Disney's $17 million Disneyland theme park
opened in 1955. The park was a place where
children and their families could have fun take
rides and meet their favorite Disney characters.
The park did extremely well. Disney’s last
major success was Mary Poppins, which he
produced himself.
Contributions
Walt Disney created some of the most popular
animated characters. He opened Disneyland
which was the first big modern theme park. He
died when Disney World in Florida was in its
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planning stages, but he left a legacy including
Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris. And
there are still more Disneylands being created
all around the world. Without him most modern
theme parks probably wouldn't exist
How he inspires people
Walt Disney inspired kids all around the world
to keep dreaming. He also inspired many
animators to keep trying no matter the obstacle.
He inspires anyone who is starting out. He
taught kids that you could become whatever you
want in life with hard work. And to be yourself.
He inspires me by how he was not famous
before and through hard work he became
famous and will always be remembered.
It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.
-Walt Disney
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Interview
By Fletcher Markel 1963
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1. How did you come up with idea
of starting Disneyland?
I took my daughters out to merrygo-round and as I sat on the bench
I thought why I can’t make a
place where parents and kids have
a good time.
2. Why did you start to make live
action films?
I wanted to do more things and
make Walt Disney Production
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cartoons.
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Ethnography
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1. How do newsletter
you think
Disney
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people?
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He showed
here. people you
could do whatever you
want in life.
2. What’s your favorite
Disney movie?
Cinderella
“If you can dream it you can do it.”
more diverse.
-Walt Disney
3. What made you want to start
drawing cartoons?
I just wanted to entertain people
and I have always liked drawing
“Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is
imagination left in the world.”
-Walt Disney
Mla
“Walt Elias Disney.”2014. The BiographyChannel Website.
“Disney History.”2014. The Walt Disney Company.