Childhood & Early Life
Walter Elias ‘Walt’ Disney was born to Elias Disney and Flora Call Disney. His father was an Irish-Canadian by descent and his mother was a German-American. He had four siblings, three brothers and a sister.
At the age of four, he shifted base to Marceline, Missouri, with his family. It was here that he developed his life-long fascination for drawing and painting.
The family moved to Kansas City in 1911 where he received his early education. Walter Pfeiffer, theatre aficionado, became an early guiding light for him as he introduced young Disney to a world of vaudeville and motion pictures.
Moving to Chicago in 1917, he enrolled himself at the McKinley High School. At night, he used to attend course at the Chicago Art Institute. He worked as a cartoonist for his school newspaper.
Soon, he dropped out of school to join the Army but was rejected because he was underage. He then served as the driver of an ambulance for Red Cross.
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Career
Moving back to Kansas City in 1919, started working at the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio, as ad-writer. It was there that he met Ubbe Iwerks.
In 1920, he found employment with Kansas City Film Ad Company. His profile included making commercials from cutout animations. He developed an interest in animation and decided to become an animator.
However, finding true interest in cel animation, he left the company to start his own business venture. He offered employment to Fred Harman, who was his colleague at Kansas City Film Ad Company.
He entered into a business deal with a local theatre owner, Frank L Newman to screen the cartoons which he named, Laugh-o-Grams. The popularity of the cartoons led to the opening of Laugh-o-Grams studio. However, financial debt caused the closure of the studio in 1923.
Impervious to the bankruptcy, he aimed to set up a studio in California. Together with his brother Roy, and Iwerks, he opened Disney Brother’s Studio.
They entered into a distribution deal with New York distributor Margaret Winkler for Walt's 'Alice Comedies', an animated shorts based upon ‘Alice's Wonderland’. They invented a character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit for which they contracted the shorts at $1,500 each.
In 1925, he recruited ink-and-paint artist Lillian Bound, little knowing then that the two would become lifelong partners.
The dream-run for Disney ended in 1928 when he realized that Universal Pictures had bought the trademark for Oswald and that most of his creative designers, except Iwerk, had forsaken him for the Universal Pictures.
Together with Iwerk, he worked on creating a new character, based on his pet mouse which he adopted during the Laugh-o-Gram days. The final touches to the sketch gave the world of animation a new character in Mickey Mouse.
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While the first two animated shorts did not bring Mickey Mouse much fame due to them being silent movies, the third short, was sound and music equipped became an instant success and created a sensation. Walt gave his voice for Mickey.
After the supper success of Mickey’s third short, Streamboat Willie, he launched sound in all of his subsequent cartoons.
In 1929, he released a series of musical shorts, titled ‘Silly Symphonies’, which featured Mickey’s friends, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto and Mickey’s girlfriend Minnie Mouse.
In 1933, he created his most memorable cartoon short, ‘The Three Little Pigs’. The cartoon was a big hit and garnered positive reviews. Furthermore, its anthem song, ‘Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf’ became an iconic number during the Great Depression.
In 1935, he created history by launching ‘Flowers and Trees’, then one of the most popular cartoon shorts, in color. For the same, he was bestowed with the prestigious Academy Award.
In 1934, he planned to come up with a full-length animation feature. People deemed it to be ‘Disney’s Folly’ and the mark of his downfall. His wife and brother even encouraged in talking him out of the project but in vain.
After a successful training schedule, his high-profile leap of a feature film titled, ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’, went into production in 1934. After three years, the film premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre, Los Angeles.
‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ opened to public in February 1938. The film was a blockbuster at the box office and went on to become the most successful film of 1938. In its initial release, the film had grossed $8 million.
The grand success of Snow White not only catapulted the position of Disney in the world of animation but also brought about an era, which later was given the name as the Golden Age of Animation.
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Following the success of his first film, he started working on several others, including, ‘Pinnochio’, ‘Fantasia’, ‘Dumbo’ and ‘Bambi’. Simultaneously, the short staff continued to work on the characters of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto cartoon series
In 1939, he opened the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. However, two years later, a strike by Disney Animators resulted in heavy losses for the studio as many of the animators resigned from work.
By 1950s, after stabilizing the financial condition of Walt Disney Studios, he started focussing again on feature films. The first to release was ‘Cinderella’ in 1950, which was followed by ‘Alice in Wonderland’, ‘Peter Pan’, ‘Treasure Island’, ‘Lady in the Tramp’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and ‘101 Dalmatians’.
A visit to Children’s fairyland in Oakland inspired him for the concept of Disneyland. After five years of immense planning, projecting, fund raising and execution, the grand opening of Disneyland Theme Park took place on July 17, 1955. The park primarily gave children and families to explore the world of fantasy.
