thisnthatwithatwist

Disney World is my favorite place in the world. I don’t care how cheey it is, or immature I love it and nobody can talk me out of that. Tomorrow is my birthday and (due to the overwhelming heat) I will not be there. So since I can’t be in my most magical of places, I figured I’d share a bit about the man who started it all.

Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago Illinois, one of five children of an Irish-Canadian father, Elias Disney, and a German-American mother, Flora Call Disney. After Disney’s birth, the family moved to Marceline, Missouri, where he spent most of his childhood. Even early on Disney had an interest in drawing; instead of doing schoolwork he doodled and he sold his drawings to nearby neighbors.  While attending McKinley High School in Chicago, Disney divided his attention between drawing, photography, and the school paper. Also during this time he attended night classes at the Academy of Fine Arts, to better his drawing ability.

During his youth Disney began to love, and appreciate nature, animals, and family. Though the family was not well off, and Elias was quite stern, Disney was encouraged by his mother, and his older brother Roy, to increase his talent for drawing. Besides his love of art, Disney had also developed a love for performing. At school he began to entertain his friends by imitating Charlie Chaplin and at his teachers’ invitation, he would tell his classmates stories, illustrating them on the chalkboard. He even would sneak out of the house at night to perform skits at local theaters.

During the fall of 1918, at only sixteen years old, Disney attempted to enlist for military service and was rejected because of his age. Instead, Disney joined the Red Cross and was sent overseas to France, where he spent a year driving an ambulance completely covered with Disney cartoons. When he returned from France, he pursued a career in commercial art, which soon lead to his animation. He began producing short animated films for local businesses, in Kansas City. Not long after, however, Disney ran out of money, and his company Laugh-O-Grams went bankrupt.   Most people would have given up but Disney packed his suitcase and with his unfinished print of The Alice Comedies, which was about a real girl and her adventures in an animated world, and headed for Hollywood to start a new business.  Roy O. Disney, was already in California, with an immense amount of sympathy and encouragement, and $250. Together the brothers also borrowed an additional $500, and set up a new company. Not long after, they received an order from New York for an Alice in Cartoonland featurette. Disney’s talent, enthusiasm and faith in his dream took him straight to the top of Hollywood society but unlike typical Hollywood moguls Disney wasn’t interested in socializing with the “who’s who” of entertainment. In fact, He considered socializing boring.   The only people that truly knew Disney were those who lived with him, and shared his ideas. On a personal note, Disney married Lillian Bounds, one his first employees, in Lewiston, Idaho in July of 1925. Later on they would be blessed with two daughters, Diane and Sharon.

Perhaps this new chapter of his life inspired his creativity because three years after they wed; Disney created a new animated character, a little mouse named Mickey. The cheerful rodent was first used in a silent cartoon entitled Plane Crazy but, before the cartoon could be released, sound was introduced upon the motion picture industry. Thus, the project was shelved and Mickey Mouse’s screen debut was put on hold until November 18, 1928 when Steamboat Willie, the world’s first synchronized sound cartoon, premiered in New York. Disney’s drive toward animation perfection didn’t stop there. He introduced Technicolor to animation with his Silly Symphonies Cartoons. Disney held the patent for Technicolor for two years, allowing him to make the only color cartoons. In 1932, Disney won the first of his studio’s Academy Awards with Flowers and Trees and in 1937; he released The Old Mill, the first short subject to utilize the multi-plane camera technique.

Also in 1937, Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated musical feature, premiered in Los Angeles. The film was produced at the unheard cost of $1,499,000 during the depths of the Depression, but the gamble was worth it because the film is still considered one of the great feats of the motion picture industry. During the next five years, Walt Disney Studios completed animated classics such as Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Bambi.

Even As the world became spellbound by his latest dreams and ventures, fame didn’t affect Walt the family man, who enjoyed the simple things such as staying home and have dinner with his wife, Lillian, and his daughters, Diane and Sharon. At home, he was affectionate and understanding and was always there for his family and friends. Disney’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.”[1]

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. During World War II the Disney facilities were occupied in special government work, including the production of training and propaganda films for the armed services but he still made an efforts to produce comedy shorts because he felt it was important to keep up American morale.

Soon even his award winning animation wasn’t enough and Disney created the award-winning True-Life Adventure series through which he gave insights into the world of wild animals and taught the importance of conserving our nation’s beauty.

During the 1950s and 1960s Walt Disney Productions was the major producer of both television and major motion picture films. Disney’s enterprise was expanding quickly but he maintained as much artistic control as he possibly could. In 1955 Disneyland Park opened in Anaheim, Ca making his dream of a clean and organized amusement park a reality. The extraordinary magic kingdom cost an amazing $17-million, but soon paid off its investment tenfold, and by the 1980s, had entertained more than 200 million people, including presidents, kings and queens, and royalty from all over the globe. Due to the success of this park, Disney decided he would also develop one on the East Coast. In October of 1971 Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, Florida, and quickly became a bigger success than its California counterpart and put Orlando on the map. However Walt Disney never got to enjoy this success because he died five years prior to it’s opening.

            Even after Disney’s death the Walt Disney Company has endured. It remains a leading American entertainment company, operating and expanding its theme parks and resorts.  EPCOT Center, which features futuristic technology and cultural exhibits, was added to Walt Disney World in 1982 and in 1989, Walt Disney World added Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park; a movie studio with exhibits and shows, most recently Walt Disney World added its fourth theme park- The Disney Animal Kingdom.  The company’s international operations include Tokyo Disneyland, which opened in 1983, and Disneyland Paris, a theme resort that opened near Paris in 1992.

The company still produces and distributes motion pictures, and is now running a cable television channel.  The company has four motion-picture units:  Walt Disney Productions which creates family entertainment, Touchstone Pictures and Hollywood Pictures which produce films that appeal to adult audiences, and Caravan Pictures which makes films for both markets.  The Disney cable TV channel broadcasts a variety of family entertainment programs, including cartoons and motion pictures.

 It also sells publications, videocassettes, DVDs, and merchandise based on the Walt Disney’s characters. In 1996, the company acquired Capital Cities/ABC Incorporated, a broadcasting and publishing company that owns the ABC television network. 

            For most people it’s impossible to imagine a world without Walt Disney’s magic, dreams, and optimism. Walt Disney transformed the entertainment industry, into what it is today. He pioneered the fields of animation, and found new ways to teach, and educate. He had a unique ability to see the entire picture incorporating both fond memory of the past, and his ideas for the future making him our bridge from the past to the future. During his 43-year Hollywood career, Disney established himself and his innovations as a genuine part of Americana. He was a creative and imaginative person, but for the millions of kids he’s entertained he’s so much more. He’s the man who taught us all how to dream and to never stop believing in fairy tales. He took the wishes of America’s children and made them come true. This ongoing mission to make life more fun is why, more than thirty years after his death, we still continue to grasp his ideas and remember him for everything he’s done for us.

[1] Greene, The Man Behind the Magic: The Story of Walt Disney, 121

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