| Walter Elias Disney December 5, 1901 - December 15, 1966 |
| In 1901, on December 5, a man that will never be forgotten was born. His name was Walter Elias Disney. But we all know him as Walt Disney, the creator of Mickey Mouse Disney itself. Born Chicago, Illinois to the parents Elias Disney and Flora (Call) Disney. He was the fourth child born but ended up in a family of five, Herbert in 1888, Raymond in 1890, Roy in 1893, himself and finally his first and only sister Ruth in 1903. In April 1906, the Disney family moved to a farm in Marceline, Missouri, a community of about 5,000. In 1908 Herbert and Raymond decided they had had enough of farming, and departed for better times in Chicago. In the fall of 1909, Walt started at the brand-new Park School in Marceline. But he wasn't to be there long. In the fall of 1910 Elias contracted typhoid and almost died. He recovered, slowly, but knew he couldn't keep the farm afloat. So the farm was sold, and the family moved to Kansas City in the summer of 1911. After moving to Kanasas City, Walt helped his father run a newspaper route. The newspaper route became very successful that Elias sold the route and moved back to Chicago. When Walt's folks left for Chicago, he chose to stay behind for the summer. At summer's end, Walt went to Chicago and joined his family, where he attended McKinley High School. His attention span was not the greatest since it was during WWI and he wanted to be part of the War to End All Wars. In the meantime, he attended the Chicago Institute of Art, worked at the O'Zell Company, and drew patriotic sketches for the school paper. When school let out for the summer, he began to work at the post office but that didn't last long when the building was bombed. At age 16, during WWI, he lied about his age to join the American Red Cross. He soon returned home, where he won a scholarship to the Kansas City Art Institute. There, he met a fellow animator, Ub Iwerks. The two soon set up their own company and in the early 20s, they made a series of animated shorts for the Newman theater chain, entitled "Newman's Laugh-O-Grams". But the company went bankrupt. The two then traveled to Hollywood in 1923. They started work on a new series, entitled the "Alice Comedies". They were distributed by Margaret Winkler. Walt was backed up financially only by Winkler and his brother Roy, who would remain his business partner for the rest of his life. Hundreds of "Alice Comedies" were produced between 1923 and 1927 before lossing popularity. Walt then started work on a series around a new animated character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. This series was successful, but in 1928, Margaret Winkler and her husband, Charles Mintz, had stolen the rights to the character away from him. They'd also stolen all his animators, except for Ub Iwerks. While taking the train home, Walt started doddling on a piece of paper and the results of these doddles was a mouse named Mickey, who became the mostly popular animated character of all time. With only Walt and Ub to animate, and Walt's wife Lilly and Roy's wife Edna to ink in the animation cells, three Mickey Mouse cartoons were quickly produced. The first two didn't sell, so Walt added synchronized sound to the last one, Steamboat Willie (1928), and it was immediately picked up. It became the first cartoon to use synchronize sound. With Walt as the voice of Mickey, it premiered to great success. Soon many more cartoons followed. Walt was now in the big time, but he didn't stop creating new ideas. In 1929, he created the 'Silly Symphonies', a cartoon series, that was also a success and that didn't have a continuous character. Then in 1932, the first animated color cartoon was produced and won an Oscar, Flowers and Trees. Three Little Pigs (1933), was so popular it was often billed above the feature films it accompanied. The Silly Symphonies stopped coming out in 1939, but Mickey and friends, (including Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto, and plenty more), were still going strong and still very popular. In 1934, Walt started work on another new idea: a cartoon that ran the length of a feature film. Everyone in Hollywood was calling it "Disney's Folly", but Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) was anything but, winning critical raves, the adoration of the public, and one big and seven little special Oscars for Walt. Now Walt listed animated features among his ever-growing list of accomplishments. While continuing to produce cartoon shorts, he also started producing more of the animated features. Pinnochio (1940)_, Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942) were all successes; not even a flop like Fantasia (1940) and a studio animators' strike in 1941 could stop Disney now. In the mid-40s, he began producing "packaged features", essentially a group of shorts put together to run feature length, but by 1950 he was back with animated features that stuck to one story, with Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), and Peter Pan (1953). In 1950, he also started producing live-action films, with Treasure Island (1950). These began taking on greater importance throughout the 50s and 60s, but Walt continued to produce animated features, including Lady and the Tramp (1955), Sleeping Beauty (1959), and 101 Dalmatians (1961). In 1955, he even opened a theme park in southern California: Disneyland. It was a place where children and their parents could take rides, just explore, and meet the familiar animated characters, all in a clean, safe environment. It was another great success. Walt also became one of the first producers of films to venture into telvision, with his series "Disneyland" (1954) which he began in 1954 to promote his theme park. He also produced "The Mickey Mouse Club" (1955) and "Zorro" (1957). To top it all off, Walt came out with the lavish musical fantasy Mary Poppins (1964), which mixed live-action with animation. It is considered by many to be his magnum opus. Even after that, Walt continued to forge onward, with plans to build a new theme park and an experimental prototype city in Florida. He never did finish those plans, however; in 1966, he contracted lung cancer. Which also in that year was the last time a Disney film would have Walt's actual plans and thoughts into the film and it was "The Jungle Book" Disney's 19th animated film. He died in December at age 65. But not even his death, it seemed, could stop him. Roy carried on plans to build the Florida theme park, and it premiered in 1971 under the name Walt Disney World. What's more, his company continues to flourish, still producing animated and live-action films and overseeing the still-growing empire started by one man: Walt Disney, who will never be forgotten. Walt Disney is now into Legend and for years after we're gone, people will still continue to talk about Waltor as if he would still be alive. "LONG LIVE WALT DISNEY!!!!!!!!" click back to Disney section |