Walt Disney is a name that evokes emotions of joy, wonder and nostalgia in millions of people around the world. From his humble beginnings in Kansas City, Missouri, to his legacy as one of the most influential businessmen of the 20th century, Disney forever changed the way we think about fun, entertainment and creativity.
With the creation of iconic characters like Mickey Mouse, Princess Cinderella and Buzz Lightyear, and the opening of Disneyland in California in 1955, Disney laid the foundation for a company that has expanded over the years into an empire that includes movies, television, theme parks and much more.
The Disney legacy continues to inspire artists, entrepreneurs and dreamers around the world.
The Disney Theme Park is perhaps the most palpable embodiment of Walt Disney’s vision, a place where guests can escape into a world of fantasy and go on exciting adventures with their favorite characters. From the iconic «It’s a Small World» attraction to the «Space Mountain» roller coaster, Disney theme parks have been meticulously designed to offer unforgettable experiences for the whole family.
In this article, we’ll explore the life and legacy of Walt Disney, focusing on his vision for theme parks and how his creativity and determination led him to create one of the most magical places in the world.
From his childhood to his career as an entertainer and entrepreneur, we’ll examine the key moments in Disney’s life that led him to found Disneyland, and how his legacy continues to influence the entertainment industry and beyond.
Get ready for a journey through the life of one of the most remarkable visionaries of the last century and discover how his legacy continues to inspire people of all ages to dream big.
Walt Disney Biography
walt disney He was an American film and television producer and showman, famous as a pioneer of animated films and as the creator of Disneyland.
Walter Elias «Walt» Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Hermosa, Illinois. He and his brother Roy co-founded Walt Disney Productions, which became one of the best-known motion picture production companies in the world.
Who was Walt Disney?
Disney was an innovative animator and created the cartoon character Mickey Mouse. He won 22 Academy Awards during his lifetime, and was the founder of Disneyland and Walt Disney World theme parks.
When and where was Walt Disney born?
Walt Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in the Hermosa section of Chicago, Illinois.
Walt Disney’s wife
In 1925, Disney hired an ink and paint artist named Lillian Bounds. After a brief courtship, the couple married.
Walt Disney was one of five children, four boys and one girl. His father was Elias Disney, an Irish-Canadian, and his mother, Flora Call Disney, was German-American.
Disney lived most of his childhood in Marceline, Missouri, where he began drawing, painting, and selling pictures to neighbors and family friends.
In 1911 his family moved to Kansas City, where Disney developed a love for trains. His uncle, Mike Martin, was a railroad engineer who worked on the route between Fort Madison, Iowa, and Marceline.
Later, Disney would work a summer job with the railroad, selling snacks and newspapers to commuters.
Disney attended McKinley High School in Chicago, where he took drawing and photography classes and was a contributing cartoonist for the school newspaper.
At night, he took courses at the Art Institute of Chicago. When Disney was 16 years old, he dropped out of school to enlist in the army, but was rejected for being a minor.
Instead, he joined the Red Cross and was sent to France for a year to drive an ambulance. He moved back to the United States in 1919.
Walt Disney’s first cartoons
In 1919, Disney moved to Kansas City to pursue a career as a newspaper artist. His brother Roy got him a job at the Pesmen-Rubin art studio, where he met cartoonist Ubbe Eert Iwwerks, better known as Ub Iwerks.
From there, Disney worked at the Kansas City Film Ad Company, where he made commercials based on cutout animation. Around this time, Disney began experimenting with a camera, doing hand-drawn cel animation, and decided to open his own animation business. From the advertising company, he recruited Fred Harman as his first employee.
Walt and Harman made a deal with a local Kansas City theater to show their cartoons, which they called Laugh-O-Grams.
The cartoons were very popular, and Disney was able to acquire his own studio, which he gave the same name. Laugh-O-Gram hired several employees, including Harman’s brother Hugh and Iwerks.
They made a series of seven-minute fairy tales that combined live action and animation, which they called Alice in Cartoonland. By 1923, however, the studio was saddled with debt, and Disney was forced into bankruptcy.
roy disney studio
Disney and his brother Roy soon pooled their money and moved to Hollywood. Iwerks also moved to California, where the three of them started the Disney Brothers Studio.
His first deal was with New York distributor Margaret Winkler, to distribute his Alice cartoons. They also invented a character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and contracted the shorts for $1,500 each.
Walt Disney Mickey Mouse
A few years later, Disney discovered that Winkler and her husband, Charles Mintz, had stolen the rights to Oswald, along with all the Disney animators except Iwerks.
Immediately the Disney brothers, their wives, and Iwerks produced three cartoons featuring a new character Walt had been developing called Mickey Mouse.
The first animated shorts featuring Mickey were Plane Crazy and The Gallopin’ Gaucho, both silent films for which they found no distribution.
As sound found its way into film, Disney created a third short film equipped with sound and music called Steamboat Willie. With Walt as the voice of Mickey, the cartoon was an instant sensation.
Walt Disney movies
In 1929, Disney created the Silly Symphonies, which featured Mickey’s new friends, including Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto. One of the most popular cartoons, Flowers and Trees, was the first to be produced in color and to win an Oscar.
In 1933, The Three Little Pigs and their song «Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?» became a hit for the country in the midst of the Great Depression.
On December 21, 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first animated feature film, opened in Los Angeles. It produced an unimaginable $1.499 million, despite the Depression, and won a total of eight Oscars.
Over the next five years, the Walt Disney Studios completed another series of animated feature films, Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942).
In December 1939, a new campus for the Walt Disney Studios opened in Burbank. A setback for the company occurred in 1941, however, when there was a strike by Disney animators.
Many of them quit, and it took years for the company to fully recover. In the mid-1940s, Disney created «packaged pictures»—groups of shorts that were strung together to shoot along the length of the feature—but in 1950 he focused again on animated films.
1950
Cinderella was released in 1950, followed by a live action film called Treasure Island (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), Peter Pan (1953), Lady and the Tramp (1955), The sleeping beauty (1959) and 101 dalmatians (1961). In total, more than 100 feature films were produced by her studio.
Disney was also one of the first to use television as an entertainment medium. The Zorro and Davy Crockett series were very popular with children, as was The Mickey Mouse Club, a variety show featuring a cast of teenagers known as the Mouseketeers.
Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color was a popular Sunday night show, with which Disney began promoting its new theme park.
Disney’s last big hit that he produced himself was the film Mary Poppins (1964), which mixed live action and animation.
Disneyland opening
The $17 million Disneyland theme park opened on July 17, 1955 in Anaheim, California, with actor (and future US President) Ronald Reagan presiding over activities in what was once an orange grove.
After a tumultuous opening day with several mishaps (including the distribution of thousands of forged invitations), the site became known as a place where children and their families could explore, enjoy rides, and meet Disney characters.
In a very short time, the park had increased its investment tenfold and was entertaining tourists from all over the world.
With the original site seeing some ups and downs in attendance over the years, Disneyland has expanded its attractions over time and branched out globally with parks in Tokyo, Paris and Hong Kong, with a Shanghai location opening in June. 2016. Sister property California Adventure also opened in 2001.
When did Walt Disney die?
Within a few years of opening, Disney began planning a new theme park and developing the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) in Florida. It was still under construction when, in 1966, Disney was diagnosed with lung cancer.
He died on December 15, 1966, at the age of 65. Disney was cremated and his ashes interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.
After his brother’s death, Roy continued plans to finish the Florida theme park, which opened in 1971 as Walt Disney World.
20 curiosities of Walt Disney
walt disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois.Your full name It was Walter Elias Disney.His first animation company it was called Laugh-O-Gram Studios, which filed for bankruptcy in 1923.in 1928Disney created the character Mickey Mouse, which became the emblem of the company.Disney was the first producer filmmakers to use Technicolor, a coloring process that allowed movies to be in color.In 1937, Disney released «Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,» the first full-length animated feature.Disney won 26 Oscars, a record in Academy Awards history.The first Disney theme park, Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California in 1955.Disney was also the creator from Epcot, Disney World and Disneyland Paris theme parks.The phrase «It’s a small world after all» became popular thanks to the Disney attraction of the same name.Disney was an advocate of technology and innovation, and was one of…