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Walt Disney comes into the world!
Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 5, 1901. he was the fourth child of the five children in his house. His father was Elias Disney and was an Irish-Canadian. Also, his mother was Flora Cell-Disney and was a German-American. -
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The Life of Walt Disney
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Walt Disneys Creative Childhood!
Walt loved to draw. He drew so many pictures from animals to the house he lived in. He got hired by a local barber to draw pictures for twenty-five cents or a free haircut, He loved to play outside with his brothers and then he would go talk to the animals before he had to go inside. Once he had turned 7 the Disney family moved to Kansas City where he got a new job. drawing things for the newspaper at the local school. -
Walt Starts Art Classes
Walt attended McKinley High School, but Walt didn't like high school at all. So instead of taking regular core classes he started taking many, many art classes. This influenced him to start drawing more and more. -
Walt Left School
When Disney was 16, he dropped out of high school to be in the army but was rejected for being underaged. Once he was rejected he joined the Red Cross and was sent to Frnace to drive the ambulances. When he returned from France in 1919, he moved back to Kansas City to peruse a career as a newspaper artist. -
Moving Up in the Big Leagues
Walts brother Roy got him a job at the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio, where he had met famous cartoonist Ubbe Iwerks. From there, Disney worked at the Kansas City Film Ad company where he started making his own commercials. After he made commercials he decided to open his own annimation buisness. -
Beginning the New Buisness
Once Walt had fully opened his own buisness he recruted Fred Harman as his frist employee, Walt and Harman made a dealwith a local Kansas City Theater to screen their cartoons which they called Laugh-O-Grams which influenced Walts dream to create little cartoon skits and movies. -
Walt Gets Married
In 1925, Disney hired Lillian Bound, and after a brief countership the couple married. The couple then had a daughter named Diane Marie Disney born December 18, 1933. The couple then adopted Sharon Mae Disney on December 31, 1936. Walt created several cartoons just for the girls and created movies later on about the stories. -
The Laugh-O-Gram Studio
Presented as "Newman Laugh-O-Grams'', Disney's cartoons became very popular in the Kansas City area. Also, through their success Walt was able to create his own studio, also called Laugh-O-Gram. Unfortunatley, it became bankrupt, where then he decided to set up a studio in the movie industries capital city known as Hollywood, California. -
Disney goes to Hollywood!
Disney and brother Roy pooled up all of their money and set up a cartoon studio in Hollywood. Once everything was all set up they needed to find a distributor for Walts new Alice comics, which he had started making while in Kansas City but never got to distribute. -
The Creation of Mickey Mouse
After losing the rights to Walts first real hit Oswald, Disney felt the need to develop a new character to replace him which was bases on a mouse he adopted as a pet while working in his Laugh-O-Gram studio. Ub Iwerks (Disney's fellow employee) designed Mickey's appearence, but Walt gave him his soul. -
Mickey's Short Features
Walts 1st animated short to feature Mickey, "Plane Crazy" was a silent film like all of Disney's previous works. After that short film, Disney created a cartoon with a sound called "Steamboat Willie". Mickey's popularity would subsequently skyrocket in the early 1930's -
Disney's First Academy Award
In 1932 Disney recieved a special academy award for the creation of Mickey Mouse. That award soon let to many of Disney's famous movies which also got him many awards. His accomplishments still amaze many people that still love Walt Disney. -
The Imagination Towards Disneyworld
On a buisness trip to Chicago in the late 1940's, Disney drew sketches of his ideas for an amusment park where he envisioned his employees spending time with their children. The idea for a childrens themepark came after a visit to childrens Fairylandin Oakland, California. Disney spent five years developing the themepark which is now known as Disneyland. -
The Disneyland Grand Opening!
On Sunday, July 17, 1955, Disneyland hosted a live TV preview, among the thousands of people that attended; Ronald Reagan, Bob Cummings, and Art Linkletter also attended. Walt gave a dedication day speech that day. -
Walt Disney's Last Day
Disney died on December 15, 1966, at 9:30 a.m., ten days after his 65th birthday. Walt died of acute circulatory collapse, caused by lung cancer. In 2009, the Walt Disney Family Museum opened in the Pesidio of San Fransisco. 1,000's of artifacts from Disney's life and career are on display.
