I fillaly finished my huge report on Walt Disney! I want to thank everyone here who helped me with it. Some one asked me to post it when I was done.....So here it is. Be warned, it's very, very, very long. Here's Part one.
Through the Looking Glass: Walter Elias Disney
When you hear the name Walt Disney, what do you think of? Some think of him as the creator of Mickey Mouse and Disneyland. Others think just of the company that bears his name. Yet not many people know the real Walt Disney. He did much more than creates films and build Disneyland. He has influenced thousands of people, from his time to ours. Walt Disney has been one of the few men to have been able to inspire so many people during and after his lifetime.
As a young boy in Missouri Walt Disney loved the railroad, he loved how a train could take you to all kinds of unknown places. His whole life he tried to take people to unknown and fantastic places. Walt Disney was one the greatest men of our time. He could see and imagine things that nobody else could. Only he would have looked at an old orange grove and see a pleasure park, and only he would have seen a futuristic city in the swamps of Florida. He was a true visionary, ahead of his time in everything he did. Walt was probably one of the best storytellers Hollywood and the world has ever seen. Now this is his story, and it all started with a boy, a boy who never stopped dreaming.
Walt Elias Disney was born in Chicago on December 5, 1901. Named after Reverend Walter Parr, the pastor of the church, and Elias after his father, Walt was the youngest of four brothers born to Elias and Flora Disney. Walt’s relationship with Roy was the closest of his three brothers. Walt also had a younger sister, Ruth. Walt’s personality and values where both shaped by his parents. Elias Disney could trace his lineage back to Hughes d’Isigny, a knight from Isigny-sur-Mer on the coast of Normandy, France. Hughes d’Isigny fought in the Norman conquest of England in 1066, then settled in Ireland. Walt’s great-grandfather moved from Ireland to Canada where Walt’s father was born in Ontario in 1859. Elias was an inflexible, unimaginative, and almost humorless man. He was a deeply religious man and had a severe approach toward raising his children. Once when Walt was a teenager Elias snapped at him for being to slow handing him a tool. Walt yelled back “I’m working as fast as I can!” Elias ordered him to the basement for punishment. Walt’s brother Roy told him, “Don’t take it from him anymore!” With Roy’s advice Walt went down to the basement with his father. Just as Elias was about to hit him with the handle of a hammer, Walt grabbed the handle from his father’s hand.
True, Elias was hard on his children, but to say he was a villain would be wrong. Elias loved his family, and Walt loved his father despite his many flaws. “I had tremendous respect for him. I worshipped him.” Elias had many good qualities that affected Walt’s life in a positive way. He had wonderful integrity; he always taught his
children the importance of honesty. His work ethic shaped Walt’s work habits. Elias always earned enough to support his family. If failure forced him out of one business, he would start a new one. Walt saw his father take risks, he learned about hard work and persistence. Walt’s father was compassionate toward his fellow man. Many times he offered a free meal and a place to stay to complete strangers. Walt chose to imitate his father’s best traits: faith in God, faith in the common man, a strong work ethic, honesty and integrity, perseverance, and love for family.
Walt’s mother, Flora Call Disney, helped shape his unique personality. The daughter of a scholar, she loved books. She taught Walt how to read before he started school. Her sense of humor helped compensate for Elias’s lack of humor. Flora’s wonderful outlook on life help developed Walt’s optimistic outlook. Despite an eight year difference in age Walt and his brother Roy were very close. Roy saw himself as his little brother’s protector, once snatching a pocket knife from Walt claiming that he was too young to have one. Little did Roy know that he would make a lifetime job of protecting little brother.
In 1906 Elias and Flora, worried about the corruption of the big city, moved their family out of Chicago to a forty-five acre farm in Marceline, Missouri. It was here that Walt had some of the happiest memories of his life. Walt’s years on the farm helped to shape the man he became. He grew up around real people, close to earth, and to nature. He maintained those farm boy qualities his whole life.
One of young Walt’s favorite things to do was draw pictures. When his sister Ruth was sick with the measles he created a flip book animated with walking stick figures. Even at nine years old Walt was experimenting with animation. Growing up Walt never received much encouragement for his drawing talent. Once a teacher asked the class to draw a bowl of flowers. Walt gave the flowers a bit of Disneyesque imagination. He drew the flowers with human faces and arms where the leaves should be. When the teacher saw this she said sternly, “Flowers do dot have faces!” When a retired doctor commissioned Walt to draw his prize winning horse, it opened the door to drawing pictures for a living. Walt earned twenty-five cents from the doctor. Whenever Walt’s Uncle Robert and Aunt Margaret came to visit they would bring him paper and crayons to draw with. Other than that young Walt never received encouragement from adults. His father called it “wasting time” drawing pictures at the expense chores and schoolwork. He said that if Walt insisted on being an artist that he should take up the violin, that way if he needed money he could always get a job. Walt never did learn to play the violin.
Unable to work the farm anymore because of illness, Elias sold the property for less than he paid for it. It broke Walt’s heart to leave the farm, and he cried as his favorite animals were auctioned off. Elias moved his family to Kansas City and purchased a distribution office for the Kansas City Star. He hired several delivery boys, and made Roy and Walt deliver papers without pay. Every morning the boys were woken up at 3:30 to deliver papers. Between newspaper deliveries, school, and an after school job Walt put in the equivalent of an eight hour work day. At the age of nineteen Roy, tired of working and giving all his money to support the family, left in the middle of the night. This left Walt with more responsibility and without his friend and protector.
While living in Kansas City Walt was inspired by two nearby amusement parks. One was Fairmont Park. It had giant dipper rides, a golf course, a zoo, and swimming and boating on a natural lake. Every Fourth of July it had an elaborate fireworks display they brought 50,000 people to the park. Walt and Ruth would peer through the fence, longing to enter that “fairyland”. The other park that inspired Walt was Electric Park. At the time it was one of the largest amusement parks in America. It had thrill rides and a nightly firework show. It also had a seam powered train that circled the park, just as a train now circles Disneyland. Electric Park got its name from the 100,000 electric bulbs that illuminated the park at night. The park hosted 50,000 visitors a day before it burnt to the ground in 1925.
When Walt was fifteen his father sold the newspaper route and invested in a jelly-canning firm. Elias moved his wife and daughter to Chicago and Walt stayed with Herbert and Roy. Walt got a summer job as a news butcher for the Van Noyes News Company, selling newspapers, candy and tobacco to passengers on the Santa Fe Railroad. He would buy the railroad men cigars and tobacco, and they let Walt ride with them and blow the steam whistle. At the end of the summer Walt moved to Chicago to join his parents. During the day Walt attended McKinley High School and at night he went to Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. His teacher admired the comic touch Walt brought to his drawings. During the summer 1918 Walt applied for a job at the Post Office, but was turned down because of his age. Walt never gave up at anything, he returned to the post office later that day wearing his father’s suits and a false mustache. The same man that turned him down an hour earlier hired him on the spot.
In the fall of 1918 World War I had been raging over Europe for more than four years. Roy had joined the Navy and Walt was determined to get into the war as well. Being sixteen he was too young to enlist in the US he and his friend Russell Maas tried to enlist in the Canadian Army. Mrs. Maas found out and tipped off Flora, which put an end to that. After a few weeks they found out that the Red Cross was taking seventeen-year olds to drive ambulances for the American Ambulance Corps. Walt needed his parents’ permission, Elias refused, but Flora took Walt’s side saying,” Three of my sons have left this family in the middle of the night. Walter is determined to go. I’d rather sign a paper and know where he is.” Elias still said no, so Flora forged his named, but she put Walt’s real birthday 1901, but Walt solved that by changing the 1901 to 1900 with the stroke of a pen. Walt’s training was interrupted by the influenza epidemic of 1918. When Walt recovered he was assigned to a training unit in Connecticut. While in Connecticut the other trainees regarded him as an odd character. One of them was Ray Kroc, who would later become the founder of the McDonald’s fast food empire. He recalled, “Whenever we had time off and went on the town to chase girls, he stayed in the camp drawing pictures.”
On November 11, the Armistice was signed and the war was over, as well as Walt’s dreams of glory. The Red Cross still needed ambulance drivers, and Walt was shipped out on November 18, to Paris, France. There he chauffeured military officers around and drove relief supplies to war ravaged areas. Walt decorated his ambulance with cartoons and made some extra money by selling German helmets he had pained to look like battlefield souvenirs. While Walt was in France he started smoking cigarettes. Smoking would become a three pack a day habit that would lead to his premature death. In September 1919, Walt returned to America with the goal of becoming a newspaper cartoonist in Kansas City. On his way to Kansas City he stopped in Chicago to visit his parents. That evening after dinner, Elias sat Walt down for a serious discussion. He said, “Walter, I have a job for you at the jelly factory. It pays twenty- five dollars a week”
“Dad,” Walt replied, “I don’t want to work at the jelly factory. I want to be an artist.”
“You can’t make a living drawing pictures,” Elias said. “You need a real job.” Walt replied”I’ll get a real job, as a newspaper cartoonist.”
On arrival in Chicago Walt moved back in with his brothers Herbert and Roy. He got a job at the Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio. There he met a young artist named Ubbe Iwwerks. The two eighteen year olds became friends and formed their own company, Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists. Ubbe, who shortened his name to Ub Iwerks at Walt’s suggestion, did the illustrating and lettering while Walt handled cartooning and sales. Their first contract was designing the United Leatherworkers’ Journal. Walt showed his drawings to a local restaurant owner who also published a trade newspaper, the Restaurant News. Walt made a deal to do all the artwork for the Restaurant News for free if they got an office space rent free.
. Walt learned about a job opening for a commercial artist at the Kansas City Slide Company. Ub said if Walt went for the job he would keep Iwerks-Disney going. Sadly Ub was not salesman that Walt was and Iwerks-Disney folded. Walt got the job and there he learned about a new art form called animation. From then on Walt knew he wanted to do animated cartoons. At the Kansas City Public Library, Walt found two books that would change the course of his life. One was The Human Figure in Motion by Eadweard Muybrigde, and the other was Animated Cartoons: How They Are Made, Their Origins and Development by Carl Lutz. Walt said of Lutz’s book, “Everyone has been remarkably influenced by a book, or books. In my case it was a book on cartoon animation. I discovered it in the Kansas City Library at the time I was preparing to make motion picture animation my life’s work. The book told me all I needed to know as a beginner-all about the art and mechanics of making drawings that move on the theater screen….Finding that book was one of the most important and useful events in my life.”
Even though Walt made decent money working for the Kansas City Slide Company, he spent it all on equipment for his animation experiments. By this time Roy was courting Edna Francis. Walt liked to play tricks on his brother and his intendent. He once hind a squeak toy under a sofa cushion, and when Roy and Edna sat down it squeaked, and Walt stood in the doorway shacking his finger at them. By 1920 Roy and Edna were seriously considering marriage, but Roy suffered two attacks of influenza. Soon after he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and received treatment in New Mexico. Meanwhile Elias’s jelly factory went bankrupt and moved his family back to Kansas City.
In May of 1922, Walt quit his job and started a new company called Laugh-O-Grams Films, Inc. His idea was to produce animated shorts using ink drawings on celluloid transparencies, or “cels”. Walt convinced Ub Iwerks and five other artists to join the new studio. He also hired a business manager, an ink painter, a salesman, and a secretary. The Laugh-O-Grams studio soon landed an $11,000 contract to produce cartoons for Pictorial Clubs, Inc. They created cartoons featuring classic fairytales with an updated twist. After six films Pictorial Clubs went bankrupt. Walt was forced to lay off employees and cut his artists’ salary in half. By the end of 1922 Laugh-O-Gram was close to bankruptcy. The studio was temporarily saved when a dentist, Dr. McCrum, paid Walt $500 to produce a film called Tommy Tucker’s Tooth. Twenty years after Mickey Mouse had made Walt famous; Tommy Tucker’s Tooth was still being shown in Kansas City.
With the money from Tommy Tucker, Walt set out to start a new series of cartoons. He wanted to do a series about a real little girl in a cartoon world. It was called the Alice Comedies. Walt contracted film distributor Margaret J Winkler. With the live action filming for Alice underway Walt soon found himself out of money again. In July Laugh-O-Grams went bankrupt. Walt left Kansas City for California with $40 and the unfinished print of Alice. “I was just free and happy,” Walt later recalled, “I was twenty-one years old. But I had failed. I think it’s important to a good hard failure when you’re
Young.”
On the way to California Walt’s optimism took a hit. “I met this guy on the train,” he remembered,”he asked me, ’Going to California?’ ‘Yeah, I’m going out there.’ ‘What do you do?’ I said, ‘I make animated cartoons.’ ‘Oh.’ The guy was unimpressed. It was as if I’d said, ’I sweep out latrines.’” Walt sent the unfinished copy of Alice’s Wonderland to Margaret Winkler with a letter informing her that Laugh-O-Gram was no more and that he was starting a new studio in Las Angeles. Winkler offered Walt a contract for six Alice Comedies at $1,500 per film. Walt was back in business. Walt convinced Roy to help him get things started. Walt signed the contract with M. J. Winkler Productions on October 16, 1923, that date is considered to be the founding of the Walt Disney Company.
Walt handled all the animation on the first film. He hired two women to ink the cels and Roy did all the camera work. Alice’s Day at Sea debuted on March 1, 1924. Walt moved the studio to a storefront office and had the Disney Bros. Studio painted in gold on the window. Once again Walt convinced Ub Iwerks to join his studio. As the Alice Comedies were gaining popularity Walt’s distributor cut his income from $1500 to $900. Margaret Winkler’s new husband Charles Mintz thought that the Disney brothers were making too much money. Walt was forced to accept the reduced terms. However the success of Alice gave Walt a barging tool. Walt signed a new contract with Mintz for $1800 per film, plus a percent of the profits.
One of the inkers at the studio was Lillian Bounds. When she first started at the Disney Bros. Studio, she was warned, “Don’t flirt with the boss-he’s all business.” Lillian had no intention of flirting with Walt. He was nice enough, but romance never crossed her mind. It was only after Walt would give her a ride home did she know he was interested. In the spring of 1925, not long after Roy and Edna were married, Walt said to Lillian, “Lilly, you’re a practical girl. Which should I buy, a new car or an engagement ring for your finger?” Lilly replied, “An engagement ring.” They were married on July 13, 1925 in the parlor of Lilly’s brother’s home. Years later Lilly would say, “Walt seemed disappointed that I didn’t tell him to buy the car.”
As the studio was completing its twenty-ninth Alice cartoon Walt moved into their newly constructed studio at 2719 Hyperion Avenue. With the new studio came a new name, The Walt Disney Studio. At the end of 1926 Carl Laemmle, head of Universal Pictures, told Charles Mintz that he wanted a new cartoon series starring a rabbit. Mintz told Walt about it and the result was, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The first Oswald cartoon, Poor Papa, Was rushed into production. Critics who previewed it gave the thumbs down. The second Oswald cartoon was a success. Critics loved Oswald, and so did audiences. Sadly, Oswald’s luck was soon to run out. Come contract renewal time Walt was met with a pay cut. He also found out that Most of his staff had signed with Mintz. Walt refused the contract. He lost both Oswald and his animators. Before heading home Walt sent a telegram to Roy saying:
DON’T WORRY EVERYTHING OK
WILL GIVE DETAILS WHEN ARRIVE
WALT
During the train ride from New York to Las Angeles an entertainment legend was born, a tiny mouse named Mickey Mouse. Originally named Mortimer, Walt changed it to Mickey at Lilly’s suggestion.
When Walt was asked why he chose a mouse in an article from the Windsor Magazine, he said” Why did I choose a Mouse? Principally because I needed a small animal. I couldn’t use a rabbit, because there was a rabbit on the screen. So I decided upon a mouse, as I have always thought they were very intriguing little creatures.” Once Mickey was finalized Walt took no chances. He gave Ub Iwerks a room to himself away from the rest of the staff; they were now working for Mintz. Behind a locked door Ub animated the first Mickey Mouse cartoon. It took him six weeks to finish at about seven hundred drawings a day. When Walt went to New York to get Mickey a distributor, he was met with one answer, no. Walt knew Mickey needed something to set him apart from the rest. Walt realized that a talking mouse would be sensational. Walt envisioned a cartoon with music, sound effects, and dialogue all in sync with the animation. Walt met a man named Patrick A. Powers. Powers provided Walt with sound equipment.
Mickey Mouse Premiered on November 18, 1928 as an opening for a crime drama, Gang War. After the first showing the audience gave Mickey a standing ovation. November 18, is considered the official birthday of Mickey Mouse. Money was pouring into the studio like never before. Just eight months after Oswald was stolen, Walt was back on top. In 1929 the first Mickey Mouse Club was formed. It is said that Walt was Mickey and Mickey is Walt. This is true. Like Mickey finds creative ways to overcome his foes, Walt has overcome adversity. Walt himself provided the voice of Mickey from1928 to 1946. To Walt Mickey was a symbol of joy and laughter, “All we ever intended for him, or expect of him, was that he should continue to make people chuckle with him and at him. Mickey was simply a little personality assigned to the purpose of laughter.”
After Mickey’s Premiere Powers gave Walt a distribution contract for ten years at $26,000 per year. Soon after Walt realized that the studio should be getting more money. Mickey was certainly popular enough. Walt went to New York to confront Powers about an estimated $150,000 in missing royalties. Walt demanded to see the numbers, but Powers refused. He wanted Walt to sign a new five year distribution deal. Walt refused. Then Powers told him that he had just hired Ub Iwerks to create a new cartoon series. He would pay Iwerks double the amount that the Disney brothers were paying him. Walt was shocked; he and Ub had been friends since 1919. Walt brought Ub out to California with him. Ub was the only loyal animator back in the dark days of Charles Mintz. Walt and Roy even made him twenty percent owner of the Disney studio. Powers said, “Look, you don’t have to lose Ub Iwerks. Sign a new contract, and you and Ub will be under the one roof.”
“Forget it,” Walt said,” If Ub feels this way, I can’t work with him.” Walt stormed out of Powers’s office. Meanwhile back at the Hyperion Studio, Ub handed in his resignation. Ub’s reason for leaving: artist differences .
For years Walt and Lilly wanted a child, but Lilly’s first two pregnancies ended in miscarriage. Soon after they moved into their new home near the Hyperion studio Lilly became pregnant again. Walt wrote his mother, “Lilly is partial to a baby girl. I personally don’t care, just as long as we do not get disappointed again.” A few months later he wrote again, “I suppose I’ll be as bad a parent as anybody else. I’ve made a lot of vows that my kid won’t be spoiled, but I doubt it, it may turn out to be the most spoiled brat in the country.” On December 18, 1933 Walt and Lilly became the parents to Diane Marie Disney.
In the spring of 1934 Walt decided to bet his studio on an idea that everyone said was crazy. He was going to make a full length animated film called Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It took over 750 animators who drew two million drawings, of which only 250,000 appeared on screen. It almost sank the studio into bankruptcy; if Snow White failed the studio would have been done. On December 21, 1937Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater. All of the Hollywood Brass showed up to see the movie. Walt sat nervously through the movie listening to the audiences reactions. At the end Walt received a standing ovation. Six months later the Disney studio was out of debt and started construction on a new studio in Burbank. The film that was tagged as “Disney’s Folly” went on to earn $8.5million in its initial release becoming the highest grossing film to that date. Walt was honored at the Academy Awards with a special Oscar for significant screen innovation. The statue consisted of one standard size Oscar, followed by seven mini Oscars. When presenting the award child star Shirley Temple asked, “Aren’t you proud of it, Mr. Disney?” Walt replied, “I’m so proud, I think I’ll bust.”
Through the Looking Glass: Walter Elias Disney
When you hear the name Walt Disney, what do you think of? Some think of him as the creator of Mickey Mouse and Disneyland. Others think just of the company that bears his name. Yet not many people know the real Walt Disney. He did much more than creates films and build Disneyland. He has influenced thousands of people, from his time to ours. Walt Disney has been one of the few men to have been able to inspire so many people during and after his lifetime.
As a young boy in Missouri Walt Disney loved the railroad, he loved how a train could take you to all kinds of unknown places. His whole life he tried to take people to unknown and fantastic places. Walt Disney was one the greatest men of our time. He could see and imagine things that nobody else could. Only he would have looked at an old orange grove and see a pleasure park, and only he would have seen a futuristic city in the swamps of Florida. He was a true visionary, ahead of his time in everything he did. Walt was probably one of the best storytellers Hollywood and the world has ever seen. Now this is his story, and it all started with a boy, a boy who never stopped dreaming.
Walt Elias Disney was born in Chicago on December 5, 1901. Named after Reverend Walter Parr, the pastor of the church, and Elias after his father, Walt was the youngest of four brothers born to Elias and Flora Disney. Walt’s relationship with Roy was the closest of his three brothers. Walt also had a younger sister, Ruth. Walt’s personality and values where both shaped by his parents. Elias Disney could trace his lineage back to Hughes d’Isigny, a knight from Isigny-sur-Mer on the coast of Normandy, France. Hughes d’Isigny fought in the Norman conquest of England in 1066, then settled in Ireland. Walt’s great-grandfather moved from Ireland to Canada where Walt’s father was born in Ontario in 1859. Elias was an inflexible, unimaginative, and almost humorless man. He was a deeply religious man and had a severe approach toward raising his children. Once when Walt was a teenager Elias snapped at him for being to slow handing him a tool. Walt yelled back “I’m working as fast as I can!” Elias ordered him to the basement for punishment. Walt’s brother Roy told him, “Don’t take it from him anymore!” With Roy’s advice Walt went down to the basement with his father. Just as Elias was about to hit him with the handle of a hammer, Walt grabbed the handle from his father’s hand.
True, Elias was hard on his children, but to say he was a villain would be wrong. Elias loved his family, and Walt loved his father despite his many flaws. “I had tremendous respect for him. I worshipped him.” Elias had many good qualities that affected Walt’s life in a positive way. He had wonderful integrity; he always taught his
children the importance of honesty. His work ethic shaped Walt’s work habits. Elias always earned enough to support his family. If failure forced him out of one business, he would start a new one. Walt saw his father take risks, he learned about hard work and persistence. Walt’s father was compassionate toward his fellow man. Many times he offered a free meal and a place to stay to complete strangers. Walt chose to imitate his father’s best traits: faith in God, faith in the common man, a strong work ethic, honesty and integrity, perseverance, and love for family.
Walt’s mother, Flora Call Disney, helped shape his unique personality. The daughter of a scholar, she loved books. She taught Walt how to read before he started school. Her sense of humor helped compensate for Elias’s lack of humor. Flora’s wonderful outlook on life help developed Walt’s optimistic outlook. Despite an eight year difference in age Walt and his brother Roy were very close. Roy saw himself as his little brother’s protector, once snatching a pocket knife from Walt claiming that he was too young to have one. Little did Roy know that he would make a lifetime job of protecting little brother.
In 1906 Elias and Flora, worried about the corruption of the big city, moved their family out of Chicago to a forty-five acre farm in Marceline, Missouri. It was here that Walt had some of the happiest memories of his life. Walt’s years on the farm helped to shape the man he became. He grew up around real people, close to earth, and to nature. He maintained those farm boy qualities his whole life.
One of young Walt’s favorite things to do was draw pictures. When his sister Ruth was sick with the measles he created a flip book animated with walking stick figures. Even at nine years old Walt was experimenting with animation. Growing up Walt never received much encouragement for his drawing talent. Once a teacher asked the class to draw a bowl of flowers. Walt gave the flowers a bit of Disneyesque imagination. He drew the flowers with human faces and arms where the leaves should be. When the teacher saw this she said sternly, “Flowers do dot have faces!” When a retired doctor commissioned Walt to draw his prize winning horse, it opened the door to drawing pictures for a living. Walt earned twenty-five cents from the doctor. Whenever Walt’s Uncle Robert and Aunt Margaret came to visit they would bring him paper and crayons to draw with. Other than that young Walt never received encouragement from adults. His father called it “wasting time” drawing pictures at the expense chores and schoolwork. He said that if Walt insisted on being an artist that he should take up the violin, that way if he needed money he could always get a job. Walt never did learn to play the violin.
Unable to work the farm anymore because of illness, Elias sold the property for less than he paid for it. It broke Walt’s heart to leave the farm, and he cried as his favorite animals were auctioned off. Elias moved his family to Kansas City and purchased a distribution office for the Kansas City Star. He hired several delivery boys, and made Roy and Walt deliver papers without pay. Every morning the boys were woken up at 3:30 to deliver papers. Between newspaper deliveries, school, and an after school job Walt put in the equivalent of an eight hour work day. At the age of nineteen Roy, tired of working and giving all his money to support the family, left in the middle of the night. This left Walt with more responsibility and without his friend and protector.
While living in Kansas City Walt was inspired by two nearby amusement parks. One was Fairmont Park. It had giant dipper rides, a golf course, a zoo, and swimming and boating on a natural lake. Every Fourth of July it had an elaborate fireworks display they brought 50,000 people to the park. Walt and Ruth would peer through the fence, longing to enter that “fairyland”. The other park that inspired Walt was Electric Park. At the time it was one of the largest amusement parks in America. It had thrill rides and a nightly firework show. It also had a seam powered train that circled the park, just as a train now circles Disneyland. Electric Park got its name from the 100,000 electric bulbs that illuminated the park at night. The park hosted 50,000 visitors a day before it burnt to the ground in 1925.
When Walt was fifteen his father sold the newspaper route and invested in a jelly-canning firm. Elias moved his wife and daughter to Chicago and Walt stayed with Herbert and Roy. Walt got a summer job as a news butcher for the Van Noyes News Company, selling newspapers, candy and tobacco to passengers on the Santa Fe Railroad. He would buy the railroad men cigars and tobacco, and they let Walt ride with them and blow the steam whistle. At the end of the summer Walt moved to Chicago to join his parents. During the day Walt attended McKinley High School and at night he went to Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. His teacher admired the comic touch Walt brought to his drawings. During the summer 1918 Walt applied for a job at the Post Office, but was turned down because of his age. Walt never gave up at anything, he returned to the post office later that day wearing his father’s suits and a false mustache. The same man that turned him down an hour earlier hired him on the spot.
In the fall of 1918 World War I had been raging over Europe for more than four years. Roy had joined the Navy and Walt was determined to get into the war as well. Being sixteen he was too young to enlist in the US he and his friend Russell Maas tried to enlist in the Canadian Army. Mrs. Maas found out and tipped off Flora, which put an end to that. After a few weeks they found out that the Red Cross was taking seventeen-year olds to drive ambulances for the American Ambulance Corps. Walt needed his parents’ permission, Elias refused, but Flora took Walt’s side saying,” Three of my sons have left this family in the middle of the night. Walter is determined to go. I’d rather sign a paper and know where he is.” Elias still said no, so Flora forged his named, but she put Walt’s real birthday 1901, but Walt solved that by changing the 1901 to 1900 with the stroke of a pen. Walt’s training was interrupted by the influenza epidemic of 1918. When Walt recovered he was assigned to a training unit in Connecticut. While in Connecticut the other trainees regarded him as an odd character. One of them was Ray Kroc, who would later become the founder of the McDonald’s fast food empire. He recalled, “Whenever we had time off and went on the town to chase girls, he stayed in the camp drawing pictures.”
On November 11, the Armistice was signed and the war was over, as well as Walt’s dreams of glory. The Red Cross still needed ambulance drivers, and Walt was shipped out on November 18, to Paris, France. There he chauffeured military officers around and drove relief supplies to war ravaged areas. Walt decorated his ambulance with cartoons and made some extra money by selling German helmets he had pained to look like battlefield souvenirs. While Walt was in France he started smoking cigarettes. Smoking would become a three pack a day habit that would lead to his premature death. In September 1919, Walt returned to America with the goal of becoming a newspaper cartoonist in Kansas City. On his way to Kansas City he stopped in Chicago to visit his parents. That evening after dinner, Elias sat Walt down for a serious discussion. He said, “Walter, I have a job for you at the jelly factory. It pays twenty- five dollars a week”
“Dad,” Walt replied, “I don’t want to work at the jelly factory. I want to be an artist.”
“You can’t make a living drawing pictures,” Elias said. “You need a real job.” Walt replied”I’ll get a real job, as a newspaper cartoonist.”
On arrival in Chicago Walt moved back in with his brothers Herbert and Roy. He got a job at the Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio. There he met a young artist named Ubbe Iwwerks. The two eighteen year olds became friends and formed their own company, Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists. Ubbe, who shortened his name to Ub Iwerks at Walt’s suggestion, did the illustrating and lettering while Walt handled cartooning and sales. Their first contract was designing the United Leatherworkers’ Journal. Walt showed his drawings to a local restaurant owner who also published a trade newspaper, the Restaurant News. Walt made a deal to do all the artwork for the Restaurant News for free if they got an office space rent free.
. Walt learned about a job opening for a commercial artist at the Kansas City Slide Company. Ub said if Walt went for the job he would keep Iwerks-Disney going. Sadly Ub was not salesman that Walt was and Iwerks-Disney folded. Walt got the job and there he learned about a new art form called animation. From then on Walt knew he wanted to do animated cartoons. At the Kansas City Public Library, Walt found two books that would change the course of his life. One was The Human Figure in Motion by Eadweard Muybrigde, and the other was Animated Cartoons: How They Are Made, Their Origins and Development by Carl Lutz. Walt said of Lutz’s book, “Everyone has been remarkably influenced by a book, or books. In my case it was a book on cartoon animation. I discovered it in the Kansas City Library at the time I was preparing to make motion picture animation my life’s work. The book told me all I needed to know as a beginner-all about the art and mechanics of making drawings that move on the theater screen….Finding that book was one of the most important and useful events in my life.”
Even though Walt made decent money working for the Kansas City Slide Company, he spent it all on equipment for his animation experiments. By this time Roy was courting Edna Francis. Walt liked to play tricks on his brother and his intendent. He once hind a squeak toy under a sofa cushion, and when Roy and Edna sat down it squeaked, and Walt stood in the doorway shacking his finger at them. By 1920 Roy and Edna were seriously considering marriage, but Roy suffered two attacks of influenza. Soon after he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and received treatment in New Mexico. Meanwhile Elias’s jelly factory went bankrupt and moved his family back to Kansas City.
In May of 1922, Walt quit his job and started a new company called Laugh-O-Grams Films, Inc. His idea was to produce animated shorts using ink drawings on celluloid transparencies, or “cels”. Walt convinced Ub Iwerks and five other artists to join the new studio. He also hired a business manager, an ink painter, a salesman, and a secretary. The Laugh-O-Grams studio soon landed an $11,000 contract to produce cartoons for Pictorial Clubs, Inc. They created cartoons featuring classic fairytales with an updated twist. After six films Pictorial Clubs went bankrupt. Walt was forced to lay off employees and cut his artists’ salary in half. By the end of 1922 Laugh-O-Gram was close to bankruptcy. The studio was temporarily saved when a dentist, Dr. McCrum, paid Walt $500 to produce a film called Tommy Tucker’s Tooth. Twenty years after Mickey Mouse had made Walt famous; Tommy Tucker’s Tooth was still being shown in Kansas City.
With the money from Tommy Tucker, Walt set out to start a new series of cartoons. He wanted to do a series about a real little girl in a cartoon world. It was called the Alice Comedies. Walt contracted film distributor Margaret J Winkler. With the live action filming for Alice underway Walt soon found himself out of money again. In July Laugh-O-Grams went bankrupt. Walt left Kansas City for California with $40 and the unfinished print of Alice. “I was just free and happy,” Walt later recalled, “I was twenty-one years old. But I had failed. I think it’s important to a good hard failure when you’re
Young.”
On the way to California Walt’s optimism took a hit. “I met this guy on the train,” he remembered,”he asked me, ’Going to California?’ ‘Yeah, I’m going out there.’ ‘What do you do?’ I said, ‘I make animated cartoons.’ ‘Oh.’ The guy was unimpressed. It was as if I’d said, ’I sweep out latrines.’” Walt sent the unfinished copy of Alice’s Wonderland to Margaret Winkler with a letter informing her that Laugh-O-Gram was no more and that he was starting a new studio in Las Angeles. Winkler offered Walt a contract for six Alice Comedies at $1,500 per film. Walt was back in business. Walt convinced Roy to help him get things started. Walt signed the contract with M. J. Winkler Productions on October 16, 1923, that date is considered to be the founding of the Walt Disney Company.
Walt handled all the animation on the first film. He hired two women to ink the cels and Roy did all the camera work. Alice’s Day at Sea debuted on March 1, 1924. Walt moved the studio to a storefront office and had the Disney Bros. Studio painted in gold on the window. Once again Walt convinced Ub Iwerks to join his studio. As the Alice Comedies were gaining popularity Walt’s distributor cut his income from $1500 to $900. Margaret Winkler’s new husband Charles Mintz thought that the Disney brothers were making too much money. Walt was forced to accept the reduced terms. However the success of Alice gave Walt a barging tool. Walt signed a new contract with Mintz for $1800 per film, plus a percent of the profits.
One of the inkers at the studio was Lillian Bounds. When she first started at the Disney Bros. Studio, she was warned, “Don’t flirt with the boss-he’s all business.” Lillian had no intention of flirting with Walt. He was nice enough, but romance never crossed her mind. It was only after Walt would give her a ride home did she know he was interested. In the spring of 1925, not long after Roy and Edna were married, Walt said to Lillian, “Lilly, you’re a practical girl. Which should I buy, a new car or an engagement ring for your finger?” Lilly replied, “An engagement ring.” They were married on July 13, 1925 in the parlor of Lilly’s brother’s home. Years later Lilly would say, “Walt seemed disappointed that I didn’t tell him to buy the car.”
As the studio was completing its twenty-ninth Alice cartoon Walt moved into their newly constructed studio at 2719 Hyperion Avenue. With the new studio came a new name, The Walt Disney Studio. At the end of 1926 Carl Laemmle, head of Universal Pictures, told Charles Mintz that he wanted a new cartoon series starring a rabbit. Mintz told Walt about it and the result was, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The first Oswald cartoon, Poor Papa, Was rushed into production. Critics who previewed it gave the thumbs down. The second Oswald cartoon was a success. Critics loved Oswald, and so did audiences. Sadly, Oswald’s luck was soon to run out. Come contract renewal time Walt was met with a pay cut. He also found out that Most of his staff had signed with Mintz. Walt refused the contract. He lost both Oswald and his animators. Before heading home Walt sent a telegram to Roy saying:
DON’T WORRY EVERYTHING OK
WILL GIVE DETAILS WHEN ARRIVE
WALT
During the train ride from New York to Las Angeles an entertainment legend was born, a tiny mouse named Mickey Mouse. Originally named Mortimer, Walt changed it to Mickey at Lilly’s suggestion.
When Walt was asked why he chose a mouse in an article from the Windsor Magazine, he said” Why did I choose a Mouse? Principally because I needed a small animal. I couldn’t use a rabbit, because there was a rabbit on the screen. So I decided upon a mouse, as I have always thought they were very intriguing little creatures.” Once Mickey was finalized Walt took no chances. He gave Ub Iwerks a room to himself away from the rest of the staff; they were now working for Mintz. Behind a locked door Ub animated the first Mickey Mouse cartoon. It took him six weeks to finish at about seven hundred drawings a day. When Walt went to New York to get Mickey a distributor, he was met with one answer, no. Walt knew Mickey needed something to set him apart from the rest. Walt realized that a talking mouse would be sensational. Walt envisioned a cartoon with music, sound effects, and dialogue all in sync with the animation. Walt met a man named Patrick A. Powers. Powers provided Walt with sound equipment.
Mickey Mouse Premiered on November 18, 1928 as an opening for a crime drama, Gang War. After the first showing the audience gave Mickey a standing ovation. November 18, is considered the official birthday of Mickey Mouse. Money was pouring into the studio like never before. Just eight months after Oswald was stolen, Walt was back on top. In 1929 the first Mickey Mouse Club was formed. It is said that Walt was Mickey and Mickey is Walt. This is true. Like Mickey finds creative ways to overcome his foes, Walt has overcome adversity. Walt himself provided the voice of Mickey from1928 to 1946. To Walt Mickey was a symbol of joy and laughter, “All we ever intended for him, or expect of him, was that he should continue to make people chuckle with him and at him. Mickey was simply a little personality assigned to the purpose of laughter.”
After Mickey’s Premiere Powers gave Walt a distribution contract for ten years at $26,000 per year. Soon after Walt realized that the studio should be getting more money. Mickey was certainly popular enough. Walt went to New York to confront Powers about an estimated $150,000 in missing royalties. Walt demanded to see the numbers, but Powers refused. He wanted Walt to sign a new five year distribution deal. Walt refused. Then Powers told him that he had just hired Ub Iwerks to create a new cartoon series. He would pay Iwerks double the amount that the Disney brothers were paying him. Walt was shocked; he and Ub had been friends since 1919. Walt brought Ub out to California with him. Ub was the only loyal animator back in the dark days of Charles Mintz. Walt and Roy even made him twenty percent owner of the Disney studio. Powers said, “Look, you don’t have to lose Ub Iwerks. Sign a new contract, and you and Ub will be under the one roof.”
“Forget it,” Walt said,” If Ub feels this way, I can’t work with him.” Walt stormed out of Powers’s office. Meanwhile back at the Hyperion Studio, Ub handed in his resignation. Ub’s reason for leaving: artist differences .
For years Walt and Lilly wanted a child, but Lilly’s first two pregnancies ended in miscarriage. Soon after they moved into their new home near the Hyperion studio Lilly became pregnant again. Walt wrote his mother, “Lilly is partial to a baby girl. I personally don’t care, just as long as we do not get disappointed again.” A few months later he wrote again, “I suppose I’ll be as bad a parent as anybody else. I’ve made a lot of vows that my kid won’t be spoiled, but I doubt it, it may turn out to be the most spoiled brat in the country.” On December 18, 1933 Walt and Lilly became the parents to Diane Marie Disney.
In the spring of 1934 Walt decided to bet his studio on an idea that everyone said was crazy. He was going to make a full length animated film called Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It took over 750 animators who drew two million drawings, of which only 250,000 appeared on screen. It almost sank the studio into bankruptcy; if Snow White failed the studio would have been done. On December 21, 1937Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater. All of the Hollywood Brass showed up to see the movie. Walt sat nervously through the movie listening to the audiences reactions. At the end Walt received a standing ovation. Six months later the Disney studio was out of debt and started construction on a new studio in Burbank. The film that was tagged as “Disney’s Folly” went on to earn $8.5million in its initial release becoming the highest grossing film to that date. Walt was honored at the Academy Awards with a special Oscar for significant screen innovation. The statue consisted of one standard size Oscar, followed by seven mini Oscars. When presenting the award child star Shirley Temple asked, “Aren’t you proud of it, Mr. Disney?” Walt replied, “I’m so proud, I think I’ll bust.”
