Walt Disney

Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago Illinois. Despite this, he lived in Marceline, Kansas for a majority of his childhood. He and his family worked and lived on a small farm and, during his free time, would use his imagination to doodle animals which he would sell to friends and neighbors. In 1911, Walt’s father fell ill and the Disney family moved to Kansas city. There, Walt and his brother Roy delivered newspapers for their father. They would wake up at ungodly hours, like three in the morning, and work seven days a week. Even with school and his job, Walt still found time for his drawings. After completing middle school, the Disney family moved back to Chicago, where Walt would then graduated from high school. During the tail end of World War I, he joined the Red Cross and served for nine months in France. He transported officers, transported supplies, and drove ambulances.

With his tour completed, Walt returned to the United States and began a career in animation and commercial art. It was here that he met Ub Iwerks. The two of them became fast friends and great partners. They worked together to create animated advertisements for an ad company. They tried to start their own business and created Laugh-O-Gram Films. Their first show was Alice’s Wonderland, a show that mixed live action and animation. The company did not last very long and went bankrupt after only a year and a half. He moved out to California with his brother Roy in hopes of finding more success in Hollywood. He, and Ub, worked for Universal Studios under Charles Mintz where they continued to make the Alice Comedies. Walt also created his first cartoon star, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Oswald quickly rose to fame and overtook Felix the Cat’s ...

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...mmunity of Tomorrow or EPCOT.

Sadly, Walt never saw his vision come to fruition. On December 15, 1966, Walt Disney died from lung cancer. The whole world mourned his death. For a while, the company struggled without his guidance. A few feared that the company may collapse or that the quality of work would decrease. Thankfully, none of these things happened. In 1971, Walt Disney World opened to the public. It garnered just as much popularity as its west coast counterpart. The company continued to produce animated, and started making live action, films. Today, Walt’s legacy lives on in the parks and in the films. Those that work for his company strive for perfection and innovation. They continue on in the name of the great man who created an empire from the ground up. The man who faced numerous obstacles that sought to bring him to failure. The man who is Walt Disney.