‘Everybody in the world was once a child’
As most people know Walter Disney was the one who took kids dream and made them a reality as Walt Disney said “Everybody in the world was once a child.
We grow up. Our personalities change, but in every one of us something remains of our childhood.”He’s the one that made this all come true he’s the one that brought the kid out in all of us.Who was Walt DisneyWalter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901, in Hermosa, Illinois to his mother Flora Call Disney and his dad Elias Disney. He grew up as one of 5 children which consisted of 4 boys and one girl.
Walt grew up in Marceline, Missouri he began painting and drawing then. He would make a bit of cash and sell them to people around him such as neighbors or family. When Walt was 10 his family moved to Kansas City Walt found his love for trains when the moved. He had an uncle named Mike Martin that was a train engineer that’s how Disney got his first job for that summer selling snacks and newspapersSchoolWalt went to high school at McKinley high school in Chicago where he took photography and drawing classes. He also drew cartoons and drawing for the school paper. Every night he took classes at Chicago art institute.
Walt dropped out of school at the age of 16 to join the military. But he was rejected for being underage, so he went and joined the red cross. The Red Cross sent him to France to drive an ambulance for a year. In 1919 Walt finally moved back to the USA.CartoonsAfter Walt got back from France he moved to Kansas City to take on a career as a newspaper artist. Walt got a job at thePesmen-Rubin Art Studio thanks to his brother Roy.
It was the where he met Ubbe Eert Iwwerks better know as Ub Iwerks. After that Disney worked at Kansas City Film Ad Company. There he made commercials and drawing based on cut out animations. Disney started playing around with cameras making hand-drawn cel animation. This is when he opened his own cartoon company and hired Fred Harman, the company’s first employee.Big MovesAs a company making small films, Walter and Harman decided it was time to make it big.
They made a deal with a Kansas City theater and started playing their cartoons. They called them laugh-o-grams which instantly became very popular. Walt was able to acquire his own studio off this deal and properly named it Laugh-o-Grams. They hired some people including Iwerks and Harman’s brother Hugh. They started off doing fairy tales that lasted 7 minutes the cartoons combined animation and live action.
The company named these cartoons Alice in cartoonland the company because high in debt by 1923 Walt was forced to declare bankruptcy.Disney BrothersThe brothers soon put all their money together and moved everything to Hollywood, California. Soon after Iwerks moved to California also and the three started a company called Disney Brothers’ Studio. The first deal they made was with a New York distributor whose name was Margaret Winkler. The deal was to distribute there Alice in Cartoonland cartoons. They also made a character named Oswald the lucky rabbit it sold for 1,500 each.
Disney produced a number of films as most should know and one of his most known characters mickey mouse. Disney came out with silly symphonies in 1929 which featured the character mickey mouse. This film also came out with all of Mickey’s friends also some of the most memorable characters such as Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto. If we are talking about favorite characters let’s talk about films too. One of his most favorited and memorable cartoons was Flowers and Trees it was the first to be produced in color and won an Oscar.
In 1933 the country was going through the Great Depression so Disney came out with The Three Little Pigs and its song ” Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf.” That song became the theme of the Great Depression.Full filmsSnow White and the seven dwarfs came out December 21, 1937, as Disney’s first full length animated film. It premiered in Los Angeles, CA it produced an insane number of profits which equaled out to about 1.499 million dollars.
Remember this was in spite of the great depression in all it ended up also winning 8 Oscars. In the next five years, Walt Disney studios completed a bunch of full-length films including Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942).StudiosIn 1939 they opened a new campus for Walt Disney studious in a city called Burbank. But around 1941 the studio had a setback after that many of the workers went on strike and most of them resigned. It would take Walt Disney studios years to recover.
However, in the mid-1940’s Disney came out with something that he called packaged features which were basically a bunch of shorts strung together to get to feature length. By the 1950s he was back to making animated films. Disney released Cinderella in 1950,another one called Treasure Island he also released Alice in Wonderland in 1951. Then he released Peter Pan in 1953, Lady and the Tramp in 1955 then Sleeping Beauty in 1959 and last but not least 101 Dalmatians in 1961.TvWhen the television came out Disney was one of the first ones to use it for entertainment.
TheZorro and Davy Crockett show were extremely popular with children another big one everyone should know where The Mickey Mouse Club. A show featuring some teenagers known as the Mouseketeers. Also, Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color was very popular on Sunday nights. Disney used this show to promote his new theme park. Disney’s last big film was Mary Poppins that came out in 1964. After this Disney’s brother Roy continued the plans to finish the theme park.
DisneylandWalts big project was his theme park Disneyland which cost him 17 million dollars opened on July 17, 1955, it opened in Anaheim, California. Disney had actor and future us president Ronald Reagan presiding over the activities on what was know at the time as the orange grove. After an amazing opening day even it involved several mishaps including the fact that they sent out thousands of fake tickets. The place became known as a place for kids and parents to have fun and meet all the Disney characters.InvestmentsIn a very little time, the park had increased its investments by 10 times and it was entertaining tourists from around the world. With the first park having its attendance up and down over the years Disneyland has reached out globally to Tokyo, Paris, and Hong Kong with a place in Shanghai that opened in 2016.
Also, sister property California adventure opened in 2001DeathIt only took Disney a couple years to start on a new park now as EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) which was located in Florida. The park was still being constructed when it 1966 Disney was diagnosed with lung cancer. He ended up dying on December 15, 1966, he was at the age of 65 Disney was cremated and his ashes were spread at the Forest Lawn Cemetery.ByeSo after me spitting straight facts, I hope that after reading you will say that you learned at least one this that you didn’t know. Walt was always there even when you didn’t know even after he died his shows and movies continue to sell and make money and dreams.
Walt brought out the kid in all of us with his creative personality that he put into his shows and movies. We will always remember him and cherish the time he had on this earth.R.I.P Walter Elias Disney.
