Try to figure out how it would be without Walt Disney. A world without his magic, peculiarity and optimism. Walt Disney converted the entertainment industry, into what we know today. “We keep moving forward, opening new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths” quoted by Walt Disney. Avery curious human being that was willing to try new things and think outside the box. Walter Elias Disney known as Walt Disney was an American motion-picture and television producer and showman, famous innovator of cartoon films and as the creator of Disneyland.
Walt was born on December 5, 1901 in Hermosa, Illinois, in where he lived with his father, Elias Disney, an Irish-Canadian, and his mother, Flora Call Disney, who was of German-American descent. Walt was one of five children, four boys and a girl. As soon as Walt’s birth, the Disney family decided to move to Marceline, Missouri. Walt lived out most of his young childhood there. At a young age Walt had an interest in drawing, and art. He started selling small sketches, and drawing to nearby neighbors, at the young age of seven.
Rather than doing his school homework, Walt would choose to draw pictures of animals, and nature. Just a couple miles from their home was the Santa Fe Railroad tracks that would cross the countryside. Weirdly, Walter would often put his ear against the tracks, to hear for approaching trains. Mike Martin, uncle of Walt, was a train engineer who worked for the routes. During Walter’s teenage years. Walt worked a summer job at the railroad, selling newspaper, popcorn and sodas to the travelers.
Besides his many other interests, Walt attended McKinley High School in Chicago. During this time of his life he divided his attention between drawing and photography. At night he attended the Academy of Fine Arts, to better his drawing abilities. Walt Disney believed that it took motivation to get in any place in life. Walt joined the Red Cross and was sent overseas to France, he spent about a year driving an ambulance and chauffeuring Red Cross officials.
His ambulance was covered from stem to stern, not with stock camouflage, but with Disney cartoons. Once he returned from France, he wanted to achieve a career in commercial art, which lead him to experiments in animation. He began producing short animated films for local businesses, in Kansas City. By the time Walt had started to create The Alice Comedies, which was about a real girl and her adventures in an animated world, Walt ran out of money, and his company Laugh-O-Grams went bankrupted.
Instead of giving up, Walt packed his suitcase and with his unfinished print of The Alice Comedies in hand, headed for Hollywood to start a new business (Walt Disney, Biography). Walt and his brother, Roy O. Disney, received an order from New York for the first Alice in Cartoonland(The Alice Comedies) featurette, their expectations were to expand their production operation to the rear of Hollywood. It was Walt’s enthusiasm and faith in himself, and others, that took him straight to the top of Hollywood’s society. On July 13, 1925, Walt married one of his first employees, Lillian Bounds.
Later on they were blessed with two daughters, Diane and Sharon . Three years after Walt and Lilly wedding, Walt created the famous cartoon character, Mickey Mouse. Walt’s talents were first seen in a silent cartoon named Plane Crazy. Before the cartoon could be released, sound was introduced to the motion picture industry. Mickey Mouse made his screen debut in Steamboat Willie, the world’s first synchronized sound cartoon, which premiered at the Colony Theater in New York on November 18, 1928 (Walt Disney Biography).
On December 21, 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated musical feature, premiered at the Carthay Theater in Los Angeles. The film produced at the highly cost of $1,499,000 during the extents of the Depression, the film is considered one of the greatest imperishable monuments of the motion picture industry. After five years, Walt Disney Studios completed another full-length animated classics such as Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi(Walt Disney, Biography).
In 1940, construction was finally completed on the Burbank Studio, and Disney’s staff swelled to more than 1,000 artists, animators, story men, and technicians. Although, because of World War II 94 percent of the Disney facilities were engaged in special government work, including the production of training and propaganda films for the armed services, as well as health films which are still shown through-out the world by the U. S. State Department. The remainder of his efforts were devoted to the production of comedy short subjects, deemed highly essential to civilian and military morale.
