walt disney achievements biography

Walt Disney

• Born December 5 , 1901 · Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Died December 15 , 1966 · Los Angeles, California, USA (complications from lung cancer)
• Birth name Walter Elias Disney
• Height 5′ 10″ (1.78 m)
• Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Flora Disney (née Call) and Elias Disney , a Canadian-born farmer and businessperson. He had Irish, German, and English ancestry. Walt moved with his parents to Kansas City at age seven, where he spent the majority of his childhood. At age 16, during World War I, he faked his age to join the American Red Cross. He soon returned home, where he won a scholarship to the Kansas City Art Institute. There, he met a fellow animator, Ub Iwerks . The two soon set up their own company. In the early 1920s, they made a series of animated shorts for the Newman theater chain, entitled "Newman's Laugh-O-Grams". Their company soon went bankrupt, however. The two then went to Hollywood in 1923. They started work on a new series, about a live-action little girl who journeys to a world of animated characters. Entitled the "Alice Comedies", they were distributed by M.J. Winkler (Margaret). Walt was backed up financially only by Winkler and his older brother Roy O. Disney , who remained his business partner for the rest of his life. Hundreds of "Alice Comedies" were produced between 1923 and 1927, before they lost popularity. Walt then started work on a series around a new animated character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. This series was successful, but in 1928, Walt discovered that M.J. Winkler and her husband, Charles Mintz , had stolen the rights to the character away from him. They had also stolen all his animators, except for Ub Iwerks . While taking the train home, Walt started doodling on a piece of paper. The result of these doodles was a mouse named Mickey. With only Walt and Ub to animate, and Walt's wife Lillian Disney (Lilly) and Roy's wife Edna Disney to ink in the animation cells, three Mickey Mouse cartoons were quickly produced. The first two didn't sell, so Walt added synchronized sound to the last one, Steamboat Willie (1928) , and it was immediately picked up. With Walt as the voice of Mickey, it premiered to great success. Many more cartoons followed. Walt was now in the big time, but he didn't stop creating new ideas. In 1929, he created the 'Silly Symphonies', a cartoon series that didn't have a continuous character. They were another success. One of them, Flowers and Trees (1932) , was the first cartoon to be produced in color and the first cartoon to win an Oscar; another, Three Little Pigs (1933) , was so popular it was often billed above the feature films it accompanied. The Silly Symphonies stopped coming out in 1939, but Mickey and friends, (including Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto, and plenty more), were still going strong and still very popular. In 1934, Walt started work on another new idea: a cartoon that ran the length of a feature film. Everyone in Hollywood was calling it "Disney's Folly", but Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) was anything but, winning critical raves, the adoration of the public, and one big and seven little special Oscars for Walt. Now Walt listed animated features among his ever-growing list of accomplishments. While continuing to produce cartoon shorts, he also started producing more of the animated features. Pinocchio (1940) , Dumbo (1941) , and Bambi (1942) were all successes; not even a flop like Fantasia (1940) and a studio animators' strike in 1941 could stop Disney now. In the mid 1940s, he began producing "packaged features", essentially a group of shorts put together to run feature length, but by 1950 he was back with animated features that stuck to one story, with Cinderella (1950) , Alice in Wonderland (1951) , and Peter Pan (1953) . In 1950, he also started producing live-action films, with Treasure Island (1950) . These began taking on greater importance throughout the 50s and 60s, but Walt continued to produce animated features, including Lady and the Tramp (1955) , Sleeping Beauty (1959) , and One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) . In 1955 he opened a theme park in southern California: Disneyland. It was a place where children and their parents could take rides, just explore, and meet the familiar animated characters, all in a clean, safe environment. It was another great success. Walt also became one of the first producers of films to venture into television, with his series The Magical World of Disney (1954) which he began in 1954 to promote his theme park. He also produced The Mickey Mouse Club (1955) and Zorro (1957) . To top it all off, Walt came out with the lavish musical fantasy Mary Poppins (1964) , which mixed live-action with animation. It is considered by many to be his magnum opus. Even after that, Walt continued to forge onward, with plans to build a new theme park and an experimental prototype city in Florida. He did not live to see the culmination of those plans, however; in 1966, he developed lung cancer brought on by his lifelong chain-smoking. He died of a heart attack following cancer surgery on December 15, 1966 at age 65. But not even his death, it seemed, could stop him. Roy carried on plans to build the Florida theme park, and it premiered in 1971 under the name Walt Disney World. His company continues to flourish, still producing animated and live-action films and overseeing the still-growing empire started by one man: Walt Disney, who will never be forgotten. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Tommy Peter
• Spouse Lillian Disney (July 13, 1925 - December 15, 1966) (his death, 2 children)
• Children Diane Disney
• Parents Flora Disney Elias Disney
• Relatives Robert Disney (Aunt or Uncle) Christopher Disney Miller (Grandchild) Tamara Scheer (Grandchild) Walter Elias Disney Miller (Grandchild) Joanna Miller (Grandchild) Ronald Miller (Grandchild) Abigail Disney (Niece or Nephew) Roy P. Disney (Niece or Nephew) Tim Disney (Niece or Nephew) Marjorie Sewell (Niece or Nephew) Roy O. Disney (Sibling) Herbert Disney (Sibling) Ruth Disney (Sibling) Raymond Disney (Sibling) Roy Edward Disney (Niece or Nephew) Victoria Brown (Grandchild) Jennifer Miller-Goff (Grandchild)
• Happy endings on all pictures produced by himself (also posthumous and actual works).
• Main characters using big white gloves (Example: Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Peter Pete, Jiminy Cricket, etc.)
• His moustache
• Animated Films
• Distinctive, deep voice
• Personally disliked Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953) because of the lack of "heart" and "warmth" in their main characters. Was very sad about the unfavorable reception of Fantasia (1940) as he was proud of the film. Ironically, the first re-issue of Fantasia (1940) after his death was the first time it turned a profit.
• Reports surfaced that shortly after his death, Disney Company executive board members were shown a short film that Disney had made before his death, where he addressed the board members by name, telling each of them what was expected of them. The film ended with Disney saying, "I'll be seeing you."
• Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, an Army draft notice, addressed to Mr. Donald Duck, was delivered to the Disney studios.
• Has a record of 59 Oscar-nominations.
• Before his 35th birthday, his brother Roy encouraged employees to throw the boss a surprise party. Two of the animators thought it would be hilarious to make a short movie of Mickey and Minnie Mouse "consummating their relationship." When Disney saw the animation at the party, he feigned laughter and playfully asked who made the film. As soon as the two animators came forward, he fired them on the spot and left.
• I don't make pictures just to make money. I make money to make more pictures.
• I'd rather entertain and hope that people learn, than teach and hope that people are entertained.
• I'm not interested in pleasing the critics. I'll take my chances pleasing the audiences.
• I hope we'll never lose sight of one thing--that it was all started by a mouse.
• I happen to be an inquisitive guy and when I see things I don't like, I start thinking why do they have to be like this and how can I improve them.
• One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) - $5,166 /week
• Swiss Family Robinson (1960) - $3,000 /week

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Biography Online

Walt Disney Biography

Early Life – Walt Disney

Walt Disney was born on 5 December 1901, in Chicago. His parents were of German/English and Irish descent. As a child, the Disney family moved between Marceline in Missouri, Kansas City and back to Chicago. The young Walt Disney developed an interest in art and took lessons at the Kansas City Institute and later Chicago Art Institute. He became the cartoonist for the school magazine.

When America joined the First World War, Walt dropped out of school and tried to enlist in the army. He was rejected for being underage, but he was later able to join in the Red Cross and in late 1918 was sent to France to drive an ambulance.

In 1919, he moved back to Kansas City where he got a series of jobs, before finding employment in his area of greatest interest – the film industry. It was working for the Kansas City Film Ad company that he gained the opportunity to begin working in the relatively new field of animation. Walt used his talent as a cartoonist to start his first work.

The success of his early cartoons enabled him to set up his own studio called Laugh-O-Gram. However, the popularity of his cartoons was not matched by his ability to run a profitable business. With high labour costs, the firm went bankrupt. After his first failure, he decided to move to Hollywood, California which was home to the growing film industry in America. This ability to overcome adversity was a standard feature of Disney’s career.

“All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.”

– The Story of Walt Disney (1957)

With his brother, Roy, Walt set up another company and sought to find a distributor for his new film – Alice Comedies – based on the adventures of Alice in Wonderland.

Mickey Mouse

In 1927, the Disney studio was involved in the successful production of ‘Oswald the Lucky Rabbit’, distributed by Universal Pictures. However, with Universal Pictures controlling the rights to ‘Oswald the Lucky Rabbit’, Walt was not able to profit from this success. He rejected an offer from Universal and went back to working on his own.

The Mickey Mouse cartoons with soundtracks became very popular and cemented the growing reputation and strength of Disney Productions. The skill of Walt Disney was to give his cartoons believable real-life characteristics. They were skillfully depicted and captured the imagination of the audience through his pioneering use of uplifting stories and moral characteristics.

In 1932, he received his first Academy Award for the Best Short Subject: Cartoons for the three coloured ‘Flowers and Trees’ He also won a special Academy Award for Mickey Mouse.

In 1933, he developed his most successful cartoon of all time ‘The Three Little Pigs’ (1933) with the famous song ‘Whose Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf.”

In 1924, Walt Disney began his most ambitious project to date. He wished to make a full length animated feature film of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.’ Many expected it to be a commercial failure. But, using new techniques of filming, the production was met with glowing reviews. It took nearly three years to film – coming out in 1937 after Disney had run out of money. But, the movie’s strong critical reception, made it the most successful film of 1938, earning $8 million on its first release. The film had very high production values but also captured the essence of a fairy tale on film for the first time. Walt Disney would later write that he never produced films for the critic, but the general public. Replying to criticism that his productions were somewhat corny, he replied:

“All right. I’m corny. But I think there’s just about a-hundred-and-forty-million people in this country that are just as corny as I am.” – Walt Disney

Disney always had a great ability to know what the public loved to see.

After the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the studio produced several other successful animations, such as ‘Pinocchio’, ‘Peter Pan’, ‘Bambi’ and ‘The Wind in the Willows’. After America’s entry into the Second World War in 1941, this ‘golden age’ of animation faded and the studio struggled as it made unprofitable propaganda films.

Political and religious views

In 1941, Disney also had to deal with a major strike by his writers and animators. This strike left a strong impression on Disney. He would later become a leading member of the anti-Communist organisation ‘Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals’ (the right-wing organisation was also considered to be anti-semitic.) At one point, he (unsuccessfully) tried to brand his labour union organisers as Communist agitators.

However, in the 1950s, Disney distanced himself from the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. However, by associating with the organisation, he was often associated with the anti-labour and anti-semitic philosophy it expressed. Disney was a Republican, though was not particularly involved in politics. It is often asked whether Walt Disney was anti-semitic.

His biographer, Neal Gabler stated:

“…And though Walt himself, in my estimation, was not anti-semitic, nevertheless, he willingly allied himself with people who were anti-semitic, and that reputation stuck. He was never really able to expunge it throughout his life.”

Walt Disney believed in the benefits of a religious approach to life, though he never went to church and disliked sanctimonious teachers.

“I believe firmly in the efficacy of religion, in its powerful influence on a person’s whole life. It helps immeasurably to meet the storms and stress of life and keep you attuned to the Divine inspiration. Without inspiration, we would perish.”

Ch. 15: Walt Lives!, p. 379

He respected other religions and retained a firm faith in God.

Post-war success

During the war, there was much less demand for cartoon animation. It took until the late 1940s, for Disney to recover some of its lustre and success. Disney finished production of Cinderella and also Peter Pan (which had been shelved during the war) In the 1950s, Walt Disney Productions also began expanding its operations into popular action films. They produced several successful films, such as ‘Treasure Island’ (1950), ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’ (1954) and ‘Pollyanna’ (1960)

In another innovation, the studio created one of the first specifically children’s shows – The Mickey Mouse Club. Walt Disney even returned to the studio to provide the voice. In the 1960s, the Disney Empire continued to successfully expand. In 1964, they produced their most successful ever film ‘Mary Poppins.’

In the late 1940s, Walt Disney began building up plans for a massive Theme Park. Walt Disney wished the Theme Park to be like nothing ever created on earth. In particular, he wanted it to be a magical world for children and surrounded by a train. Disney had a great love of trains since his childhood when he regularly saw trains pass near his home. It was characteristic of Walt Disney that he was willing to take risks in trying something new.

“Courage is the main quality of leadership, in my opinion, no matter where it is exercised. Usually, it implies some risk, especially in new undertakings. Courage to initiate something and to keep it going, pioneering and adventurous spirit to blaze new ways, often, in our land of opportunity.”

– The Disney Way Fieldbook (2000) by Bill Capodagli

After several years in the planning and building, Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955. Disney spoke at the address.

“To all who come to this happy place; welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past …. and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams and the hard facts that have created America … with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.”

The success of Disneyland encouraged Walt to consider another park in Orlando, Florida. In 1965, another theme park was planned.

Walt Disney died of lung cancer on December 15, 1966. He had been a chain smoker all his life. An internet myth suggested Walt Disney had his body cryonically frozen, but this is untrue. It seems to have been spread by his employers, looking for one last joke at the expense of their boss.

After his death, his brother Roy returned to lead The Disney Company, but the company missed the direction and genius of Walt Disney. The 1970s were a relatively fallow period for the company, before a renaissance in the 1980s, with a new generation of films, such as ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ (1988) and ‘The Lion King’ (1994)

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “Biography of Walt Disney”, Oxford, UK.  www.biographyonline.net , 8th August 2014. Last updated 1st March 2019.

Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination

Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination at Amazon

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Walt Disney

The man. His story. His work. His innovations.

Beyond his countless achievements, there was Walt: the loving son, brother, husband, and simply “Daddy” to his girls. Above all, family came first. With strong family ties and a harmonious home life, he dared to dream, create, and explore throughout his career.

The most important thing is the family.

Humor and Respect During Hard Times

Walt’s mother Flora took great delight in the youthful innocence of her children, while his father Elias demanded much more from them. In the most serious of times, everyone could rely on Walt, a prankster, to lighten the mood. “My mother had a terrific sense of humor. My dad was sort of straight-laced and very slow to catch on to a gag, a joke—but when he did, he would laugh until he had tears in his eyes.”

When Walt was in high school, Elias couldn’t understand his son’s ambition to become a cartoonist. But to his credit, he agreed to pay for Walt’s extracurricular art classes at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.

But when Walt decided to join the war effort, Elias put his foot down and chose not to sign an affidavit to verify his son’s age. “The boy is determined.” Flora said. “I would rather sign this and know where he is than have him run off.”

For Elias, nothing counted more than his family. Underneath it all, Walt knew his father meant well: “But, you know, all of these things that happened. I had a tremendous respect for him, I always did. In spite of his arguments, I worshipped him.”

First quote and third quote: excerpts from Walt Disney: Interview by Pete Martin transcripts. Second quote: excerpt from the book Walt Disney: An American Original .

A Lifetime of Brotherly Love

Ever since Roy got the chore of pushing Walt around in a baby buggy, they had always had a special kinship. Throughout Walt’s childhood, he admired his big brother, and Roy kept a watchful eye on him. They were more than brothers—they were great friends.

When Walt headed to Hollywood for a fresh start, he had one particular goal in mind. “I wanted Roy and I to be partners, that was all. I mean, we just wanted to be partners—I wanted it.” And, with the establishment of the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in 1923, his dearest wish was fulfilled.

“Roy had a faith in me—the same as he did when I was in Kansas City and he’d send me those checks. And I think that Roy has done a lot of things there against his better judgment, because he felt that I wanted to do it.”

As a team, Walt spearheaded the creative aspects, while Roy took care of the business side of things. “My brother Walt and I first went into business together almost a half century ago. And he was really, in my opinion, truly a genius—a creative, with great determination, singleness of purpose, and drive.”

First and second quotes: excerpts from museum website blog In Walt’s Own Words: His Brother Roy . Third quote: excerpt from the book Walt Disney: An American Original .

Darling Husband, Dearest Daddy

Walt swore he would never marry until he reached 25 and had saved $10,000. He tossed out that notion as soon as he met Lillian Bounds, a studio inker. The young couple tied the knot on July 13, 1925.

“I think that Dad was smitten with my mother almost immediately. It was probably mutual. It was a sweet courtship.”—Diane Disney Miller

For some time, Walt and Lilly struggled to start a family, but in December 1933, they were overjoyed with the birth of their first child, Diane Marie.  Three years later, Diane got a little sister, Sharon Mae.

Walt held that a man should never neglect his family for business. True to his beliefs, he rarely brought work home. In fact, he and Lilly tried their best at providing a normal life for their two daughters. Walt was a family man who loved coming home and looked forward to Daddy’s Day on the weekends. He even drove his girls to school every day until they were old enough to drive themselves.

“We weren’t raised with the idea that this is a great man who is doing things that no one else had ever done. He was Daddy. He was a man who went to work every morning and came home every night.”— Sharon Mae Disney

Diane’s quote: excerpt from museum text panel. Sharon’s quote: excerpt from Gallery 10 wall.

His Stories

Down on his luck with only $40 in his pocket, Walt set off from Missouri for Hollywood. With success came setbacks. Walt lost the rights to his first animated star, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Determined not to give up, he started sketching an idea that would later become the beloved Mickey Mouse.

I think it’s important to have a good hard failure when you’re young.

The Rocky Road to California

Upon landing his first art job, Walt rushed to tell his beloved Aunt Margaret: “Auntie, they’re paying me to draw!” When he was laid off a month later, his career as a commercial artist was off to a rocky start. Walt started a small business with a fellow artist, Ubbe Iwwerks, later known as Ub Iwerks, but the two brought in little work. Reluctantly, Walt took a job at the Kansas City Film Ad Company—a fortuitous decision, for it was there that he learned about animation.

Walt left his job to form his first animation studio, Laugh-O-gram Films, Inc. Young and inexperienced, he entered into a bad business deal that eventually cost him his company—a huge lesson he would take with him to Hollywood. “The day I got on that Santa Fe California Limited, I was just free and happy. But I’d failed. I think it’s important to have a good hard failure when you’re young.”

Walt arrived in Hollywood with $40 in his pocket and a coat and a pair of trousers that didn’t match. But in no time, he was back on his feet with a new deal and a new company. The Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio was in high gear with the Alice Comedies .

First quote: excerpt from the book The Man, The Magic, The Memories . Second quote: excerpt from the book Picturing The Walt Disney Museum .

Disney’s Folly

The success of the Silly Symphonies gave Walt the courage to make Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs . He reasoned, “The short subject was just a filler on any program. So I felt I had to diversify my business. Now if I could crack the feature-length field, I could do things.”

On June 3, 1934, The New York Times announced Walt was in the process of his first feature-length film. Industry insiders sneered at the very thought of it, calling the project Disney’s Folly. “You should have heard the howls of warning!” Walt exclaimed. “It was prophesied that nobody would sit through a cartoon an hour and a half long. But we decided there was only one way we could successfully do it and that was to go for broke—shoot the works.”

As the months turned into years, the budget continued to skyrocket as production fell further behind—and still, there would be no compromise.

On December 21, 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs opened to critical acclaim. Walt’s wild gamble became a box office sensation. “We realized we were in a new business. We had been heavily in debt and within six months, we had millions in the bank.” 

First quote: excerpt from website timeline. Second and third quotes: excerpts from the book  Walt Disney: Famous Quotes .

Built with Determination

By the 1950s, amusement parks had earned a bad reputation for being unkempt and unsafe. Regardless, Walt was determined to pursue his dream of Disneyland.

“I couldn’t get anybody to go along with me. But I kept working on it and I worked on it with my own money.” Walt even hocked his own life insurance. In 1952 he self-funded a private company and used his initials to name it WED Enterprises, Inc., now known as Walt Disney Imagineering.

Still needing to secure investors, Walt turned to one of his studio artists, Herb Ryman, for help. In what would become a 48-hour weekend marathon, Herb illustrated a spectacular rendering of the park while Walt described every aspect of it in precise detail.

“Almost everyone warned us that Disneyland would be a Hollywood spectacular—a spectacular failure. But they were thinking about an amusement park, and we believed in our idea: a family park where parents and children could have fun—together.”

Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955. “The way I see it, Disneyland will never be finished. It’s something we can keep developing and adding to. I’ve always wanted to work on something alive, something that keeps growing. We’ve got that in Disneyland.”

First quote: excerpt from museum text panel. Second quote: excerpt from the book Walt Disney Famous Quotes . Third quote: excerpt from the book Walt Disney: His Life in Pictures .

From animated shorts to live-action features and all things in between, the breadth of Walt’s cinematic achievements will likely never be surpassed. A man of many titles—innovator, storyteller, entertainer—Walt was one of the most prolific filmmakers in history.

My business is making people, especially children, happy.

The Significance of the Silly Symphonies

“By nature, I’m an experimenter. So with the success of Mickey, I was determined to diversify. I had another idea that was plaguing my brain.”—Walt

His idea was the Silly Symphonies: one-reel shorts set to music without standard characters. Throughout the 1930s, they served as his creative testing ground for the advancement of animation.

Walt contracted with Technicolor ® in 1932 for a two-year cartoon exclusive on its new three-strip color process. Begun in black-and-white but remade entirely in color, Flower and Trees became the first cartoon to win an Academy Award ® .

In 1933 he turned his focus to strengthening the art of personality animation while making Three Little Pigs . Moving forward, each new character created would exhibit its own unique personality traits.

Walt started to add convincing illusions of depth in his cartoons with the invention of the ingenious Multiplane Camera at his studio in 1937. This breakthrough technology made its debut on The Old Mill .

His successful experiments with the Silly Symphonies for over a decade would give Walt the courage to tackle his first feature-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs .

Quote: excerpt from the book Walt Disney: His Life in Pictures .

The Magic of Mary Poppins

Walt kicked off the ambitious production of Mary Poppins in 1962. For a feature film so unique and grand in scale, he pulled in all his resources—live action, animation, music, special effects—it was all hands on deck at The Walt Disney Studios.

“After a long concentration on live-action and cartoon films, we decided to try something that would employ about every trick we had learned in making films.” — Walt

Premiering in 1964, Mary Poppins became one of the last important projects of Walt’s life and the crowning achievement of his illustrious career as a producer. The celebrated motion picture garnered 12 Academy Award ® nominations including Best Picture, and five wins including Best Score and Best Original Song for the Sherman Brothers and Best Actress for Julie Andrews—her first role in a motion picture.

Walt recalled in amusement, “I never saw a sad face around the entire studio. The horrible thought struck me—suppose the staff had finally conceded that I knew what I was doing.”

First quote: excerpt from the book The Quotable Walt Disney . Second quote: excerpt from museum text panel.

Envisioning Epcot

By the late 1950s, Walt had conquered the world of family entertainment with motion pictures, television shows, and his grand amusement park Disneyland.

Upon completion of the redesign of the park’s Tomorrowland, Walt realized he could do more to make people happy beyond entertainment. He envisioned building a real land of tomorrow, an urban experiment to enrich the quality of everyday life. The Experiment Prototype Community of Tomorrow, or EPCOT, would become his most ambitious project yet.

In 1964 Walt and his brother Roy kicked off the development of The Florida Project in Orlando, and EPCOT was at the heart of it. As Walt described it, EPCOT is “like the city of tomorrow ought to be. A city that caters to the people as a service function. It will be a planned, controlled community, a showcase for American industry and research, schools, cultural, and educational opportunities.”

Walt passed away unexpectedly two years later. Roy announced that the official name of The Florida Project would be Walt Disney World. And although Walt’s city of tomorrow was never realized, the concept took shape as World Showcase and Future World. Today, it is simply known as Epcot.

Quote: excerpt from the book The Quotable Walt Disney .

His Innovations

Believing nothing was impossible, Walt pioneered many groundbreaking technological advances in sound, color, and storytelling. With the invention of the Multiplane Camera, he hooked audiences with an illusion of realistic depth in animated movies, beginning with the 1937 Silly Symphony,  The Old Mill.

When you’re curious you find lots of interesting things to do.

Having a Ball with Synchronized Sound

In the summer of 1928 Walt made a bold move to join the talking-picture revolution by producing the first cartoon to successfully match sound with action. Though not released, two silent Mickey Mouse shorts had already been produced, when he met the challenge with the third Mickey short, Steamboat Willie . In this animation Walt came up with the ingenious idea of printing a bouncing ball on the film for the orchestra to follow, just like a metronome. 

“In those days you couldn’t do what we call ‘dubbing’ today, so we used to have to do everything at one time. And we used to have to run the cartoon, we’d have the fellas with the sound effects, we had the people with the voices, we had the orchestra going, and everybody had to synchronize that thing right on the button.”—Walt

By keeping in rhythm with the bouncing ball, the players stayed in perfect unison throughout the entire picture. The delightful musical escapade was a big hit and synchronized sound animation became another triumphant first for Walt and his studio. 

Quote: excerpt from museum text panel.

Looking Through the Multiplane Camera

The year was 1937—17 years since Walt first started experimenting with animation on a flat camera table.

“I felt like I had to get a certain feeling of depth; I couldn’t just have flatness. So I did an experimental cartoon called The Old Mill that would give me a chance to develop a way of getting depth into my paintings.”—Walt

At a towering height of 12 feet, the Multiplane Camera crane was designed to shoot downward at five levels of foreground and background art, made of paintings in oils on glass. Walt’s artists could control how quickly or slowly each plane moved to or away from the camera lens. “They went wild with it, panning over rooftops and down streets, turning corners,” Walt recalled. With his studio’s invention, he could finally capture the convincing illusion of depth he always wanted to see in his animated films.

On the same day Walt won an Academy Award ® for The Old Mill , the creators of the Multiplane Camera were honored with a special scientific and technical Academy Award ® .

Quotes: excerpts from museum text panels.

The Imagineering of Audio-Animatronics®

Led by Walt, WED Imagineers developed four ambitious attractions for the 1964/65 New York World’s Fair. It was the electronic age and his attractions showcased the use of a new high-tech method to make three-dimensional figures come to life.

“Just as we had to learn to make our animated cartoons talk, we had to find a way to make these characters talk, too. Now to accomplish this, we created a new type of animation. So new that we had to invent a new name for it.”—Walt 

The name Audio-Animatronics was cleverly derived from the process of using sound and animation through electronics. First, human movements were recorded as electronic signals onto magnetic tape. Then, the signals were programmed into the figures to mimic the moves. Similarly, action sequences were recorded to manipulate smaller figures.

For Walt, Audio-Animatronics was “just another dimension in the animation we have been doing all our life.” 

First quote: excerpt from museum exhibit video. Second quote: excerpt from the book The Quotable Walt Disney , page 205.

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Disney’s imagination and energy, his whimsical humor, and his gift for being attuned to the vagaries of popular taste inspired him to develop well-loved amusements for “children of all ages” throughout the world. Although some criticized his frequently saccharine subject matter and accused him of creating a virtual stylistic monopoly in American animation that discouraged experimentation, there is no denying his ground-breaking accomplishments. His achievement as a creator of entertainment for an almost unlimited public and as a highly ingenious merchandiser of his wares can rightly be compared to the most successful industrialists in history.

Biography of Walt Disney, Animator and Film Producer

Love of drawing, laugh-o-gram films, mickey mouse, sound and color, feature-length cartoons, union strikes, world war ii, more movies, plans for disneyland, disneyland opens, plans for walt disney world, florida.

Walt Disney (born Walter Elias Disney; December 5, 1901–December 15, 1966) was a cartoonist and entrepreneur who developed a multibillion-dollar family entertainment empire. Disney was the renowned creator of Mickey Mouse, the first sound cartoon, the first Technicolor cartoon, and the first feature-length cartoon. In addition to winning 22 Academy Awards in his lifetime, Disney also created the first major theme park: Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

Fast Facts: Walt Disney

• Known For: Disney was a pioneering animator and film producer who won 22 Academy Awards and built one of the largest media empires in the world.
• Born: December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois
• Parents: Elias and Flora Disney
• Died: December 15, 1966 in Burbank, California
• Awards and Honors: 22 Academy Awards, Cecil B. DeMille Award, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Presidential Medal of Freedom, Congressional Gold Medal
• Spouse: Lillian Bounds (m. 1925-1966)
• Children: Diane, Sharon

Walt Disney was born the fourth son of Elias Disney and Flora Disney (née Call) in Chicago, Illinois, on December 5, 1901. By 1903, Elias, a handyman and carpenter, had grown weary of crime in Chicago; thus, he moved his family to a 45-acre farm he purchased in Marceline, Missouri. Elias was a stern man who administered “corrective” beatings to his five children; Flora soothed the children with nightly readings of fairy tales.

After the two eldest sons grew up and left home, Walt Disney and his older brother Roy worked on the farm with their father. In his free time, Disney made up games and sketched the farm animals. In 1909, Elias sold the farm and purchased an established newspaper route in Kansas City, where he moved his remaining family.

It was in Kansas City that Disney developed a love for an amusement park called Electric Park, which featured 100,000 electric lights illuminating a roller coaster, a dime museum, penny arcade, swimming pool, and a colorful fountain light show.

Rising at 3:30 a.m. seven days a week, 8-year-old Walt Disney and brother Roy delivered the newspapers, taking quick naps in alleyways before heading to Benton Grammar School. In school, Disney excelled in reading; his favorite authors were Mark Twain and Charles Dickens.

In art class, Disney surprised his teacher with original sketches of flowers with human hands and faces. After stepping on a nail on his newspaper route, Disney had to spend two weeks in bed recuperating. He spent his time reading and drawing newspaper-style cartoons.

Elias sold the newspaper route in 1917 and bought a partnership in the O-Zell Jelly factory in Chicago, moving Flora and Walt with him (Roy had enlisted in the U.S. Navy). Sixteen-year-old Walt Disney attended McKinley High School, where he became the school newspaper’s junior art editor. To pay for evening art classes at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, he washed jars in his father’s jelly factory.

Wanting to join Roy, who was fighting in World War I, Disney tried to join the Army but at age 16 he was too young. Undeterred, he joined the Red Cross’ Ambulance Corps, which took him to France and Germany.

After spending 10 months in Europe, Disney returned to the U.S. In October 1919, he got a job as a commercial artist at the Pressman-Rubin Studio in Kansas City. Disney met and became friends with fellow artist Ub Iwerks at the studio.

When Disney and Iwerks were laid off in January 1920, they formed Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists. Due to a lack of clients, however, the duo only survived for about a month. After getting jobs at the Kansas City Film Ad Company as cartoonists, Disney and Iwerks began making commercials for movie theaters.

Disney borrowed a camera from the studio and began experimenting with stop-action animation in his garage. He shot footage of his animal drawings using different techniques until the pictures actually “moved” in fast and slow motion. His cartoons (which he called Laugh-O-Grams) eventually became superior to the ones he was working on at the studio; he even figured out a way to merge live action with animation. Disney suggested to his boss that they make cartoons, but his boss flatly turned down the idea, content with making commercials.

In 1922, Disney quit the Kansas City Film Ad Company and opened a studio in Kansas City called Laugh-O-Gram Films. He hired a few employees, including Iwerks, and sold a series of fairy tale cartoons to Pictorial Films in Tennessee.

Disney and his staff began work on six cartoons, each one a seven-minute fairy tale that combined live action and animation. Unfortunately, Pictorial Films went bankrupt in July 1923; as a result, so did Laugh-O-Gram Films.

Next, Disney decided he would try his luck at working in a Hollywood studio as a director and joined his brother Roy in Los Angeles, where Roy was recovering from tuberculosis.

Having no luck getting a job at any of the studios, Disney sent a letter to Margaret J. Winkler, a New York cartoon distributor, to see if she had any interest in distributing his Laugh-O-Grams. After Winkler viewed the cartoons, she and Disney signed a contract.

On October 16, 1923, Disney and Roy rented a room at the back of a real estate office in Hollywood. Roy took on the role of accountant and cameraman of the live action; a little girl was hired to act in the cartoons; two women were hired to ink and paint the celluloid, and Disney wrote the stories and drew and filmed the animation.

By February 1924, Disney had hired his first animator, Rollin Hamilton, and moved into a small storefront with a window bearing the sign “Disney Bros. Studio.” Disney’s "Alice in Cartoonland" reached theaters in June 1924.

In early 1925, Disney moved his growing staff to a one-story, stucco building and renamed his business “Walt Disney Studio.” Disney hired Lillian Bounds, an ink artist, and began dating her. On July 13, 1925, the couple married in her hometown of Spalding, Idaho. Disney was 24; Lillian was 26.

Meanwhile, Margaret Winkler also married, and her new husband, Charles Mintz, took over her cartoon distribution business. In 1927, Mintz asked Disney to rival the popular “Felix the Cat” series. Mintz suggested the name “Oswald the Lucky Rabbit” and Disney created the character and made the series.

In 1928, when costs became increasingly high, Disney and Lillian took a train trip to New York to renegotiate the contract for the popular Oswald series. Mintz countered with even less money than he was currently paying, informing Disney that he owned the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and that he had lured most of Disney’s animators to come work for him.

Shocked, shaken, and saddened, Disney boarded the train for the long ride back. In a depressed state, he sketched a character and named him Mortimer Mouse. Lillian suggested the name Mickey Mouse instead.

Back in Los Angeles, Disney copyrighted Mickey Mouse and, along with Iwerks, created new cartoons with Mickey Mouse as the star. Without a distributor, though, Disney could not sell the silent Mickey Mouse cartoons.

In 1928, sound became the latest in film technology. Disney pursued several New York film companies to record his cartoons with this new novelty. He struck a deal with Pat Powers of Cinephone. Disney provided the voice of Mickey Mouse and Powers added sound effects and music.

Powers became the distributor of the cartoons and on November 18, 1928, "Steamboat Willie" opened at the Colon Theater in New York. It was Disney’s (and the world’s) first cartoon with sound. "Steamboat Willie" received rave reviews and audiences everywhere adored Mickey Mouse.

In 1929, Disney began making “Silly Symphonies,” a series of cartoons that included dancing skeletons, the Three Little Pigs, and characters other than Mickey Mouse, including Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto.

In 1931, a new film-coloring technique known as Technicolor became the latest in film technology. Until then, everything had been filmed in black and white. To hold off the competition, Disney paid to hold the rights to Technicolor for two years. He filmed a Silly Symphony titled "Flowers and Trees" in Technicolor, showing colorful nature with human faces, and the film won the Academy Award for Best Cartoon of 1932.

On December 18, 1933, Lillian gave birth to Diane Marie Disney, and on December 21, 1936, Lillian and Walt Disney adopted Sharon Mae Disney.

Disney decided to add dramatic storytelling to his cartoons, but making a feature-length cartoon had everyone (including Roy and Lillian) saying it would never work; they believed audiences just wouldn’t sit that long through a dramatic cartoon.

Despite the naysayers, Disney, ever the experimenter, went to work on the feature-length fairy tale "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Production of the cartoon cost $1.4 million (a massive sum in 1937) and was soon dubbed “Disney’s Folly.”

When it premiered in theaters on December 21, 1937, though, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was a box office sensation. Despite the Great Depression, it earned $416 million.

A notable achievement in cinema, the movie won Disney an Honorary Academy Award. The citation read, "For 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,' recognized as a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field."

After the success of "Snow White," Disney constructed his state-of-the-art Burbank Studio, deemed a worker’s paradise for a staff of about 1,000 workers. The studio, with animation buildings, sound stages, and recording rooms, produced "Pinocchio" (1940), "Fantasia" (1940), "Dumbo" (1941), and "Bambi" (1942).

Unfortunately, these feature-length cartoons lost money worldwide due to the start of World War II. Along with the cost of the new studio, Disney found himself in debt. He offered 600,000 shares of common stock, sold at five dollars apiece. The stock offerings sold out quickly and erased the debt.

Between 1940 and 1941, movie studios began unionizing; it wasn’t long before Disney’s workers wanted to unionize as well. While his workers demanded better pay and working conditions, Disney believed that his company had been infiltrated by communists.

After numerous and heated meetings, strikes, and lengthy negotiations, Disney finally became unionized. However, the whole process left Disney feeling disillusioned and discouraged.

With the union question finally settled, Disney was able to turn his attention back to his cartoons; this time for the U.S. government. The United States had joined World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and it was sending millions of young men overseas to fight.

The U.S. government wanted Disney to produce training films using his popular characters ; Disney obliged, creating more than 400,000 feet of film (about 68 hours).

After the war, Disney returned to his own agenda and made "Song of the South" (1946), a movie that was 30 percent animation and 70 percent live action. "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" was named the best movie song of 1946 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, while James Baskett, who played the character of Uncle Remus in the movie, won an Oscar.

In 1947, Disney decided to make a documentary about Alaskan seals titled "Seal Island" (1948). It won an Academy Award for best two-reel documentary. Disney then assigned his top talent to make "Cinderella" (1950), "Alice in Wonderland" (1951), and "Peter Pan" (1953).

After building a train to ride his two daughters around his new home in Holmby Hills, California, Disney began formulating a dream in 1948 to build Mickey Mouse Amusement Park across the street from his studio. He visited fairs, carnivals, and parks around the world to study the choreography of people and attractions.

Disney borrowed on his life insurance policy and created WED Enterprises to organize his amusement park idea, which he was now referring to as Disneyland. Disney and Herb Ryman drew out the plans for the park in one weekend. The plan included an entrance gate to "Main Street" that would lead to Cinderella’s Castle and off to different lands of interest, including Frontier Land, Fantasy Land, Tomorrow Land, and Adventure Land.

The park would be clean and innovative, a place where parents and children could have fun together on rides and attractions; they would be entertained by Disney characters in the “happiest place on earth.”

Roy visited New York to seek a contract with a television network. Roy and Leonard Goldman reached an agreement where ABC would give Disney a $500,000 investment in Disneyland in exchange for a weekly Disney television series.

ABC became a 35 percent owner of Disneyland and guaranteed loans up to $4.5 million. In July 1953, Disney commissioned the Stanford Research Institute to find a location for his (and the world’s) first major theme park. Anaheim, California, was selected since it could easily be reached by freeway from Los Angeles.

Previous movie profits were not enough to cover the cost of building Disneyland, which took about a year to build at a cost of $17 million. Roy made numerous visits to the Bank of America's headquarters to secure more funding.

On July 13, 1955, Disney sent out 6,000 exclusive guest invitations, including to Hollywood movie stars, to enjoy the opening of Disneyland. ABC sent cameramen to film the opening. However, many tickets were counterfeited and 28,000 people showed up.

Rides broke down, food stands ran out of food, a heat wave caused freshly poured asphalt to capture shoes, and a gas leak caused temporary closings in a few themed areas.

Despite the newspapers referring to this cartoon-ish day as "Black Sunday," guests from all over the world loved it and the park became a major success. Ninety days later, the one-millionth guest passed through the park's turnstile.

In 1964, Disney’s "Mary Poppins" premiered; the film was nominated for 13 Academy Awards. With this success, Disney sent Roy and a few other Disney executives to Florida in 1965 to purchase land for another theme park.

In October 1966, Disney gave a press conference to describe his plans for building an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) in Florida. The new park would be five times the size of Disneyland, and it would include shopping, entertainment venues, and hotels.

The new Disney World development would not be completed, however, until five years after Disney’s death. The new Magic Kingdom (which included Main Street USA; Cinderella's Castle leading to Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland) opened on October 1, 1971, along with Disney's Contemporary Resort, Disney's Polynesian Resort, and Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground. EPCOT, Walt Disney’s second theme park vision, which featured a future world of innovation and a showcase of other countries, opened in 1982.

In 1966, doctors informed Disney that he had lung cancer. After having a lung removed and several chemotherapy sessions, Disney collapsed in his home and was admitted to St. Joseph’s Hospital on December 15, 1966. He died at 9:35 a.m. from an acute circulatory collapse and was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

Disney left behind one of the largest media empires in the world. Since his death, the Walt Disney Company has only grown; today, it employs more than 200,000 people and generates billions in revenue each year. For his artistic achievements, Disney amassed 22 Oscars and numerous other honors. In 1960, he was given two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (one for his film and one for his television work).

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Walt Disney

Walt Disney   Biography

Walter Elías Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 5, 1901, and died in Burbank, California, on December 15, 1966. Walter was a director, producer, animator, cartoonist and screenwriter from the United States, winner of the Oscar Award 22 times, plus 4 honorary awards of the Academy, and of the Emmy in 7 opportunities .

Walt Disney is known for his famous children’s characters such as Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck , and for founding one of the most important animations, film, and entertainment companies, Walt Disney Productions.

Walt Disney is the son of Elias Disney, a farmer of Irish ascendancy who had come from Canada, and Flora Call, a school teacher. Walt was the fourth of five children. When he was five years old, the family moved to Marceline, Missouri, where Walt spent a happy childhood drawing and playing with his sister Ruth. However, in 1909, his father became ill with typhoid fever and was unable to work in the field, so he had to sell the farm and go to Kansas City to work as a delivery boy for the Kansas City Star, with the help of his children Walt and Roy. Due to this work, Walt graduated from the Benton Grammar School in 1911. Then he did several jobs while studying at the Art Institute of Chicago and at McKinley High School, where he was a school newspaper cartoonist.

“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” Walt Disney

During the First World War, Walt Disney wanted to imitate his brother, who was in the Navy, and he appeared in the army after leaving the Institute but was not admitted because of his age. Preventing the same thing happening, he presented himself to the Red Cross lying about his age, and this organization sent him to Europe when Germany had already signed the armistice. In Germany, he drove ambulances in which he drew and took some officers from one place to another until in 1919 he returned to America, to Kansas City.

While in Kansas City and thanks to his brother Roy, he got a job where he had to create ads for magazines, cinemas, and newspapers. In this job, he met Ubbe Iwerks, with whom he founded an advertising company in 1920, which they had to leave shortly afterward because of the lack of clients. Later, they both were hired at Kansas City Films Ad, where they learned basic animation techniques.

After studying anatomy and physics, and experimenting with his work team, Walt Disney started his own studio called Laugh-O-Gram Films. In it, he dedicated himself to producing animated short stories of popular stories , but that cost them more than they earned. This is why his studio went bankrupt in 1923 and Disney traveled to Hollywood in search of opportunities.

In Hollywood after knocking on doors looking for an opportunity without success , so he decided to send the last short film he had produced in his previous studio, Alice’s Wonderland , to the distributor Margaret Winkler, who hired him to make more films. To do this, Walt set up a studio in his uncle’s garage and entrusted his brother Roy with the financial issues , founding the Disney Brother’s Studio, which would be the beginning of Walt Disney Productions.

After successfully exhibiting nine Alice films, Disney created Oswald, a character whose show, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, quickly triumphed when it was distributed by Universal Pictures. Before this, the husband of Margaret Winkler asked Disney to continue working on this new series for a lower salary, and that it did not really matter if he refused because he and Universal Studios had the rights of the character. Walt Disney refused and preferred to create a new character, Mickey Mouse . This one appeared for the first time in 1928, but in its beginnings, it did not attract much attention . It was not until the implementation of sound that became a resounding success, having the voice of Walt Disney himself.

After 1930, there were already different products of Mickey Mouse, and several personalities had admitted their sympathy for the character, among which were politicians such as Jorge V, Roosevelt, and Mussolini. By 1935, all Disney short films already had sound and color image.

“Ask yourself if what you’re doing today will get you where you want to go tomorrow.” Walt Disney

After two years of production, from 1935 to 1937, Snow White was released, managing to raise more than six times the enormous sum that the production had cost. With the income, Disney opened some studios in Burbank and hired more employees. However, in 1941 several workers called a strike to complain about the poor salary and the lack of prominence they had in the credits. Disney, which refused to recognize the demands at the beginning, had to agree at the end because of the bad image that the strike was having on his name and his company.

In the forties, the company was economically affected by the World War II, but he was able to recover thanks to the adaptation he made of the market, which now asked for different formats than the short film. By the 50s, Disney was introduced in the market of the television and the action movies. In 1955, the Disneyland amusement park was completed. Already by the 1960’s, Walt Disney’s company was considered to be the most important family training company in the world and after receiving 26 Oscar Awards for his productions, 10 feature films, 12 short films and 4 honorary awards, one of them for having created Mickey Mouse, Walt Disney died on December 15, 1966, due to cardiorespiratory arrest.

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Fernando Botero

Fernando Botero Biography

Fernando Botero Angulo (April 19, 1932 – September 15, 2023) was a sculptor, painter, muralist, and draftsman, hailing from Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia. He was a Colombian artist known and celebrated for infusing a substantial volume to human and animal figures in his works.

Early Years and Beginnings

Fernando Botero was born into an affluent Paisa family , composed of his parents, David Botero and Flora Angulo, along with his older brother Juan David, who was four years his senior, and his younger brother, Rodrigo, who would be born four years after Fernando, in the same year that their father passed away. In 1938, he enrolled in primary school at the Ateneo Antioqueño and later entered the Bolivariana to continue his high school education. However, he was expelled from the institution due to an article he published in the newspaper El Colombiano about Picasso , as well as his drawings that were considered obscene. As a result, he graduated from high school at the Liceo of the University of Antioquia in 1950.

In parallel to his studies, Fernando attended a bullfighting school in La Macarena at the request of one of his uncles. However, due to an issue related to bullfighting, Botero left the bullring and embarked on a journey into painting. In 1948, he held his first exhibition in Medellín. Two years later, he traveled to Bogotá where he had two more exhibitions and had the opportunity to meet some intellectuals of the time. He then stayed at Isolina García’s boarding house in Tolú, which he paid for by painting a mural. Once again in Bogotá, he won the second prize at the IX National Artists Salon with his oil painting “Facing the Sea” .

“Ephemeral art is a lesser form of expression that cannot be compared to the concept of art conceived with the desire for perpetuity. What many people fail to understand is that Picasso is a traditional artist”- Fernando Botero

Due to the prize from the IX Salon and the sale of several of his works, Fernando Botero traveled to Spain in 1952 to enroll at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid. There, he lived by selling drawings and paintings in the vicinity of the Prado Museum. In 1953, he went to Paris with filmmaker Ricardo Irrigarri, and later, they both traveled to Florence. Here, he entered the Academy of San Marco, where he was heavily influenced by Renaissance painters such as Piero della Francesca, Titian, and Paolo Uccello.

Career and Personal Life

In 1955, Botero returned to Colombia to hold an exhibition featuring several of his works created during his time in Europe, but it was met with a lukewarm reception from the public.

Woman With a Mirror / Foto:Luis García (Zaqarbal) / Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Spain (CC BY-SA 3.0 ES)

In 1956, he married Gloria Zea, with whom he would later have three children: Fernando, Juan Carlos, and Lina. The couple traveled to Mexico City, where Fernando Botero was eager to see the works of Mexican muralists, but this experience left him disillusioned. Consequently, he began searching for his own artistic style, drawing influence from both the Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo and the Colombian artist Alejandro Obregón . In this quest, he started experimenting with volume, initially in still lifes, and gradually extending this approach to other elements.

In 1957, he successfully exhibited in New York, showcasing his new artistic sensibility. The following year, he returned to Bogotá, where he was appointed as a professor at the School of Fine Arts at the National University of Colombia . He presented his work “La Camera Degli Sposi” at the X Colombian Artists Salon , winning the first prize and becoming the country’s most prominent painter. This piece sparked some controversy as it was initially censored for being almost a parody of Andrea Mantegna’s “La Cámara de los Esposos”. However, it was later reinstated in the exhibition on the advice of Marta Traba. Subsequently, Fernando Botero exhibited his works in various spaces in the United States, where a businessman from Chicago purchased “La Camera Degli Sposi” .

“Fernando Botero and his works are the finest ambassadors of our country in this land of navigators and discoverers, of poets and fado singers”- Juan Manuel Santos

In 1960, Botero separated from Gloria Zea and traveled to New York. He led a modest life here as the New York art scene was primarily inclined towards abstract expressionism. Consequently, Botero was influenced by artists like Pollock, which led him to experiment with color, brushwork, and format, to the point of nearly abandoning his distinctive style characterized by the manipulation of volume. Aware of this, Botero returned to his usual style of flat colors and figurative representations.

Starting in 1962, he began a series of exhibitions in both Europe and the United States, as well as in Colombia. By 1970, the year his son Pedro was born to his second wife, Cecilia Zambrano, Fernando Botero had already become the world’s most sought-after sculptor. However, in 1974, his son Pedro tragically died in a traffic accident, leading to his second divorce and leaving significant marks on his artistic endeavors.

In 1978, the Colombian painter married Sophia Vari , a renowned Greek artist with whom he shared a significant part of his life, until sadly, she passed away in May 2023.

Since 1983, Fernando Botero has been exhibiting his works and donating them to various cities around the world. As a result, we can find his pieces in the streets of Medellín, Barcelona, Oviedo, Singapore, and Madrid, among others. In 2008, the Autonomous University of Nuevo León in Mexico conferred upon him an honorary Doctorate.

Renowned Colombian artist, Fernando Botero, died on September 15, 2023 , in Monaco at the age of 91 due to pneumonia . His artistic legacy will endure forever. In his hometown, seven days of mourning were declared.

Pedrito a Caballo, Fernando Botero (1975).

Top 10 Famous works by Fernando Botero

Some of the most recognized works by Colombian painter and sculptor Fernando Botero:

• “Pedrito on Horseback” / “Pedrito a Caballo” (1974): This is an oil painting on canvas measuring 194.5 cm x 150.5 cm. For Botero, this work is his masterpiece and a refuge during a personal tragedy. The child depicted is Pedro, his son from his second marriage, who tragically passed away in an accident when he was young.
• “Mona Lisa at 12 Years Old” / “Mona lisa a los 12 años” (1978): This piece stands out as a unique version of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting, the Mona Lisa . Painted in oil on canvas and measuring 183 cm x 166 cm, Botero incorporates his characteristic style of voluptuous and rounded figures into this work, which has become one of his most distinctive pieces.
• “Woman’s Torso” / “Torso de Mujer” (1986): It is a majestic bronze sculpture that rises to an impressive height of approximately 2.48 meters. It is often affectionately referred to as “La Gorda” (“The Fat One”). This artwork finds its home in Parque de Berrío, located in the captivating city of Medellín.
• “Woman with Mirror” / “Mujer con Espejo” (1987): An imposing bronze sculpture weighing 1000 kg. It is located in Plaza de Colón, in the heart of Madrid, Spain. The artwork captivates the gaze with the portrayal of a woman peacefully lying face down on the ground, holding a mirror in her hands. Her expression reflects deep introspection and enigmatic melancholy.
• “The Orchestra” / “La Orquesta” (1991): In this oil on canvas artwork, measuring 200 cm x 172 cm, Botero presents a band of musicians with a singer, all immersed in a spirit of celebration. The artist aims to convey a sense of harmony and joy through his portrayal.
• “Woman Smoking” / “Mujer Fumando” (1994): It is a creation executed in watercolor, spanning dimensions of 122 cm x 99 cm. In this work, Maestro Botero skillfully captures the essence of a woman elegantly holding a cigarette between her fingers. His meticulous focus on voluptuous forms, posture, and the serene expression of the figure masterfully combine to emphasize the sensuality and profound intimacy of the moment captured in the artwork.
• “Man on Horseback” / “Hombre a Caballo” (1996): This bronze sculpture is one of the most iconic works in the artist’s career. It depicts a rider in a majestic and proud posture. Over the years, this imposing work has been exhibited in multiple cities around the world, solidifying its place as a prominent piece in the sculptor’s body of work.
• “The Horse” / “El Caballo” (1997): This iconic sculpture showcases a horse of majestic presence and a distinctive rounded form, sculpted in bronze and measuring approximately 3 meters in height. This masterpiece reflects Botero’s profound passion for horses while also serving as a powerful representation of the mythical Trojan Horse.
• “The Death of Pablo Escobar” / “La muerte de Pablo Escobar” (1999): This artwork, created using the oil on canvas technique, has dimensions of 58 cm x 38 cm. While not considered a masterpiece, this artistic piece represents one of the most significant moments in Colombia’s history. Fernando Botero captures, in his distinctive style, the moment of the death of the drug lord Pablo Escobar , addressing issues related to violence and criminality that have marked the country’s history. An interesting detail is that, although Pablo Escobar admired Fernando Botero’s art, it cannot be said that the admiration was mutual. The painter created two works depicting the death of the drug trafficker.
• “Boterosutra Series” / “Serie Boterosutra” (2011): This work by Botero is part of an erotic art collection called Boterosutra , marking a milestone in the history of Colombian art as the first artistic representation of sexual intimacy between lovers. This series comprises around 70 small-sized pieces created using various techniques, including colored drawings, watercolors, brushstrokes, and also black and white, all of which constitute one of the most contemporary works by the painter.

Gustave Courbet

Biography of Gustave Courbet

Gustave Courbet, Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) was a painter. Courbet was born in the French town of Ornans. His parents and family were landowners in Ornans. Courbet was influenced by his parents to study law, but his true passion was drawing. Therefore, while studying law, he began drawing under the tutelage of a student named Flajoulot. When he turned 20, he withdrew from his law studies and moved to Paris to complete his artistic training with the teachings of Steuben, Bonvin, and Père Baud, a student of Gros. There he became interested in the works of Chardin, the Le Nain brothers, and the Spanish painters Ribera, Zurbarán, Murillo, and Velázquez.

Based in Paris since 1839, he delved into the Realist painting trend of the 19th century. He studied at the Swiss Academy and extensively analyzed the works of some artists from the Flemish, Venetian, and Dutch schools of the 16th and 17th centuries. He achieved artistic maturity when he discovered the works of Rembrandt on a trip he took to the Netherlands in 1847. From then on, works such as L’après diner a Ornans (1849), El entierro en Ornans (1849) or Los paisanos de Flagey volviendo del campo (1850) emerged, where the characters are represented with all their vulgarity or a compromising sensuality.

Courbet’s works caused a stir and controversy because the public was faced with a new realistic vision of everyday events. Additionally, his style as a revolutionary and provocative man, follower of the anarchist philosophy of Proudhon, and participant in the 1871 Paris Commune, led to his imprisonment for six months, until he sought refuge in Switzerland in 1873. All of this scandalized the public, who often criticized him but also admired him. His self-portraits were based on Romanticism. In 1846, he wrote a manifesto against Romantic and neoclassical tendencies with Bouchon. Courbet’s realism was a protest against the sterile academic painting and exotic motifs of Romanticism. He focused on the revolutionary environments of the 19th century.

He traveled to Holland to study the works of Hals and Rembrandt and participated indirectly in the military uprising. During this period, two of his most important realist works were created: The Burial at Ornans and The Stone Breakers, this work was lost due to World War II. Courbet’s paintings elicited all types of comments due to their realistic portrayal of the lives of ordinary people. After the coup d’etat of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte in 1852, the painter returned to his hometown.

While there, Courbet opened his own exhibition titled “Realism.” It was born as a protest against the rejection of his works at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1855. The central work was the enormous painting: “The Painter’s Studio” (1855). It was presented as a “realistic allegory.” Later, other figure and portrait paintings emerged: “Ladies by the Seine” (1857), the self-portrait “The Cellist” (1849) and “The Beautiful Irishwoman” (1866). The artist also created works related to the sea, landscapes of forests and mountains with their fauna, flowers and still lifes.

Courbet became a representative of the emerging realism of the time. Courbet was described as a conceited man, who claimed to be the most handsome and seductive of humans, due to his Assyrian profile, he boasted of his ability to illuminate new forms of truth and beauty to end the outdated trends of Paris. For this reason, we can understand why he was such a controversial painter and was often hated. Nevertheless, the magnificent works that this painter conceived during his life could not be denied.

Let’s return to The Burial at Ornans (1849), it is his work of greatest dimensions and complexity, he wanted to bring a huge fragment of rural reality from his land to the refined environment of Paris. This composition can be seen as disordered and with little hierarchy. Courbet manages to make the viewer sit at the same level as the villagers of Ornans and symbolically attend the funeral of a humble peasant. In addition, the diversity of individual expressions tries to make a critical description and a study of the social categories of a population. This work is admired for its formal and coloristic stylization, and its horizontal composition.

Another great work of this French painter is Bonjour, monsieur Courbet (1854). The painting shows in great detail the local environment, as well as the light and characters, reflecting a real event with great objectivity. This painting has become a kind of standard-bearer of realistic art for many artists in recent decades. Courbet broke the mold with the work Señoritas a orillas del Sena (1857), because the Parisian public was used to paintings on mythological or historical themes; on the contrary, in Courbet’s canvas, the two women represented in showy clothes are two prostitutes resting by the river.

Also impressive was the way it was painted, in opposition to the tastes and rules of the time; the thick brushstrokes, the color tones and the disregard for the canons of beauty. In that work both the composition and the color, want to reflect reality, each of the elements reflect the same importance, transmitting a certain sense of imperceptible objectivity. Courbet showed total uninhibitedness in front of the female sex. A reflection of this is the work The Origin of the World (1866), was made by order of Bey, this was the most transgressive painting of the 19th century.

Other paintings by this French painter include: Self-Portrait with Black Dog (1842), The Desperate Man (1845), The Meeting (1854), The Painter’s Studio (1855), Woman with Parrot (1866), The Trout (1871) among others. These are just a few of the many works that this artist left for posterity and for future generations interested in realistic art. Courbet’s radical stance, reflected in the realm of politics, specifically with the Paris Commune, led to him being accused of participating in the demolition of the Vendôme Column. He had to go into exile in 1875 in Switzerland, where he died two years later in solitude and poverty.

Anime history

Japanese anime or animation emerged at the beginning of the 20th century influenced by animation and the world of cinema developed in the United States, later it was modified and claimed Japanese culture. The anime-style as we know it began to develop in the late 1950s, when the production company Toei Studios and the different series based on short sleeves or cartoons, such as Tetsuwan Atomu, also known as Astro Boy. From the 1980s and 1990s, the anime became popular, appearing large cult series such as Dragon Ball, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Sailor Moon, Detective Conan, Rurouni Kenshin, and Cowboy Bebop, among others. In the new millennium, the Japanese animated industry has been booming, providing new content every season based on successful manga, light novels, video games, and music.

The earliest surviving Japanese animated short made for cinemas, produced in 1917

The first Japanese animations were small short films developed at the end of the 1910s, largely inspired by American animation, in these, folk and comic themes were addressed. The first short film was Namakura Gatana by Junichi Kouchi, it was two minutes long, the story told the story of a man with his katana (Japanese sword or saber) . In the following decade, the duration of the short films was extended to ten or fifteen minutes, in which typical oriental tales were represented. Among the pioneer artists of this era are Oten Shimokawa, Junichi Kouchi, Seitaro Kitayama and Sanae Yamamoto; by this time the short film Obasuteyama (The Mountain Where Old Women Are Abandoned) by Yamamoto was published.

During the 30s and 40s, the Japanese animated industry went through a series of changes, the stories were neglected and western stories were taken into account. A short time later the anime Norakuro (1934) of Mituyo Seo, one of the first animations based on a manga. Since then this became a frequent practice. By the end of the 1930s, World War II broke out, a warlike confrontation in which Japan was involved as a member of the Axis powers, at which time the animations became war propaganda. At the end of the war, the country was occupied by the allied powers led by the United States, which seriously affected the country that was going through a deep economic crisis.

Industry development and international boom

In the course of the crisis, the manga and anime industry became popular in the country, thus establishing the basis for the development of the own animated style that occurred around the middle of the 20th century. It was around this time that Toei Studios, an animation film producer, emerged as one of the key figures in the history of anime. This company was a pioneer in the animation of Japan, provided various productions that allowed the advancement of animation in the country. The company’s first animation was Koneko no rakugaki, a short thirteen-minute film published in 1957. The following decade the company grew by focusing on the development of feature films. Other companies such as Mushi Pro, a producer that made the animation of Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy) by Osamu Tezuka, mangaka and animator, one of the most relevant artists of the Japanese animated industry of the 20th century.

Between the 1960s and 1970s, the anime of robots (mecha) became popular appearing iconic series such as Tetsujin 28-gō and Mazinger Z or Gundam, for this same period the popular Doraemon series (1973), based on the homonymous anime, began to air Fujiko Fujio, a series that tells the story of a cosmic robot cat that has attached to its body a bag from which it subtracts various artifacts which are used in the adventures of Doraemon and his human friend Nobita. In the 1980s and 1990s, Japanese animation boomed internationally, which led to many series beginning to dub into English and Spanish, in these years cult series such as Dragon Ball, based on the manga of Akira Toriyama. Saint Seiya also known as The Knights of the Zodiac, Captain Tsubasa, exported as Super champions; Rurouni Kenshin, known in the west as Samurai X, Neon Genesis Evangelion of Hideaki Anno; Pokémon, Ranma ½, and Sakura Card Captor, among others.

In 2000, the already booming anime is largely massified by the acceptance and the huge fan base that it had acquired at the time, these followers known as otakus, boosted the Japanese animated industry. Since then there have been numerous animated productions that have been distributed worldwide, among the most prominent series of the new millennium are One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist, Inuyasha, Yu-Gi-Oh, Rozen Maiden, Kuroshitsuji, and Death Note, all are ace based on sleeves that when becoming successful, allowed the development of the animated series.

At present, any manga that has a large number of followers is very likely to have adapted in an animated series, such as Hunter x Hunter, Pandora Hearts, Ao no Exorcist, Mirai Nikki, Bakuman and Shingeki no Kyojin, among many others, light novels have been adapted that have become popular as Durarara!!, Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, Sword Art Online, and My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected, among others. In recent years, the Yaoi and Yuri genres have been popularized in which romantic relationships between people of the same sex are addressed, among these series it is possible to rescue Junjō Romantica, Sekaiichi Hatsukoi, No. 6, Aoi Hana, Sasameki Koto and Yagate Kimi ni Naru

At present, the Japanese animated industry produces numerous series, ova, and films per year, becoming one of the strongest industries in the world of animation. Among the most prominent people in this industry is Hayao Miyazaki, founder of Studio Ghibli, a studio where films such as My Neighbor Totoro, The Incredible Vagabond Castle, The Journey of Chihiro, and Ponyo, among others, likewise, stand out in the present, artist Makoto Shinkai, creator of 5 centimeters per second, Hoshi Wo Ou Kodomo, Kotonoha no Niwa and Kimi no Na Wa.

John Ruskin

John Ruskin Biography

John Ruskin (February 8, 1819 – January 20, 1900) writer, painter, art critic, and reformer. He was born in London, England. His parents were Margaret Cox and John James Ruskin, a rich merchant who instilled in him a passion for art, literature, and adventure. He studied at the University of Oxford. In 1837, he entered the University of Oxford. Then, he founded a drawing school for students: the Company of St George, for social improvement, useful arts, and the defense of an ornamentalism linked to the reform of society.

He received socialist influences, especially from the group of “Sheffield socialists,” as did William Morris. He advanced a postulate regarding the relationship between art and morals, these dissertations appear in the first volume of Modern Painters (1843), a work that provided an important place among art critics. Later, he published The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849) and The Stones of Venice (1851-1853), where the moral, economic and political importance of architecture were analyzed. In 1851 he became interested in pre-Raphaelist painters such as Dante Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, and John Everett Millais.

His ideas denounce the aesthetic numbness and the pernicious social effects of the Industrial Revolution. His work at Oxford ended in the rejection of the vivisection practices carried out in the laboratories of that institution. After marrying Effie Gray, he published Conferences on architecture and painting (1854), Conferences on the political economy of art (1858) and Fors Clavigera (1871-1884).

Ruskin suffered some psychiatric episodes and little by little he lost the sense of reality. Finally, he died in Lancashire on January 20, 1900. He aroused the admiration of generations of Victorian artists, especially as an introducer of the neo-Gothic taste in England, the greatest champion of pre-Raphaelism. Currently, part of his works is preserved between drawings of nature and different Gothic cathedrals at the University of Oxford.

• Modern painters
• The seven lamps of architecture
• The stones of Venice
• Conferences on architecture and painting
• The political economy of art
• Sesame and lilies
• The morale of dust
• The crown of wild olive
• Fors Clavigera
• The Amiens Bible

John Harvey McCracken

John Harvey McCracken Biography

John Harvey McCracken (December 9, 1934 – April 8, 2011) minimalist artist. He was born in Berkeley, California, United States. He excelled in sculpture and was a reference to the Minimalist Movement. He dedicated four years of his youth to serve in the United States Navy. Subsequently, he entered the California School of Arts and Crafts in Oakland.

Obtaining a BFA in 1962 and completing most of the work for an MFA. Academic life allowed him to meet characters like Gordon Onslow Ford and Tony DeLap. He was hired at several recognized universities where he taught different art subjects, worked at the University of California, School of Visual Arts, University of Nevada, University of California, Santa Barbara, among others.

His first sculptural work was done with the minimalists John Slorp and Peter Schnore, and the painters Tom Nuzum, Vincent Perez, and Terry StJohn. Dennis also known Oppenheim, enrolled in the MFA program at Stanford. He began to experiment with increasingly three-dimensional canvases, McCracken began producing art objects made with industrial techniques and materials such as plywood, spray lacquer, pigmented resin, resulting in striking minimalist works with highly reflective and soft surfaces. He applied similar techniques in the construction of surfboards.

Later, McCracken was part of the Light and Space movement composed by artists such as James Turrell, Peter Alexander, Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, and others. The biggest influences of the art circle were Barnett Newman and the minimalists like Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, and Carl Andre. Thanks to this space, his sculptural work began to walk between the material world and design. He was the first to conceive the idea of ​​the plank. The artist combined aspects of painting and sculpture in his work and many experimented with impersonal and elegant surfaces. In addition to the planks, the artist also created independent wall pieces and sculptures with different shapes and sizes, worked in highly polished stainless steel and bronze.

In McCracken’s work, it is usual to see solid colors in bold with its highly polished finish, it is a way that takes work to another dimension. His palette included pink gum, lemon yellow, deep sapphire and ebony, which he applied as a monochrome. He also made objects of stained wood, highly polished bronze and reflective stainless steel. For several years he relied on Hindu and Buddhist mandalas to make a series of paintings, they were exhibited at Castello di Rivoli in 2011.

His wife was the artist Gail Barringer, she revived to a certain extent her husband’s artistic career, and earned her the recognition of a younger generation of artists, merchants, and curators. Unfortunately, he died on April 8, 2011. Years before, his work had been honored in Documenta 12 in Kassel.

EXHIBITIONS

• “Primary structures” in the Jewish Museum (1966)
• “American sculpture of the sixties” at the Los Angeles County Museum (1967).
• “Inverleith House” at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2009)

His top ten auction prices exceed $ 200,000, including his high auction mark for a Black Plank, in polyester resin, fiberglass and plywood, which sold for $ 358,637 at Phillips de Pury & Company London in June 2007. More recently, Flash (2002), a red-board piece of firefighters, sold for $ 290,500 at Christie’s New York in 2010.

Nine Planks V, Blue column, Plank, Don’t tell me when to stop, Mykonos, Pyramid, Blue Post and Dintel I, Love in Italian, Right, Blue Post and Dintel, Yellow pyramid, The Absolutely Naked Fragrance, Violet Block in two parties, you won’t know which one until you’ve been to All of Them, Red Plank, Ala (Aile), among others.

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World History Edu

• Art and Music / Walt Disney

Walt Disney: Timeline

by World History Edu · October 15, 2020

Walt Disney Timeline

Here is quick look into major facts and timeline of Walt Disney, the successful American entrepreneur, animator and voice actor famously known for establishing The Walt Disney Company, Disneyland and Disney World.

Walt Disney: Quick Facts

Born: Walter Elias Disney

Date of Birth: December 5, 1901

Place of birth: Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

Date of death: December 15, 1966

Place of death : Burbank, California, U.S.

Parents : Elias Disney and Flora Call Disney

Siblings: 4 siblings – three brothers and a sister – Herbert  Arthur Disney (1888-1961), Raymond Arnold Disney (1890-1989), Roy Oliver Disney (1893-1971), Ruth (1903-1995)

Education : Kansas City Art Institute and School of Design; Chicago Art Institute; McKinley High School

Wife : Lillian Bounds (married in 1925)

Children: Diane ( (1933-2013); Lillian (born in 1936-)

Most known for : Founding the Walt Disney Company; Winning 26 Academy Awards (including 4 honorary awards); One of America’s greatest cultural icons in the Animation industry

Walt Disney Facts and Timeline

1901 – At 1249 Tripp Avenue in Hermosa, Chicago, Walter Elias Disney is born [on December 5, 1901 to Flora Call Disney and Elias Disney]

1905 – Disney’s family move to Marceline, Missouri

1909 – Enrolls at the Park School

1911 – Attends school at the Benton Grammar School in Kansas City, Missouri

He was introduced to motion pictures and theatre by a school mate called Walter Pfeiffer

1917 – Purchases shares in O-Zell Company – a jelly producing company

1918 – Enrolls at McKinley High School; he also works as a cartoonist in the school newspaper, where he mainly draws things pertaining to WWI

1918 – Applies to join the U.S. Army, but he is rejected because he is underage

September 1918 – Joins the Red Cross using a forged birth certificate; serves as an ambulance driver in France

October 1919 – Gets a job as an apprentice artist in an art studio in Kansas City

It was around this time that he first meets with fellow artist Ub Iwerks

January 1920 – He and Iwerks are laid off due to financial difficulties at the Pesman-Rubin Commercial Art Studio; the pair then go on to establish their own studio – Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists

Owing to start-up problems, Disney and Iwerks temporarily work at the Kansas City Film Ad Company

May 1921 – After gaining immense success with Fred Harman in producing cartoons called “Laugh-O-Grams”, Disney establishes the Laugh-O-Gram Studio. The studio employs the likes of Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Iwerks

1921 – Begins the creation of a live-action animation Alice’s Wonderland , which stars Virginia Davis

1923 – Disney and his partners are unable to keep Laugh-O-Gram Studio above water and the studio files for bankruptcy

July, 1923 – Relocates to Hollywood primarily to meet his brother Roy who was suffering from tuberculosis

October, 1923 – Sells Alice’s Wonderland to Margaret J. Winkler, a New York film distributor

To make production smoother, Disney partners with his brother Roy to establish the Disney Brothers Studio. The studio brings on board actor Virginia Davis, animator Ub Iwerks, and ink artist Lillian Bounds.

1925 : Marries Lillian Bounds in Lewiston, Idaho

1927 : Begins creating Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which is later distributed through Universal Pictures

1928 – Not only does he lose about half of his staff, he also loses his rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

1928 – Disney and Ub Iwerks begin developing Mickey Mouse

May 1928 – Mickey Mouse makes its first appearance; the cartoons are distributed by Cinephone

October 1931 – Goes through severe bouts of stress as his long-time partner Iwerks goes to work for Pat Powers, a former executive of Universal Pictures.

1931 – Disney enters into an agreement with Columbia Pictures to distribute his Mickey Mouse cartoons

1932 – Disney’s cartoon Flowers and Trees wins the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (cartoon)

1933 – Works on The Three Little Pig, which goes on to win an Academy Award for Short Subject (Cartoon)

December 1933 – Welcomes his first daughter Diane

1934 – Starts working on hit feature-length Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

December 1936 – Disney and his wife Lillian adopt a six-week-old baby called Sharon

1937 – Disney’s The Old Mill , which is produced using a technique known as multiplane camera, wins Academy Award for Animated Short Film

December 1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiers

1937 – Wins an Honorary Academy Award

1938 – Production of Pinocchio and Fantasia begin

1940 – Pinocchio and Fantasia are released; both get lukewarm reception

February, 1941 – Disney studios faces huge financial difficulties as World War II rages; Disney and his brother take the company public

1941 – Animators strike over Disney’s poor handling of layoffs; many animators leave Disney studio

October, 1941 – Dumbo is released and receives positive reviews

1943 – Der Fuehrer’s Face – a propaganda film – wins an Academy Award

Walt Disney timeline and facts

1946 – Founds the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals – an organization that uses art to fight against Communism and Fascism

1947 – Appears before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAAC) and chastises the 1941 animator’s strike for their association (alleged) with Communist elements

1948 – True-Life Adventures is released

1950 – Cinderella – a $2.2 million-Disney production (at the time) – is released; the film receives good reviews and garners about $8 million in the first year

1950 – The live-action feature Treasure Island comes out

1951 – Alice in Wonderland is released

1952 – Live-action feature The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men is released

July, 1952 – Construction of Disney Theme Park in California begins

July 1955 – Disneyland officially opens

1955 – Collaborates with NASA to make Man in Space – an episode in Disneyland series

1959 – Serves as a consultant on American National Exhibition in Moscow

1960 – Chairman of Pageantry Committee in the lead up to the 1960 Winter Olympics in California

1964 – Helps in the production of Mary Poppins ; the film goes on to receive very excellent reviews

1965 – Makes plans to construct a new theme park called Disney World in Florida

1966 – Involved in the production of The Jungle Book

1966 – Diagnosed with lung cancer and subsequently dies on December 15

Interesting Facts about Walt Disney

• He was involved in a total of 81 feature films, winning 22 Academy Awards and a ton load of Academy Awards nominations. He also won two Golden Globe Special Achievements Awards and an Emmy Award.
• Many of his films have been registered at the National Film Registry run by the Library of Congress
• He developed the character Mickey Mouse in 1928. His wife is credited with naming the character.
• During the formative years of Disney Studios, he voiced a number of characters, including Mickey Mouse.
• He helped develop a host of animation and film techniques such as synchronized sound, multiplane camera, and Technicolor.

Tags: Academy Award American actors Disneyland Entrepreneurs Film Producers Timeline

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Walt Disney Biography

Born: 1901 Birthplace: Chicago, Ill.

Art of animation— Animation pioneer, invented the multiplane camera in 1937. This advanced camera created three-dimensional effects by giving the illusion of depth, as seen in the first full-length animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Disney went on to create many more award-winning movies filled with classic characters in addition to breaking new ground in family entertainment. (2000)

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Walt Disney

Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901, in Chicago, Illinois. At an early age Walt had a gift for drawing and painting. While attending high school he took art classes to develop these skills. Disney left school to serve as an ambulance driver during World War I.

In 1923 Disney moved to Hollywood, California. There he began creating the characters that would make him famous. In 1928 he released the short cartoon film Steamboat Willie . It starred a cheerful mouse named Mickey. The next year Disney formed Walt Disney Productions to create more animated films.

Other popular cartoon characters followed. In the 1930s audiences were introduced to Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Pluto, and Goofy. Disney’s first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , was released in 1937.

In the 1940s Disney’s company began making movies with live actors. Mary Poppins , from 1964, was the most successful of these. Disney also continued making animated features, including such classics as Pinocchio (1940), Cinderella (1950), and Peter Pan (1953).

In 1955 Disney’s company opened Disneyland, a large theme park in Anaheim, California. Walt Disney World, a second and larger amusement park, opened in Orlando, Florida, in 1971. Disney died on December 15, 1966.

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Walt Disney A Short Biography

(a condensed version of the Long Biography)

Walt Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago Illinois, to his father Elias Disney, and mother Flora Call Disney. Walt was one of five children, four boys and a girl.

After Walt’s birth, the Disney family moved to Marceline Missouri, Walt lived most of his childhood here.

Walt had very early interests in art, he would often sell drawings to neighbors to make extra money. He pursued his art career, by studying art and photography by going to McKinley High School in Chicago.

Walt began to love, and appreciate nature and wildlife, and family and community, which were a large part of agrarian living. Though his father could be quite stern, and often there was little money, Walt was encouraged by his mother, and older brother, Roy to pursue his talents.

During the fall of 1918, Disney attempted to enlist for military service. Rejected because he was under age, only sixteen years old at the time. Instead, Walt joined the Red Cross and was sent overseas to France, where he spent 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 Walt returned from France, he began to pursue a career in commercial art. He started a small company called Laugh-O-Grams, which eventually fell bankrupt. With his suitcase, and twenty dollars, Walt headed to Hollywood to start anew.

After making a success of his “Alice Comedies,” Walt became a recognized Hollywood figure. On July 13, 1925, Walt married one of his first employees, Lillian Bounds, in Lewiston, Idaho. Later on they would be blessed with two daughters, Diane and Sharon .

Walt Disney in his office

In 1932, the production entitled Flowers and Trees (the first color cartoon) won Walt the first of his studio’s Academy Awards. In 1937, he released The Old Mill , the first short subject to utilize the multi-plane camera technique.

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 unheard cost of $1,499,000 during the depths of the Depression, the film is still considered one of the great feats and imperishable monuments of the motion picture industry. During the next five years, Walt Disney Studios completed other full-length animated classics such as Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi.

Walt Disney, on his daily rounds through Disneyland

Walt Disney’s dream of a clean, and organized amusement park, came true, as Disneyland Park opened in 1955. Walt also became a television pioneer, Disney began television production in 1954, and was among the first to present full-color programming with his Wonderful World of Color in 1961.

Walt Disney is a legend; a folk hero of the 20th century. His worldwide popularity was based upon the ideals which his name represents: imagination, optimism, creation, and self-made success in the American tradition. He brought us closer to the future, while telling us of the past, it is certain, that there will never be such as great a man, as Walt Disney.

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Walt Disney Biography: The Man Who Believed in Dreams

Walt Disney

In this success story, we will share Walt Disney’s biography and his path to success. It wasn’t easy, but Walt believed in his dreams and did his best to make the world happy. Enjoy reading an incredible life story about one of the most significant persons in history.

Walt Disney is a famous American artist, director, producer, and creator of a series of full-length animated films that won him worldwide fame. He is a Doctor of Fine Arts, winning 7 Emmy Awards, 22 Academy Awards (Oscars), and a Cecil B. DeMille Award. Additionally, he was awarded the highest civilian award of the U.S. government – The Presidential Medal of Freedom. Walt Disney co-founded an entertainment conglomerate, The Walt Disney Company, and created the world’s first large amusement park, Disneyland. He and his team made famous fictional characters like Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, and Goofy.

Table of Contents

It is believed that anyone in the United States of America can become a millionaire or president. For those who wish to attain these goals, starting a career as an advertising agent, shoe shiner, or courier is better. These creative professions do not require specialized training but won’t let you miss a successful event, after which fate will help you conquer well-being.

Walt Disney must have been familiar with the mythological stamp. By the way, his success can be compared to the model of a self-made American. In other words, the path to success Walt Disney began being a newsboy.

Walter Elias “Walt” Disney was born on December 05, 1901, in Chicago, to a large family of an Irish immigrant, Elias Charles Disney, and Flora Call Disney, who was of German and English descent. His father, Elias Charles Disney, was engaged in a small construction business, but his family was stricken with finances. In 1878, Elias Charles Disney moved from Huron County, Ontario, Canada, to the United States during the gold rush. He sought gold in California before settling down to farm with his parents near Ellis, Kansas, until 1884. Elias Charles Disney and Flora Call married in Acron, Florida, on January 01, 1888. In 1890, they moved to Chicago, Illinois, the hometown of Elias’ brother Robert, who financially supported Elias for most of Walter’s childhood. In 1906, Elias and Flora Disney set off to Marceline, Missouri, where his elder brother Roy had recently bought farmland.

Elias struggled at work, and when he came home, he took out his anger on his children and wife. Walter Disney had a younger sister, Ruth Disney, and elder brothers, Herbert Disney, Ray Disney, and Roy O. Disney; the latter would co-found The Walt Disney Company with Walt Disney. His elder brothers, Herbert and Ray, ran away from home in 1906 because they had been fed up with the endless work and little money to spend.

In the fall of 1909, Walt and his sister, Ruth, enrolled at the new Park School of Marceline. The Disney family stayed in Marceline for four years. On November 28, 1910, they had to sell their farm. In 1911, the family decided to move to Kansas City following the example of many neighbors who were migrating across America without the end. In Kansas City, Walt and Ruth enrolled at the Benton Grammar School. He met Walter Pfeiffer, who introduced Walt vaudeville and motion pictures there. But to learn the art of drawing, Walt Disney had only about a year, and the first thing he did was attend Saturday courses at Kansas City Art Institute.

On July 01, 1911, his father acquired a newspaper delivery route for The Kansas City Star. Walt and Roy were asked to distribute newspapers and advertisements for the father’s firm. They delivered the morning newspaper, Kansas City Times, to about 700 readers. Additionally, they had to distribute the evening and Sunday Star to over 600 readers. In any weather, early morning or late at night, Walt Disney ran from Twenty-seventh Street to Thirty-first Street and from Prospect Avenue to Indiana Avenue in his worn-out shoes, hurrying to deliver the newspapers on time. Elias always took away all the money his son earned. But Walt did not complain, and once he found a new subscriber, he concealed the money he had received from his father. Additionally, the boy bought newspapers directly in editorial and thus got the little income he spent on his favorite sweets forbidden at home. Thus, Walter began his career as an entrepreneur.

Teenage Years

In 1917, Elias became a shareholder of the O-Zell jelly factory in Chicago. Therefore, he moved his family back to the city. In the fall of the same year, Walter Disney started to attend McKinley High School as a freshman. Also, he attended night courses at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts under the guidance of Louis Frederick Grell (1887–1960), an American figure composition and portrait artist. Later, he started drawing patriotic topics on World War I for the school newspaper.

In the fall of 1918, Walter attempted to be enlisted in the army forces to participate in World War I, following the example of his brother Roy, whom he admired much. Having been refused because of being underage, he volunteered for the Red Cross and was sent to France, where he worked for a year as an ambulance driver. This car became a local landmark, as it was decorated with an amusing cartoonish character of the future animator.

Walt Disney drew a cartoonish character on the ambulance car that he used to drove while working as an ambulance driver.

After returning home, Walt Disney started working as an assistant and night watchman for his father’s O-Zell factory company. The latter particularly suited him because it allowed him to study drawing, which he had drawn from an early age. He notably succeeded in drawing animal sketches. He earned a nickel icon for one of his drawings at seven.

The dream to become a professional artist prevailed, and in 1919, Walt relocated to Kansas City to start his career as an artist. However, despite having the talent of a graphic designer, he lacked the bitterness and anger necessary to create satirical newspaper cartoons. Therefore, an attempt to settle in the art department of a Kansas City provincial newspaper was unsuccessful.

Finally, fate smiled at Walt Disney. His brother, Roy, helped him to find a temporary job as an auxiliary worker through a bank colleague he had been working with at the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio. Walt Disney temporarily created advertisements for newspapers, magazines, and movie theaters for a modest monthly salary of $50. Unfortunately, the job was temporary, and by the end of the Christmas rush, the young artist was unemployed again. Despite working at the studio briefly, he gained experience in how the advertising business functioned inside and decided to try his hand at it. At the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio, Walt Disney got acquainted with Ubbe Eert “Ub” Iwerks, a cartoonist with whom he started running their own commercial business.

Beginning of Animation Career

In January 1920, Walt Disney and Ubbe Iwerks established a short-lived company called Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists. Disney’s first client was Restaurant News’s publisher, which issued leaflets. He persuaded the company that adding an illustrated advertising application could improve the marginally profitable newspaper. Being conquered by the spell of Disney, the publisher let him and his friend, Ubbe Iwerks, use an available room (actually a bathroom) as a studio. Walt purchased the necessary equipment on his extra savings of $250. Then, he launched a broad expansion of printing and publishing houses.

Thanks to the perseverance of Walt, their company was successfully developed. Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists seemed to have good prospects at the beginning. The partners moved into a new office, and both had enough money to visit the local cinema, where they were particularly surprised by cartoons. One day, Walt was reading a local newspaper and saw a job advertisement for an animator at the Kansas City Film Ad Company. Walt Disney temporarily left their business to earn some money at that company. After seeing the illustrations of Disney, the company director offered him $40 per week. The work and payment were quite attractive. Walt could not resist and agreed. In February 1920, he left the established business, leaving the reins to Ubbe Iwerks. At the Kansas City Film Ad Company, Walter Disney designed advertisements based on cutout animation. He became interested in animation techniques and decided to be an animator.

To enrich his knowledge, Disney read Edwin G. Lutz’s book Animated Cartoons: How They Are Made, Their Origin and Development. He learned that celluloid animation is a much more reliable technique than cutout animation. Disney quickly became a star among the animators. The original work in his spare time became the basis for creating his company, Laugh-O-Gram Studios.

Laugh-O-Gram Studio

On May 18, 1922, Walt Disney established Laugh-O-Gram Studio and hired his Kansas City Film Ad Company teammate, Fred Harman (February 09, 1902 – January 02, 1982). Also, he invited his close friends Ubbe Iwerks, Fred Harman’s brother, Hugh Harman, and Rudolf Ising to join his company.

With the capital of $15,000 earned from selling shares to several townspeople, Walt created two short animated films based on fairy tales spread throughout the country. But even though both films were trendy, Disney did not receive any payment from his sales agents. Having achieved recognition, he nevertheless went bankrupt. Walt managed to protect only a camera and a copy of his most original work, Alice in Wonderland, from sale. Became loaded with debt, pursued by creditors, Walt fell into extreme poverty: he had no money for clothes or food.

Therefore, when a dentist, Dr. Thomas B. McCrum, asked Walt Disney to make a promotional video about dental health and invited Walt to his house to discuss the deal, Walt Disney had to decline his offer shyly as he had no shoes to walk out. He explained that he had left them with the cobbler at the repair shop, who would not let him have them back until Walt paid him for the work a dollar and a half. Soon, Dr. Thomas B. McCrum visited Laugh-O-Gram Studio, bringing $1.5 for the shoes and $500 to produce a promotional video about dental health. The money he had earned from shooting the video for the dentist was not enough to pay off his debts. However, biographers believe this unexpected work gave Walt Disney the second wind. Disney released a ten-minute, 32-second advertising film about “Tommy Tucker’s Tooth,” Dr. McCrum was delighted. A few years later, Dr. McCrum made another order, and Walt Disney produced another advertising video for his company called “Clara Cleans Her Teeth,” combining animation and live-action again.

Hollywood and Alice Comedies

Accumulating a little money from the video project and advertising photography for local newspapers, Disney decided to leave Kansas City and move to Hollywood, California, to set up a cartoon studio. Before setting off to Hollywood, Walt finished working on the live-action/animation Alice’s Wonderland and took the final reel with himself. In July 1923, he arrived in Hollywood, which had already become the center of the world cinema. Roy (Walt’s brother) was already in California. On the first days, Walt walked around pavilions and film sets from morning till night, carefully studying the process of making movies. He made his real career here despite having $40 in his pocket and only one shirt in his suitcase.

After several attempts, Walt Disney was convinced of the futility of exploring the studios, hoping to find a job. “If there is no work, – he said to himself – I have to do something on my own!” Walt and Roy rent a small garage from their Uncle Robert Disney. Walt invited Virginia Davis, an American child actor who was already a live-action star in Alice’s Wonderland. They hired two employees who ink and painted the celluloid. Walt rented a shabby shooting camera and installed it in the garage. Roy operated the camera, and Disney was responsible for animation. On October 16, 1923, Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney founded “Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio.”

Walt and Roy were filming Alice Comedies and were looking for a distributor. They found one, signed a contract with Margaret J. Winker, a New York cartoon distributor, and agreed to deliver 12 Alice Comedies series. On December 26, 1923, they produced the first comedy series, Alice’s Day at Sea, and received $1,500 for it.

Walt enthusiastically started working on the live-action/animation Alice in Wonderland . In February 1924, they relocated to a new office in a former real estate agency at 4651 Kingswell Avenue. Walt hired the first animator, Rollin Hamilton, and invited his old friend, Ubbe Iwerks, and his family to relocate to California to join “The Disney Bros. Cartoon Studio.” His key focus became the film scenarios, so he delegated the primary responsibilities of animation to Ubbe Iwerks. That was the end of Walt’s career as an animator.

In December 1924, Walt Disney hired Hugh Harman and Rudolf “Rudy” Carl Ising (who later would establish Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation studios). Walt personally hired an inker, Lillian Bounds. On July 13, 1925, Walt Disney and Lillian Bounds got married.

Soon, Virginia Davis no longer played Alice. Therefore, they invited Dawn O’Day and Margie Gay to play the role. However, the series Alice Comedies lost popularity and ended in 1927. The series’ primary focus was more on the animated characters (Julius the Cat) than on the live-action Alice, which is why Alice Comedies lost popularity among the audience.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

The story of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was not smooth for Walt Disney. In 1926, the Walt Disney Studio received an order from a producer, Charles Mintz, to develop an animated character and all animated cartoon series for Universal Pictures. Ubbe Iwerks created and drew the Oswald Rabbit. In total, they produced twenty-six animated Oswald Rabbit’s features. The project was very successful: it became popular and in high demand.

In 2006, the Walt Disney Company purchased the rights to the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit from NBC Universal.

However, in February 1928, when Walt Disney flew to New York to discuss a higher fee to produce the Oswald Rabbit cartoon series, Charles Mintz offered Disney to cut expenses by 20 percent and proposed to reduce the fee. Walt Disney could not agree to such conditions and declined Mintz’s requirement.

Walt Disney’s hands were tied because the Oswald Rabbit trademark belonged to Universal Pictures, and such animators as Friz Freleng, Carman Maxwell, Hugh Harman, and Rudy Ising were performing under the terms of the contracts signed with Universal Pictures.

Declining to agree on reductions, most of their animators were hired away except Iwerks, who later would help Disney to create a new character, Mickey Mouse, that would triumph for Walt Disney and his studio.

Mickey Mouse

After losing the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Walt Disney was understandably disappointed. In the spring of 1928, Walt Disney asked Ub Iwerks to develop a new character. Ubbe tried many sketches of animals, including dogs, cats, a female cow, a male horse, and a male frog; however, Walt Disney did not like the ideas. Mickey Mouse inspired the team from a tame mouse that had been drawn by Hugh Harman at Laugh-O-Gram Studio in 1925. Therefore, Ub started working on improving the original sketches of Mickey Mouse.

Interestingly, the character’s original name was “Mortimer Mouse” before his wife, Lillian Disney, convinced him to change it to Mickey Mouse. Thus, Ub Iwerks animated Mickey Mouse, and Walt Disney gave it a soul being Mickey’s voice until 1947.

On May 15, 1928, the Disney team first featured Mickey Mouse in a test screening of a short cartoon, Plane Crazy . However, the audience was not impressed by the new character. Walt gave another try and featured Mickey in another short cartoon, The Gallopin’ Gaucho . Unable to find a distributor, the cartoon was not released either.

However, Walt Disney did not give up, and on November 18, 1928, Mickey appeared in Steamboat Willie, a short animated film with sound co-directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. This time, Walt managed to find a distributor. Pat Powers (1870 –1948), an entrepreneur in the movie and animation industry, became Steamboat Willie’s distributor and sold the Disney Cinephone sound system that allowed the release of Steamboat Willie with soundtracks that led Walt Disney to success. Furthermore, The Plane Crazy   The Galloping Gaucho was re-released with soundtracks, and all subsequent Mickey Mouse animated cartoons were released with soundtracks.

Silly Symphonies

Following in the footsteps of the Mickey Mouse series, a series of 75 animated short films called Silly Symphony was released by the Walt Disney team from 1929 to 1939.

In 1930, Columbia Pictures agreed to distribute the Silly Symphony series. By 1932, Mickey Mouse had become a favorite cartoon character. Silly Symphony also performed well, but it just needed that extra added touch. The same year, Disney noticed an increase in competition. One of their main competitors was Max Fleischer (July 19, 1883 – September 11, 1972), a Polish Jewish American animator who created an animated character, Betty Boop. It was considered the most famous sex symbol of animation. On April 13, 1931, Columbia Pictures suspended the distribution of Walt Disney’s films and was replaced by United Artists.

By the end of 1932, an American scientist and engineer, Herbert Thomas Kalmus (November 9, 1881 – July 11, 1963), completed his first three-strip Technicolor camera. He met with Walt Disney and proposed to re-release the black and white Flowers and Trees through the Technicolor camera. In 1932, The colored Flowers and Trees brought Walt Disney remarkable success and the first Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Short Subject: Cartoons. After releasing Flowers and Trees illustrated in color, all of the next Silly Symphony series were also illustrated in color.

On May 27, 1933, following the success of Silly Symphony, Disney released another animated short film, The Three Little Pigs , directed by Burt Gillett. The animated film was a hit in theaters for many months. The Walt Disney Productions invested $22,000 in it and grossed $250,000. It was the second animated short film that received the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1934.

Three Little Pigs animated film gained popularity thanks to the strength and wisdom of its story. It led Walt Disney to open a Story Department that was responsible for story development and scenario.

In 1935, when Disney’s production rapidly grew, he announced a competitive recruitment contest for artists. The company received 6,000 applications and eliminated most candidates while previewing their submitted drawings. As a result of hard work, Walt Disney managed to select 30 potential employees, and only 10 of them could handle their duties at the studio. Since there were few animators with professional skills, Walt Disney had to educate them himself.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

The turning point that played a significant role in the animation industry and business was the creation of the world’s first full-length animated cartoon, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, made in Technicolor. When Roy Disney estimated the expected cost of the film, he shuddered with horror – it was a half-million dollar forecast. This was almost double the cost of the entire studio’s annual production. Walt and Roy could not afford to shoot a full-length film with live actors, extras, expeditions, and built scenery. To obtain the funding, they turned to loan officers for help. To persuade them to believe in the success of Snow White , Walt Disney had to show them a rough draft of the motion picture. Loan officers believed in Disney, and after three years of work on the film, it was finally released under the distribution agreement with RKO Radio Pictures. The total budget spent amounted to $1,488,423. On December 21, 1937, the animated musical fantasy film premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater, and the audience highly admired it. Snow White  brought them a profit of $8 million (in today’s money – $132 million).   The resulting wealth was not accidental or unexpected. Walt Disney had been working very hard to reach this goal. He would have reached it one way or another. Maybe this would have required many years more. However, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs immediately made Walt Disney a millionaire.

Walt Disney earned a great fortune from film production, but all financial matters were secondary for him, whatever benefits they could bring. He spent Most of his savings on protecting his artistic interests. He had no lust for money and could have much more if he wanted. Disney considered money as a working tool. It would be wrong to say that Disney struggled for some lofty artistic ideals . However, it was clear that he did not want to depend on anyone else. Disney’s art can be regarded differently, but he often put it above the desire to “make money.”

World War II and the Postwar Period

In 1940, the Walt Disney Studios released the full-length feature Pinocchio , an American animated musical fantasy film, and continued to work on Fantasia (1940), Bambi (1942), and Peter Pen (1953). The shorts teammates worked on Donald Duck, Goofy , Mickey Mouse, and Pluto, an animated short series.

When the United States entered World War II, most of the Disney studio’s facilities cooperated with the US Army and Navy Bureau of Aeronautics. The Disney team was responsible for creating training and instruction motion pictures such as Victory Through Air Power, Aircraft Carrier Landing Signals, and the animated propaganda short film Der Fuehrer’s Face , featuring Donald Duck in a nightmare working at a factory in Nazi Germany in horrible conditions. The latter won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film on March 04, 1943.

In the postwar period, the Walt Disney Studio started working on Cinderella (1950) , the most popular full-length animated film since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Theme Park: Disneyland

Along with the complex real world, an imaginary world of fairy tales lived in Walt Disney’s mind. Tired of the long-term film production industry, he found himself at the mercy of a new idea in building a theme park, which he called Disneyland.

The idea of Disneyland came into Walt Disney’s mind when he was attending Griffith Park in Los Angeles with his daughters Diane and Sharon. He visited other play parks, including Tivoli Gardens in Denmark, Children’s Fairyland in the United States, and Efteling in the Netherlands, to get inspiration.

However, the story of its creation from concept to realization was not straightforward. Investors sympathetically sighed, talked about hard times, and advised Walt to go somewhere to relax when Disney was trying to make them interested in his new venture. His brother, Roy, did not support him either. He believed that the project would not bring revenue.

In a desperate attempt to get funding for the project, Disney turned to the television industry for help. Although the show business industry was considered almost a pariah then, Disney agreed to cooperate with the joint venture, ABC. In exchange for the investment of $5 million, Disney decided to broadcast the Mickey Mouse short-film series on television.

Walt Disney purchased 160 acres (65 ha) of land in Anaheim, California. The construction of Disneyland started on July 16, 1954, with a total investment spend of $17 million (in today’s money – $150 million). The opening day was held on Sunday, July 17, 1955. Since then, everything has gone differently for ABC, the Walt Disney Company, and the American public.

Disneyland quickly became an American landmark. As of 2014, 16.77 million people visited Disneyland in Anaheim. Therefore, another concept of the artist that seemed just a fantasy turned into a big business venture. The Walt Disney Company has four Disneyland parks in California, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Paris and one Walt Disney World in Ontario, Florida. Also, the entertainment conglomerate has 320 Disney stores in its assets located throughout the world, hockey and baseball teams, several newspapers and magazines, and diversified television networks.

Lillian’s first pregnancy ended in miscarriage. She became pregnant again and, on December 18, 1933, gave birth to daughter Diane Marie Disney. Later, the parents adopted Sharon Mae Disney (December 31, 1936 – February 16, 1993) due to Lillian’s birth complications.

At the age of 20, Diane married Ron Miller. They had seven children: Christopher, Joanna, Tamara, Jennifer, Walter, Ronald, and Patrick. The Miller family founded a winery in California called Silverado Vineyards. Later, Diane Disney Miller became the co-founder of The Walt Disney Family Museum. She died on November 19, 2013.

Sharon Mae Disney was born in Los Angeles, California, on December 31, 1936. On May 10, 1959, she married Robert Brown. Their marriage lasted until Robert died in 1967. They had one child. In 1969, Sharon Disney and William Lund got married. They had two children, but in 1975, they got divorced.

Walt Disney had a solid creative will and was an influential leader and organizer. He paid great attention to recruitment and organization processes. The working process of the Disney Studio was as perfect and accurate as his drawings and cartoons. He always required the animators and artists to work according to high professional standards. However, hiring a sufficient number of experts was tough.

All his life, Walt Disney considered himself a good manager. However, many workers were disgruntled by the system of management. They believed they had made a significant contribution to filmmaking and demanded the recognition of copyrights, while Walt thought the original authorship belonged to the Walt Disney Company. The animators’ strike broke out at the studio. The U.S. Department of State helped to defuse the situation by organizing a business trip for Disney in South America. The conflict gradually subsided, but the question was not resolved until the end.

The path traversed by Disney is the road for forty years, during which he became a prominent industrialist in cinema and television. One might achieve here: endowed with talent, perseverance, imagination, and determination. Walt Disney made the general public love the animation. We identify the emergence of his cartoon characters on the screen with the joy of life. And for that, he deserves the greatest glory.

Walt Disney died at 9:30 a.m. on December 15, 1966, when he was 65. The cause of death was acute circulatory collapse. However, the work he had started continues to live and grow steadily till now. The revenue of the Walt Disney Company in the fiscal year 2015 reached $52.46 billion with its media networks, parks and resorts, studio entertainment, consumer products, and interactive.

We hope you have enjoyed reading the biography of Walt Disney, his success story, and the history of the Walt Disney Company, and we hope it’s inspired you to discoveries.

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Walt Disney

• Occupation: Entrepreneur
• Born: December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois
• Died: December 15, 1966 in Burbank, California
• Best known for: Disney animated movies and theme parks
• Nickname: Uncle Walt

• Tom Hanks played the role of Walt Disney in the 2013 movie Saving Mr. Banks .
• The original name for Mickey Mouse was Mortimer, but his wife didn't like the name and suggested Mickey.
• He won 22 Academy Awards and received 59 nominations.
• His last written words were "Kurt Russell." No one, not even Kurt Russell, knows why he wrote this.
• He was married to Lillian Bounds in 1925. They had a daughter, Diane, in 1933 and later adopted another daughter, Sharon.
• The robot from Wall-E was named after Walter Elias Disney.
• The sorcerer from Fantasia is named "Yen Sid", or "Disney" spelled backwards.
• Listen to a recorded reading of this page:

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7 Things You May Not Know About Walt Disney

By: Elizabeth Nix

Updated: August 10, 2023 | Original: February 24, 2015

1. Disney came from humble beginnings.

Born in Chicago on December 5, 1901, Walt Disney , the fourth of five children, moved with his family to a farm in Marceline, Missouri, when he was four. It was in Marceline—a small-town community Disney remembered as an adult as having been idyllic—that he first received encouragement for his burgeoning interest in drawing, from both an aunt as well as a neighbor who was a retired doctor. However, Disney’s father had difficulty making a living in Marceline and sold the farm in 1910; the following year, the family relocated to Kansas City. There, Disney’s father purchased a newspaper route and for the next six years, Walt helped with the deliveries, working before and after school and on weekends. In 1917, his father sold the paper route and moved the family back to Chicago, where he was employed at a jelly and fruit juice company.

An inattentive student who drew constantly, Walt dropped out of high school at 16. With the United States fighting World War I , joined the Red Cross Ambulance Corps by forging his birth certificate in order to meet the Corps’ minimum age requirement of 17. He was sent to France in late 1918, shortly after the signing of the armistice that ended the fighting. Disney spent his time driving Red Cross officials and doing other tasks before being discharged in 1919.

2. He was the voice of Mickey Mouse.

Following his Red Cross service, Disney moved to Kansas City, hoping to become a newspaper cartoonist. Instead, he found work creating advertisements for magazines and movie theaters then became interested in animation. In 1922, he opened a film studio called Laugh-O-Gram but it struggled financially and shut down in 1923.

That same year, he moved to Hollywood and formed Disney Brothers Studio with his older sibling Roy. After producing various short, animated cartoons, the studio started making a series in 1927 about a character Walt had developed called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. However, the next year, in what was a major blow, Walt lost the rights to his popular creation and many of his employees were poached in a corporate dispute.

In response, he developed a new character originally dubbed Mortimer Mouse before it was decided Mickey would be a better moniker. Mickey Mouse made his official debut in a 1928 short film titled “Steamboat Willie,” one of the first cartoons ever to use synchronized sound effects. The rodent quickly became a star, and soon there were Mickey Mouse Clubs for children, merchandise, and a comic strip. When Mickey spoke for the first time, in 1929’s “The Karnival Kid” (his words were “Hot dog, hot dog”), Walt was unhappy with how the character sounded and went on to lend his own voice to the mouse until 1947’s “Mickey and the Beanstalk,” when he said he was too busy to continue doing so.

3. Disney produced propaganda films for the U.S. government during World War II.

During World War II , Disney employees created educational films for various federal agencies, including a 1942 animated short, “The New Spirit,” commissioned by the Treasury Department to encourage people to pay their income taxes as a way to support the war effort. The film, which starred Donald Duck, was shown in thousands of movie theaters and earned an Academy Award nomination. The Disney studio also made training films for the American military, and created, free of charge, more than a thousand insignia for military units; the designs centered around established Disney characters as well as new characters.

Although Disney initially was reluctant to risk tarnishing his image as a non-political entertainer by producing blatantly propagandistic works, his team eventually turned out animated shorts such as 1943’s “Der Fuerher’s Face,” which made fun of the Nazis and again starred Donald Duck. Additionally, after reading the 1942 best-seller “Victory Through Air Power” by Major Alexander de Seversky, Disney, driven by his own patriotism, decided to adapt it as a 1943 live action-animated feature of the same name in order to win support for the book’s theories—considered controversial by some U.S. military officials—about the strategic long-range bombing. Both President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill saw the film, which reportedly made an impression on them.

4. He was a train buff.

The famous filmmaker had a long fascination with trains. His father and an uncle had spent time working on railroads, and as a teen in Kansas City Walt did a brief stint selling newspapers and snacks on trains. It was on a 1928 train trip back to Los Angeles from New York (after learning he’d lost the rights to his cartoon character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit) that Walt began developing the idea for the character eventually known to the world as Mickey Mouse. (Contrary to legend, Walt didn’t have a pet mouse on which he based Mickey.)

Later, Walt constructed elaborate model train sets as a way to unwind from the stress of his job. In the late 1940s, he built himself a one-eighth-scale steam locomotive, and after moving into a new home in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles in 1950 he laid half a mile of tracks around the property for his railroad. He would dress up in a train engineer’s clothing and give visitors rides on his Carolwood Pacific Railroad, named for the street he lived on. His passion for trains is reflected at Disneyland, which has been home to its own railroad since opening in 1955.

5. The initial plans for Disneyland were small-scale.

Walt originally intended to build a small amusement park near his Burbank studio; however, his plans soon grew more ambitious and in 1953 he hired a research firm to find the optimal southern California location for a large-scale theme park. After studying factors such as population growth, weather patterns and transportation options, the firm recommended the site that would become Disneyland’s home: a 160-acre parcel, consisting mostly of orange trees, in Anaheim. Construction began in July 1954 and Disneyland opened a year later, on July 17.

Opening day didn’t go smoothly, though: People produced counterfeit tickets, leading to an over-capacity crowd of attendees; rides broke; parts of the park were unfinished and a gas leak forced Fantasyland to be closed. Disneyland’s debut was showcased in a live TV broadcast—co-hosted by then-actor Ronald Reagan and seen by approximately 70 million Americans—yet the program was riddled with technical difficulties.

6. He won more Academy Awards than anyone else.

Disney holds the record for most individual Oscar wins (22) and nominations (59). In 1932, at the fifth Academy Awards ceremony, he earned his inaugural award, in the best short subject (cartoon) category, for “Flowers and Trees,” which used the new three-strip Technicolor process. Disney went on to win the same category at the next seven Oscar ceremonies. He scored one best picture nomination, for 1964’s “Mary Poppins,” but lost to “My Fair Lady.” (“Mary Poppins” did, however, rack up wins in five other Oscar categories, including best leading actress, given to Julie Andrews.)

Disney also received four honorary Oscars, including one (handed out in 1932) for creating Mickey Mouse, another (in 1939) for “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (child actress Shirley Temple presented Disney with the award, which consisted of a regular-size statuette along with seven miniature versions, as a nod to the dwarfs); and a third (in 1942) for “Fantasia” and its contribution to sound design.

7. Disney wasn’t cryogenically frozen.

In November 1966, doctors discovered that Disney, a longtime smoker, had lung cancer. He died at a Burbank hospital the following month, on December 15, at age 65. Not long after his death, stories began circulating in the tabloid press that the filmmaker had been cryogenically preserved—that is, he’d been frozen with the hope that science might one day make it possible for him to be brought back to life. Despite the persistent rumors regarding Disney and cryonics, he was, in fact, cremated and his ashes were interred in a mausoleum at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California. The first person to be frozen cryogenically was an American university professor in January 1967. Since that time, more than a hundred others have been cryopreserved, including baseball great Ted Williams, who died in 2002.

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Walt Disney's Rocky Road to Success

Disney had a strained relationship with his father

Born in Chicago in 1901 and raised in Missouri, Disney was the fourth son among five siblings. His father, Elias, was a domineering figure who was allegedly abusive as he tried, unsuccessfully, to make ends meet for the family. To escape from his stressful circumstances, Young Disney found solace in drawing. Still, he'd watch his older brothers, one by one, runoff from home to escape their father, and soon he'd follow suit by lying about his age to become an ambulance driver during World War I. (Years later when his father died, Disney reportedly refused to cut a business trip short and therefore missed his dad's funeral.)

READ MORE: Is Walt Disney's Body Frozen?

His first cartoon business went bankrupt

When he returned home from war, Disney became an apprentice at a Kansas City commercial art studio. Itching to set off on his own, he and his older brother Roy launched their own cartoon business, Laugh-O-Gram Studios, in 1920, but the company went bankrupt a couple of years later.

With the loss of his first business, Disney packed his bags, and with just $40 to his name, took off to Los Angeles to try his hand at acting. But he failed at that, too. Still, there was a silver lining to his move. Noticing there weren't any animations studios in California, Disney convinced Roy to join him out West so they could set up shop. Not so long after, Disney found his first major success with the creation of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

Disney's character Oswald was plenty lucky, becoming a huge star in one-reel animation, but Disney himself would find his luck had run out. Traveling to New York to renegotiate his contract, he discovered that his producer had taken his team of animators from under him and that he no longer had any legal rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

But instead of fighting the loss or plotting his revenge, Disney decided to walk away and start over again. It was on the train ride back to California that he created Mickey Mouse.

READ MORE: Walt Disney Building Disneyland: 8 Photos of the Theme Park Coming to Life

Disney had a nervous breakdown after creating Mickey Mouse

After years of eating beans and driving up his debts, Disney finally brought Mickey Mouse to life on film starting in the late 1920s and earned his way back to the top of his industry. But it wasn't easy. Bankers rejected the concept of his famous mouse over 300 times before one said yes.

Even with the success of Mickey Mouse, Disney still faced challenges in keeping his business afloat. Not only was he overworked, but tensions with his employer — who eventually stole his longtime and best animator from him — led to Disney having a nervous breakdown.

After taking some time off with his wife to recuperate, Disney returned with a bold new idea: He would develop a full-length animation feature, which he'd call Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). It would become a huge success at the box office, yet the films that followed — Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940) and Bambi (1942) — would end up being duds.

His animators went on strike during World War II

If Disney didn't already have enough burdens to shoulder, more were on the way. His animators went on strike at the start of World War II and contributed to his mounting debt that ran upwards of $4 million dollars. After the war was over, his company was slow to rebuild, but during this time, Disney learned to diversify his business by turning to television, despite pressures from the film studios to stay on the big screen.

His gamble paid off. With the success of TV shows like The Mickey Mouse Club and Davy Crockett , Disney was able to harness enough capital to launch his biggest venture yet: Disneyland.

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The opening of Disneyland was called 'Black Sunday'

Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955, in Anaheim, California. Like most of Disney's enterprises, it got off to a rocky start. Forged tickets were bringing more visitors than anticipated, adding to a line that trailed seven miles long. With temps soaring up to 100 degrees, the new asphalt was melting women's high heels, drinking fountains were defunct (thanks to a plumber's strike) and some of the rides malfunctioned. Critics blasted the opening of Disneyland, calling it "Black Sunday."

But as always, Disney's tenacity and perseverance turned his latest endeavor around. Disneyland became a colossal success, clearing out his financial debts, and to this day, operates as an integral part of his business empire.

Commenting on the benefits of failure, Disney once said: "All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all the troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me. You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you."

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