Walk disney biography

All All. Sign In. Walter Elias Disney. Uncle Walt. 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. 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 s, 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 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.

Winkler Margaret. Walt was backed up financially only by Winkler and his older brother Roy O. Disneywho remained his business partner for the rest of his life. Hundreds of "Alice Comedies" were produced between andbefore they lost popularity. Walt then started work on a series around a new animated character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

This series was successful, but inWalt discovered that M. Winkler and her walk disney biography, Charles Mintzhad 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.

The first two didn't sell, so Walt added synchronized sound to the last one, Steamboat Willieand it was immediately picked up. With Walt as the voice of Mickey, it premiered to great success. He took art classes as a boy and took a job as a commercial illustrator at the age of With Ub Iwerkshe developed the character Mickey Mouse inhis first highly popular success; he also provided the voice for his creation in the early years.

As the studio grew, he became more adventurous, introducing synchronized soundfull-color three-strip Technicolorfeature-length cartoons and technical developments in cameras. The results, seen in features such as Snow White and the Seven DwarfsPinocchioFantasia bothDumboand Bambifurthered the development of animated film. New animated and live-action films followed after World War II, including the critically successful CinderellaSleeping Beauty and Mary Poppinsthe last of which received five Academy Awards.

In the s, Disney expanded into the theme park industry, and in July he opened Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Disney was a heavy smoker throughout his life and died of lung cancer in before either the park or the EPCOT project were completed. Disney was a shy, self-deprecating and insecure man in private but adopted a warm and outgoing public persona.

He had high standards and high expectations of those walk disney biography whom he worked. Although there have been accusations that he was racist or antisemiticthey have been contradicted by many who knew him. Historiography of Disney has taken a variety of perspectives, ranging from views of him as a purveyor of homely patriotic values to being a representative of American cultural imperialism.

Widely considered to be one of the most influential cultural figures of the 20th century, Disney remains an important presence in the history of animation and in the cultural history of the United Stateswhere he is acknowledged as a national cultural icon. His film work continues to be shown and adapted, the Disney theme parks have grown in size and number around the world and his company has grown to become one of the world's largest mass media and entertainment conglomerates.

In Marceline, Disney developed his interest in drawing when he was paid to draw the horse of a retired neighborhood doctor. Inthe Disneys moved to Kansas City, Missouri. Before long, Disney was spending more time at the Pfeiffers' house than at home. Disney and his brother Roy woke up at every morning to deliver the Times before school and repeated the round for the evening Star after school.

The schedule was exhausting, and Disney often received poor grades after falling asleep in class, but he continued his paper route for more than six years. InElias bought stock in a Chicago jelly producer, the O-Zell Company, and moved back to the city with his family. After forging the date of birth on his birth certificate, he joined the Red Cross in September as an ambulance driver.

He was shipped to France but arrived in November, after the armistice. They started their own business, the short-lived Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists. Cauger; the following month Iwerks, who was not able to run their business alone, also joined.

Walk disney biography

With the assistance of a borrowed book on animation and a camera, he began experimenting at home. Disney moved to Hollywood in July at 21 years old. Although New York was the center of the cartoon industry, he was attracted to Los Angeles because his brother Roy was convalescing from tuberculosis there, [ 37 ] and he hoped to become a live-action film director.

She was losing the rights to both the Out of the Inkwell and Felix the Cat cartoons, and needed a new series. In October, they signed a contract for six Alice comedieswith an option for two further series of six episodes each. ByWinkler's role in the distribution of the Alice series had been handed over to her husband, the film producer Charles Mintzalthough the relationship between him and Disney was sometimes strained.

In FebruaryDisney hoped to negotiate a larger fee for producing the Oswald series, but found Mintz wanting to reduce the payments. Mintz had also persuaded many of the artists involved to work directly for him, including Harman, Ising, Carman Maxwell and Friz Freleng. Disney also found out that Universal owned the intellectual property rights to Oswald.

Mintz threatened to start his own studio and produce the series himself if Disney refused to accept the reductions. Disney declined Mintz's ultimatum and lost most of his animation staff, except Iwerks, who walk disney biography to remain with him. To replace Oswald, Disney and Iwerks developed Mickey Mousepossibly inspired by a pet mouse that Disney had adopted while working in his Laugh-O-Gram studio, although the origins of the character are unclear.

Disney, who had begun to distance himself from the animation process, [ 55 ] provided Mickey's voice until In the words of one Disney employee, "Ub designed Mickey's walk disney biography appearance, but Walt gave him his soul. Mickey Mouse first appeared in May as a single test screening of the short Plane Crazybut it, and the second feature, The Gallopin' Gauchofailed to find a distributor.

After the animation was complete, Disney signed a contract with the former executive of Universal Pictures, Pat Powersto use the "Powers Cinephone" recording system; [ 58 ] Cinephone became the new distributor for Disney's early sound cartoons, which soon became popular. To improve the quality of the music, Disney hired the professional composer and arranger Carl Stallingon whose suggestion the Silly Symphony series was developed, providing stories through the use of music; the first in the series, The Skeleton Dancewas drawn and animated entirely by Iwerks.

Also hired at this time were several artists, both local and from New York. InDisney tried to trim costs from the process by urging Iwerks to abandon the practice of drawing every frame individually in favor of the more efficient technique of drawing key poses and letting assistants sketch the inbetween poses. Disney asked Powers for an increase in payments for the cartoons.

Powers refused and signed Iwerks to work for him; Stalling resigned shortly afterwards, thinking that without Iwerks, the Disney Studio would close. With the loss of Powers as distributor, Disney studios signed a contract with Columbia Pictures to distribute the Mickey Mouse cartoons, which became increasingly popular, including internationally.

Disney had been nominated for another film in that category, Mickey's Orphansand received an Honorary Award "for the creation of Mickey Mouse". InDisney produced The Three Little Pigsa film described by the media historian Adrian Danks as "the most successful short animation of all time". The film's success led to a further increase in the studio's staff, which numbered nearly by the end of the year.

ByDisney had become dissatisfied with producing cartoon shorts, [ 65 ] and believed a feature-length cartoon would be more profitable. When news leaked out about the project, many in the film industry predicted it would bankrupt the company; industry insiders nicknamed it "Disney's Folly". The glass could be moved to create the impression of a camera passing through the scene.

Although Snow White had been largely finished by the time the multiplane camera had been completed, Disney ordered some scenes be re-drawn to use the new effects. Snow White premiered in December to high praise from critics and audiences. The studio incurred a loss on both pictures and was deeply in debt by the end of February In response to the financial crisis, Disney and his brother Roy started the company's first public stock offering inand implemented heavy salary cuts.

The latter measure, and Disney's sometimes high-handed and insensitive manner of dealing with staff, led to a animators' strike which lasted five weeks. Shortly after the release of Dumbo in Octoberthe U. They're good this year, they're good next year, and they're good the year after. You have to relax and give them time to market their product.

Roy Disney, for financial reasons, suggested more combined animation and live-action productions. In earlyDisney produced Cinderellahis studio's first animated feature in eight years. It was popular with critics and theater audiences. From the early to mids, Disney began to devote less attention to the animation department, entrusting most of its operations to his key animators, the Nine Old Men[ q ] although he was always present at story meetings.

Instead, he started concentrating on other ventures. For several years Disney had been considering building a theme park. When he visited Griffith Park in Los Angeles with his daughters, he wanted to be in a clean, unspoiled park, where both children and their parents could have fun. The connected themed areas were AdventurelandFrontierlandFantasyland and Tomorrowland.

The park also contained the narrow gauge Disneyland Railroad that linked the lands; around the outside of the park was a high berm to separate the park from the outside world. The money from ABC was contingent on Disney television programs. Roy believed the program added millions to the box office takings. In a March letter to shareholders, he wrote that "television can be a most powerful selling aid for us, as well as a source of revenue.

It will probably be on this premise that we enter television when we do". As well as the construction of Disneyland, Disney worked on other projects away from the studio. He was consultant to the American National Exhibition in Moscow; Disney Studios' contribution was America the Beautifula minute film in the degree Circarama theater that was one of the most popular attractions.

Despite the demands wrought by non-studio projects, Disney continued to work on film and television projects. InDisney produced Mary Poppinsbased on the book series by P. Travers ; he had been trying to acquire the rights to the story since the s. Disney provided four exhibits for the New York World's Fairfor which he obtained funding from selected corporate sponsors.

Lincoln contained an animatronic Abraham Lincoln giving excerpts from his speeches; Carousel of Progress promoted the importance of electricity; and Ford's Magic Skyway portrayed the progress of mankind. During the early to mids, Disney developed plans for a ski resort in Mineral Kinga glacial valley in California's Sierra Nevada.

He hired experts such as the Olympic ski coach and ski-area designer Willy Schaeffler. Inhe presented a project to create a theme park in downtown St. LouisMissouri; he initially reached an agreement with the Civic Center Redevelopment Corp, which controlled the land, but the deal later collapsed over funding. It will be a community of tomorrow that will never be completed, but will always be introducing and testing and demonstrating new materials and systems.

Robin Crusoe, U. Disney had been a heavy smoker since World War I. He did not use cigarettes with filters and had smoked a walk disney biography as a young man. In early Novemberhe was diagnosed with lung cancer and was treated with cobalt therapy. On November 30, he felt unwell and was taken by ambulance from his home to St. Joseph Hospital where, on December 15, at age 65, he died of circulatory collapse caused by the cancer.

The release of The Jungle Book and The Happiest Millionaire in raised the total number of feature films that Disney had been involved in to After Disney's death, his brother Roy deferred his retirement to take full control of the Disney companies. He changed the focus of the project from a town to an attraction. Miller, opened in the Presidio of San Francisco.

Early inDisney hired an ink artist, Lillian Bounds. They married in July of that year, at her brother's house in her home town of Lewiston, Idaho. With the help of his friends Ward and Betty Kimballwho already had their own backyard railroadDisney developed blueprints and immediately set to work on creating a miniature live steam railroad for his back yard.

The name of the railroad, Carolwood Pacific Railroadcame from his home's location on Carolwood Drive. The miniature working steam locomotive was built by Disney Studios engineer Roger E. Broggieand Disney named it Lilly Belle walk disney biography his wife; [ ] after three years Disney ordered it into storage due to a series of accidents involving his guests.

Disney grew more politically conservative as he got older. A Democratic Party supporter until the presidential electionwhen he switched allegiance to the Republican Party[ ] he became a generous donor to Thomas E. Dewey 's bid for the presidency. Inhe paid for a full-page ad in Variety claiming that "Communistic agitation" was responsible for a cartoonist strike against him.

Edgar Hoover about communist activities in Hollywood. Disney's public persona was very different from his actual personality. Sherwood described him as "almost painfully shy I do a lot of things Walt Disney would not do. Walt Disney does not smoke. I smoke. Walt Disney does not drink. I drink. Just Disney. Norman recalls that when Disney said "That'll work", it was an indication of high praise.

Views of Disney and his work have changed over the decades, and there have been polarized opinions. More recently, Disney has been regarded as a paradigm of American imperialism and intolerance, as well as a debaser of culture. Disney has been accused of antisemitism for having given Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl a tour of his studio a month after Kristallnacht.

Walt Disney even returned to the studio to provide the voice. In the s, the Disney Empire continued to successfully expand. In the late s, 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. 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.

After several years in the planning and building, Disneyland opened on July 17, Disney spoke at the address. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past …. 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. Inanother theme park was planned. Instead, he joined the Red Cross and was sent to France for a year to drive an ambulance. He moved back to the U. InDisney moved to Kansas City to pursue a career as a newspaper artist. Around this time, Disney began experimenting with a camera, doing hand-drawn cel animation.

He decided to open his own animation business. From the ad company, he recruited Fred Harman as his first employee. Disney and Harman made a deal with a local Kansas City theater to screen their cartoons, which they called Laugh-O-Grams. The cartoons were hugely popular, and Disney was able to acquire his own studio, upon which he bestowed the same name.

They did a series of seven-minute fairy tales that combined both live action and animation, which they called Alice in Cartoonland. Byhowever, the studio had become burdened with debt, and Disney was forced to declare bankruptcy. In the late s, the studios broke from their distributors and created cartoons featuring Mickey Mouse and his friends.

In a setback for the company occurred when Disney animators went on strike. Many of them resigned. It would be years before the company fully recovered. Sound had just made its way into film, and Disney was the voice of Mickey, a character he had developed and that was drawn by his chief animator, Ub Iwerks.