Everyone knows the name. The name has created magical memories for every human on earth in one way or another. Whether through film, theme parks, or cruises - the name Walt Disney is known for magical memories through entertainment. Hellofa guy! From humble modest beginnings, to humble rich endings....the man who was Disney, stayed true till the end. He created an empire an innovation that would forever shake and be embedded in the heart of Hollywood. His story starts now ....
Walter Elias Disney was born December 5th, 1901, in Chicago, Illinois. His father, Elias Disney, was an Irish-Canadian. His mother, Flora Call Disney, was of German-American descent. Walt was one of five children, four boys and a girl. The family moved to Marceline, Missouri when Walt was just a child and Walt spend his childhood days there. Walt became interested in drawing at an early age. His knack for creating enduring art forms took shape when he talked his sister, Ruth, into helping him paint the side of the family's house with tar. Walt became intrigued in art and started selling his first sketches to neighbors when he was only seven years old. Walt and his family returned to Chicago as a teen and at McKinley High School in Chicago, Disney divided his attention between drawing and photography, contributing both to the school paper. At night he attended the Academy of Fine Arts. Walt discovered his first movie house on Marceline's Main Street. There he saw a dramatic black-and-white recreation of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. During the fall of 1918, Disney attempted to enlist for military service. When he was rejected because he was only 16 years of age, Walt joined the Red Cross and was sent overseas, where he spent a year driving an ambulance and chauffeuring Red Cross officials. His ambulance was covered from stem to stem, not with stock camouflage, but with drawings and cartoons.
After the war, Walt returned to Kansas City, where he began his career as an advertising cartoonist. It was here, in 1920, that he created and marketed his first original animated cartoons for local business' under his company name Laugh-O-Grams, and later perfected a new method for combining live-action and animation. It was at this time he had an idea entitiled "The Alice Comedies," which was about a real girl and her adventures in an animated world. Walt soon ran out of money, and his company Laugh-O-Grams went bankrupt. Seeing potential in what Hollywood had to offer his adaptation of Alice Comedies, Walt packed his suitcase and with his unfinished print of The Alice Comedies in hand, headed for Hollywood to start a new business. He was not yet twenty-two.
The early flop of "The Alice Comedies" inoculated Walt against fear of failur. He had risked it all three or four times in his life. Walt's brother, Roy Disney, was already in California, with an immense amount of sympathy and encouragement, and $250. Pooling their resources, they borrowed an additional $500, and set up shop in their uncle's garage. Soon, they received an order from New York for the first Alice in Cartoonland (The Alice Comedies) featurette, and the brothers expanded their production operation to the rear of a Hollywood real estate office. It was Walt's enthusiasm and faith in himself, and others, that took him straight to the top of Hollywood society.
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 . Three years after Walt and Lilly wed, Walt created a new animated character, it was a mouse. Walt came up with the idea of a mouse in his early days of first arriving in Hollywood. Laying in bed one night he a plastic mouse figurine caught his eye, and he imagined it to life. The idea swam around in his head for awhile, but there was no look for the mouse. He created a design and look for the new idea while riding on a train back to Los Angeles with his wife Lillian. After completing his sketch, Walt showed it to Lillian and said his name was Mortimer Mouse. Lillian did not like the name and suggested Mickey Mouse. And so was the birth of Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse made his debut in Steamboat Willie on November 18, 1928, at the Colony Theater in New York. It would be Walt's first fim with sound, and would become a defining all time classic for him. Mickey's first words were spoken in 1929 inThe Karnival Kid, and it was Walt himself that provied the voice. Walt provided the voice of Mickey Mouse until 1946. Jim Macdonald took over and was Mickey's voice for 3 decades until he retired. The current voice of Mickey Mouse is Wayne Allwine.
Walt never lost sight of what mattered most, and refused to accept being a Hollywood mogul. Instead of socializing with the "who's who" of the Hollywood entertainment industry, he would stay home and have dinner with his wife, Lillian, and his daughters, Diane and Sharon. In fact, socializing was a bit boring to Walt Disney. Usually he would dominate a conversation, and hold listeners spellbound as he described his latest dreams or ventures. The people that where close to Walt were those who lived with him, and his ideas, or both. Walt never tired, whether from his strive to do only the best animation, or to treat his guests at his theme parks like family.
Walt was a smoker and his cough always warned his employees that he was near. Years of smoking took thier toll on Walt and he was diagnosed with lung cancer at age 65. One year later, Walt circumed to the lung cancer at the age of 66 leaving behind a legacy as a true original Hollywood innovator! Rest in peace Uncle Walt!! Always! See his grave here.
SEE WALT'S STORY AT FINDADEATH.COM
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