The Disney Brothers
In the 1920s, a 19 year old kid traveled to California with his brother to open the first ever Disney Brothers Studio, which soon introduced Mickey Mouse to the world, the first Disney character created, a few years later. Walter Elias Disney, was an American animator and film producer who pioneered the US animation industry in the 1920s, by bringing fairy tale characters to life through animated movies. With the help of his friend Ub Iwerks, Disney created Mickey Mouse in 1928, his first highly popular success, which he also provided the voice for. In the years that followed, the studio brought classic animated movies such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi, into the big screen, jumpstarting the animation industry in America.
Newspaper Cartoons
Born in Chicago, Disney developed an interest in drawing at an early age and took art classes as a boy, eventually getting a job as a commercial illustrator in his teenage years. As a young boy, Disney practiced drawing by copying the front-page cartoons of a newspaper regularly bought by his father, and soon developed the skill to work with watercolors and crayons. Disney was so good at drawing that their neighbor, who was a retired medical doctor, noticed his skill and paid him money to draw a horse that the doctor's family owned. In 1911, Disney attended the Benton Grammar School where he met Walter Pfeiffer, who introduced him to the world of vaudeville and motion pictures, constantly spending time at the Pfeiffer's residence rather than at home.
The Ambulance Driver-Cartoonist
Disney's father Elias, purchased a newspaper delivery route for The Kansas City Star and Kansas City Times and tasked him and his brother Roy, to wake up at 4:30 every morning, so they can deliver the Times before school and then repeat the round for the evening after school. Disney often fell asleep in class because of this exhausting schedule and received poor grades, but continued to do this paper route for more than six years. In 1917, Disney became cartoonist of their high school newspaper, illustrating amazing patriotic sketches about World War I. Wanting to join the fight against the Germans during the Second World War, Disney was rejected to join the Army for being too young, but forged his date of birth on his birth certificate later on and joined the Red Cross in September 1918 as an ambulance driver.
The Real Ratatouille Story
Inspired by a pet mouse that he had adopted while working for a studio in Hollywood, Disney and his friend Iwerks, created Mickey Mouse in 1928 and originally wanted to call him Mortimer Mouse. Iwerks became in charge of sketching and animating Mickey Mouse, while Disney provided his voice until 1947, the duo described by one Disney employee as "Ub designed Mickey's physical appearance, but Walt gave him his soul". Mickey Mouse first appeared in May 1928 as a single test screening of the short Plane Crazy, followed by the creation of the first post-produced sound cartoon Steamboat Willie, using synchronized sound. In the following years, Disney studios signed a contract with Columbia Pictures to distribute the Mickey Mouse cartoons internationally which paved the way to the addition of more cartoon stars like Pluto, Goofy and Donald Duck.
The Walt Disney Corporation
In the 1950s, Disney expanded into the amusement park industry, opening the first ever Disneyland in Anaheim California in 1955. Walt also diversified into television programs, which allowed him to develop Disney World, a bigger theme park conceptualised as a type of city he wanted to call EPCOT, which stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. Disney had been a heavy smoker since the first World War and did not use cigarette filters, leading to his death from cancer in 1966. At present, the Walt Disney Corporation has a market capitalization value of $193B, and has over 166,000 employees worldwide.
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