"I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was 
all started by a mouse." 
~Walt Disney~

Walter Elias Disney, who founded Disneyland and Walt 
Disney World, was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 5, 1901. 
His father, Elias Disney, was Irish-Canadian. His mother, 
Flora Disney, was German-American. Walt was one of five children, 
four boys and a girl.

After Walt's birth, the Disney family moved to Marceline, Missouri. 
Walt lived out most of his childhood here. Walt had a very 
early interest in drawing, and art. When he was seven years old, 
he sold small sketches, and drawings to nearby neighbors. Instead of 
doing his school work Walt doodled pictures of animals, and nature. 
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.

Close to the Disney family farm, there were Santa Fe 
Railroad tracks that crossed the countryside. Often Walt would 
put his ear against the tracks, to listen for approaching trains. 
Walt's uncle, Mike Martin, was a train engineer who worked the 
route between Fort Madison, Iowa, and Marceline. 
Walt later worked a summer job with the railroad, selling 
newspapers, popcorn, and sodas to travelers.

During his life Walt would often try to recapture the 
freedom he felt when aboard those trains, by building his own 
miniature train set. Then building a 1/8-scale backyard railroad, 
the Carolwood Pacific or Lilly Bell.

Besides his other interests, Walt attended McKinley High School 
in Chicago. There, Disney divided his attention between drawing and 
photography, and contributing to the school paper. At night he attended 
the Academy of Fine Arts, to better his drawing abilities.

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 these "carefree years" of 
country living young Walt began to love, and appreciate nature and 
wildlife, and family and community.He was encouraged much by his
mother and brother, Roy O.

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.

Once he returned from France, he wanted to pursue a career in 
commercial art,which soon lead to his experiments in animation. He 
began producing short animated films for local businesses, in Kansas City. 
By the time Walt had started to create The Alice Comedies, which 
was about a real girl and her adventures in an animated world, Walt ran 
out of money, and his company Laugh-O-Grams went bankrupted. Instead 
of giving up, Walt packed his suitcase and with his unfinished print of 
The Alice Comedies in hand, headed for Hollywood to start a new 
business. He was not yet twenty-two.

The early flop of The Alice Comedies inoculated Walt against fear 
of failure; he had risked it all three or four times in his life. Walt's 
brother, Roy O. 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.

Although, Walt wasn't the typical 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.At home, he was affectionate 
and understanding. He gave love by being interested, involved, 
and always there for his family and friends

On July 13, 1925, Walt married one of his first employees, 
Lillian Bounds, inLewiston, Idaho. Later on they would be blessed 
with two daughters, Diane andSharon . Three years after Walt and 
Lilly wed, Walt created a new animated character, Mickey Mouse.
 

His talents were first used in a silent cartoon entitled Plane Crazy. 
However, before the cartoon could be released, sound was introduced 
upon the motion picture industry. Thus, Mickey Mouse made his 
screen debut in Steamboat Willie, the world's first synchronized 
sound cartoon, which premiered at the Colony Theater in New York 
on November 18, 1928

Walt's drive to perfect the art of animation was endless. 
Technicolor was introduced to animation during the production 
of his Silly Symphonies Cartoon Features. Walt Disney 
held the patent for Technicolor for two years, allowing him to make 
the only color cartoons. In 1932, the production entitled Flowers 
and Trees 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.

Probably the most painful time of Walt's private life, was the 
accidental death of his mother in 1938. After the great success of 
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt and Roy bought their parents, 
Elias and Flora Disney, a home close to the studios. Less than a month 
later Flora died of asphyxiation caused by a faulty furnace in the new 
home. The terrible guilt of this haunted Walt for the rest of his life.

In 1940, construction was completed on the Burbank Studio, and 
Disney's staff swelled to more than 1,000 artists, animators, story 
men, and technicians.Disney's 1945 feature, the musical 
The Three Caballeros, combined live action with the cartoon animation, 
a process he used successfully in such other features as Song of 
the South and the highly acclaimed Mary Poppins. In all, more 
than 100 features were produced by his studio.

Walt Disney's dream of a clean, and organized amusement park, 
came true, as Disneyland Park opened in 1955. As a fabulous 
$17-million magic kingdom, soon had increased its investment tenfold, 
and by the beginning of its second quarter-century, had entertained 
more than 200 million people, including presidents, kings and queens, 
and royalty from all over the globe

A pioneer in the field of television programming, Disney began 
television production in 1954, and was among the first to present 
full-color programming with his Wonderful World of Color in 1961. 
The Mickey Mouse Club was a popular favorite in the 1950s.

In 1965, Walt Disney turned his attention toward the problem of 
improving the quality of urban life in America. He personally directed 
the design of an Experimental Prototype Community of 
Tomorrow (EPCOT). It was planned as a living showcase for the 
creativity of American industry.

Thus, Disney directed the purchase of 43 square miles of virgin 
land--twice the size of Manhattan Island--in the center of 
the state of Florida. Here, he master planned a whole 
new "Disney world" of entertainment to include a new amusement 
theme park, motel-hotel resort vacation center, and his 
Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. 
After more than seven years of master planning and preparation, 
including 52 months of actual construction, the Walt Disney 
World Resort, including the Magic Kingdom Park, opened to 
the public as scheduled on October 1, 1971. EPCOT Center 
opened October 1, 1982, and on May 1, 1989, the Disney-MGM 
Studios Theme Park opened.

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. Walt Disney did more to 
touch the hearts, minds, and emotions of millions of Americans 
than any other person in the past century. Through his work he 
brought joy, happiness, and a universal means of communication 
to the people of every nation. 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.

Thank you to JustDisney.com for the information provided here.

Sadie

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