Walt Disney Biography

Here is a piece I wrote in second year for my non-fiction module.

Walt Disney. A name that is known worldwide, a global sensation that brings families together, with a small beloved cartoon character that started it all. Mickey Mouse.


Walter Elias Disney was born on the 5^th of December 1901, in Hermosa, Illinois, United States of America, he was one of five children, four boys and a girl, his father was Elias Disney an Irish-Canadian, and his mother Flora Call Disney a German-American.

Disney lived in Marceline, Missouri for the most of his childhood, from a young age he began drawing and painting and then sold his work to his neighbours and family friends.

Fast forward and Disney attended McKinley High School in Chicago, where he took classes in drawing and photography and became a contributing cartoonist for the school newspaper, in the evenings he took courses at the Art Institute of Chicago, But by the age of 16 Disney dropped out of school to join the Army but was actually rejected for being underage, but this didn’t stop Walt Disney because instead he joined the Red Cross and was sent to France for a year to drive an ambulance.

Let’s go and fast forward some years, it’s 1919, Walt Disney moved to Kansas City, to pursue a career as a newspaper artist. His brother Roy had got him a job at the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio, there he met cartoonist Ubbe Eert Iwwerks, but he better known as Ub Iwerks. From there, Disney worked at the Kansas City Film Ad Company, here he made commercials based on cut-out animation. Around this time Disney started experimenting with a camera and doing hand-drawn cel animation, this gave him the idea to open his own animation business. From his former work he then recruited Fred Harman as his first employee. This began the road to the Walt Disney Company.

Now with his starting of his own company still in Kansas City, Walt and his first employee Fred Harman made a deal with a local theater to screen their cartoons, which they called Laugh-O-Grams. The cartoons became hugely popular, and Disney was able to acquire his own studio, which he named it the same as his cartoons which was Laugh-O-Gram, the new company hired a number of employees, some which included Harman’s brother Hugh and Iwerks.

The Laugh-O-Grams were a majority of seven-minute fairy tales that combined with both animation and live action, which they called Alice in Cartoonland. Unfortunately, by 1923, the studio became burdened by debt and Disney was forced to declare bankruptcy thus the end of Laugh-O-Gram.

This didn’t stop Disney to continue to pursue his career in animation, because soon after he and his brother Roy pooled their money together and moved to Hollywood, Iwerks moved with them soon after they arrived and the three began Disney Brothers’ Studio.

Disney Brothers’ Studio first deal was with New York distributor Margaret Winkler as they distributed their Alice cartoons, this also led to their first cartoon character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

Disney’s career was soring, making short animation for around $1,500, but a few years after making their first deal with Margaret Winkler, he discovered that she and her husband had stolen rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, but took all of his animators, except Iwerks, But while this was happening all under his nose, before he had discovered the ugly truth about Margaret Winkler and her husband, Walt Elias Disney fell in love.

Twenty-six-year-old, Lillian Bounds was hired by the Disney brothers, Roy believed it was time that Walt found a woman to settle down with and seeing this dark-haired girl he thought could possibly be the one for his brother.

Walt Disney was trying to get forget the feeling of loneliness and loss after his brother Roy married Edith, feeling a sense of betrayal from his brother, Walt then turned to Lillian for comfort and company, as he began to spend more time around Lillian ink and painting station, one late night while helping Lillian with her inking, Walt leaned over to how her something on her work board, and he felt the soft brush of her thick hair on his cheek and without thinking Walt kissed Lillian’s neck.

It wasn’t soon after Walt came to Roy to ask for an advance $40 for his suit for Roy’s wedding and $75 for a wedding ring for Lillian, Walt was smitten, three months after his brother’s wedding, Walt tied the knot with Lillian, with only Lillian’s mother present as Disney thought that it would be too far and too expensive for his parents, he also didn’t invite his brother, because he still resented his brother for marrying Edith.

Their first night alone ended with Walt Disney walking out of the honeymoon cabin due to performance anxiety and instead visited the club car, where he had his shoes shined, the had arrived at Los Angeles and transferred to a steamer boat to Seattle, from their Walt Disney felt more relaxed and finally was able to consummate his marriage.

Their honeymoon had to be cut short as Disney was notified that there was an emergency at the studio, but what emergency we don’t know.

Later on, Walt Disney had a ‘present’ for his brother, as he decided to change the studio name from the Disney Brothers Studios to the Walt Disney Studios, Walt had claimed that a single name was more appealing, but both brothers knew that this wasn’t the case as Walt still felt ‘betrayed’ by his brother so this was to spite him. But Roy shrugged his shoulders to it as he didn’t care for the fame as much as Walt did. 

Moving now to March 1928 and Walt Disney was creating the first ever, Mickey Mouse cartoon, although this was all done in secrecy behind the doors of Ub Iwerk’s tiny office, although tension rose in the studio between those leaving and those staying and Walt didn’t know who to trust, thus why he created Mickey behind closed doors, but with the employees leaving a rumour started that Walt Disney was a mediocre artist who couldn’t draw a straight line, this rumour lasted for decades. The rumours dogged and infuriated Disney, but after twenty years of when they began, Disney admitted publicly that he didn’t draw Mickey Mouse, but he refused to give the proper credit of where it was due, which was Iwerks.

It was a hit and miss for a while when it came to Mickey Mouse with cartoons such as Plane Crazy, Gallopin’ Gaucho and The Navigator.

Steamboat Willie became an overnight success and turned Walt Disney into Hollywood’s newest ‘Boy Wonder’ and from its success Walt Disney learned how to put sound into his animations and also to give speech to characters.

A year later and Disney was now making movies, his first was Silly Symphonies which featured Mickey and his newly created friends which we all know as, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto, however one of his popular cartoons, Flowers and Trees which was the first cartoon to be in colour but also to win an Oscar.

In 1933 The Three Little Pigs and its title song Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Became the theme song for the country during The Great Depression.

It was also this year however, that Lillian, Walt’s wife gave birth to a little girl called Diane Marie Disney. When Lillian and his new born daughter were ready to leave the hospital, Walt surprised her by driving to the front door of the family’s new home, which overlooked the studio, in the nearby foothills of the Los Feliz district just north of Hollywood. Walt Disney decided as to commemorate the birth of his daughter, he declared from then on, the first day that any new Disney picture opened, orphans everywhere were to be admitted free, but to this day we don’t know if its still free for orphans to this day.

However, in 1937 on December the 21^st Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which was the first full length animated film, premiered in Los Angles, despite the fact that it came out during The Great Depression it produced a whopping $1.499 million! This lead on to more movies over the next five years, such as Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942), before all these movies back in December of 1939, a new campus for the now called the Walt Disney Animation Studios, opened in Burbank, although there was a setback for the company that occurred in 1941, the same year that Dumbo was released. The setback that happened however, is that Disney’s animators went on strike, later on many resigned and it took years for the company fully recovered, for how many years though, we don’t know.

Walt Disney became side tracked with what he called packaged features which were groups of strung together shorts that ran at feature length, this lasted until 1950’s as he once again became focused with animated features. These were Cinderella (1950) a live actioned movie called Treasure Island (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951, Peter Pan (1953), Lady and the Tramp (1955), Sleeping Beauty (1959) and finally 101 Dalmatians (1961). Over a hundred features were produced by his studio.

Walt Disney was among one of the first to use television for an entertainment medium, The Zorro and Davy Crockett these series became extremely popular especially with children, as was the well-known Mickey Mouse Club, which was a variety show featuring a cast of teenagers known as the Mouseketeers. Walt Disney had his own show as well every Sunday evening called Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color this was the start of when Disney began to promote his new theme park. Disney final work that he produced himself was in fact Mary Poppins (1964) which was a mix between live action and animation, like his previous work with the Alice short cartoons.

Although his films are wildly popular, Disney had a flaw in each of his movies, this being the lack of a mother figure in his movies or the main characters mother has died, the reason for this is because his mother died in an accident, but Walt was stricken with grief when he heard the news thus making hero’s motherless.

Disney also made his characters each have a personality defects these five films in particular which are in no particular order; Snow White, Dumbo, Pinocchio, Bambi and Fantasia this symbolize this as by a loss or missing parental figure, the drama is further represented by a series of objects that threatens the heroic quest such as; Snow White’s poisoned apple; Pinocchio’s growing nose; Bambi’s forest fire; Dumbo’s awkward ears and in Fantasia’s climatic sequence. Though these were brought to Disney, he rejected these meanings.

During his time as the leader of the Walt Disney Company, Walt also had a darker side by working with the FBI for twenty-five years as an informant as he rooted out communists, subversives and Jews.

During his time on his evening show Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color, Walt Disney started to show his work on his new theme park it costed around $17 million and the Disneyland theme Park opened on July 17^th, 1955 in Anaheim, California it was televised on ABC,  after a couple of mishaps that happened on the opening day it became a place where children and families can enjoy and explore many rides and meet the characters.

In the frame of months, the park had increased its investment tenfold, it was now entertaining tourists around the world, while his original park some attendance problems that happened over the years, The park itself is over 160 acres and even though when the theme park had its grand opening, Tomorrowland wasn’t even finish, the two acres that occupied Tomorrowland were in the worse shape, but to hide the fact it was in bad shape Disney decided to smother the entire area with balloons and peanuts.

The year is now 1957, having graduated from a Swiss boarding school twenty-one-year-old Sharon who they had adopted in the year 1937, although Walt had covered up the fact that she was adopted, so it wouldn’t tarnish his reputation. She had returned to her home with the desire to become an actress, her father jumped at the chance and arranged for her to play a small role in the studios feature adaptation of the revolutionary war novel, Johnny Tremain, but not long after the picture opened she lost her interest in performing and instead announced her engagement to an architect called Robert Borgfeldt Brown, whom she had met during a blind date. But Walt unlike the joy he felt when his eldest daughter Diane married Ron Miller, although whatever her choice, Sharon knew that her father would never approve and would have found anything wrong with any man that she’d have chosen.

Sharon’s marriage led Walt to have another breakdown and end up in another depression as he feels as though he as ‘lost’ his last child as he didn’t know where to go next.

Disneyland has expanded over time, with new rides and locations in the park, but has also branded out globally with Walt Disney Worlds in Orlando Florida, Tokyo, Paris and Hong Kong.

Within a few years of opening, Disney began plans for a new theme park and to develop EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. It was still under construction that when in 1966, Disney was diagnosed with lung cancer and sadly he died on December 15^th, 1966, Disney was only 65 when he died.

News of his death made headlines, many were saddened by the loss of a friend, of a brother and a husband. After his death and according to his will. Lillian was named trustee and executor and had received all his personal effects. She inherited one-half of Walt’s entire estate.

At the time of his death Walt Disney was estimated to be worth $35 million, which surprisingly he had earned in the last ten years of his life. The other half of his estate was divided into three separate trusts: 45 percent went to Lillian, Diane and Sharon, another 45 percent of the share went to the Walt Disney Foundation, 5 percent of which went to a charity and finally the last ten percent of the estate was placed in trust for three nieces, the female offspring of his brother and sisters Ruth, he had left nothing for his two surviving brothers, Raymond and Roy as he believed men were in control of their own destinies.

Disney was then cremated, and his ashes were interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angles, California. After Walt Disney had died, Roy carried on the plans to finish the Florida theme park, which then opened in 1971 under the name Walt Disney World in memory of his brother.

Although rumour has it that Walt Disney’s head was actually frozen, for what for who knows? But that’s just a myth or is it?

Bibliography:

Marc Eliot, Walt Disney Hollywood's Dark Prince , 2nd edn (Carlton Publishing Group: Andre Deutsch, 1994), p. 266-268.
Marc Eliot, Walt Disney Hollywood's Dark Prince , 2nd edn (Carlton Publishing Group: Andre Deutsch, 1994), p. xvii-xx.
Marc Eliot, Walt Disney Hollywood's Dark Prince , 2nd edn (Carlton Publishing Group: Andre Deutsch, 1994), p. 80.
Marc Eliot, Walt Disney Hollywood's Dark Prince , 2nd edn (Carlton Publishing Group: Andre Deutsch, 1994), p. 29-30.
Marc Eliot, Walt Disney Hollywood's Dark Prince , 2nd edn (Carlton Publishing Group: Andre Deutsch, 1994), p. 230-231.
Biography.com Editors, Walt Disney Biography (April 16, 2019) <https://www.biography.com/business-figure/walt-disney> [accessed 19 April 2019].
Jenna Mullins, The Tragic Reason Why Disney Movies Rarely Have Mother Characters (12 September 2014) <https://www.eonline.com/uk/news/578733/the-tragic-reason-why-disney-movies-rarely-have-mother-characters> [accessed 1 May 2019].