Walter Elias Disney, or we usually know as Walt Disney, is one of my inspiration. His contribution to this world will never be forgotten. I cannot imagine the world without Walt Disney. If he had never been born, the world would have never known his optimist, magic, and belief. I would have never believed that our dreams could come true if we believe it.
Walt Disney was born at Chicago, Illinois, December 5th, 1901. His parents, Elias Disney and Flora Call, raised him with his brothers and sister. Walt was one of five children, four boys and a girl. They are Herbert Arthur Disney, Raymond Arnold Disney, Roy Oliver Disney, Walter Elias Disney, and the only girl, Ruth Flora Disney. Walt’s father, Elias, had a friend Walter Parr and Elias named his fourth son after both his name and his friend’s.
Since his childhood, Walt Disney loved drawing. Even when his family lived in Marceline, Missouri, their neighbor “Doc” Sherwood paid Walt to draw pictures of a horse, Rupert, which belongs to The Sherwoods.
Walt and his family then moved to Kansas City in 1901. There, Walt and Ruth attended The Benton Grammar School. They also met Walter Pfeiffer in this place, who then introduced Walt to motion pictures. Walt also loved to entertain his classmates by imitating his silent hero, Charlie Chaplin, or telling stories while illustrating on the chalk board. Later on, he even sneaked out of the house at the night, for performing comical skits at local theatres.
In the fall 1917, Walt went to McKinley High School and became the cartoonist for the school newspaper. He also took night courses at the Chicago Art Institute. His cartoons were focused on World War I, and then at the age of sixteen, he dropped out from school to join the Army. But the Army rejected him because he was underage.
But Walt did not give up. With his friend, he decided to join Red Cross and he was sent to France, where he drove an ambulance. He spent a year driving the ambulance. And guess what, his ambulance was full of Disney cartoons!
Returned from France, Walt decided to start career in commercial art, which soon led him to his experiments in animation. He began producing ads for magazines, newspapers, and movie theatres in Kansas City for Pesmen-Rubin. There he met a cartoonist named Ubbe Iwerks. Both of them became close-friends and then they decided to form a company named Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists. 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. But he didn’t give up. He brought his unfinished print of The Alice Comedies to Hollywood and gave it to a New York publisher, Margaret Winkler, and started a new business. He was not yet twenty-two.
His hard works had been paid. Alice Comedies was successful. This was the beginning of Disney Brothers’ Studio, which was located on Hyperion Avenue in the Silver Lake district. In 1925, Walt hired a young woman named Lilian Bounds, worked to ink and paint celluloid, whom Walt got married in the same year.
In 1927, Walt and Iwerks created Oswald, The Lucky Rabbit. He was sure that it would be a hit, but unfortunately, Margaret Winkler’s husband, Charles B. Mintz betrayed him and stole the character from Disney’s company. It made Universal, not Disney, owned the Oswald trademark, and they were allowed to make movies without Disney.
After losing the trademark of Oswald, Walt Disney decided to develop a new character to replace it. He recalled his adopted pet, a mouse, while working in a Kansas City Studio. Along with Iwerks who made him a sketches, Disney decided to animate the character. The mouse was originally named Mortimer, but Lillian thought it did not fit. So Mickey Mouse was created. His first movie is Plane Crazy, a silent film. Then Walt decided to create a sound cartoon, which later known as Steamboat Willie. Mickey Mouse was designed by Ub Iwerks, but Walt Disney is the soul of Mickey Mouse. Walt himself provided voice and personality to Mickey Mouse. After Mickey Mouse, he made many animation movies with sound. The results is obvious. Everyone knows about Mickey Mouse, right?
Walt did not stop after that. He wanted more. He then made Silly Symphonies, along with Technicolor, the only color cartoons at that time. In 1932, Walt achieved his first Academy Awards for the production entitled Flowers and Trees. He then achieved his second award for the first full-length animated musical feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He then continued his works with Bambi, Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Dumbo.
Walt Disney was also a loving, caring father and husband to his family. Walt and Lillian were blessed with Diane Disney and Sharon Disney. Walt wanted to have a place where children could have fun with their parents. This thought led him to create an amusement park. Disney spent five years of developing Disneyland. He supervised the Disneyland project by himself and was willing to bend or sit down while checking the attraction, just for getting the perspective from a child. Disneyland, one of the world’s first theme parks, finally opened on July 17, 1955, and was immediately successful.
Walt Disney had smoking habits. In late 1966, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. On November 2, 1966, Walt Disney was told to have an enormous tumor on his left lung. Five days later, he came back to the hospital for surgery, but the tumor had spread so the doctor must remove his entire left lung. He then took several chemotherapy sessions; later on he spent a short time in Palm Springs, California, before returning home with his beloved wife. On November 30 1966, Walt Disney collapsed at home and was brought to hospital. He died ten days after his sixty-fifth birthday, on December 15, 1966. The world had lost one of the great people.
Walt Disney had died, but his works continue. They keep creating wonderful movies, characters, and animation. As stated in a plague at the entrance of Disneyland, which shows the spirit of Disneyland:
source: everywhere (online)
and there is a cute watch too, you can see it here
