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March 2015

Published by: Chad E Taylor, Managing Partner

The Wonderful Walt Disney

“You can design, and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes

people to make the dream a reality.” – Walt Disney

This year will mark the 60th

anniversary of Disneyland®’s grand opening. The date it opened was

July 17, 1955. This was a monumental life accomplishment for Walt Disney. He overcame

many obstacles throughout his life, and his refusal to fail, plus his unfaltering determination and

ambition led him to this success.

Everyone aspires to be great at what they do. Walt Disney wanted to be better than great, he

wanted to be legendary. I think we can agree that he did much more than even he imagined he

could do. Here is his story.

When Walt was four, he moved to Marceline, Missouri with his family. This is where he found

his love for drawing. They had a neighbor named Sherwood who would pay Walt to draw

pictures of his horse.

As Walt grew, so did his ambition. He never really excelled in academics, but his love for art

never faltered. He went to Mckinley High School for his freshman year, and by night he

attended courses at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. During this year, he started drawing

cartoons for the school newspaper.

Unfortunately, Walt had a very difficult time finding work in his field of choice for quite some

time. However, it seemed that Walt had a good amount of luck on his side. His brother, Roy,

ended up getting him a job through someone he knew, which gave him a chance to work at the

Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio. He was given the opportunity to create advertisements for

newspapers, magazines, and even movie theaters. This is also where he met his future business

partner, Ubbe Iwerks.

At Kansas City Film Ad Company, Disney started to make cutout animation commercials. This

eventually led to him experimenting, and ultimately deciding to pursue cel animation instead.

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He then decided to partner up with a co-worker from the ad company and create Laugh-O-Gram

Studio. This ended up being relatively successful, so they opened an office.

Once the office was open, they ran into some issues which led to Laugh-O-Gram being

unsustainable, so he decided to set up a studio in Hollywood, California. Virginia Davis, the star

of Alice’s Wonderland, and Ubbe Iwerks moved to Hollywood as well. This became the start of

Disney Brothers’ Studio with Roy, Walt, and Ubbe.

A couple years after moving to Hollywood, Walt hired Lillian Bounds, and Roy’s wife, Edna, to

help with some of the artwork. Walt and Lillian eventually married. Virginia ended up

becoming a large part of the first live-action animation they produced. This animation was

called Alice Comedies, and was based on Alice’s Wonderland. Unfortunately, it was only

popular for a short time.

Once Alice Comedies had run its course, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was born. This was produced

through Universal Pictures®. It had extreme success. It finally seemed as though Walt had

struck a home run.

Unfortunately for Walt, that success was short lived. Walt went to meet with Charles Mintz, the

producer that had gotten Oswald the Lucky Rabbit into production, to ask for an increase in pay.

To Walt’s surprise, Charles wanted to reduce his pay. This turned into a huge mess. Oswald

was owned by Universal Productions, and Walt’s animators were under contract with Charles.

Walt refused to take lower pay and ended up losing Oswald and all of his animators, aside from

Iwerks. Being a loyal friend, Ubbe Iwerks refused to abandon Walt.

Walt found himself in a pinch again, but he was determined. Finally, from failure came great

success. After suffering the loss of his rights to Oswald the Rabbit, he came up with Mickey

Mouse, who was based on a pet mouse he’d previously had.

Mickey Mouse was a hit, and still is, even today. Walt was even the one who originally did the

voice of Mickey! The first animation that featured Mickey was called Plane Crazy, then The

Gallopin’ Gaucho, and finally, Steamboat Willie. Steamboat Willie was his first animation to be

released with sound, but the others soon followed, due to the success with Steamboat Willie.

Silly Symphonies was the next series Walt produced. The first in the series was both drawn and

animated by Ubbe. Unfortunately, this series didn’t become as popular as they’d hoped, but it

did lead to the creation of The Three Little Pigs, which ended up being the most successful short

he ever created. It played in theatres for several months. The reason the short was so successful

was because of its great story. On top of having a witty story, it was also very relevant to the

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time period in which it premiered. The theme song, “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf,”

became a huge hit since it related very much to the Great Depression.

Walt received his first Academy Award on November 18, 1932 for “Mickey Mouse.”

Up to this point, Walt had seen a taste of success. Little did he know that his next production

would be the homerun he’d been working so hard to hit.

Everyone told Walt that his next production idea would fail. Everyone thought it would be his

downfall, even his kids. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was his first feature-length film.

Despite his colleagues and family begging him to give up on the idea, he powered through it. It

started production in 1934 and continued for about 3 years. At that point, they’d run out of

money and had to find a way to complete it. To do so, they showed a rough and unfinished

version to loan officers. To everyone’s surprise, it was a big hit. They were able to finish the

production, and it premiered in February 1938, and became the most successful film of that year.

It brought in $8 million initially, which in today’s world is worth $134 million.

After the World War II, Walt worked on Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Cinderella.

Cinderella was his biggest hit since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He also worked on some

other cartoon shorts, but they weren’t as successful as some of his other works.

In the late 1940s, Walt started designing an amusement park. The purpose of the park was

originally just to provide his employees with a fun place to take their children. He’d thought of

the idea after seeing a couple different amusement parks. He’d originally designed it to be just

across the street from his studio. It took several years for him to gather his ideas and put them

together. A few of his employees decided they wanted to take part in the project, and were

eventually called “Imagineers.”

After several years of development, Disneyland’s grand opening took place on July 17, 1955. It

was broadcast on live television. There were thousands of people in attendance, eagerly awaiting

the unveiling of this wonderland Walt had created. Among those who attended were Ronald

Reagan, Bob Cummings, and Art Linkletter.

After Disneyland’s grand opening, Walt started expanding his creative projects. Treasure Island

was the first feature film that was totally live-action. After that was 20,000 Leagues Under the

Sea, Old Yeller, The Shaggy Dog, Pollyanna, Swiss Family Robinson, The Absent-Minded

Professor, and then The Parent Trap.

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In the mid-1950s, Disney started airing The Mickey Mouse Club, on a daily basis. It continued

until the 1990s.

Soon after The Mickey Mouse Club, came Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, One Hundred

and One Dalmatians, and The Sword and the Stone.

By this time, Disney had become a very successful man. His imagination created a beautiful

world of fantasy that we still, to this day, enjoy.

A short time before his death, he was working on plans for Disney World. He wanted it to be

even more grandiose than Disneyland, and would include the Experimental Prototype City of

Tomorrow, or better known as EPCOT. He continued to work on the design and layout for

EPCOT, even in the hospital, when he knew he was dying.

On December 15, 1966, Walt took his final breaths. Although his death was disappointing, I

think we can agree that he lives on today in his creations and will continue to do so for many

years to come.

After his death, Disney World was finished and opened in October 1971 and, as we know,

became a huge success.

Productions are still being made in his name today, and although he didn’t physically help create

them, I still see a spark of his imagination in them.

Walt Disney had an amazing mind, and he knew how to put it to use.

Something we can take from his story is that no matter how hard things get, keep pushing

forward and never give up on your dreams. Failures are not truly failures, but lessons that bring

us closer to success.