History
“May all your dreams come true!” Who was the creator of this unforgettable phrase, Mickey Mouse, and won thirty Academy Awards? Who else, but the great Walt Disney. Walt Disney was born in Chicago on December 15, 1901. Walter Elias Disney was the fourth son of Elias Disney and Flora Call. Walter’s father was a farmer and his mother was a schoolteacher.
Walt spent most of his childhood in Marceline, Montana. This is said to have furnished the inspiration and model for the main streets of Disneyland. His family moved to Kansas, and this is where young Walt began studying cartooning at a school and ended up going to Kansas City Art Institute and School of Design.
Disney moved back to Chicago in 1917 and entered McKinley High. Here, he made drawings for the school newspaper and took photographs. World War I interrupted Walt’s schooling, because he had to participate as a truck driver in France and Germany, for the American Red Cross.
In 1919, Walt returned to Kansas City. There he became an inker in commercial art studios and a draftsman. He met U.B. Iwerks there. Disney and Iwerks started their own small studio and made one and two minute animated advertising films on a second hand motion camera. They also did a series of cartoon sketches called “Laugh O-Grams” and seven-minute animated fairy tales. They called the fairytale Alice in Cartoon land. A young, New York film distributor cheated the two of them, so they headed for Los Angeles, to be with Walt’s brother, Roy.
Roy became their business manager. They invented a character, by the name of Oswald the rabbit. The films were contracted for distribution at $1,500 dollars. This started their small enterprise. In 1927, Disney and Iwerks wanted to try a new character-a happy, full of energy, and mischievous mouse, named Mickey. In 1928 Disney produced Steamboat Willie. This cartoon was different then all the rest, because it had sound! Next they created Minnie, who was Mickey...