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During a 43-year Hollywood career that spanned
the development of the motion picture medium as a modern American art,
Walter Elias Disney, a modern Aesop, established himself and his
product as a genuine part of Americana. David Low, the late British
political cartoonist, called Disney "the most significant figure in
graphic arts since Leonardo."
A pioneer and innovator and the
possessor of one of the most fertile imaginations the world has ever
known, Walt Disney, along with members of his staff, received more than
950 honors and citations from every nation in the world, including 48
Academy Awards® and seven Emmys® in his lifetime. Walt Disney's
personal awards included honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, the
University of Southern California, and UCLA; the Presidential Medal of
Freedom; France's Legion of Honor and Officer d'Academie decorations;
Thailand's Order of the Crown; Brazil's Order of the Southern Cross;
Mexico's Order of the Aztec Eagle; and the Showman of the World Award
from the National Association of Theatre Owners.
The creator
of Mickey Mouse and founder of the Disneyland® and Walt Disney World®
Theme Parks was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 5, 1901. His
father, Elias Disney, was Irish-Canadian. His mother, Flora Call
Disney, was of German-American descent. Walt was one of five children,
four boys and a girl.
Raised on a farm near Marceline,
Missouri, Walt became interested in drawing at an early age, selling
his first sketches to neighbors when he was only seven years old. At
McKinley High School in Chicago, Disney divided his attention between
drawing and photography, contributing both to the school paper. At
night he attended the Academy of Fine Arts.
During the fall of
1918, Disney attempted to enlist for military service. Rejected because
he was only 16 years of age, Walt joined the Red Cross and was sent
overseas, 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 drawings and cartoons.
After
the war, Walt returned to Kansas City, where he began his career as an
advertising cartoonist. Here, in 1920, he created and marketed his
first original animated cartoons and later perfected a new method for
combining live action and animation.
In August 1923, Walt
Disney left Kansas City for Hollywood with nothing but a few drawing
materials, $40 in his pocket, and a completed animated and live-action
film. 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 constructed a camera
stand in their uncle's garage. Soon they received an order from New
York for the first "Alice Comedy" featurette, and the brothers began
their production operation in the rear of a Hollywood real estate
office two blocks away.
On July 13, 1925, Walt married one of
his first employees, Lillian Bounds, in Lewiston, Idaho. They were
blessed with two daughters -- Diane, married to Ron Miller, former
president and chief executive officer of Walt Disney Productions; and
Sharon Disney Lund, a member of Disney's Board of Directors. The
Millers have seven children and Mrs. Lund had three.
Mickey
Mouse was created in 1928, and his talents were first used in a silent
cartoon entitled "Plane Crazy." Before the cartoon could be released,
however, sound burst upon the motion picture screen. Thus Mickey made
his screen debut in "Steamboat Willie," the world's first fully
synchronized sound cartoon, which premiered at the Colony Theatre in
New York on November 18, 1928.
Walt's drive to perfect the art
of animation was tireless. Technicolor was introduced to animation
during the production of his "Silly Symphonies." In 1932, the film
"Flowers and Trees" won Walt the first of his 32 personal Academy
Awards®. In 1937, he released "The Old Mill," the first short subject
to utilize the multiplane camera technique.
On December 21 of
that same year, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," the first
full-length animated musical feature, premiered at the Carthay Circle
Theater in Los Angeles. Produced at the unheard-of 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 completed such other
full-length animated classics as "Pinocchio," "Fantasia," "Dumbo," and
"Bambi." In 1940, construction was completed on Disney's Burbank
studio, and the staff swelled to more than 1,000 artists, animators,
story men, and technicians. During World War II, 94 percent of the
Disney facilities were engaged in special government work, including
the production of training and propaganda films for the armed services,
as well as health films that are still shown throughout the world by
the U.S. State Department. The remainder of Disney's efforts were
devoted to the production of comedy short subjects, deemed essential to
civilian and military morale.
Disney's 1945 feature, the
musical "The Three Caballeros," combined live action with the cartoon
medium, a process he used successfully in other features such as "Song
of the South" and the highly acclaimed "Mary Poppins." In all, 81
features were released by the studio during his lifetime.
Walt's
inquisitive mind and keen sense for education through entertainment
resulted in the award-winning "True-Life Adventure" series. Through
such films as "The Living Desert," "The Vanishing Prairie," "The
African Lion," and "White Wilderness," Disney gave audiences
fascinating insights into the world of wild animals and taught the
importance of conserving our nation's outdoor heritage.
Disneyland,
launched in 1955 as a fabulous $17 million Magic Kingdom, soon
increased its investment tenfold and had entertained, by its third
decade, more than 250 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" and "Zorro"
were popular favorites in the 1950s.
But that was only the
beginning. 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,
or EPCOT®, planned as a living showcase for the creativity of American
industry.
Said Disney, "I don't believe there is a challenge
anywhere in the world that is more important to people everywhere than
finding the solution to the problems of our cities But where do we
begin? Well, we're convinced we must start with the public need. And
the need is not just for curing the old ills of old cities. We think
the need is for starting from scratch on virgin land and building a
community that will become a prototype for the future."
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 Disney world of entertainment to include
a new amusement theme park, a 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, Walt Disney World opened to the public as scheduled on
October 1, 1971. Epcot Center opened on October 1, 1982. |
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