Table of Contents
Introduction
Mickey Mouse made many magical memories! Thanks to Walt Disney, Mickey mouse has touched the lives of people all over the world, and has taught people to never give up on their dreams.
Body
The man himself, Walter Elias Disney, was born on December fifth, 1901 in the Hermosa section of Chicago Illinois. As a child growing up in Marceline Missouri, Walt loved to draw and paint for his family and friends.
In highschool, he took many drawing and photography classes, but later dropped out to join the army. He was denied, due to being underage, only sixteen at the time. So, in 1918, he joined the Red Cross to drive an ambulance in France to help with the war.
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Along the lines with his war efforts in France, later on, Walt created films for agencies as propaganda to educate them about World War II. These films consisted of training videos for the soldiers and propaganda like films to influence citizens. For example, in 1942 an animated film called, “The New Spirit” encouraged citizens to pay taxes in support of the war. This film won various Academy Award Nominations.
In 1919, Walt Disney moved to Kansas City to be a newspaper artist. Later, he worked at the Kansas City Film Ad Company. Here, he began experimenting with a camera and doing animation. This is when Walt Disney decided to open his own animation company called Laugh-O-Grams.
Laugh-O-Grams ignited the fire that brought to us the characters we love today. These short animations were screened in a local Kansas City theater, and were wildly popular among the townspeople. Him and his team created 7-minute animated fairy tales and were called Alice in Cartoonland. In 1923, they were in debt and declared bankruptcy.
After his failed attempt at Laugh-O-Grams studio, Disney & his brother Roy gathered together money, moved to Hollywood, and started their own animation company. They named this, Disney Brother Studios. The company first worked with Margaret Winkler, a NY distributor, to showcase their Alice cartoons. After noticing the popularity of the Alice cartoons, the famous Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was created.During the success of Oswald, it was soon brought to the Disney Brother’s attention that Margaret Winkler and her husband has stolen the rights to the famous rabbit.
Instead of letting the situation get the best of them, the wheels in their brains started speeding, and the pencils on the sketchboard dancing (personification), and Mickey Mouse was born. Walt Disney’s original character sketches and drawings were as good as Picasso (simile).
The first short films in which Mickey Mouse made his debut were Plane Crazy and The Gallopin’ Gauncho, both being silent films due to lack of technology and it failed to succeed. When the magic of technology brought sound to film, Steamboat Willie was created, and it was amazingly popular.
In 1929, Silly Symphonies, a cartoon short film, was created. Each film came with different characters and a new story line. It was a way for Disney to experiment with different techniques, stories, characters, and technologies. This is where some of the characters we all love today came from, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto.
The first ride created by Walt Disney was the Carousel of Progress which showcased the evolution of electricity from the 1960s to the futuristic 2000s. The Imagineers designed the show as a mobile six set studio (alliteration) and hosted it in it’s pavilion at 1964 New York World’s Fair.
At the time of the fair, the ride was known as Progressland. After the ride was over, people were able to continue venturing throughout the building. On the upper level, the model created by Walt known as “Progress City,” also known as EPCOT, could be found. Now the model can be found during Tomorrowland’s People Mover ride.
Unfortunately, Walt Disney was a big smoker and later on in life he developed severe lung cancer. Our beloved Walt Disney passed away on December 15, 1966 at 65 years old.
Contrary to popular belief, Walt Disney’s head is not in fact frozen somewhere in Disney World. It is a myth that doctors froze his head in hopes that science will be able to bring him back to life one day. Instead, he was cremated and his ashes are held in the Forest Lawn Cemetery mausoleum in Glendale, California
Walt Disney had an extreme passion for trains. This passion is reflected in his model and structure of Disney World. It was his idea to have a monorail as a form of “fun” transportation compared to the shuttles buses and walking.
Conclusion
Although Walt has passed, he has made many contributions to society and his legacy lives on. Make a Wish and UNCF are among the various non-profit organizations Disney donates to, helping families and the community throughout the years. In 2017, Disney donated about 348 million dollars to nonprofit organizations.
He also made it mandatory to revamp mickey mouse every few years so that children of all generations can grow up with the magical character.
Walt has been knocked down throughout his life but continued to push and follow his dreams, he famously said, “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”
Disney is a huge company now, but it’s start was small. From the beginning he’s always said, “I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing — that it was all started by a mouse.”
