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born in the Hermosa section of Chicago, Illinois
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He lived most of his childhood in Marceline, Missouri, where he began drawing, painting and selling pictures to neighbors and family friends.
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his family moved to Kansas City, where Disney developed a love for trains.
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Disney attended McKinley High School in Chicago, where he took drawing and photography classes and was a contributing cartoonist for the school paper.
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When Disney was 16, he dropped out of school to join the army but was rejected for being underage. Instead, he joined the Red Cross and was sent to France for a year to drive an ambulance.
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His brother Roy got him a job at the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio
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When Disney returned from France in 1919, he moved back to Kansas City to pursue a career as a newspaper artist.
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Walt and Harman made a deal with a local Kansas City theater to screen their cartoons, which they called Laugh-O-Grams. The cartoons were hugely popular, and Disney was able to acquire his own studio, upon which he bestowed the same name
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Disney began experimenting with a camera, doing hand-drawn cel animation, and decided to open his own animation business. From the ad company, he recruited Fred Harman as his first employee
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They did a series of seven-minute fairy tales that combined both live action and animation, which they called Alice in Cartoonland.
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By 1923, however, the studio had become burdened with debt, and Disney was forced to declare bankruptcy.
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Disney and his brother, Roy, soon pooled their money and moved to Hollywood.
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In 1925, Disney hired an ink-and-paint artist named Lillian Bounds. After a brief courtship, the couple married
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Right away the Disney brothers, their wives and Iwerks produced three cartoons featuring a new character Walt had been developing called Mickey Mouse.
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Disney was also among the first to use television as an entertainment medium
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In 1929, Disney created Silly Symphonies, which featured Mickey's newly created friends, including Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto
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Disney's $17 million Disneyland theme park opened in the summer of 1955
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In a very short time, the park had increased its investment tenfold, and was entertaining tourists from around the world.
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Disney was diDisney was diagnosed with lung cancer.
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He died on December 15, 1966, at the age of 65.
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Roy carried on the plans to finish the Florida theme park, which opened in 1971 under the name Walt Disney World
