When he four, Elias and his family moved to a farm in Marceline, Missouri,where his brother Roy had recently purchased farmland. In Marceline, he developed his love for drawing with one of the family's neighbors, a retired doctor named "Doc" Sherwood, pay
He and his family moved to Kansas City where he andhis younger sister Ruth attended the Benton Grammar School. At school he met Walter Pfeiffer who came from a family of theatre aficionados, and introduced him to the world of vaudeville and motion picture
After his rejection by the army, Walt and a friend decided to join the Red Cross. Soon after joining he was sent to France for a year, where he drove an ambulance, but only after the armistice was signed.
Hoping to find work outside the Chicago O-Zell factory, he moved back to Kansas City to begin his artistic career.After considering whether to become an actor or a newspaper artist, he decided on a career as a newspaper artist, drawing political caricatu
He and Iwerks formed a short-lived company called, "Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists". However, following a rough start, Disney left temporarily to earn money at the Kansas City Film Ad Company, and was soon joined by Iwerks who was not able to run th
Following the bankruptcy of his first business venture, Disney moved to Hollywood to set up a studio with financial backing from his brother, Roy.
He and his brother set up a cartoon studio in Hollywood.
He went to New York to negotiate a higher fee per short and was shocked when Mintz told him that not only did he want to reduce the fee he paid Disney per short but also that he had most of his main animators, including Harman, Ising, Maxwell, and Frelen
He created Mickey Mouse and his talents were first used in a silent cartoon entitled "Plane Crazy." However, before the cartoon could be released, sound burst upon the motion picture screen. Thus Mickey made his screen debut in "Steamboat Willie," the wor
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he received many honorary awards. 1932 - Best Short Subject, Cartoon: "Flowers and Trees" (1932) and Honorary Award for creation of "Mickey Mouse", 1934- Best Short Subject, Cartoon: "Three Little Pigs" (1933), 1935- Best Short Subject, Cartoon: "The Tort
His daughter, Diane Marie Disney was born.
Disneys adopted Sharon Mae Disney
He released "The Old Mill," the first short subject to utilize the multiplane camera technique. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," the first full-length animated musical feature, premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. Moreover, During the
Following the success of Snow White, for which he received one full-size, and seven miniature Oscar statuettes, he was able to build a new campus for the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, which opened for business.
Pinocchio and Fantasia followed Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs into movie theaters in 1940, but both were financial disappointments. The inexpensive Dumbo was planned as an income generator, but during production of the new film, most of the animation st
Shortly after Dumbo was finally released, the United States entered World War II. The U.S. Army contracted for most of the Disney studio's facilities and had the staff create training and instructional films for the military. The military films did not g
He produced a number of educational films on the space program in collaboration with NASA rocket engineer Wernher von Braun, including Man in Space and Man and the Moon in 1955, and Mars and Beyond in 1957. The films attracted the attention of both th
He opened Disneyland in Anaheim, California, the most successful amusement park in history, with 6.7 million people visiting it by 1966. The idea for the park came to him after taking his children to other amusement parks and watching them have fun on amu
He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom
During pre-operative X-rays, doctors at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center, across the street from the Disney Studio, discovered a tumor in his left lung.
A biopsy showed the tumor to be malignant and to have spread throughout the entire left lung.
After several chemotherapy sessions, Disney and his wife spent a short amount of time in Palm Springs, California and he collapsed at his homein Palm Springswas driven back to St. Joseph’s Hospital. He would lose consciousness regularly in the days to com
He died from lung cancer in Bunbank, California.
He took a deep interest in the establishment of California Institute of the Arts, a college level, professional school of all the creative and performing arts.
He received the Congressional Gold Medal
After his death, Roy Disney returned from retirement to take over the studios. He also opened the official Walt Disney World Resort in memory of his brother
His father Elias worked for the Union Pacific Railroad and married Flora Call in Acron, Florida
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Walt Disney into the California Hall of Fame located at The California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts.
