Walt Disney Biography
This article speaks about one of the most influential personalities of the 20th century, Walter Elias Disney, also known as Walt Disney. Brace yourself for some interesting facts on his life.
At the age of 5, Walter got attracted towards drawing and sketching. He possessed vivid imagination and his drawings were very beautiful, he even sold some of them to his neighbors when he was about 7 years old. He decided to go ahead with the art he was gifted with and when he was in a high school in Chicago (McKinley High School), he joined an art academy to learn some more skills in drawing and fine-tune his art. He even participated in drawing sketches and started photography for his school paper.
As drawing and sketching became Walter's most favorite activity for a lifetime, he was interested in adventures and in social work too. He applied for military services when he was just 16 years old but as he was underage, his application was rejected. He still did not leave his dream to serve those who needed him and joined the Red Cross Society. Through Red Cross, Walter was sent to places where voluntary help was needed. While working from Red Cross, he drove an ambulance, which he had decorated in a very different style; he drew drawings, sketches and cartoons all over the ambulance. Wherever Walter went, he never gave up drawing, in fact he kept practicing drawing and sketching and had developed various ways to represent his ideas.
At the age of 18, Walter moved to Kansas and started working as an advertising cartoonist. While working, Walter developed his own style and method in 1920 to represent the cartoons in such a way that they seemed to be alive (which is also called animation). With his new method, he developed few animated series. His dream was to use his talent to get some business and make animated series/movies, so he worked hard for three years and made a complete animated movie. In August 1923, Walter made a move to his dream destination 'Hollywood' with the animated movie that he had created and made about forty dollars. Walter met his brother Roy Disney in California, who was also very interested in working with Walter. Together Walter and his brother used their uncle's garage as their workplace, borrowed some money and constructed a camera and started working. They created some animated series and used them to get work. They received their first contract for 'Alice Comedy' from a company in New York, which paved the base for their production company.
Orders from everywhere started pouring in. Very soon, they established an office on the backside of the Hollywood Real Estate and recruited some people to help them in their work. Just in two years, Disney brothers earned enough and had their plans ready for execution. Walter married Lillian Bounds (one of the first employees of his company) on 13 July 1925 in Lewiston, Idaho.
Walter came up with a cartoon character 'Mickey Mouse' in 1928, which he decided to keep as a central character in his animated series and movies. He created cartoons with Mickey Mouse and his first ever cartoon movie with Mickey was 'Plane Crazy' but was never released as it had no sound used in it (and sound was just introduced in the motion pictures), so he created another cartoon movie 'Steamboat Willie' (which became Mickey's début cartoon movie). On November 18, 1928, 'Steamboat Willie' (with sound) was premiered at the Colony Theater in New York.
Walter further brought many revolutionary changes in his cartoons; he introduced Technicolor in animation, added various effects and used multiple camera techniques, etc. He produced 'Silly Symphonies' as his first Technicolor cartoon movie. Walter won an award from Academy Awards (which was the first of the 32 Academy Awards he won in his life) for the movie 'Flowers and Trees' which he produced in 1932. Walter further produced big budget animated movies such as 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs', 'Fantasia', 'Pinocchio', 'Dumbo' etc. which are considered as the greatest work ever done in the history of animation.
Near 1940, Disney brother's company had grown to such an extent that the number of employees in the company reached to four digits, they also constructed their own studio (Burbank Studio) in 1940. Their company played an important role in developing special films for the US Armed Forces, short films with social messages and health related films, etc. sponsored by the US Government during World War II.
Walter Disney continued with the production of animated movies, some of which were meant for education purpose, some for entertainment purpose and some of them were produced to blend new and innovative technologies in the animation movies. By the year 1950, Disney became one of the most successful and trusted movie producers. In 1955, Disney took an initiative and constructed fun center/park 'Magic Kingdom'; about 17 million dollars were poured in the project. The concept of amusement part has been one of the most successful projects in history.
Walt Disney's thinking was not confined only to cartoons, movies and entertainment world; he was a great social worker too. He worked towards improving the situation in urban life in America and mitigation of the problems related to it. He had designed (and directed) an 'Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow' (which was developed to stimulate American corporations to muster up new ideas for urban living). He also directed the purchase of more than 43 square miles of the virgin land in the state of Florida where he planned for 'Disney World' (the biggest amusement theme part in the world and which was opened in 1971), structured town planning for hotels and resorts etc., and his dream project 'Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow' (which was opened in 1982). Disney also helped in the establishment of California Institute of Arts in 1961 for budding and creative artists to learn the necessary skills in area of their interest.
Disney who is considered one of the Most Influential People of 20th Century, biggest entertainer and a public hero, died on December 15, 1966. In his lifetime, he won more than 30 Academy Awards, about 7 Emmy Awards, honorary degrees from various Universities such as Harvard University, University of Southern California, Yale and UCLA, etc., he was also honored with France's Legion of Honor and Officer D'Adademie, Presidential Medal of Freedom, Best Showman of the World from the National Academy of Theater Association and many more.
Like This Article? Please Share!
Post Comment | View Comments