DISNEY, Walt

Animator. Nationality: American. Born: Walter Elias Disney in Chicago, 5 December 1901. Education: Attended McKinley High School, Chicago; Kansas City Art Institute, 1915. Family: Married Lillian Bounds, 1925; children: Diane, Sharon. Career: 1918—in France with Red Cross Ambulance Corps, arriving just after Armistice; 1919—returned to Kansas, became commercial art studio apprentice, met Ub Iwerks; with Iwerks briefly in business, doing illustrations and ads; 1920—joined Kansas City Film Ad Co., making cartoon commercials for local businesses; 1922—incorporated Laugh-o-Gram Films, first studio, went bankrupt; 1923—to Hollywood, contract with M. J. Winkler, began Alice in Cartoonland series; soon joined by Iwerks; 1927—ended Alice series, began Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series; salary dispute with Winkler; formed Walt Disney Productions; 1928—Steamboat Willie released, first synchronized sound cartoon, featuring Mickey Mouse; made deal with Pat Powers for independent distribution; 1930—began distributing through Columbia; 1932—Flowers and Trees, first cartoon in Technicolor and first to win an Academy Award; released through United Artists; 1937—Snow White, first feature-length cartoon, marked innovative use of multi-plane camera, developed by Disney Studios; began releasing through RKO; 1941—strike by Disney staff belonging to Cartoonists Guild; Art Babbitt fired, later rehired; changes introduced included credit titles on cartoon shorts; 1944—"Mickey Mouse" is password on D-Day invasion of Europe; 1945—"True Life Adventure" series began, Disney's first live-action films; 1951–60—Disney developed several television programs; 1954—formed Buena Vista Distributing Co. for release of Disneyand occasionally other films; hosting Disneyland TV series (later Walt Disney Presents, Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, The Wonderful World of Disney); 1955—Disneyland opened, Anaheim, California; The Mickey Mouse Club premiered on TV; 1960—Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color premiered on television; 1971—Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, Florida. Awards: Special Academy Award, 1932; Special Academy Award for contributions to sound, with William Garity and John N.A. Hawkins, 1941; Irving G. Thalberg Award, 1941; Best Director for his work as a whole, Cannes Film Festival, 1953. Died: California, 15 December 1966.

Films as Director, Animator and Producer:

1920

Newman Laugh-O-Grams series

1922

Cinderella; The Four Musicians of Bremen; Goldie Locks and the Three Bears; Jack and the Beanstalk; Little Red Riding Hood; Puss in Boots

1923

Alice's Wonderland; Tommy Tucker's Tooth; Martha

(Alice Series)

1924

Alice and the Dog Catcher; Alice and the Three Bears; Alice Cans the Cannibals; Alice Gets in Dutch; Alice Hunting in Africa; Alice's Day at Sea; Alice's Fishy Story; Alice's Spooky Adventure; Alice's Wild West Show; Alice the Peacemaker; Alice the Piper; Alice the Toreador

1925

Alice Chops the Suey; Alice Gets Stung; Alice in the Jungle; Alice Loses Out; Alice on the Farm; Alice Picks the Champ; Alice Plays Cupid; Alice Rattled by Rats; Alice's Balloon Race; Alice's Egg Plant; Alice's Little Parade; Alice's Mysterious Mystery; Alice Solves the Puzzle; Alice's Ornery Orphan; Alice Stage Struck; Alice's Tin Pony; Alice the Jail Bird; Alice Wins the Derby

1926

Alice Charms the Fish; Alice's Monkey Business; Alice in the Wooly West; Alice the Fire Fighter; Alice Cuts the Ice; Alice Helps the Romance; Alice's Spanish Guitar; Alice's Brown Derby; Clara Cleans Her Teeth

1927

Alice the Golf Bag; Alice Foils the Pirates; Alice at the Carnival; Alice's Rodeo (Alice at the Rodeo); Alice the Collegiate; Alice in the Alps; Alice's Auto Race; Alice's Circus Daze; Alice's Knaughty Knight; Alice's Three Bad Eggs; Alice's Picnic; Alice's Channel Swim; Alice in the Klondike; Alice's Medicine Show; Alice the Whaler; Alice the Beach Nut; Alice in the Big League

(Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Series)

1927

Trolley Troubles; Oh, Teacher; The Ocean Hop; All Wet; The Mechanical Cow; The Banker's Daughter; Great Guns; Rickety Gin; Empty Socks; Harem Scarem; Neck 'n Neck

1928

The Ol' Swimmin' 'ole; Africa Before Dark; Rival Romeos; Bright Lights; Sagebrush Sadie; Ozzie of the Mounted; Ride 'em Plow Boy!; Hungry Hoboes; Oh, What a Knight; Sky Scrappers; Poor Papa; The Fox Chase; Tall Timber; Sleigh Bells; Hot Dog

Films as Head of Walt Disney Productions, co-d with Ub Iwerks:

(Mickey Mouse Series)

1928

Steamboat Willie

1929

Plane Crazy (made as silent, 1928, but released with synch sound); The Gallopin' Gaucho (made as silent, 1928, but released with synch sound); The Barn Dance; The Opry House; When the Cat's Away; The Barnyard Battle; The Plow Boy; The Karnival Kid; Mickey's Choo Choo; The Jazz Fool; Jungle Rhythm; The Haunted House

1930

The Barnyard Concert (sole director); Just Mickey (Fiddling Around) (sole director); The Cactus Kid (sole director)

(Silly Symphonies Series)

1929

The Skeleton Dance; E1 Terrible Toreador; The Merry Dwarfs (sole director)

1930

Night (sole director)

1935

The Golden Touch (sole director)

Other Films as Head of Walt Disney Productions:

1937

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Hand)

1940

Pinocchio (Sharpsteen); Fantasia (Sharps teen)

1941

The Reluctant Dragon (Luske, Handley, Beebe, Verity, Blystone and Werker) (+ ro); Dumbo (Sharpsteen)

1942

Bambi (Hand); Saludos Amigos (Ferguson) (+ ro)

1943

Victory through Air Power (Hand and Potter)

1944

The Three Caballeros (Ferguson)

1946

Make Mine Music (Grant); Song of the South (Jackson and Foster)

1947

Fun and Fancy Free (Sharpsteen)

1948

Melody Time (Sharpsteen); So Dear to My Heart (Luske and Schuster)

1949

Ichabod and Mr. Toad (The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad) (Sharpsteen)

1950

Cinderella (Sharpsteen); Treasure Island (Haskin)

1951

Alice in Wonderland (Sharpsteen)

1952

The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (Annakin)

1953

Peter Pan (Luske, Geronimi, and Jackson); The Sword and the Rose (Annakin); Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue (French)

1954

20,000 Leagues under the Sea (Fleischer); The Littlest Outlaw (E1 pequino proscrito) (Gavaldon)

1955

Lady and the Tramp (Luske, Geronimi and Jackson); Davy Crockett and the River Pirates

1956

The Great Locomotive Chase (Lyon); Westward Ho the Wagons! (Beaudine)

1957

Johnny Tremain (Stevenson); Old Yeller (Stevenson)

1958

The Light in the Forest (Daugherty); Sleeping Beauty (Geronimi); Tonka (L. Foster)

1959

The Shaggy Dog (Barton); Darby O'Gill and the Little People (Stevenson); Third Man on the Mountain (Annakin); Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks with a Circus (Barton)

1960

Kidnapped (Stevenson); Pollyanna (Swift); Ten Who Dared (Beaudine); Swiss Family Robinson (Annakin); One Hundred and One Dalmatians (Reitherman, Luske and Geronimi); The Absent-Minded Professor (Stevenson)

1961

Moon Pilot (Neilson); In Search of the Castaways (Stevenson); Nikki, Wild Dog of the North (Couffer and Haldane); The Parent Trap (Swift); Greyfriars Bobby (Chaffey); Babes in Toyland (Donohue)

1962

Son of Flubber (Stevenson); The Miracle of the White Stallions (Flight of the White Stallions) (Hiller); Big Red (Tokar); Bon Voyage (Neilson); Almost Angels (Born to Sing) (Previn); The Legend of Lobo (Algar and Couffer)

1963

Savage Sam (Tokar); Summer Magic (Neilson); The Incredible Journey (Markle); The Sword in the Stone (Reitherman);The Misadventures of Merlin Jones (Stevenson); The Three Lives of Thomasina (Chaffey)

1964

A Tiger Walks (Tokar); The Moon-Spinners (Neilson); Mary Poppins (Stevenson); Emil and the Detectives (Tewksbury); Those Calloways (Tokar); The Monkey's Uncle (Stevenson)

1965

That Darn Cat (Stevenson)

1966

The Ugly Dachshund (Tokar); Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. (Paul) (story under pseudonym Retlaw Yensid); The Fighting Prince of Donegal (O'Herlihy); Follow Me, Boys! (Tokar); Monkeys, Go Home! (McLaglen); The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin (Neilson); The Gnome-Mobile (Stevenson)

1967

The Jungle Book (commentary) (Reitherman)

Publications

By DISNEY, book—

Sketch Book, Old Saybrook, CT, 1993.

By DISNEY: articles—

"What I've Learned from Animals," in American Magazine, February 1953.

"The Lurking Camera," in Atlantic Monthly (New York), August 1954.

"Too Long at the Sugar Bowls: Frances C. Sayers Raps with Disney," in Library Journal (New York), 15 October 1965.

On DISNEY: books—

Rotha, Paul, Celluloid, the Film Today, New York, 1931.

Bardeche, Maurice, and Robert Brasillach, Histoire du Cinéma, Paris, 1935.

Field, Robert D., The Art of Walt Disney, New York,1942.

Eisenstein, Sergei, Film Sense, translated and edited by Jay Leyda, New York, 1947.

Clair, René, Reflections on the Cinema, translated by Vera Traill, London, 1953.

Manvell, Roger, and J. Huntley, The Technique of Film Music, New York, 1957.

Martin, Pete, (ed.), The Story of Walt Disney, New York, 1957.McGowan, Kenneth, Behind the Screen: The History and Techniques of Motion Pictures, New York, 1965.

Stephenson, Ralph, Animation in the Cinema, New York, 1967.

Bessy, Maurice, Walt Disney, Paris, 1970.

Kurland, Gerald, Walt Disney: The Master of Animation, New York, 1971.

Maltin, Leonard, The Disney Films, New York, 1973, revised edition, 1984.

Thomas, Frank, and Ollie Johnston, Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life, New York, 1982.

Bruno, Eduardo, and Enrico Ghezzi, Walt Disney, Venice, 1985.

Mosley, Leonard, The Real Walt Disney, London, 1986.

Schickel, Richard, The Disney Version: The Life, Times, Art and Commerce of Walt Disney, London, 1986.

Culhane, Shamus, Talking Animals and Other People, New York, 1986 + filmo.

Taylor, John, Storming the Magic Kingdom, New York, 1987.

Grant, John, Encyclopaedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters, New York, 1987.

Thomas, Frank, and Ollie Johnston, Too Funny for Words, New York, 1987.

Holliss, Richard, and Brian Sibley, The Disney Studio Story, London, 1988.

Duchene, Alain, Walt Disney n'est pas mort!, Paris, 1989.

Ford, Barbara, Walt Disney, New York, 1989.

Grover, Ron, The Disney Touch, Homewood, Illinois, 1991.

Jackson, Kathy Merlock, Walt Disney: A Bio-bibliography, Westport, CT, 1993.

Merritt, Russell, Walt in Wonderland: The Silent Films of Walt Disney, Gemona, 1993.

Fanning, Jim, Walt Disney, New York, 1994.

Smoodkin, Eric, (ed.), Disney Discourse: Producing the Magic Kingdom, New York, 1994.

Thomas, Bob, Walt Disney: An American Original, New York, 1994.

West, John G., Jr., The Disney Live-action Productions, Milton, WA, 1994.

Eliot, Marc, Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince, A Biography, Deutsch, 1995.

Finch, Christopher, The Art of Walt Disney: From Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdom, New York, 1995.

Bell, Elizabeth, Lynda Haas, and Laura Sells, editors, From Mouse to Mermaid: The Politics of Film, Gender, and Culture, Bloomington, Indiana, 1995.

Cole, Michael D. Walt Disney: Creator of Mickey Mouse, Springfield, NJ, 1996.

Watts, Steven, The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life, Boston, 1997.

Sherman, Robert B., and Richard M. Sherman, Walt's Time: From Before to Beyond, Santa Clarita, California, 1998.

On DISNEY: articles—

"The Mechanized Mouse," in The Saturday Review of Literature (New York), 11 November 1933.

Mann, Arthur, in Harper (New York), May 1934.

Bragdon, Claude, "Straws in the Wind," in Scribner's Magazine (New York), July 1934.

Boone, Andrew R., "A Famous Fairytale is Brought to the Screen as the Pioneer Feature Length Cartoon in Color," in Popular Science Monthly (New York), 1938.

Jeanne, René, "Comment naquirent les dessins animés," in Revue des Deux Mondes (Paris), 15 March 1938.

Moellenhoff, F., "Remarks on the Popularity of Mickey Mouse," in American Imago, (Detroit, Michigan) no. 3, 1940.

Boone, R., "Mickey Mouse Goes Classical," in Popular Science Monthly (New York), January 1941.

Ahl, Frances Norene, "Disney Techniques in Educational Film," in The Social Studies, December 1941.

"Walt Disney: Great Teacher," in Fortune (New York), August 1942.

"Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck Work for Victory," in Popular Science Monthly (New York), September 1942.

Mosdell, D., "Film Review," in Canadian Forum, November 1946.

Wallace, Irving, "Mickey Mouse and How He Grew," in Colliers (New York), 9 April 1949.

"A Silver Anniversary for Walt and Mickey: Disney's Magic Wand Has Enriched the World with Birds, Beasts and Fairy Princesses," in Life (New York), 2 November 1953.

"Disney Comes to Television," in Newsweek (New York), 12 April 1954.

Fishwick, Marshall, "Aesop in Hollywood: The Man and the Mouse," in Saturday Review (New York), 10 July 1954.

"Cinema: Father Goose—Walt Disney: To Enchanted Worlds on Electronic Wings," in Time (New York), 27 December 1954.

McEvoy, J.P., "McEvoy in Disneyland: A Visit with the Wonderful Wizard of Filmdom," in Reader's Digest (Pleasantville, New York), February 1955.

"A Wonderful World: Growing Impact of the Disney Art," in Newsweek (New York), 18 April 1955.

Powell, Dilys, "Hayley Mills on the Pickford Path," in New York Times, 13 August 1961.

Sadoul, Georges, "Sur le 'huitième art'," in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), June 1962.

Special Disney issue of National Geographic (Washington, D.C.), August 1963.

"The Wide World of Walt Disney," in Newsweek (New York), 31 December 1963.

Whitaker, Frederic, "A Day with Disney," in American Artist (New York), September 1965.

Aubriant, Michel, "Le vrai Walt Disney est mort il y a des années mais ne soyons pas injustes . . . ," in Paris Presse, 21 December 1966.

Comolii, Jean-Louis, and Michel Delahaye, "Le Cinéma à l'expo de Montréal," in Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris), April 1967.

"Disney without Walt . . . Is Like a Fine Car without an Engine. Will the Great Entertainment Company Find a New Creative Boss? Or Will It Slowly Lose Momentum?," in Forbes (New York), 1 July 1967.

Tucker, N., "Who's Afraid of Walt Disney," in New Society, no.11, 1968.

Gessner, Robert, "Letters to the Editor: Class in Fantasia," in The Nation (New York), 30 November 1970.

"The Ten Greatest Men of American Business—As You Picked Them," in Nation's Business, March 1971.

Pérez, F., "Walt Disney, una pedagogía reaccionaria," in Cine Cubano (Havana), no. 81–83, 1973.

Murray, J.C., "Lest We Forget," in Lumiere (Melbourne), November 1973.

Stuart, A., "Decay of an American Dream," in Films and Filming (London), November 1973.

Special Disney issue of Kosmorama (Copenhagen), November 1973.

Canemaker, J., "A Visit to the Walt Disney Studio," in Filmmakers Newsletter (Ward Hill, Massachusetts), January 1974.

Sklar, Robert, in Movie Made America: A Social History of American Movies, New York, 1975.

Rosenbaum, Jonathan, "Dream Masters," in Film Comment (New York), January-February 1975.

Smith, D.R., "Ben Sharpsteen . . . 33 Years with Disney," in Millimeter (New York), April 1975.

Beckerman, H., "Animation Kit: Movies, Myth and Us," in Filmmakers Newsletter (Ward Hill, Massachusetts), September 1975.

Brody, M., "The Wonderful World of Disney: Its Psychological Appeal," in American Imago (Detroit, Michigan), no. 4, 1976.

"Disney Night at the A.S.C.," in American Cinematographer (Los Angeles), February 1977.

Paul, W., "Art, Music, Nature and Walt Disney," in Movie (London), Spring 1977.

Schupp, P., "Mickey a cinquante ans," in Sequences (Montreal), January 1979.

Canemaker, J., "Disney Animation: History and Technique," in Film News (NewYork), January-February 1979.

Hulett, S., "A Star Is Drawn," in Film Comment (New York), January-February 1979.

Canemaker, J., "Disney Design: 1928–1979," in Millimeter (New York), February 1979.

Barrier, M., "'Building a Better Mouse': Fifty Years of Disney Animation," in Funnyworld (New York), Summer 1979.

Smith, D.R., "Disney Before Burbank: The Kingswell and Hyperion Studios," in Funnyworld (New York), Summer 1979.

Cawley, J., Jr., "Disney Out-Foxed: The Tale of Reynard at the Disney Studio," in American Classic Screen (Shawnee Mission, Kansas), July-August 1979.

"Journals: Tom Allen from New York," in Film Comment (New York), September-October 1981.

Griffithiana (Gemona, Italy), no. 34, December 1988.

CinémAction (Conde-sur-Noireau), no. 51, April 1989.

Kosmorama (Copenhagen), vol. 35, no. 188, Summer 1989.

Animatrix, no. 6, 1990/1992.

Cineforum, no. 319, 1992.

Skoop, October 1992.

Plateau, no. 2, 1993.

The South Atlantic Quarterly, no. 1, 1993.

New York Times, 6 May 1993.

New York Times, 8 May 1993.

Positif, no. 388, June 1993.

New York Times, 13 July 1993.

New York Times, 18 July 1993.

Newsweek, 26 July 1993.

Before Walt Disney, there was Emile Cohl (the "first animator," who made over 250 films in the early years of the twentieth century); Winsor McCay (whose Gertie the Dinosaur, created in 1914, was the original animated personality); John Randolph Bray (the Henry Ford of animation, whose technological and organizational contributions revolutionized the art form); and Otto Messmer, inventor of Felix the Cat, the Charlie Chaplin of animated characters and the most popular cartoon creation of the 1920s, entertaining audiences before Mickey Mouse ever uttered a squeak.

So why is Walt Disney synonymous with animation? How could Fantasia, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Bambi have been re-released to theaters every few years and then marketed to home video, to delight generations of children? Simply because no other animator ever duplicated the Disney studio's appealingly lifelike cartoon characters and wonderful flair for storytelling.

First, Disney was an innovator, a perfectionist who was forever attempting to improve his product and explore the medium to its fullest potential. He was the first to utilize sound in animation, in Steamboat Willie, which was the third Mickey Mouse cartoon. The soundtrack here is more than just a gimmick: for example, in an animal concert, a cow's udder is played like a bagpipe and its teeth are transformed into a xylophone. The musical accompaniment thus emerges from the background, becoming an integral element in the film's structure.

In Flowers and Trees, Disney was the first to utilize three-strip Technicolor in animation, a process devised by Joseph Arthur Ball: three different negatives, each recording a primary color, replaced the single camera film previously used. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first full-length cartoon feature: during the production, Disney staffers developed the multiplane method of realistically creating the illusion of perspective and depth. The camera, operated by several technicians, filled an entire room. A sequence was drawn and painted on several panes of glass, with each one carefully placed and rigidly held down. Cels of the animated characters were placed on the various planes, which would then be moved past the camera at varying speeds. Those close to the camera would go by rapidly; those in the rear would be moved more slowly.

Just as significantly, however, Disney was a master organizer and administrator. As a result, from the 1930s on, the Disney Studio practically monopolized the animation industry. He established an industrialized assembly line, employing hundreds of animators and technicians who regularly churned out high-quality, Academy Award-caliber product. In the early 1930s, he opened distribution offices in London and Paris. He instigated large merchandising campaigns to reap additional profits via T-shirts, toys, and watches. Today, Disneyland and Disneyworld are living monuments to his memory. And it is not surprising that Disney eventually stretched his talents beyond pure animation, first combining cartoons with actors and, finally, producing live-action features, wildlife documentaries, and television series. In 1950, he produced Treasure Island, his first non-animated feature. In 1953, he made his first nature documentary, The Living Desert. The following year, he premiered his weekly television anthology series, which aired for decades. And he established the Buena Vista company as a distribution outlet for his films.

Yet Walt Disney's ultimate legacy remains his animated stories, and the narrative elements which lifted them above his competition. His characters are not just caricatures who insult each other, bash each other with baseball bats, or push each other off cliffs. They are lifelike, three-dimensional creatures with personalities all their own: they are simple, but never simplistic, and rarely, if ever, fail to thoroughly involve the viewer.

It is virtually impossible to rank the best of Disney's animated features in order of quality or popularity. Snow White, with its enchanting storyline and sweet humor, remains a joy for audiences many decades after its release. It is the perfect romantic fairy tale, with Snow White and her Prince Charming in a happy-ever-after ending, the comic relief of the lovable dwarfs, and the villainy of the evil Queen. The film's financial history is typical of most Disney features: originally budgeted at $250,000, it eventually cost $1,700,000 to produce. It earned $4.2 million in the United States and Canada alone when first released; by the mid-1990s, it had grossed over $175-million.

Jiminy Cricket singing "When You Wish Upon a Star" is the highlight of Pinocchio. Bambi is easily the most delicate of all Disney features. And there is Fantasia, a series of animated sequences set to musical classics conducted by Leopold Stokowski and performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra: Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite, Dukas's The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, and Beethoven's Symphony No.6 in F Major, among others. Fantasia is ambitious, innovative, controversial—how dare anyone attempt to visually interpret music?—and, ultimately, timeless.

Since Disney's death in 1966, his studio has had its failures and triumphs. After a dry spell in the late 1960s and 1970s, it established a subsidiary, Touchstone Pictures, which successfully debuted in 1984 with the PG-rated Splash. In the intervening years, the studio struck deals with the likes of Bob and Harvey Weinstein of Miramax Films and Merchant-Ivory Productions, and marketed such traditionally un-Disney-like fare as Pulp Fiction, Kids, Pretty Woman, and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. But the studio remains mostly synonymous with animation. In the 1990s, it produced a string of animated features which ranks with its classics of decades past: The Lion King, Pocahontas, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. As of 1996, The Lion King rated number five on Variety's list of all-time money-earning champs, taking in over $312 million. Also ranked in the top 50 were other animated and non-animated Disney fare, which certifies the studio's status as a major Hollywood player: Aladdin (number 16, $217-million); Toy Story (number 24, $182 million); Pretty Woman (number 26, $178 million); the previously mentioned Snow White (number 29); Three Men and a Baby (number 34, $167 million); Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (number 42, $154 million); Beauty and the Beast (number 49, $145 million); and The Santa Clause (number 50, $144 million).

In 1991, Beauty and the Beast became the first animated film ever nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award. And in 1995 came Toy Story, a groundbreaking feature produced completely on computer.

An essay on Walt Disney would be incomplete without a note on Mickey Mouse, the most famous of all Disney creations and one of the world's most identifiable and best-loved characters. Appropriately, Disney himself was the voice of Mickey, who was originally named Mortimer. The filmmaker himself best explained the popularity of his mouse: ". . . Mickey is so simple and uncomplicated, so easy to understand, that you can't help liking him."

With pen, pencil, ink, and paint, Walt Disney created a unique, special world. Max and Dave Fleischer, Walter Lantz, Chuck Jones, and many others may all be great animators, but Disney is unarguably the most identifiable name in the art form.

—Rob Edelman

Walter Elias Disney

An American film maker and entrepreneur, Walter Elias Disney (1901-1966) created a new kind of popular culture in feature-length animated cartoons and live-action "family" films.

Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago, IL, on December 5, 1901, the fourth of five children born to a Canadian farmer and a mother from Ohio. He was raised on a Midwestern farm in Marceline, Missouri, and in Kansas City, where he was able to acquire some rudimentary art instruction from correspondence courses and Saturday museum classes. He would later use many of the animals and characters that he knew from that Missouri farm in his cartoons.

He dropped out of high school at 17 to serve in World War I. After serving briefly overseas as an ambulance driver, Disney returned in 1919 to Kansas City for an apprenticeship as a commercial illustrator and later made primitive animated advertising cartoons. By 1922, he had set up his own shop in association with Ub Iwerks, whose drawing ability and technical inventiveness were prime factors in Disney's eventual success.

Initial failure sent Disney to Hollywood in 1923, where in partnership with his loyal elder brother Roy, he managed to resume cartoon production. His first success came with the creation of Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie. Steamboat Willie was the first fully synchronized sound cartoon and featured Disney as the voice of a character first called "Mortimer Mouse." Disney's wife, Lillian, suggested that Mickey sounded better and Disney agreed.

Living frugally, he reinvested profits to make better pictures. His insistence on technical perfection and his unsurpassed gifts as story editor quickly pushed his firm ahead. The invention of such cartoon characters as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Minnie, and Goofy combined with the daring and innovative use of music, sound, and folk material (as in The Three Little Pigs) made the Disney shorts of the 1930s a phenomenon of worldwide success. This success led to the establishment of immensely profitable, Disney-controlled sidelines in advertising, publishing, and franchised goods, which helped shape popular taste for nearly 40 years.

Disney rapidly expanded his studio facilities to include a training school where a whole new generation of animators developed and made possible the production of the first feature-length cartoon, Snow White (1937). Other costly animated features followed, including Pinocchio, Bambi, and the celebrated musical experiment Fantasia. With Seal Island (1948), wildlife films became an additional source of income, and in 1950 his use of blocked funds in England to make pictures like Treasure Island led to what became the studio's major product, live-action films, which practically cornered the traditional "family" market. Eventually the Disney formula emphasized slick production techniques. It included, as in his biggest hit, Mary Poppins, occasional animation to project wholesome, exciting stories heavily laced with sentiment and, often, music.

In 1954, Disney successfully invaded television, and by the time of his death, the Disney studio's output amounted to 21 full-length animated films, 493 short subjects, 47 live-action films, seven True-Life Adventure features, 330 hours of Mickey Mouse Club television programs, 78 half-hour Zorro television adventures, and 280 other television shows.

On July 18, 1957, Disney opened Disneyland, a gigantic projection of his personal fantasies in Anaheim, CA, which has proved 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 amusement rides. He decided to build a park where the entire family could have fun together. In 1971, Disney World, in Orlando, FL, opened. Since then, Disney theme parks have opened in Tokyo and Paris.

Disney had also dreamed of developing a city of the future, a dream realized in 1982 with the opening of EPCOT, which stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. EPCOT, which cost an initial $900 million, was conceived of as a real-life community of the future with the very latest in high technology. The two principle areas of EPCOT are Future World and World Showcase, both of which were designed to appeal to adults rather than children.

In addition to his theme parks, Disney created and endowed a new university, the California Institute of the Arts, known as Cal Arts. He thought of this as the ultimate in education for the arts, where people in many different disciplines could work together, dream and develop, and create the mixture of arts needed for the future. Disney once commented: "It's the principle thing I hope to leave when I move on to greener pastures. If I can help provide a place to develop the talent of the future, I think I will have accomplished something."

Disney's parks continue to grow with the creation of the Disney-MGM Studios, Animal Kingdom, and a extensive sports complex in Orlando. The Disney Corporation has also branched out into other types of films with the creation of Touchstone Films, into music with Hollywood Records, and even vacationing with its Disney Cruise Lines. In all, the Disney name now lends itself to a multi-billion dollar enterprise, with multiple undertakings all over the world.

In 1939, Disney received an honorary Academy Award and in 1954 he received four Academy Awards. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson presented Disney with the Presidential Medal of Freedom and in the same year Disney was awarded the Freedom Foundation Award.

Happily married for 41 years, this moody, deliberately "ordinary" man was moving ahead with his plans for gigantic new outdoor recreational facilities when he died of circulatory problems on December 15, 1966, at St. Joseph's Hospital in Los Angeles, CA. At the time of his death, his enterprises had garnered him respect, admiration, and a business empire worth over $100 million-a-year, but Disney was still remembered primarily as the man who had created Mickey Mouse over two decades before.

Further Reading

The best book on Disney is Richard Schickel, The Disney Version: The Life, Times, Art, and Commerce of Walt Disney (1968). A useful source of technical information is Robert D. Feild, The Art of Walt Disney (1942). The most intimate portrait of Disney is by his daughter, Diane Disney Miller, The Story of Walt Disney (1957). Biographies of Disney appear in both the 1952 and 1967 issues of Current Biography. Disney's obituary appears in the December 16, 1966, issue of New York Times. □

Walt Disney (Walter Elias Disney) , 1901–66, American movie producer and pioneer in animated cartoons, b. Chicago. He grew up in Missouri, in the small town of Marceline and in Kansas City. He moved to Chicago in 1917, where he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and began (1920) his career as a cartoonist making animated film advertisements. In 1928 Disney created the character Mickey Mouse in the silent film Plane Crazy. That same year Mickey also appeared in Steamboat Willie, a short that initiated the concept of making a separate cartoon for each animated movement. Instantly famous, the film was also Disney's first attempt to use sound (his own voice for Mickey), and it was followed by many other shorts starring Mickey and his animal sidekicks. An international success, by 1935 Mickey Mouse cartoons had been viewed by some 500 million moviegoers. Disney also experimented with the use of music ( The Skeleton Dance ), the portrayal of speed ( The Tortoise and the Hare ), three-dimensional effects ( The Old Mill ), and the use of color (one of the earliest color shorts was 1933's Three Little Pigs ).

Disney produced the first feature-length cartoon, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938), which took three years to complete. Additional features included Pinocchio (1939), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942). In Song of the South (1946), he merged live actors and animated figures. During World War II, Disney's studio produced cartoons for the armed services as training tools and morale builders.

Beginning with Treasure Island in 1951, Disney added live-action movies to his output, while still producing such animated classics as Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953). Thereafter, his studio produced several animal stories (e.g., Greyfriars Bobby, 1960), musical fantasies (e.g., Mary Poppins, 1964), and television programs, beginning in the early 1950s with the weekly Disneyland and its famous Mouseketeers. Disney and his productions received numerous Academy and other awards during his lifetime. After his death, the Disney studios remained active, diversified, and ultimately became enormously successful. In the early 1980s, they began producing films for adults.

Disneyland, a huge theme park in Anaheim , Calif., which in part celebrates America's hometowns and small-town values, was opened by Disney in 1955. Disney's California Adventure, a second, smaller theme park in Anaheim, opened adjacent to Disneyland in 2001. An even bigger park, Walt Disney World, opened near Orlando , Fla., in 1971 as a theme park and resort, and Epcot Center, Disney-MGM Studios, and Animal Kingdom have since been added there. Disneyland parks have also opened near Tokyo (1983), in Marne-la-Vallée, near Paris (1992), and in Hong Kong (2005).

Bibliography: See biographies by D. D. Miller and P. Martin (1956), B. Thomas (1958), S. Watts (1998), and N. Gabler (2006); R. Schickel, The Disney Version (1968); C. Finch, The Art of Walt Disney (1973); M. Eliot, Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince (1993); R. Merritt and J. B. Kaufman, Walt in Wonderland: The Silent Films of Walt Disney (1994); H. A. Giroux, The Mouse That Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence (1999); D. Smith and S. Clark, Disney: The First 100 Years (1999).

Disney, Walt (1901–1966), motion picture producer, director, major innovator in U.S. film animation.Born in Chicago, Walt Disney attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, drove an ambulance in France in 1918, and worked as a commercial artist in Kansas City before moving to Hollywood in 1923. Here he founded an animation studio with his older brother Roy. After several efforts, the studio found success with Mickey Mouse and the first sound cartoon, Steamboat Willie (1928). Disney created the first full‐color cartoon (Flowers and Trees, 1932) and the first animated feature (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937). A shrewd entrepreneur, he pioneered the use of merchandising, launched a television series when most producers avoided the new medium, and created theme parks.

Disney's productions became the most popular motion pictures in history. The short cartoons starring Mickey and Donald Duck played in theaters around the world. The features after Snow White —chiefly Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Bambi (1942), Song of the South (1947), Cinderella (1950), and Peter Pan (1953)—proved ageless. Although many were not financially successful at first, all eventually became immensely profitable through constant rereleases. With their sumptuous color, meticulous backgrounds, and detailed character movement, the films remain dazzling cinematic achievements. The stories blend songs, slapstick, sentiment, and relentless optimism with a dash of sheer childhood terror. Although criticized for homogenizing their literary sources, Disney's cartoons struck a universal emotional chord.

Disney had little talent for drawing, but he inspired his brilliant staff with his infectious enthusiasm, his dedication to technical advancements, and his skill in building vivid gags and stories. In the 1950s Disney turned to the lucrative arena of live‐action filming for family audiences. His weekly television show (1954–1981) served as a display case and promotional tool. Disneyland, a theme park, opened in Anaheim, California, in 1955, followed by Walt Disney's World in Florida in 1971.

Although Disney's company was riven with conflicts after his death, the firm emerged in the mid‐1980s as the prototype of a successful international media conglomerate. Late twentieth‐century Hollywood, relying on “synergies” among movies, video games, product tie‐ins, and theme parks, has fulfilled Disney's vision of cinema as an all‐pervading entertainment environment.
See also Amusement Parks and Theme Parks; Film; Foreign Relations: The Cultural Dimension; Leisure; Mass Marketing; Multinational Enterprises; Popular Culture.

Bibliography

Richard Schickel , The Disney Version: The Life, Times, Art, and Commerce of Walt Disney, rev. ed., 1985.
Eric Smoodin , Disney Discourse: Producing the Magic Kingdom, 1994.

David Bordwell

Disney, Walt [Er Elias] (1901–66),creator of animated cartoons, produced the first of his Mickey Mouse series in 1928. Other works, noted for their fantastic humor and technical brilliance, include the Silly Symphony series and the full‐length pictures Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938), Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), and The Reluctant Dragon (1941). During World War II he made training and goodwill films, and later produced nature films of birds and animals in their natural habitats, as well as films for children and adults with live actors, including Mary Poppins (1964). In 1955 he created Disneyland, an innovative kind of amusement park with scaled‐down settings that convey the many visitors into environments of fantasy, adventure, and sentiment. The original park near Los Angeles inspired another (1971), Walt Disney World, near Orlando, Fla.

Disney, Walt ( Walter Elias) (1901–66) US film animator, producer and executive. Disney has become synonymous with family entertainment and a menagerie of cartoon characters, such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Pluto. Steamboat Willie (1928) was the first cartoon to use sound and featured Walt Disney's own voice as Mickey Mouse. Disney's first feature was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). A series of popular classics followed: Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942). In 1950, Disney diversified into live-action features with Treasure Island (1950), and began a series of nature documentaries with The Living Desert (1953). In 1955, Disneyland amusement park opened in Anaheim, California. Disney collected a total of 29 Academy Awards. The Walt Disney Company (founded 1923) is one of the world's most powerful media corporations.

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