Walt Disney

Walt Disney is known internationally for his transformation of the animation industry with iconic characters such as Mickey Mouse. Disney’s interest in animation started at a young age when he began to draw the animals on the family’s ill-fated farm in Marceline, Missouri. When the farm failed and the family relocated to Kansas City, Disney began attending Saturday classes at the Kansas City Art Institute. Disney enlisted in the Red Cross Ambulance Corps and worked in France after the end of World War I. Returning to Kansas City at age seventeen, Disney struggled to find employment, eventually working at a commercial art studio, Gray Advertising. He then opened his own commercial studio with his partner and friend Ubbe Iwwerks. Disney eventually started the corporation Laugh-O-Gram, where he and his small staff created seven-minute animated fairy tales in their studio space located at 1127 E. 31st Street in Kansas City, Missouri. To distribute these films, Disney employed a New York company that didn’t return any profits from the films to Disney, pushing his business into bankruptcy in 1923. Hoping to start anew, Disney relocated to Los Angeles, and after a difficult start was able to find success with a series of animated cartoons including Steamboat Willie in 1928, which featured Mickey Mouse. In 1939, a new campus for the Walt Disney Animation Studios opened in Burbank, California. While Walt Disney’s legacy is tied to the iconic character of Mickey Mouse, it was actually Disney’s friend and partner Ubbe Iwwerks who is credited with drawing Mickey. Disney did provide the voice for Mickey until 1947. Included in The Art of Walt Disney: from Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdom (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2004), 21. Timothy S. Susanin, Walt before Mickey: Disney’s Early Years, 1919-1928 (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2011). Lawrence O. Christensen, William E. Foley, Gary R. Kremer and Kenneth H. Winn, eds., Dictionary of Missouri Biography (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1999), 241-243. Anita Jacobsen, Jacobsen's Biographical Index of American Artists (Carrollton: A.J. Publications, 2002). Included in The Art of Walt Disney: from Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdom (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2004), 21. Timothy S. Susanin, Walt before Mickey: Disney’s Early Years, 1919-1928 (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2011). Lawrence O. Christensen, William E. Foley, Gary R. Kremer and Kenneth H. Winn, eds., Dictionary of Missouri Biography (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1999), 241-243. Anita Jacobsen, Jacobsen's Biographical Index of American Artists (Carrollton: A.J. Publications, 2002).