Introduction

Across the world millions of people who have never heard of Barack Obama, Bill
Gates or Oprah Winfrey are however very familiar with characters such as Mickey Mouse,
Donald Duck and Snow White. Behind these characters stands the determined animator,
known for his his sleek moustache and never ending imagination, Walt Disney. 1 Disney
was a visionary who dedicated his life to the entertainment and education of the public
and who’s influences can still be seen in the film and entertainment industry today. He
weathered many storms in the film industry and drove his company to the brink of
bankruptcy on more than one occasion, but finally came to thrive in the environment with
950 honours and citations throughout the world, including 48 Academy awards and 7
Emmys in his lifetime. 2
In a century filled with the dread of two World Wars and the Great Depression,
Disney represented a source of joy and optimism by creating a world where the
boundaries between reality and fantasy melted away. He was able to bring our favourite
fairytales to life, like Snow White and the Seven dwarfs, with sounds and colours that
made it all stand out and let us to believe that fairytales might actually come true. Not
only did he sweep us away in this fantasy world through films, but he also made this
fantasy world come to life in our physical reality by creating the “happiest place on earth”
- Disneyland. In Disneyland the aim is to fully engage the audience, characters and
narrative in the same world and create a place where this illusion of a fantasy world could
be sustained for many for a day or a week. 3
This essay will attempt to give a detailed biography of one of the most influential
Americans of the 20th century, Disney and show how he came to create such a wonderful
world for his audience. It should be noted however that it is in fact very difficult to write a
clear biography of Disney, since many biographers differ in their view on him and he has
become something of a contradicting topic.
The majority of Disney biographies have shown us on the one hand someone who
smoked too much and swearing more than what is expected from a gentleman, therefore
falling short of perfection. 4 On the other hand he is seen as one of the most inspirational
business men because he had the courage to follow his dream and make it his reality.

1 S. Watts: “The Journal of American History,” The Journal of American History, (81), (2), (June 1995), p. 84.
2 http://disneylandnews.com/2009/06/05/a-biography-of-walt-disney-the-creator-of-disneyland-2/ (3 April 2018).
3S. Trowbridge & C. Stapleton: “Melting the boundaries between fantasy and reality,” IEEE Computer Society, (July
2009), pp. 57-58.
4 M. Barrier: The Animated Man: A Life if Walt Disney, p.
 I cannot help but think of a song by Kris Kristofferson where he sings: “[He’s] partly
truth and partly fiction.” 5 Therefore I will not attempt to say that the world that Disney
created is completely true, since I believe that the world he created is in fact partly truth
and partly fiction. This is why Disney is still regarded as a genius today, 52 years after his
death.

5
 Body
Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago on 5 December 1901. He was named after his
father, Elias and Walter Robinson Parr, the English-born minister of Saint Paul
Congregational, where Disney was baptised in 1902. The Disneys were a full house with 6
members: Elias and his wife Flora, their four sons Herbert, Raymond, Roy and Walter and
their daughter Ruth.6

The Disney family moved to a forty-acre farm in Marceline from Chicago in April 1906
because Elias was afraid of the growing crime and corruption in Chicago and how it
endangered his children. On the farm they had orchards of apples, plums and peaches and
fields of grain and a farm house with chickens, horses, cows and pigs. 7 Disney had very
fond memories on the farm.

Disney only started school in the fall of 1909 at Marceline’s new Park School. By this time
he was almost eight years old and started school with his sister Ruth who was 2 years
younger than him. Until then Disney had loads of free time which he spent around the
farm and with the neighbours who lived around their farm, such as Leighton I. Sherwood
and E.H. Taylor who were both in their seventies. He also spent much of his time with
with his grandmother, Mary Richardson Disney, who sent Disney to the farms around
them to steal some fruits and vegetables. 8

These companions also encouraged Walt to pursue drawing, as Sherwood gave him some
money to draw pictures of his horse and his aunt Margaret Disney brought him paper
pads and crayons and constantly commended his drawings. Walt even drew several
drawings of animals on the side of their farm house with soft tar which obviously did not
gain the same praise from his family members as his other drawings. 9

After living on the farm for more or less four and a half years Elias was diagnosed with
typhoid fever and this lead to him selling the farm in November 1910. The Disneys rented
a house in Marceline for the rest of the 1910-1911 school year and in May 1911 they moved
to Kansas City. Walt entered the Benton School in September 1911 and was forced to re-do
the second grade, even though he completed in Marceline. 10

In July 1911, Elias bought a Kansas Star Delivery route and strangely enough he put it in
Roy’s name because Elias was older than the average Star route owner. Immediately Elias
put Roy and Walt to work and they helped him to deliver the morning Times the afternoon
and Sunday Star to more or less seven hundred customers, who’s figures grew over time.

6 M. Barrier: The Animated Man: A Life if Walt Disney, p. 10-13.

7 M. Barrier: The Animated Man: A Life if Walt Disney, p.10.
8 M. Barrier: The Animated Man: A Life if Walt Disney, p. 16.
9 Ibid.
10 M. Barrier: The Animated Man: A Life if Walt Disney, p. 17
Because of this massive workload the Disneys stopped going to church on Sunday
afternoon to complete the deliveries. The boys woke up at 4:30A.M. to deliver the newsier
until the school bell rang and would then continue the deliveries after school until it was
time for supper. Due to this Walt would often fall asleep at school and his progress at
school therefore took a dip due to the deliveries. Along with the newspapers Elias also
ordered eggs and butter from a farm in Marceline, which he then sold to his newspaper
customers. On the days where Elias was sick, Walt got took out of school to help with the
extra deliveries. 11

Walt continued this delivery service for more than six years and in 1917 Walt and Ruth
graduated from the seventh grade at Benton School. Elias sold his newspaper route and
soon after the graduation he, Flora and Ruth moved back to Chicago where he took up the
role of management of the O-Zell Company. Walt stayed behind in Kansas City for a while
with Roy, Herbert and Herbert’s with and baby daughter. During the summer he worked
as a news butcher and joined his parents in Chicago later that year. Walt started eighth
grade at McKinley High School, worked part time at the O-Zell jelly factory and attended
night classes at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Besides for some random children’s
classes that Walt attended, were these night classes his only formal training in art. Walt
drew some cartoons for his high school magazine, The Voice.12

Soon after the United States of America (USA) entered World War I, in 1917, Roy Disney
joined the navy. Walt wanted to join Roy but he was too young. While working at the Post
Office from July to September 1918 he signed up to join the Red Cross and since he was
too young, so, he changed his birth date on the affidavit that his mother signed from 1901
to 1900 so that he seems to be 17-years old which was the required age for the pasport that
was necessary. 13 He was accepted to join the Red Cross and by the time he reached France
in December the war had already ended but he remained in France for a year as an
ambulance driver and chauffeur for Red Cross officials. Walt’s ambulance stood out from
his colleagues since it was covered in cartoons. He returned to Chicago in the fall of 1919.
14

Walt wanted to pursue a career as an artist and after turning down a job at the jelly factory,
he moved to Kansas City to join Roy, who was working as a bank teller after the navy. He
got a job as an apprentice at the Pesmin-Rubin Commercial Art Studio where he would get
$50 a month. Here Disney met Ub Iwerks, who played a significant role in Disney’s climb
to the top of the animation industry. Disney was one of the employees who worked the
hardest, but was laid off after six weeks due to a shortage of work for the amount of
employees at the studio. He did not regret being laid off though since he felt that it was a
big learning curve for him in the Cartoon industry. 15

11 M. Barrier: The Animated Man: A Life if Walt Disney, p. 19-20.

12 Ibid, p. 20-21.
13 Ibid, p. 22-23.
14 http://disneylandnews.com/2009/06/05/a-biography-of-walt-disney-the-creator-of-disneyland-2/ (3 April 2018).
15 M. Barrier: The Animated Man: A Life if Walt Disney, p.
Disney found work at the Post Office in December 1919 and during his spare time he
would work on his own cartoon samples with the idea of opening his own business. In
January 1920 Walt got the news that Iwerks had also been laid off. With $500 of Walt’s
savings they were able to buy all the needed supplies and the two of them opened their
new firm Iwerks-Disney. Walt got a job at the Kansas City Film Ad (KCFA) company for
$40 a week to insure a constant flow of money. KCFA made advertisements for local
merchants that were shown in the theaters and here Walt learnt a lot about animation and
how these films are made. The KCFA made use of cutout figures which would be
repositioned with every shot, therefore with the shots played together they show the
different movements. Iwerks stayed behind at Iwerks-Disney but since he did not have the
personality like Walt to keep and gain their customers he also became an employee at the
KCFA. 16

Walt had a vision of animations that were far more advanced than the cutout animations
of the KCFA and was inspired by an Edwin Lutz book which showed him that his vision
could become a reality. Walt started to experiment with the different methods of animation
and tried to made improvements on the method that KCFA made use of. In 1921 Walt
asked Verne Cauger if he could borrow an old KCFA camera to experiment at home and
Cauger borrowed him one. Walt rented Elias’s garage to perform his experiments. His first
film was titles “New Man Laugh-O-grams,” he used the Newman Theatre, which was one
of Kansas City’s grandest movie houses, in his name in the hopes that this would lead to
them buying his reel as a regular feature. He was able to sell the films to the theatre at cost
price, therefore not making a profit but this did not leave him disheartened because he
saw it in the light that they are paying for him to perform his experiments.

Eventually Disney was able to buy a Universal camera with his savings and rent a shop
where he worked on his films at night. Later on he put an advertisement in the paper to
hire people who wanted to learn about the cartoon industry and so Fred- and Hugh
Harman and Rudolph Ising stepped into the picture. In the spring of 1922 Walt quit his
job at the KCFA and incorporated Laugh-O-gram Films and shortly after this they created
the cartoons film Red Riding Hood. However, by the time of the fifth cartoon Laugh-O-
grams were coming closer to debt. Ub Iwerks quit his job at the Kansas City Film Ad in
November 1922 and joined the Laugh-O-grams to try and save the sinking ship. The
employees were not receiving a salaries anymore by the time that the last cartoon,
Cinderella, were delivered to Pictorial Clubs. Walt did not want to let his staff down and
was doing everything in his power to keep Laugh-O-grams in business, at a stage Roy
even sent him checks of $30 each to try and fill up the cracks of the sinking ship that was
Laugh-O-Grams. 17

Disney had the idea of doing a reversal of what has been done in some popular cartoons
where they put the cartoons in the real world with humans. So, Walt decided that he

16 M. Barrier: The Animated Man: A Life if Walt Disney, p. 24-25.

17 M. Barrier: The Animated Man: A Life if Walt Disney, p. 32-36
would put a person to act in the cartoons. In 1923 Walt wanted to use a four-year-old
blonde, Virginia Davis, to appear Laugh-O-gram’s new film, Alice’s Wonderland, and on
April 13 he signed a contract with her parents. Later in 1923 they had completed the first
Alice’s Wonderland film and Margaret Winkler was a film distributor from New York who
was very eager to see the film. Walt told Winkler to get in touch with Pictorial Clubs New
York Office for a screening of their films but Pictorial Clubs went bankrupt and Laugh-O-
grams never got the $11000 payment which they were promised. 18

Walt did not surrender when bankruptcy came knocking on Laugh-O-gram’s door in
October 1923. He built his own camera stand and opened the first cartoon studio in Los
Angeles in his uncle’s garage.19 He wrote to Margaret Winkler again in August to inform
her that he left Laugh-O-gram and started his own studio in Los Angeles where he would
make more cartoon comedies. Winkler replied in September saying that she would be
interested to see his films. Walt sent her the Alice’s Wonderland print which he brought with
him from Kansas City and Winkler was so delighted with the film that she offered him a
contract for six Alice films and an option of twelve more films later on. 20

Roy Disney was diagnosed with tuberculoses and was booked in at the Sawtelle
sanatorium in California. Roy had a good mind for business, something which Walt
lacked. Therefore, Walt convinced Roy to leave the sanatorium and help Walt with
business matters at the end Disney Brothers Studio. Roy left the sanatorium and never
returned. Roy made an immense difference in the business and his presence also took
some weight off of Walt’s shoulders and since he was no longer as worried about the
finances, he could focus on the creative side of the business - making the cartoons. Their
first film was sent to Winkler on December 26 and they received $1200 for it which made
them practically jump through the roof. In May 1924 Iwerks also joined the staff
immediately production picked up and their Alice cartoons were starting to become quite
a hit. 21

In 1925 Walt got married with one of his staff members, Lillian Marie Bounds. Walt was 23
years old when he got married, three years younger than Lillian and he was also not a
financially appealing character at this stage. It was also around this time that Walt started
growing his iconic moustache after participating I a competition with the guys int he office
to see who’s moustache grows quicker. Lillian liked the moustache so much that Walt
decided not to shave it off again. Walt was starting to gain reputation an impressive
animator. Over time the staff at the Disney Brothers grew and the Alice films started to
look better with the ever increasing animators working on it. With the studio’s finances
picking up they were able to move to a new studio in February 1926 and the Disney
Brothers Studio changed to Walt Disney Productions. In the end of 1926 they had made 40
Alice films which were more polished and more entertaining than his previous films. In

18 M. Barrier: The Animated Man: A Life if Walt Disney, p. 32-38

19 B. Thomas: Walt Disney, the art of Animation, p. 8.
20 M. Barrier: The Animated Man: A Life if Walt Disney, p.
21 M. Barrier: The Animated Man: A Life if Walt Disney, p.
1927 they also started with a new animation called Oswald the lucky Rabbit, where Walt
received $2250 for each cartoon film.22

There was however a cloud that started to darken Walt’s success and this was his relation
with his film distributor. Since the beginning of their negotiations Winkler made it clear
that she will have full ownership of the final Alice films. Later on Walt mainly dealt with
Charles Mintz, Winkler’s husband, who had his own agenda and had a condescending
character. In 1927 the Walt Disney Studio was no longer a happy place as it has been in the
past. Walt was perceived by his employees as being overbearing and putting too much
pressure on them to finish more and more films with the increasing deadlines of Alice and
Oswald films. Many employees were unhappy in their work environment and Charles
Mintz stepped in at the right time in 1928 to lure many of them away from Walt and get
them to start their own studio where they could make Oswald Films.

In February 1928 Walt went to New York to renew his contract with Winkler Pictures but
Mintz wanted Walt to surrender his independence and therefore renewed the terms in the
contract. Walt believed that Mintz had impossible demands and there broke off the
negotiations with Winkler Pictures. Disney returned to Los Angeles and had to come up
with a new character since Winkler owned the Alice films and Universal had full
ownership of the Oswald character. It was decided that a mouse would be a cute character
in a cartoon film and so the idea of one of Walt’s most iconic characters, Mikey Mouse,was
born. At first he would have been named Mortimer but after Lillian protested they
changed the name to Mickey because it had a better ring to it.

Iwerks designed Mickey and drew most of the cartoon. The debut Mickey Mouse cartoon
film was completed in May 1928, but most distributors did not want to invest into a new
cartoon series and so Walt did not get offers for his first Mikey Mouse film. Walt became
aware that adding sound to his cartoons would make them stand out but there was still no
certainty that sound cartoons would replace silent films. Wilfred Jackson became an
employee at the Walt Disney Studios in April 1928 and since he had some knowledge
about music he played a big role in the production of Steamboat Willie, the third Micky
Mouse cartoon. The film was originally silent but Jackson was able to combine music with
the animation in such a way that it was synchronised. 23

Harry Reichenbach, the manager at Broadway’s Colony Theatre negotiated with Disney
and requested to run Steamboat Willie on Broadway for two weeks for $250 per week. Since
Mickey Mouse has not been such a hit at the distributors companies so far, he needed the
money, so, he accepted Reichenbach’s deal. Universal Pictures also requested to run
Steamboat Willie at the Colony Theatre and Walt accepted their request. The premier of
Steamboat Willie at the Colony Theatre was on November 18, 1928 and it ran for two weeks
and it was the first fully synchronised sound cartoon. 24 Steamboat Willie was a huge

22M. Barrier: The Animated Man: A Life if Walt Disney, p.

23 M. Barrier: The Animated Man: A Life if Walt Disney, p.
24 http://disneylandnews.com/2009/06/05/a-biography-of-walt-disney-the-creator-of-disneyland-2/ (3 April 2018).
success and received wonderful reviews. Pat Powers from Universal wanted to represent
Walt at this stage and they signed a two year contract with Walt hoping that Powers could
get him a deal with a national distributor. Powers however negotiated with the chain of
theatres of Stanley Fabian Warner which were suitable for films with sound. This meant
that the distribution of the film would fall under states-right and there would not be a
nation-wide release date, just like his previous cartoons. 25

The Walt Disney Studio started with another cartoon series where music was a key
element. The first cilm, The Skeleton dance, was also mainly animated by Iwerks who’s
drawings were perfectly synchronised with the music in the film, making it very effective.
Walt’s combination of sound and cartoons were perfectly synchronised whereas his
competition’s cartoons were distracting and brash once they added sound. Walt decided to
hire more experienced animators since Iwerks was the only one on the job at the moment.
With the growing staff Iwerks did not animate as much as in the past, instead he made
drawings as a guideline for the new staff n how to set their scenes and tension started to
rise between Walt and Iwerks. Disney was a very overbearing director and wanted to be in
control of what was being produced and with sound being added to his films he took the
opportunity to have even more control over the production process. Walt wanted to have
the best cartoons and would have done anything to turn his dream into reality. He even
sent his less experienced animators to art classes so that their drawings could be of a
higher quality. His intentions with the art classes were good but with his need to have
control of the situation he had a role call at the art classes to ensure that everyone attends.
26

Walt was also not as happy with Pat Powers anymore since he still owed them money on
some of the cartoons that he distributed but Powers did not want to pay anything until
they renew their contract. Walt went to New York to confront Powers in January 1930 and
around this time Iwerks also quit his job at the Walt Disney Studios to start his own
cartoon series for Pat Powers himself. This news was heartbreaking for Walt and therefore
the wanted to break free from Powers. In April 1930 they signed a settlement with him in
which was very messy and put Walt at a disadvantage with $50000 that he had to pay
Powers. 27

In February 1930 Walt signed a contract with Geo. Borgfeldt & Co. to license the toys and
books of Mickey Mouse. This lead to an increase in the popularity of the Mickey cartoons
and he soon became a national sensation. The atmosphere in the studio also started to pick
up since everyone were trying to create more consistent and higher quality cartoons. In
December 1930 Walt signed a contract with a new distributor United Artists (UA) which
was an improvement to the previous agreements. 28 In 1932 Disney and UA introduced

25 M. Barrier: The Animated Man: A Life if Walt Disney, p.

26 M. Barrier: The Animated Man: A Life if Walt Disney, p.
27 M. Barrier: The Animated Man: A Life if Walt Disney, p.
28 M. Barrier: The Animated Man: A Life if Walt Disney, p.
Technicolor with the production of the Silly Symphonies series. The film Flowers and Trees
was the first to be in Technicolor and won Walt the first of many Academy Awards. 29

Walt wanted to create a full-length animated feature and he as his team worked hard to
make this possible. On 21 December 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs had its debut
at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles and was the first ever full-length animated
musical feature film. 30 Walt gave his characters a personality and related it to the human
experience which made them more believable and that is one of the main reasons why the
audience fell in love with each one of the seven Dwarfs with their unique personalities. 31
In the next few years Walt created other favourite full-length animations such as Fantasia,
Dumbo, Bami and Pinocchio. In 1940 the Walt Disney Studios moved to a bigger location
and the staff grew to 1000 employees. 32

The Walt Disney Studios released 81 films during the days of Walt’s life. Thanks to him
animation films also moved away from slap-stick comedies and instead had well-
developed characters with who the audience could relate on an emotional level. 33 Walt
believed that it was possible to educate people through entertainment. In the 1950s he
created the series “True-Life Adventure” which won numerous awards and educated his
audience about wild life and how crucial it is to protect and restore the wildlife and
natural environment. 34 In 1955 Disneyland was also introduced to the public as a “Magic
Kingdom” where all his cartoons came to life. It was, and still is today, a world that he
created for his audience where they can live the fairytale or fantasy life for a day or a week
or a month. Through this he was able to bring his fictional world that he created in his
films and turn this into a factual world in which one could be fully immersed. Disneyland
is a huge success and within two months one million people have already visited it. Walt
believed that he could create an even better word for the audience to enjoy themselves. In
1965 Walt Disney Studios bought and area in Orlando where they started working on the
Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, which later on became every child’s
dream - the Walt Disney World. Walt was however never able to see the final creation as he
passes away on 15 December 1966 and Disney World is only open to the public on 1
October 1971. 35

Walt Disney is in my opinion one of the most inspirational entrepreneurs and even today,
52 years after his death, his story still inspires many to work hard and make their dreams
come true. This is exactly what he did. Walt never gave up on his dream of being an

29 http://disneylandnews.com/2009/06/05/a-biography-of-walt-disney-the-creator-of-disneyland-2/ (3 April 2018).

30 Ibid.
31B. Thomas: Walt Disney, the art of Animation, p. 38.
32 http://disneylandnews.com/2009/06/05/a-biography-of-walt-disney-the-creator-of-disneyland-2/ (3 April 2018).
33J. Algar: The living Desert and the Vanishing Prairie, http://userhome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/anthro/jbeatty/COURSES/
non_fiction/lect4.html (9 April 2018).
34 http://disneylandnews.com/2009/06/05/a-biography-of-walt-disney-the-creator-of-disneyland-2/ (3 April 2018).
35 http://disneylandnews.com/2009/06/05/a-biography-of-walt-disney-the-creator-of-disneyland-2/ (3 April 2018).
independent animator even though he was on the brink of bankruptcy on more than one
occasion and had to borrow money just to scrape by. He is the one who said: “All our
dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue it.” 36 Therefore his story inspires
us to follow our dreams and make the impossible possible, therefore turning what many
would believe to be a fictional idea into a factual story.

Walt Disney also created some of our favourite characters such as Mickey Mouse, Donald
Duck, Dopey the Dwarf, Jimmy Cricket, Goofy, the list is never-ending and he made us fall
in love with each one of them. Thanks to him we also got to see these favourite in colour
and with sound which made them come to life and made us connect with them on a
emotional level. Through his wonderful films he was able to educate us about wildlife and
entertain us with our favourite fairytales, therefore giving us both fact and fiction right
there. Walt was also able to make this fictional world in his films as close to reality as
possible, letting the facts and fiction intertwine. Not only did he create these marvellous
worlds in his films but he also created a magical world in our reality known as Disneyland
and Disney World, where still today millions of people go to live out the fantasy which
they always wanted to and have a real escape from reality. Therefore, I believe that the
world that Walter Elias Disney created can neither be described as merely facts more
fiction but it is one that is partly fact and partly fiction.

36 https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/walt_disney_163027 (10 April 2018).