Walter Elias: Animator And Founder Of The Walt Disney Company

Walter Elias "Walt" Disney is best known for being an animator and founder of the Walt Disney Company. He was born on December 5, 1901 to parents Elias Charles Disney and Flora Call Disney in Chicago. Disney started his career in animation when he drew pictures for one of his neighbors at the age of four. When Disney was 10 years old he attended Saturday courses at the Kansas City Art Institute. At the age of 16 he started high school, where he became the school newsletter cartoonist, and took night classes at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.

In 1919, at the age of 18, Walt moved to Kansas City to begin his artistic career by drawing political caricatures or comic strips for a newspaper. When he was unable to find work as an artist, his brother

Roy got him a job creating advertisements for newspapers, magazines, and movie theaters at the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio. He met Ubbe Iwerks, who became a lifelong friend, while working at Pesmen-Rubin. When their time at the studio expired, they started their own company called "Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists" the following year. The company had a rough start and Disney temporarily left the company to work for the Kansas City Film Ad Company. While working for the Kansas City Film Ad Company, he discovered his passion for animation and eventually decided to open his own animation business with fellow co-worker Fred Harman as his first employee. Disney and Harman started creating cartoons called Laugh-O-Grams that used Aesop's Fables as a model to create modernized versions of fairy tales. Their cartoons were screened at a local theater owned by Frank Newman, who was one of the most popular "showmen" in Kansas City. Due to his success Disney created his own

studio, also called Laugh-O-Grams, which went bankrupt shortly after due to insufficient profits and high employee salaries.

Disney decided that he needed to start over and chose Hollywood, California due to its movie industry. He and his brother Roy pooled all their money together and started a cartoon studio called Disney Brothers Studio, which would later become the Walt Disney Company.

Alice Comedies, a series of live-action/animated shorts based upon Alice's Wonderland, was Disney's first success after arriving in Hollywood. The series ran for 4 years but lost public interest towards the end. Walt Disney's mainstream success did not come about until his initial sketches of Mickey Mouse were reworked by his longtime friend and employee, Ubbe Iwerks. Steamboat Willie was the first animated movie in which Mickey was featured and unlike previous movies included sound. Steamboat Willie became an instant success and Disney realized the importance of sound in his movies. He then changed all his previous movies to include it.

In 1934, Disney began work on his first full feature film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". It was going to become the most successful motion picture of 1938. After the initial success of Snow White, Disney created many more full feature animated movies.

He endeavored into different areas of business after his success. First, he opened Disneyland on Sunday, July 17, 1955 in California, which he had been planning and built over the last 5 years. The park was an immediate success. Next he ventured into TV, where he had several accomplished shows.

Walt Disney died on December 15, 1966 as a result of circulatory collapse. This was caused by lung cancer which he had developed from years of chain smoking.