What Did Walt Disney Do During The Great Depression

Creating happiness during the Great Depression was hard to come by, but Walt Disney did just that. Walt Disney started his career by making short films with his partner Ub Iwerks around Hollywood and New York but they never had much success. Creating Mickey Mouse, the first major cartoon character of Disney, and also creating the first synchronized sound film, Steamboat Willie, during the time of the Great Depression had a huge impact on our society. Through these, Walt Disney was able to help the economy and provide new entertainment to distract the viewers from their reality during the Great Depression.

Most people, when they think of Disney, they think of “the happiest place on earth.” Walt Disney was the one to start all of this with all of his achievements in movies, television, and eventually the theme park. Disney created a character who’s

Steamboat Willie struck great success with the movie-goers of this time period. The short film was the first ever film to use synchronized sound and Walt Disney himself provided voices for Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and the ship’s parrot. With the little money people had, if they could get enough together they would go to see this film to feel pure happiness and joy. It distracted them from the reality going on in the real world and helped them forget about their financial problems for a little while.

Disney in the 1930’s wasn’t as technologically advanced as it is today, but the people of the 1930’s didn’t know any better because they had nothing else to compare it to. “ Audiences were stunned by the vitality of the film's characters. Unhampered by the difficulties of using new equipment with live actors, Disney was able to fuse technology with handcraftsmanship, naturalism with abstraction, an ability that, over time, proved him to be a great artist. ”