Walt Elias Disney

Walt Disney is one of the most famous artists of the 20th century. He is famous for the creation of Mickey Mouse, one of the most well known cartoons in the world; the making of the first full-color cartoon, Flowers and Trees, the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and the creation of the first theme-park Disneyland. Not only is he famous around the world for his art, but also for encouraging people to follow their dreams and use their imagination. In addition, he was known for good family values and caring about the happiness of his fans. He wanted people to achieve their goals and dreams so that they could in turn inspire other people to do the same thing. All of these things made Disney a great hero and inspiration.

Before Walt Disney became a world-famous cartoonist, he was a farm boy. Walt Disney was born December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois. His parents are Elias Disney from Canada and Flora Disney from Ohio. He was 4th in line of 5 siblings, one of which was Roy Disney. Plus, his sister, Ruth Disney, who as a child acted like Walt’s shadow. After Walt’s parents decided that living in Chicago was too dangerous, they moved to Walt’s uncle’s farm one hundred miles northeast of Kansas City in Marceline, Missouri; where Walt spent part of his childhood and holds most of his best memories. Work on the Disney's farm went well until Walt's two eldest brothers left, leaving extra work for the rest of the family. Due to the the extra work, Walt's father became ill with typhoid fever and pneumonia. Even though his father did recover from his illness, he was never well enough to do farm work again. So in the fall of 1910, Walt’s parents decided to move to Kansas City. Even though Walt only lived on the farm for 4 years of his life, he would never forget those good times and great memories. During their time in Kansas City, Walt and Roy worked on their father’s newspaper route delivering papers for no pay. In the summer of 1912, to Walt’s disappointment, Roy left the house to find paying work. At the age of 10 with all of his brothers gone and his father disabled, Walt was left to do all the work. Even through all the tough work, he never once complained.

During the middle of Walt Disney’s life, he accomplished many different things. When Walt was in his teens, he lied about his age three different times - once to work on a railroad, again to Join the U.S Post Office, and finally to join the Red Cross Ambulance Corps. Walt had planned on going to France to help in the war with the Red Cross Ambulance Corps. Sadly, Walt could not go due to getting the Spanish Influenza virus. After the war, Walt got lucky and was able to go to France with the Red Cross Ambulance Corps to help with the cleanup which he did for about a year.

At the age of 18, Walt moved back to Kansas City. In Kansas City Walt started to work for two commercial artists where he met Ub Iwerks who became one of Walt’s best friends and co-workers. After Christmas, Walt and Ub were laid off so Walt found a job delivering mail for the post office, which he did till New Year’s. Then one of Walt’s childhood friends convinced his father to give Walt and Ub a job. During that time, Ub and Walt started their own business as commercial artists. After many jobs with Ub Iwerks, Walt created Laugh-O-grams which in the end failed. In 1923 Walt moved to Hollywood and stayed in his 62 year-old Uncle Robert's house. Then Roy came to Hollywood and agreed to be business partners with Walt and work on his Alice Comedies cartoons. Later he got his Laugh-o-grams partner, Ub, to join. One of the painting assistants Walt hired was Lillian Bounds who Walt Married On July 13, 1925. When Walt had been making Alice comedies for three years, Universal Pictures wanted him to make a new series with a cartoon rabbit as the star. So Walt created Oswald the lucky rabbit. In 1928 Walt lost the rights to Oswald to Charlie Mintz at Universal Studios. Even worse Ub Iwerks already signed to work with Mintz. On his way home from losing the rights to Oswald, Walt started to think about new ideas for cartoon characters. The result was a mouse whose name was Mortimer. Walt’s wife didn’t like this name and thought Mickey was a better name. He agreed and thus was the creation of Mickey Mouse. Through his lifetime, Walt created many other cartoons and films, but none of them are as well known as Mickey Mouse.

Even though his life ended at the age of 65, he became a hero and an inspiration to many people during his lifetime. During the late years of Walt’s life, he decided that he would make a park where adults and children could have fun and be entertained together. Everyone thought he was crazy for going into a business he didn’t know anything about, but he was determined; and on July 17, 1955 Disneyland in Anaheim, California was opened to the public. During his lifetime, Walt won many awards. “Walt Disney's personal awards included honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, the University of Southern California, and UCLA; the Presidential Medal of Freedom; France's Legion of Honor and Officer d'Academie decorations; Thailand's Order of the Crown; Brazil's Order of the Southern Cross; Mexico's Order of the Aztec Eagle; and the Showman of the World Award from the National Association of Theatre Owners” (Walt Disney Biography). Sadly Walt Disney Died of lung cancer on December 15, 1966 at St. Joseph's Hospital in Los Angeles, California. Walt Disney lived a very inspirational life.

Walt Disney was determined to make a place where people could use their imagination to reach their goals and dreams so that they could be happy. Walt Disney once commented on the creation of his school the California Institute of The Arts saying, "It's the principal 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, Walt (1901-1966)"). Walt shows he is a hero through his determination to make a place where people would be happy and strive to reach goals and dreams. The Encyclopedia of World Biography states that “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” (Adams). This gives further proof that Walt Disney is a hero. These two facts show that Walt Disney is a hero for wanting people to achieve their goals and dreams by using their imagination.

Walt Disney had good family values and wanted to make people happy and excited with his work. Once while he was at an amusement park with his daughters he said to himself, “Why can't there be a better place to take your children, where you can have fun together?” (Disney, Walt (1901-1966)UXL Biographies). Walt Disney wanted people to have a place where the whole family could have fun and be entertained together. Another reason Walt Disney deserves the honor of being a hero is because he didn’t really care about money; he wanted the happiness of others first before himself. Disney once revealed, "I've always been bored with just making money, I’ve wanted to do things, I wanted to build things, get something going"(Disney, Walt (1901-1966)UXL Biographies). Making money to Walt had always been one of things he just didn’t care about that much; he wanted his work to make people happy and that’s all he really needed.

Walt Disney is an inspiration because he didn’t just want people to follow their dreams and ideals, but he wanted them to use their dreams and ideals to inspire other people to do so as well; and he was also inspiring for being very determined and not letting anything distract him from his goal. Walt once stated, “Disneyland is your land . . . dedicated to the ideals, the dreams and the hard facts that have created America---with the hope that it will be a joy and inspiration to all the world” (Josephson 9). Walt shows he is an inspiration through creating things that inspired others to follow and achieve their goals. Another reason he is inspiring is that when he was determined with one thing he never got distracted by another. At the opening of Disneyworld, Roy gave a brief statement about Walt: "My brother Walt and I first went into business together almost a half-century ago. And he was really, in my opinion, truly a genius-creative, with great determination, singleness of purpose, and drive; and through his entire life he was never pushed off his course or diverted to other things"(Disney, Walt (1901-1966)DISCovering Biography). Walt was always determined to never give up on something, and never let anything get in his way. These two quotes show that Walt Disney is a great and inspiring man who wanted people to achieve their goals and never give up on their work.

Walt Disney truly deserves the honor of being a great inspiration and hero to people all around the world. He always inspired people to work harder to achieve their dreams and use their imagination. He was also a good person who was unselfish and cared about others before himself. Even though Walt Disney will be mostly remembered for being the creator of Mickey Mouse or Disneyland, to some people he will always be remembered as a great artist, Inspiration, and hero.

Works Cited

Adams, Mary Alice. "Disney, Walter Elias (1901-1966)." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Ed. Suzanne M. Bourgoin. 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998. 17 vols.Student Resource Center - Gold. Gale. DEL NORTE HIGH SCHOOL. 1 Feb. 2010.

"Disney, Walt." International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Ed. William A. Darity, Jr.. Vol. 2. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008. 409-410. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. DEL NORTE HIGH SCHOOL. 19 Jan. 2010.

"Disney, Walt (1901-1966)." DISCovering Biography. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center - Gold. Gale. DEL NORTE HIGH SCHOOL. 19 Jan. 2010.

"Disney, Walt (1901-1966)." UXL Biographies. Online ed. Detroit: UXL, 2003. Student Resource Center - Gold. Gale. DEL NORTE HIGH SCHOOL. 1 Feb. 2010.

Josephson, Judith. Walt Disney Genius of Entertainment. Berkeley Heights: Enslow Publishers, Inc., 2006. 9-105.

"Walt Disney Biography." Disney Archives. Disney, Web. 27 Jan 2010. http://disney.go.com/vault/read/walt/index.html>.