Walter Disney

Walt Disney, ambulance driver (http://www.disneydreamer.com/presidio_Abm2.jpg)

Walter Disney was born on December 5, 1901. He was one of five children in a family with four boys and a girl. Walter was born in Chicago, Illinois, but his family moved to Marceline, Missouri, shortly after he was born. There he lived most his childhood. Walter had always had an interest in art, even at a young age. When he was little he would sell drawings to his neighbors to earn some extra cash. He carried on with his art throughout his childhood and took a course on art and photography at McKinley High School in Chicago. In 1918, Walter Disney enlisted for military service, but was rejected because he was only sixteen at the time. So he joined the Red Cross and went overseas to France. He spent the year driving an ambulance, which he decorated with his cartoons.

As soon as Walter Disney returned to France he continued to further his career in the arts. He started a small company called Laugh-O-Grams, which fell into bankruptcy. With only twenty dollars, a suitcase and a dream, Walter Disney then moved to Hollywood to start again. He started to become known in Hollywood with his “Alice Comedies.” In 1925, Disney married Lillian Bounds who was one of his first employees. Later on they had two daughters Diane and Sharon.

One of the first color animated films created by Walt Disney was “Flowers and Trees,” which won Walt Disney his first Academy Award. In 1937, he then released “The Old Mill,” "which was the first short subject film to utilize the multi-plane camera technique." On December 21, 1937 Disney released movie based on a well-known fairy tale - “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," which was his first full length film. Over the next five years, Walt Disney produced some other full motion films such as "Pinocchio", "Fantasia", "Dumbo", and "Bambi."

Walter Disney kept dreaming and focused on building a clean and well-organized amusement park. His dream became a reality in 1955 with the opening of Disneyland in California, and then in 1971 Disneyworld in Florida. Today, there are a total of twenty-one Disney parks in the world. Along with that, there is even a line of Disney Cruises! Walter Disney produced 636 films and even acted in some of them. Walter Disney may have passed away, but his dream is still very much alive.

Walter Disney is one of my heroes, not just because I loved his movies, but because of how he made his dreams come true. He lived during the Depression and World War II, but he didn’t let that crush his dreams. He pursued every one of them and never backed down, even when the going got tough. He wanted to give hope to families during a time of war and grief and he wanted to make movies that made people forget for a moment about the troubles in the world. And that is what he did. He created dreams for many children and even adults. He showed that never backing down really does pay off.

One way we can honour my hero is to take some time and watch a classic (not a new one) Disney movie that he produced. Another way we could honour my hero is to have everyone in class draw one of their favourite Disney cartoon characters and then post them around the school to make everyone smile.