 |
| Walt Disney - the man who gave us magic |
 |
| Long before Tarzan rocked the jungle, before Simba became a king, Aladdin unleashed a genie, Belle fell in love with a Beast, Taran found a magic cauldron, Mowgli left the jungle, 101 Dalmatians were chased by Cruella de Vil, Peter Pan flew off in the night, Alice got lost in her own curious world and even before Snow White met the seven Dwarfs, there was a man with a dream. He made his dream come true and changed history forever. Could you imagine a world without Disney? No-one can. But what is the story behind this man? Where did he come from? And how did it all happen? Walt Disney's story begins back at the beginning of the 20th century in Chicago. |
 |
 |
| It was on December 5th, 1901, that Walter Elias Disney was born. He was the fourth child of Elias and Flora Disney. He had three older brothers (Herbert -1888-, Raymond -1890- and Roy -1893) and two years later a sister, Ruth, arrived, making the Disneyfamily complete. At the time of Walt's birth the family was living in Chicago, but after crime became worse in the city, the family moved away to a 45-acre farm in Marceline, Missouri. Later Walt would say that here he spend the best days of his youth. It was also this city that stood model for the Main Street-part at the Magic Kingdom-themeparks all around the world. After five years Elias got ill and the family had to move again, this time to Kansas City. Walt got a job as newspaperboy, which was very hard for him. His father invested in a beverages company. When the company went belly up, the family decided to move back to Chicago. Walt stayed behind with Roy and Herbert, who was married by now and had a daugther. In the summer of 1918 Walt decided to join the army. Allthough he was to young, he still tried and lied about his age. He was send to France. |
| Walt joined the Ambulance Corps in France, but the First World War had already ended. He returned back in the fall of 1919. For a time he worked as an apprentice at the Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio, but was fired when business was slow. It was there where he met Ub Iwerks. They decided to start their own company, Iwerks-Disney, and had one client before the money ran out. Walt took a job at the Slide Company, an important move, because it was here where he fell in love with animation. Later Ub joined him there. Walt read books about animation and began making his own in his fathers garage. He named them the Laugh-O-Grams and sold them to the Newman Theatre. He made no money with it and he went bancrupt. Walt decided to move to California, where he began working at a new project, Alice's Wonderland. He started a new studio in the garage of his uncle Robert and was able to sell 6 cartoons to Winkler for $1,500 a piece. Roy joined him there to become his business-partner, probably the best decision in Walt's career. In 1923 the Disney Brother Studios was founded. |
|
 |
 |
 |