Walter Elías Disney

He was born in Chicago (Illinois) on December 5, 1901. He had the typical childhood of a farmer's son.
His parents were, Elias Disney (1859-1941), of Irish ancestors and Flora Call (1868-1938), native of
Ohio, of German ancestors. Walt was born in 1901, being the fourth of the five children of the
marriage.7

In 1906 the family moved to a farm in the vicinity of Marceline, Missouri. Both he and his younger
sister, Ruth, were too young to help with farm work, and they spent most of their time playing. At
this time the Disney interest in drawing and his great fondness for trains was born.

In 1909, Elias Disney suddenly fell ill with typhoid fever and was unable to continue working on the
farm. He sold it reluctantly, and the family lived in a rented house until 1910, the year they moved to
Kansas City.

Disney began attending the Benton Grammar School in 1910, and graduated on June 8, 1911. He was
not a good student and during his adolescence he worked like newsboy in different opportunities.

At age 17 he forged his birth certificate to enter the army's “red cross” and fight in the First World
War, but when he finished his training the war had stopped and he only drove the ambulance by
moving officers in France where he entertained drawing the vehicles that I was driving.

Then in the 1920s he moved to Kansas where in company with Iwerks they formed a company that
did not succeed. In 1922 he founded the company Laugh-O-Gram Films, Inc., dedicated to making
animated short films based on popular fairy tales and stories for children. After creating his last short
film - the mix of real action and animation Alicia en el país de las maravillas - the studio filed for
bankruptcy in June 1923.

Then he wanted to try his luck in Hollywood but nobody gave him a job, opting to try his luck again
with animation. His first studio in Hollywood was a garage at his uncle Robert's house. He sent the
film Alice's Wonderland to the New York distributor Margaret Winkler, who showed interest and
hired Disney to produce more films combining animation and real image. This was the beginning of
the Disney Brothers' Studio, the germ of the future The Walt Disney Company..

His first work in animation was; "The rabbit Oswald: the lucky rabbit" which was an almost
instantaneous success. However, a year later Charles B. Mintz (producer of Winkler Pictures) steals
the patent and proposes a lower salary. After losing the rights to Oswald, W. Disney chose to create
a new character; "A mouse", Some sources indicate that the mouse was going to be called at first
"Mortimer", but that later it was baptized as "Mickey Mouse" by Lillian Disney (his wife).

The first appearance of Mickey took place on May 15, 1928 in "Plane Crazy", a silent short film, that
did not have much success, then Disney created a sound film, Steamboat Willie. Where he managed
to synchronize video of a film with audio for the first time. Mickey Mouse knew an extraordinary
success, to the point that, in 1935, the League of Nations awarded Disney with a gold medal,
declaring Mickey "international symbol of goodwill".

In 1929 Disney initiated a series of musical films titled Silly Symphonies. (Personally they are the best
shorts films of my childhood).

In his private life, Disney (1925) hired a young woman named Lillian Bounds to inlay and color
celluloid. After a brief courtship, he married her on July 15, 1925. With which he had a daughter, Diane
Marie Disney (1933) then the Disney adopted a second daughter, Sharon Mae Disney, in 1936.

Snow White, the first animated feature film in the English language, and the first to use the
Technicolor, was distributed in February 1938 by RKO. It was the most successful box office film of
1938, and earned an income of 8 million dollars (equivalent to about 98 million today) at its premiere.

In the Second World War. The Disney Studios collaborated closely with the government, producing
educational films and military training, after the war, Walt was oriented towards the production of
children's films of real image (the series True-Life Adventures, that began in 1948), documentaries
about nature and television programs..

There are documents that show that Disney acted secretly as an FBI agent since the early 1940s and
that in 1954 he was promoted to the rank of "special agent contact"..

Since the 1940s, Disney had the idea of building an amusement park so that its employees and their
families could have fun in their free time. Over time, this project would grow to become Disneyland..

Disney stopped working on the development of Disneyworld in the last months of 1966, when he
was diagnosed with cancer in his left lung, after a lifetime of heavy smoker. He passed a medical
examination at St. Joseph Hospital, next to the Disney studio building, and suffered a cardiac arrest.
He died on December 15, 1966. Ten days before he had turned 65 years old. His body was cremated
on December 17 and moved to the family vault at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale,
California, there is also the legend that his body was put under cryogenics hoping they can revive him
when he existed cancer cure.

Starting from his long successes that had W. Disney there are three things we can learn from this
great successful entrepreneur of all time:

1. Do what you love: Walt Disney loved to draw. In fact, I loved him so much that he was willing to
work in various jobs just to finance his art.

Phrase: “The best way to start something is to stop talking about it and start doing it ", Walt
Disney..

2. Create an experience: Disney parks are built not only to develop a great brand but a great
experience.

Phrase: "Disneyland is a work of love. We did not go to Disneyland just with the idea of
making money, "Walt Disney.

3. And, Do not stop after your first success: Disney never stopped after an accomplishment. Instead,
he immediately started working on another project, be it a new movie, a new character or
improvements to its current protagonists.

Phrase: "All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them", Walt Disney.