Walt Disney is a big deal in America. He tried to bring out hope and the inner child in everyone through his characters, movies, and theme parks.
In the process, he built one of the most successful and powerful companies in the world, which is now worth an estimated $130 billion. But before he was even close to being successful, he was living on the streets and had only $40 in his pocket.
Walt Disney was born in Chicago in 1901, and he grew up on a farm in Marceline, Missouri. Flora, his mother, was a teacher, and Elias, his father, was a farmer and businessman. Elias tried many different things, but they all failed, so he had to become a carpenter. When there were seven people in the Disney family, it was hard for Elias to make ends meet.
Herb, Ray, Roy, and Walt were his sons, and Ruth was his only daughter. Elias stopped caring about his children and even hurt them. It got so bad that Herb and Ray ran away in secret. When they lost two sons, the Disney family started having a lot of bad luck. Elias got sick with both typhoid and pneumonia. As Roy got better, he took care of the farm while he was still sick. But the work was too hard for him and any 16-year-old for that matter.
Flora told Elias that he should sell the farm. He tried to stay strong, but in the end, he gave up and moved his family to Kansas City. Soon after that, Ruth, Walt’s sister, got the measles and had to stay in bed.
Walt drew a series of figures that seemed to move when the paper was turned over to keep her busy. It was his first time trying animation, and it was one of the few times he could just play.
Walt didn’t get to play as much as most nine-year-olds, who ran around outside and laughed. Instead, his days were filled with work.
Elias bought a newspaper business when he moved to Kansas City, and he made Walt deliver papers before dawn. He wouldn’t pay Walt for all of his work, so he did odd jobs like selling newspapers, delivering prescriptions from a drugstore, and sweeping floors.
It didn’t take long for Walt’s teachers to start to worry. They said he often fell asleep in class and had trouble paying attention when he was awake.
He wasn’t helping himself by being more interested in things outside of school.
Walt was very interested in making cartoons and reading stories about people who did well and had exciting experiences.
He also loved entertainment, which he learned about from a classmate named Walt Pfeiffer. When Pfeiffer got the mumps, Walt went to see him at home because he had never had them before.
The Pfeiffer family took Walt in and showed him movies and vaudeville shows, which had musical, magic, acrobatic, and comedy acts.
Walt and Pfeiffer then started going to the movies together.
Walt didn’t tell his father because he thought it was a waste of time to have fun. But in the end, he didn’t have to. Like Herb and Ray, Walt’s two older brothers, Roy couldn’t stand how cold and violent their father was, so he ran away in secret.
Walt had to take on more responsibilities when he lost three brothers. Even though Walt was only 10, he had to work more and help fix up the family home. When Elias got tired of Walt, he hit him with whatever he was holding.
It was once the handle of a hammer and another time a piece of wood. “How do you think Walt would know that? “He’s just a boy!” Flora begged, but it didn’t help.
From then on, Walt had the same bad luck as the rest of his family. He was delivering newspapers for his dad’s business one cold night.
He hurt himself when he kicked a piece of ice as he crossed the street. A nail from a horseshoe went through his boot and into his toe. “Help! I’m stuck!” Walt was loud.
No one on the street helped him while he was lying on the ground. After a long time, a driver stopped his wagon and took him to a doctor.
“Kid, I have nothing to take away your pain. “You’ll just have to hold on,” the doctor said before using pliers to pull out the nail. Walt was hurt, and it took him two whole weeks to get better.
The 14-year-old had a lot of time to think about his future while he was on bed rest. He didn’t think he could get a good job like being a doctor or lawyer, or even go to college.
No one in his family had ever had enough money to buy such a thing. Walt decided to think about what made him the most excited. It was obvious that it was making a picture. It was always his comfort when things were hard. He liked that his cartoons made people around him happy and laugh. Walt made up his mind then to become a cartoonist.
He had no idea that following his passion would help him build one of the world’s biggest companies. The Disney family moved back to Chicago after living in Kansas City for seven years.
Elias’s newspaper business wasn’t doing well, so he put all of his own money and some of Walt’s money into a jelly factory. Walt was forced to work there as a handyman and night guard so that he could help pay for his family.
Elias wouldn’t let him take art classes outside of school if he didn’t. Walt was not paid much at the factory where he worked. So, after a while, he quit working as a gateman, mail sorter, and delivery boy to make more money.
When the Fourth Year of the First World War started, Walt quit all of his jobs because he wanted to join the fight. He also couldn’t stand the thought of going back to high school, so he lied about his age to work as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross.
He was only 16 years old at the time. During Walt’s first job, a flu epidemic broke out and killed millions of people around the world. Walt got sick with the virus, so he was told to go to the hospital.
When he got into an ambulance, the driver told him he should go back home. He said, “You’ll never leave a hospital alive.”
Walt heeded his warning. Walt’s mother took care of him and his sister when they had high fevers and went crazy for several days. Even though she also got sick, she kept taking care of both of them until they were fully better.
Walt found out later that two of his close friends got sick and were taken to the hospital. Both of them had died by the next day. Walt kept working for the Red Cross and was sent to France, even though he knew he had avoided the same fate.
Walt went home when the war was over, and he didn’t want to go back to high school. Elias agreed with him and told him he could work at the factory for a fair wage.
Walt said, “Dad, I don’t want that kind of job.” “So, Walter, what do you want to do?” Elias asked. “I want to make art…”
“How do you plan to support yourself as an artist?”
Walt said, “I don’t know.”
Walt’s time in France taught him one thing for sure: he had to go his own way. Walt packed up all of his things and took a train to Kansas City, against his father’s wishes.
Some of his childhood friends, like his brother Roy, were there. Walt was sure he could work for the Kansas City Star as a cartoonist. When Walt was ready, he went to the office of the Kansas City Star.
A person in HR told him in a rude way that there were no jobs for cartoonists. Walt decided to come up with a new way to get his foot in the door. He saw that a copyboy job was open and asked if he could apply.
Since Walt had worked as an ambulance driver before, the HR person told him he should find a job in transportation instead. Walt then decided to give the Kansas City Journal a try.
He was told again that there were no jobs for cartoonists. When Walt told Roy about how hard things were for him, Roy told him to do something more useful.
Walt wouldn’t just give up. Later, Roy talked to one of his coworkers about how stubborn Walt was. His friend suggested that Walt look for a job as an apprentice at an art studio.
Roy told Walt right away, and Walt ran to the studio to fill out an application. The owners liked how eager he was to work, so they gave him the job. Walt met a man named Ub Iwerks at the studio.
Ub dropped out of high school, just like Walt, and worked odd jobs. The two artists got to know each other and found that their skills went well together.
Walt had a lot of ideas, and Ub was quick and able to change. After the holidays, when they both lost their jobs, they stayed positive and decided to start a business together. Disney-Iwerks was its name.
The Disney-Iwerks partnership only lasted a month. The Kansas City Film Ad Company needed an artist, so they gave Walt the job.
Walt would have liked to spend all of his time on his new business with Ub, but Ub made him take this once-in-a-lifetime chance. Ub was sure that he could run the business on his own while Walt was away.
But he wasn’t friendly enough to make sales, so the business failed. After that, Walt talked his boss into giving Ub a job. The fact that Disney-Iwerks failed turned out to be a good thing.
At work, Walt was shown how to make animations with cutouts of people and animals. He was interested in how it worked, so he made friends with a cameraman to find out.
Soon, he was able to run the camera by himself. Walt later found that hand-drawn figures instead of cutouts gave animation a more realistic look.
He also saw that this was how the best studios in New York made movies like the Koko the Clown series. He went to a library to get a few books and photocopy each page so that he could use them as guides while he practised.
The Kansas City Film Ad Company was so impressed with Walt’s new skill that they asked him to make hand-drawn animations for their clients. Walt was excited, but he also wanted to try things outside of what the company’s copywriters had given him.
So, he borrowed the company’s camera, set up a makeshift studio in his garage, and started making his own cartoons. Walt felt confident enough to show the manager of the Newman Theater Company his cartoons after making 300 feet of film.
The manager liked what he saw and said he would show Walt’s cartoons. They were so popular that Walt quit his job and started Laugh-O-gram Films, a new business. Walt wanted to make Laugh-O-gram stand out from other studios, so he decided to focus on something new: a series of animated cartoons based on traditional fairy tales.
He told investors about the idea and got enough money so that he could rent an office and hire Ub and five other animators. Soon after that, he made a deal with Pictorial Clubs to make six cartoons based on fairy tales. Walt and his team finished all six cartoons in the same year, but when they sent them to Pictorial Clubs, they didn’t get any money.
The Pictorial Clubs business failed. When Laugh-O-gram found out that Pictorial Clubs was no longer around, it did the same. Walt lost his home and even his shoes. He only had one pair of shoes left, and they were at a cobbler. He couldn’t pay the small fee to get them back.
Walt had his first doubts about being a cartoonist for the first time in his life. Roy and his father might have been right. He couldn’t pay his bills or put food on the table by drawing cartoons. Walt decided that he didn’t want to be a cartoonist anymore, so he sold his camera. Then, with only $40 in his pocket, he went to Hollywood. He wanted to stay with his uncle Robert and become a director in the movie business.
Walt’s luck didn’t change when he moved to Hollywood. Every studio he tried to work for as a director turned him down. Walt begged the studios for any kind of work, but they told him there was nothing available.
Walt ran out of money in the end, so he had to borrow from Roy. Roy told him that he should make more cartoons.
Walt said, “No, I’m too late.”
“I can’t think of a way to beat those New York boys right now.”
At that time, there were no cartoonists in Hollywood, and the best animation studios were still in New York. Walt wasn’t sure he could beat them from Hollywood. Walt kept applying for studio jobs and even gave acting a try. After a job fell through, Walt’s uncle Robert kept reminding him that he was unemployed and had no future plans. Walt decided that the only way to get back into the movie business was to make more fairytale-themed animations. After that, Walt set up a makeshift studio in his uncle Robert’s garage and went to film distributors to pitch ideas.
One of his ideas was to make a series of comedies based on Alice in Wonderland for Margaret Winkler, who was a distributor in New York. Lucky for Walt, Margaret agreed to help him. Walt then talked Roy and Ub into quitting their jobs and starting a new business with him.
Alice in Wonderland was a big hit and became the first book in a longer series. Before the excitement died down, a new chance came along. Charles Mintz, Margaret’s husband, was asked by Universal Pictures to find someone who could make a series about a rabbit. Margaret pushed Charles to give the job to Walt. Walt agreed, and production started right away. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was the name of the finished piece.
Its first short film, Trolley Troubles, was a big hit right away and got the attention of New York’s best animators. Walt was sure that Charles would let him keep working on the Oswald books, so he went to Charles’s office to talk about the terms.
Before he left, Ub told Walt that Margaret’s brother was spending a lot of time with their employees in their studio, which was not normal. Walt brushed aside his doubts.
Walt asked for a small pay raise for each new episode because Oswald was so popular. Charles came up with a different plan. It was a lot less than what he had been paying Walt before, and it wouldn’t even cover the costs of making the movie. Walt was confused and asked what was going on.
Charles insisted, “Either you come with me for my price, or I’ll take your team away from you.”
“I’ve signed up your employees.”
While Walt stood still in shock, Charles pushed him to say something. Walt said no and said he would own every character he made. Universal Pictures only asked Walt to make Oswald, and the rights to the character belonged to the company.
“Keep yourself safe, Charlie,” Walt told him.
“If they did it to me, they’ll do it to you,” he said.
Walt wrote a letter to Roy before he went home.
“Hold your head up.
We’ll laugh last, which is the best laugh of all.”
When Walt got back to his studio, he made a new character right away. He started drawing different animals, and a mouse was the one he liked best. Since animation needed to move quickly, Ub took over and started drawing a cartoon mouse instead of a real one.
The better, the less lines there are. The end result was a mouse with a round stomach and skinny arms that wore two-button shorts, which were popular among young men at the time.
Even though Oswald was a big hit for Walt, it was hard for him to find a distributor for Steamboat Willie, the first Mickey Mouse animated short film he made.
A veteran of the show business named Harry Reichenbach told Walt why distributors didn’t want to work with him.
“Those guys don’t know what’s good until the people tell them.”
Harry suggested that Walt play the role of Steamboat Willie on Broadway. Walt was worried that it would make it harder to find a distributor, but Harry persuaded him that the opposite would be true.
A few months later, at the Colony Theater, Steamboat Willie came out. It made history because it was the first animated cartoon with sound, and both The New York Times and Variety loved it.
And, just as Harry said they would, a number of distributors made offers to show the movie. But each one of them insisted that they should own the rights to Mickey Mouse. Walt told Pat Powers, one of the people who started Universal Pictures and who owned the sound system used in Steamboat Willie, about how upset he was.
Pat felt sorry for Walt and offered to put out his movie through his company, as long as Walt kept using his sound system. Walt accepted Pat’s offer right away.
It was much better than what other distributors were offering, and Pat was willing to give Walt the money he needed to make more cartoons. But, as with most Hollywood stories, it was too good to be true. After Walt and Pat made a deal, Mickey Mouse became a huge hit in the United States.
When asked why Mickey was so popular, Walt said, “He’s a nice guy who never hurts anyone. He gets into trouble through no fault of his own, but he always finds a way to smile.”
Walt was sure that Pat would send him a lot of checks, but not a single one came. Pat decided to keep all of the money he made from Mickey Mouse, so he owed Walt a lot of money. Still, Walt decided not to go to court because Pat had a lot of power in Hollywood. Instead, he ended his contract.
Pat was angry that he had lost Walt’s business, so he threatened to ruin any business that did business with him. Pat’s threats made MGM give in and end talks about a possible deal. Columbia Pictures, on the other hand, was not as scared and set up a legal fund to fight back against his threats.
With the help of Columbia Pictures, Walt pushed himself and his animators to make better animations, even though it put them deeper in debt. Walt’s stress got to him in the end, and he had a nervous breakdown.
After seeing a doctor, Walt and his wife Lilly decided to take a trip, so they went to France. When Walt went back to his studio, he saw that it was getting harder and harder to pay the bills.
So he asked Columbia Pictures for a payment in advance for each cartoon they made, but they said no. Walt told a veteran producer, Sol Lesser, about his problems. Sol told his friend, Joseph Schenck, who is the president of United Artists, about Walt’s problems.
Joseph felt sorry for Walt, so he reached out to him and asked if he could be his new distributor. Walt was happy because Charlie Chaplin, who he looked up to the most, helped start United Artists.
It pushed Walt to finally add color to his animations and take them to the next level. Roy begged him to change his mind.
Roy said, “We’d be crazy to take on the cost of color.”
“But the pictures will make people so excited that our playdates will last longer and our rentals will be bigger,” Walt insisted.
“That will make the money back in the end.”
Roy and Walt’s workers still weren’t sure. Still, Walt did something new: he made his first full-length movie with color and sound. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was chosen as the story. As Walt began making Snow White, he found out that people were calling it “Disney’s Folly” behind his back.
Many people thought that this crazy plan would fail like the others and even put the company out of business. Walt was worried, so he asked Hal Horne, a publicist at United Artists, for help.
“What should I do about all the bad things people are saying about the show?” Walt asked. Hal said, “Nothing.”
“Keep them wondering. Let them call it “Disney’s Folly” or whatever else they want, as long as they talk about it. That picture will pay off, and the more suspense you build up, the more it will pay off.”
Walt took his advice to heart and kept working hard to make Snow White a hit. Snow White finally came out after three years. It made history because it was the first full-length animated movie in the world. It ran for 83 minutes. It got good reviews and did well at the box office. It was the highest-grossing movie of its time, making more than $8 million in its first year, which is the same as over $100 million today.
Walt was finally able to pay off all of his debts. After that, he decided to make full-length movies instead of short ones.
Walt’s newfound success gave him the money to buy his once-skeptical parents a new studio and a new house. But it seemed like every time they reached a new goal, bad luck came next. Flora died of asphyxiation because of a furnace leak in the new house that Walt bought, and dozens of business deals fell through because of the Second World War. Walt thought that he was to blame for his mother’s death and worked hard to save the company.
His new feature films, Pinnochio and Fantasia, went over budget, which cost the company money and brought it close to going bankrupt.
Walt had no choice but to cut back on his feature films and go public with his company. Even though the IPO was a success and made a lot of money, it unintentionally led to a studio strike.
Photo by Joseph Stalin on Unsplash
After Pinnochio and Fantasia lost money, Walt had to let people go, cut wages, and stop giving bonuses. Many of his workers were still angry and walked off the job for five weeks.
Even though Walt had a lot of problems, he kept planning more feature films and his biggest project to date: a new attraction in Hollywood.
Walt told a friend, “It’s too bad that people come to Hollywood and find nothing to do.”
“They were hoping to see glitz and movie stars, but they were let down. Wouldn’t it be great if people could go to Hollywood and see something?”
Walt had his heart set on making a theme park. After taking his daughters Diane and Sharon to the merry-go-round in Griffith Park several times, he got the idea.
Every time his daughters rode the carousel, he saw the same thing: the parents were bored, the operators were grumpy and unfriendly, and the grounds were dirty and full of trash.
Roy told him that the company was already in debt, which made him change his mind.
If he wanted to keep going with his plans, he would have to pay for them all by himself. Walt didn’t give up and took out a loan against his life insurance.
Over the next few years, Walt went to many different places in the U.S. and Europe to get ideas. At the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, he finally found what he was looking for: a park with rides that were good for families, nice restaurants, beautiful gardens, and fireworks.
“This is what a park like this should be like!” Walt told his wife Lilly how excited he was.
By the time Walt decided on the name Disneyland, his plans had grown beyond his original idea, and money was running out. To pay for building the park, Walt decided to start a weekly TV show.
Roy finally agreed with the idea, but Walt had to get approval from the board.
Photo by Brian McGowan on Unsplash
When Walt told the board about the idea, they said that the company wasn’t in the business of making amusement parks.
Walt said that amusement parks were also in the entertainment business.
The board still couldn’t see Disneyland the way Walt did. Walt said, “There’s nothing like it anywhere in the world.”
“I’ve looked, so I know. Because it will be different, it could be great. It’s a new way to have fun, and I think—no, I know—it can work.”
By the time Walt was done, his eyes were filled with tears. The board was not only moved by how passionate he was, but in the end, they agreed with him and gave Walt their approval.
Walt signed a deal with ABC after getting the go-ahead. They agreed to put money into his amusement park and back loans for it in exchange for a TV show called Disneyland with hour-long episodes that would show feature films, short films, and documentaries.
Photo by Brian McGowan on Unsplash
Walt was happy, but he didn’t jump for joy. Since TV was a new medium at the time, theatre owners were worried that it would hurt their business.
They even threatened to stop buying anything made by a studio that worked with them. Walt was sure that TV would get more people to go to movie theaters, so he went ahead with his plans.
The park finally opened in Anaheim, California, two years later.
The news said that the first day was a failure. Thousands of con artists made fake tickets, rides broke down, restaurants ran out of food, and in one area, a gas leak was found.
But Walt, as always, didn’t give up and turned things around by making changes to how things worked and inviting the press back. Within a year, more than 3 million people went to Disneyland, and the ABC show became the most popular show on TV.
After 30 years in Hollywood, Walt was finally able to get his finances in order. In an interview, Walt talked about what he thought made people successful.
“I think this special secret can be summed up in four C’s.
They are being curiosity, having confidence, being courage, and being consistent. Confidence is the most important of these. When you believe something, you should believe it fully, without any doubts.”
Summary
Today, Disneyland is known as the happiest place on earth, and Walt Disney is one of the most successful and powerful companies in the world, worth an estimated $130 billion. This is the story of how a man who dropped out of high school and was once homeless followed his passion and became an American icon.
