A cultural icon is a person or an artifact that is identified by members of a culture as representative of that culture. The process of identification is subjective, and "icons" are judged by the extent to which they can be seen as an authentic symbol of that culture. When individuals perceive a cultural icon, they relate it to their general perceptions of the cultural identity represented. Cultural icons can also be identified as an authentic representation of the practices of one culture by another.
202-480: Walter Elias Disney ( / ˈ d ɪ z n i / DIZ -nee ; December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry , he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons . As a film producer, he holds the record for most Academy Awards earned (22) and nominations (59) by an individual. He
404-449: A "friend in deed and [we] certainly have been in need." Floyd Norman , the studio's first black animator who worked closely with Disney during the 1950s and 1960s, said, "Not once did I observe a hint of the racist behavior Walt Disney was often accused of after his death. His treatment of people—and by this I mean all people—can only be called exemplary." Watts argues that many of Disney's post-World War II films "legislated
606-416: A "story department", separate from the animators, with storyboard artists who would be dedicated to working on a "story development" phase of the production pipeline. In turn, Disney's continued emphasis on story development and characterization resulted in another hit in 1933: Three Little Pigs , which is seen as the first cartoon in which multiple characters displayed unique, individual personalities and
808-500: A big success, the first for Disney since Snow White . The critically acclaimed film brought in much-needed revenue and kept the studio afloat. A few months after Dumbo was released in 1941, the United States entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor . This led to the mobilization of all movie studios (including their cartoon divisions) to produce propaganda material to bolster public confidence and encourage support for
1010-513: A camera, he began experimenting at home. He came to the conclusion that cel animation was more promising than the cutout method. Unable to persuade Cauger to try cel animation at the company, Disney opened a new business with a co-worker from the Film Ad Co, Fred Harman . Their main client was the local Newman Theater, and the short cartoons they produced were sold as "Newman's Laugh-O-Grams". Disney studied Paul Terry's Aesop's Fables as
1212-642: A certain installment of the "Career Day" newsreel segments on The Mickey Mouse Club focusing on the bureau (which aired in January 1958), as well as an unmade 1961 educational short warning children about the dangers of child molestation . Disney's public persona was very different from his actual personality. Playwright Robert E. Sherwood described him as "almost painfully shy ... diffident" and self-deprecating. According to his biographer Richard Schickel , Disney hid his shy and insecure personality behind his public identity. Kimball argues that Disney "played
1414-401: A click track to keep his musicians on the beat (Disney later learned that it was easier to record the dialogue, music and sound effects first and animate to the sound). Little more than a month before Steamboat Willie' s premiere, Paul Terry released his sound cartoon Dinner Time ; however it was not a financial success and Walt Disney described it as "a bunch of racket". Steamboat Willie
1616-634: A creator of entertainment for an almost unlimited public and as a highly ingenious merchandiser of his wares can rightly be compared to the most successful industrialists in history." Correspondent Alistair Cooke calls Disney a "folk-hero ... the Pied Piper of Hollywood", while Gabler considers Disney "reshaped the culture and the American consciousness". In the American Dictionary of National Biography , Langer writes: Disney remains
1818-411: A cynical manipulator of cultural and commercial formulas", while PBS records that critics have censured his work because of its "smooth façade of sentimentality and stubborn optimism, its feel-good re-write of American history". Disney has been accused of antisemitism for having given Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl a tour of his studio a month after Kristallnacht . Riefenstahl's invitation
2020-595: A distribution deal with Universal Studios ; however it was Mintz—not Disney—that signed the deal. Disney and lead animator Ub Iwerks created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit , who debuted in Trolley Troubles short in 1927. The Oswald series was a success and became the first hit for the Walt Disney studio. In the spring of 1928, Disney travelled to New York to ask Mintz for a budget increase. His request
2222-470: A distributor. Following the 1927 sensation The Jazz Singer , Disney used synchronized sound on the third short, Steamboat Willie , to create the first post-produced sound cartoon . After the animation was complete, Disney signed a contract with the former executive of Universal Pictures, Pat Powers , to use the "Powers Cinephone" recording system; Cinephone became the new distributor for Disney's early sound cartoons, which soon became popular. To improve
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#17327650454192424-511: A downright feeling of animosity for our M. Mouse. Mr. A. Hitler, the Nazi old thing, says that Mickey's silly. Imagine that! Well, Mickey is going to save Mr. A Hitler from drowning or something some day. Just wait and see if he doesn't. Then won't Mr. A. Hitler be ashamed!" In late 1939, when Disney was discussing plans to move his staff to a newly built studio in Burbank , one employee asked him how
2626-482: A fat, chubby pig to a more cute and childlike character. Unlike the other cartoon producers at the time, Avery had no intention of competing with Walt Disney, but instead brought a new wacky, zany style of animation to the studio that would increase the Warner Bros. cartoons' popularity in the crowded marketplace. This was firmly established in 1937 when Tex Avery directed Porky's Duck Hunt . During production of
2828-522: A foreign language, not suppressed or sponsored or anything. Just Disney." Many of those with whom Disney worked commented that he gave his staff little encouragement due to his exceptionally high expectations. Norman recalls that when Disney said "That'll work", it was an indication of high praise. Instead of direct approval, Disney gave high-performing staff financial bonuses, or recommended certain individuals to others, expecting that his praise would be passed on. Views of Disney and his work have changed over
3030-854: A functional city was replaced by a park more akin to a permanent world's fair . In 2009, the Walt Disney Family Museum, designed by Disney's daughter Diane and her son Walter E. D. Miller, opened in the Presidio of San Francisco . Thousands of artifacts from Disney's life and career are on display, including numerous awards that he received. In 2014, the Disney theme parks around the world hosted approximately 134 million visitors. Early in 1925, Disney hired an ink artist, Lillian Bounds . They married in July of that year, at her brother's house in her home town of Lewiston, Idaho . The marriage
3232-665: A generous donor to Thomas E. Dewey 's 1944 bid for the presidency . In 1946, he was a founding member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals , an organization who stated they "believ[ed] in, and like, the American Way of Life ... we find ourselves in sharp revolt against a rising tide of Communism, Fascism and kindred beliefs, that seek by subversive means to undermine and change this way of life". In 1947, during
3434-428: A goodwill trip to South America, ensuring he was absent during a resolution he knew would be unfavorable to the studio. Due to the strike—and the financial state of the company—several animators left the studio, and Disney's relationship with other members of staff was permanently strained as a result. The strike temporarily interrupted the studio's next production, Dumbo (1941), which Disney produced in
3636-532: A huge amount of popularity among the public, and turned his focus to producing his most ambitious movie: Sleeping Beauty . Sleeping Beauty was filmed in Super Technirama 70 mm film and in stereophonic sound like Fantasia . Sleeping Beauty also signaled a change in the style of drawing, with cartoony and angular characters; taking influence from UPA . Although Sleeping Beauty was the second-highest-grossing film of 1959 (just behind Ben-Hur ),
3838-669: A job as a commercial illustrator at the age of 18. He moved to California in the early 1920s and set up the Disney Brothers Studio (now The Walt Disney Company ) with his brother Roy . With Ub Iwerks , he developed the character Mickey Mouse in 1928, his first highly popular success; he also provided the voice for his creation in the early years. As the studio grew, he became more adventurous, introducing synchronized sound , full-color three-strip Technicolor , feature-length cartoons and technical developments in cameras. The results, seen in features such as Snow White and
4040-521: A kind of cultural Marshall Plan . They nourished a genial cultural imperialism that magically overran the rest of the globe with the values, expectations, and goods of a prosperous middle-class United States." Film historian Jay P. Telotte acknowledges that many see Disney's studio as an "agent of manipulation and repression", although he observes that it has "labored throughout its history to link its name with notions of fun, family, and fantasy". John Tomlinson, in his study Cultural Imperialism , examines
4242-478: A larger fee for producing the Oswald series, but found Mintz wanting to reduce the payments. Mintz had also persuaded many of the artists involved to work directly for him, including Harman, Ising, Carman Maxwell and Friz Freleng . Disney also found out that Universal owned the intellectual property rights to Oswald. Mintz threatened to start his own studio and produce the series himself if Disney refused to accept
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#17327650454194444-723: A larger plot in Anaheim , 35 miles (56 km) south of the studio, was purchased. To distance the project from the studio—which might attract the criticism of shareholders—Disney formed WED Enterprises (now Walt Disney Imagineering ) and used his own money to fund a group of designers and animators to work on the plans; those involved became known as "Imagineers". After obtaining bank funding he invited other stockholders, American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres —part of American Broadcasting Company (ABC)—and Western Printing and Lithographing Company . In mid-1954, Disney sent his Imagineers to every amusement park in
4646-522: A low-budget feature film, Dumbo . Just a few days after rough animation was complete on Dumbo , the Disney animators' strike broke out. This was caused by the Screen Cartoonist's Guild (which had been formed in 1938), who severed many ties between Walt Disney and his staff, while encouraging many members of the Disney studio to leave and seek greener pastures. Later that year, Dumbo became
4848-607: A model, and the first six "Laugh-O-Grams" were modernized fairy tales. In May 1921, the success of the "Laugh-O-Grams" led to the establishment of Laugh-O-Gram Studio , for which he hired more animators, including Fred Harman's brother Hugh , Rudolf Ising and Iwerks. The Laugh-O-Grams cartoons did not provide enough income to keep the company solvent, so Disney started production of Alice's Wonderland —based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland —which combined live action with animation; he cast Virginia Davis in
5050-471: A month. In July 1924, Disney also hired Iwerks, persuading him to relocate to Hollywood from Kansas City. In 1926, the first official Walt Disney Studio was established at 2725 Hyperion Avenue; the building was demolished in 1940. By 1926, Winkler's role in the distribution of the Alice series had been handed over to her husband, the film producer Charles Mintz , although the relationship between him and Disney
5252-825: A nervous breakdown in October 1931—which he blamed on the machinations of Powers and his own overwork—so he and Lillian took an extended holiday to Cuba and a cruise to Panama to recover. With the loss of Powers as distributor, Disney studios signed a contract with Columbia Pictures to distribute the Mickey Mouse cartoons, which became increasingly popular, including internationally. Disney and his crew also introduced new cartoon stars like Pluto in 1930, Goofy in 1932 and Donald Duck in 1934. Always keen to embrace new technology and encouraged by his new contract with United Artists , Disney filmed Flowers and Trees (1932) in full-color three-strip Technicolor ; he
5454-463: A new animation director who proceeded to revitalize the studio: Tex Avery . Schlesinger put Avery in charge of the low-budget Looney Tunes in a low run-down old building the animators named Termite Terrace. Under Avery, Porky Pig would replace the Buddy series and become the first Warner Bros. cartoon character to achieve star power. Also at Termite Terrace, animator Bob Clampett redesigned Porky from
5656-485: A new home in the Holmby Hills district of Los Angeles. With the help of his friends Ward and Betty Kimball , who already had their own backyard railroad , Disney developed blueprints and immediately set to work on creating a miniature live steam railroad for his back yard. The name of the railroad, Carolwood Pacific Railroad , came from his home's location on Carolwood Drive. The miniature working steam locomotive
5858-424: A number of Color Classics cartoons during the 1930s which attempted to emulate Walt Disney's use of color, but the series was not a success. In 1934, Max Fleischer became interested in producing an animated feature film shortly after Walt Disney's announcement of Snow White , however Paramount vetoed the idea. In 1936, Fleischer Studios produced the first of three two-reel Popeye Technicolor features: Popeye
6060-417: A pair of cold eyes glittering behind the pince nez" and "never talked to the staff. He looked us over like an admiral surveying a row of stanchions." While Winkler had offered gentle critiques and encouragement, Mintz communicated to Disney in a harsh and cruel tone. In 1927, Mintz ordered Disney to stop producing Alice Comedies due to the costs of combining live-action and animation. Mintz managed to gain
6262-468: A party through the plant. Leni was in the party. If we had known it in advance she wouldn't have got in." Animation historian Jim Korkis, theorizes that Disney may have also met with Riefenstahl for financial reasons: as an attempt by Disney to recover over 135,000 Reichsmarks owed from his German film distributor and to get the ban on Disney films lifted in Germany. Animator Art Babbitt , organizer behind
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6464-539: A period of time, to which her father raised no objections and even reportedly said, "Sharon, I think it's wonderful how these Jewish families have accepted you." Disney has also been accused of other forms of racism because some of his productions released between the 1930s and 1950s contain racially insensitive material. Gabler argues that "Walt Disney was no racist. He never, either publicly or privately, made disparaging remarks about blacks or asserted white superiority. Like most white Americans of his generation, however, he
6666-401: A profit. The last film made by the Disney company was a short called Alice's Wonderland . Loosely inspired by Lewis Carroll 's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ; the short featured a live-action five-year-old girl named Alice ( Virginia Davis ) who had adventures in a fully animated world. The film was never fully complete however as the studio went bankrupt in the summer of 1923. Upon
6868-564: A regime, for example, crowds destroying statues of Lenin in Eastern Europe after the fall of communism or burning the American flag to protest US actions abroad. Religious icons can also become cultural icons in societies where religion and culture are deeply entwined, such as representations of the Madonna in societies with a strong Catholic tradition. Describing something as iconic or as an icon has become very common in
7070-477: A rough start and Walt temporarily left for the Kansas City Film and Ad Co. to raise money for the fleeting company and Iwerks soon followed as he was unable to run the business alone. While working there he made commercials for local theaters using crude cut-out animation . Disney became fascinated by the art and decided to become an animator. He then borrowed a camera from work and rented a book from
7272-570: A series of popular live-action nature films, titled True-Life Adventures , with Seal Island the first; the film won the Academy Award in the Best Short Subject (Two-Reel) category. In early 1950, Disney produced Cinderella , his studio's first animated feature in eight years. It was popular with critics and theater audiences. Costing $ 2.2 million to produce, it earned nearly $ 8 million in its first year. Disney
7474-452: A showcase to the world for the ingenuity and imagination of American free enterprise. During 1966, Disney cultivated businesses willing to sponsor EPCOT. He received a story credit in the 1966 film Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. as Retlaw Yensid, his name spelt backwards. He increased his involvement in the studio's films, and was heavily involved in the story development of The Jungle Book ,
7676-519: A simple and inexpensive manner; the film received a positive reaction from audiences and critics alike. Shortly after the release of Dumbo in October 1941, the U.S. entered World War II. Disney formed the Walt Disney Training Films Unit within the company to produce instruction films for the military such as Four Methods of Flush Riveting and Aircraft Production Methods . Disney also met with Henry Morgenthau Jr. ,
7878-489: A slow start as the Buddy cartoons failed to impress audiences as well as Palmer's inexperience as a director. Schlesinger would fire Palmer and hire Harman-Ising animator Friz Freleng and several others to run the studio instead. Buddy would later be phased out by 1935. A 1935 Merrie Melodie directed by Friz Freleng entitled I Haven't Got a Hat was the first screen appearance of Porky Pig . Also in 1935, Schlesinger hired
8080-439: A special preview screening with the music and sound effects being played live behind stage through a microphone. The Steamboat Willie test screening was a success and managed to gain a distributor, Celebrity Pictures chief Pat Powers . However, the first attempt to synchronize the sound with the animation was a disaster with the timing being all wrong. In order to finance the second recording, Walt sold his car. This time he used
8282-677: A theme park. When he visited Griffith Park in Los Angeles with his daughters, he wanted to be in a clean, unspoiled park, where both children and their parents could have fun. He visited the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark, and was heavily influenced by the cleanliness and layout of the park. In March 1952, he received zoning permission to build a theme park in Burbank, near the Disney studios. This site proved too small, and
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8484-465: A threat to the studio after a five-month strike occurred among Fleischer Studio workers in late 1937. Here the Fleischer's produced Gulliver's Travels which was released in 1939. It was a small success and encouraged the Fleischer's to produce more. In May 1941, the Fleischer's gave Paramount full ownership of the studio as collateral to pay off their debts left from the loans they obtained from
8686-450: Is often considered to be a factor that hastened the golden age's end. However, various authors include Hanna-Barbera's earliest animated series through 1962 as part of the golden age, with shows like Ruff and Reddy (1957), Huckleberry Hound (1958), Quick Draw McGraw (1959), The Flintstones (1960), Yogi Bear (1961), Top Cat (1961), Wally Gator (1962) and The Jetsons (1962). Several of these animated series were
8888-659: Is still considered to be the most successful animated short of all time, and also featured the hit song that became the anthem in fighting the Great Depression : " Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf ". In the Mickey Mouse series, he continued to add personality to his characters; this resulted in the creation of new characters such as Pluto with The Chain Gang in 1930, Goofy with Mickey's Revue in 1932 and Donald Duck in 1934 with The Wise Little Hen (under
9090-551: Is usually cited as during the 1930s and 1940s, attributed to the theatrical run of studios including Walt Disney Animation Studios , Warner Bros. Cartoons , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Cartoons , Paramount Cartoon Studios , Walter Lantz Productions , Terrytoons , and Fleischer Studios . In later decades, namely between the 1950s and 1960s, the era is sometimes divided into a "silver age" due to the emergence of studios such as UPA , DePatie-Freleng Enterprises , Hanna-Barbera Cartoons , and Jay Ward Productions ; these companies' presence in
9292-523: The United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. anti-trust case that year. It resulted in the shorts having to be produced in increasingly tighter budgets as time went on. Warner Bros. would also close their entire animation department in 1953 due to immense popularity of 3D film 's, but would reopen the following year after the end of the 3-D craze. Selzer retired in 1958, with production manager John W. Burton taking his place. David DePatie assumed
9494-530: The 1941 strike at the studio and who held a well-known grudge against Disney, claimed in his later years that he saw Disney and his lawyer attend meetings of the German American Bund , a pro-Nazi organization, during the late 1930s. However, according to Disney biographer Neal Gabler: "...that was highly unlikely, not only because Walt had little enough time for his family, much less political meetings, but because he had no real political leanings at
9696-539: The Attack on Pearl Harbor . Mr. Bug saw a very limited in the UK, California, and New York the following year, causing it to flop at the box office. Shortly after the film's poor box office, Dave Fleischer, still maintaining his position as co-chief of his studio, had left Fleischer Studios to run Columbia Pictures' Screen Gems cartoons. Due to this, Paramount Pictures had expelled Dave and Max Fleischer from their positions as
9898-507: The Chouinard Art Institute ; he brought animals into the studio and hired actors so that the animators could study realistic movement. To portray the changing perspective of the background as a camera moved through a scene, Disney's animators developed a multiplane camera which allowed drawings on pieces of glass to be set at various distances from the camera, creating an illusion of depth. The glass could be moved to create
10100-664: The Disneyland series, which was made in collaboration with NASA rocket designer Wernher von Braun . Disney also oversaw aspects of the full-length features Lady and the Tramp (the first animated film in CinemaScope ) in 1955, Sleeping Beauty (the first animated film in Technirama 70 mm film ) in 1959, One Hundred and One Dalmatians (the first animated feature film to use Xerox cels ) in 1961, and The Sword in
10302-654: The Kansas City Art Institute and also took a correspondence course in cartooning. In 1917, Elias bought stock in a Chicago jelly producer, the O-Zell Company, and moved back to the city with his family. Disney enrolled at McKinley High School and became the cartoonist of the school newspaper, drawing patriotic pictures about World War I; he also took night courses at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts . In mid-1918, he attempted to join
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#173276504541910504-563: The Merrie Melodies department, but left again in 1938, with his position soon taken by Chuck Jones . He returned in 1943 after McCabe was drafted into the army, but left again for the final time in late 1944 to direct live-action films. Robert McKimson , who has a extensive career at the studio up to that point, was appointed to director to replace Tashlin. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in August 1944, and Edward Selzer
10706-535: The Merrie Melodies department. The 1940 Academy Award-nominated cartoon A Wild Hare (directed by Avery) marked Bugs Bunny 's official debut, as well as his first pairing with Elmer Fudd (created by Chuck Jones that year). Bugs quickly replaced Daffy as the studio's top star. By 1942, Bugs had become the most popular cartoon character. Because of the success of Bugs, Daffy and Porky, the Schlesinger studio now had risen to new heights, and Bugs quickly became
10908-563: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York opened a three-month special exhibit in honor of Disney titled "Inspiring Walt Disney". Golden age of American animation The golden age of American animation was a period in the history of U.S. animation that began with the popularization of sound synchronized cartoons in 1928 and gradually ended in the 1960s when theatrical animated shorts started to lose popularity to
11110-781: The Second Red Scare , Disney testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), where he branded Herbert Sorrell , David Hilberman and William Pomerance , former animators and labor union organizers, as communist agitators; Disney stated that the 1941 strike led by them was part of an organized communist effort to gain influence in Hollywood. The New York Times reported in 1993 that Disney had been an FBI informant passing secret information to J. Edgar Hoover about communist activities in Hollywood. However, while Walt Disney
11312-641: The Secretary of the Treasury , and agreed to produce short Donald Duck cartoons to promote war bonds . Disney also produced several propaganda productions , including shorts such as Der Fuehrer's Face —which won an Academy Award—and the 1943 feature film Victory Through Air Power . The military films generated only enough revenue to cover costs, and the feature film Bambi —which had been in production since 1937—underperformed on its release in August 1942, and lost $ 200,000 at
11514-628: The Silly Symphony series). When Disney's contract with Technicolor expired, the Mickey Mouse series was moved into Technicolor starting with The Band Concert in 1935. In addition, Mickey was partially redesigned for Technicolor later that year. In 1937, Disney invented the multiplane camera , which gave an illusion of depth to the animated world. He first used this on the Academy Award-winning Silly Symphony cartoon The Old Mill . Much of Disney's work
11716-508: The Speaking with Animals series of shorts). Clampett would take over Avery's unit while Norman McCabe took over Clampett's black-and-white unit. By 1942, Warners' shorts had now surpassed Disney's in sales and popularity. Frank Tashlin also worked with Avery in the Merrie Melodies department. He began at Warners in 1933 as an animator but was fired and joined Iwerks in 1934. Tashlin returned to Warners in 1936, taking over direction of
11918-803: The United States Army to fight the Germans , but he was rejected as too young. After forging the date of birth on his birth certificate, he joined the Red Cross in September 1918 as an ambulance driver. He was shipped to France but arrived in November, after the armistice . He drew cartoons on the side of his ambulance for decoration and had some of his work published in the army newspaper Stars and Stripes . He returned to Kansas City in October 1919, where he worked as an apprentice artist at
12120-518: The history of animation and in the cultural history of the United States , where he is acknowledged as a national cultural icon . His film work continues to be shown and adapted, the Disney theme parks have grown in size and number around the world and his company has grown to become one of the world's largest mass media and entertainment conglomerates . Disney was born on December 5, 1901, at 1249 Tripp Avenue, in Chicago's Hermosa neighborhood. He
12322-593: The opening, closing and medal ceremonies . He was one of twelve investors in the Celebrity Sports Center , which opened in 1960 in Glendale, Colorado ; he and Roy bought out the others in 1962, making the Disney company the sole owner. Despite the demands wrought by non-studio projects, Disney continued to work on film and television projects. In 1955, he was involved in " Man in Space ", an episode of
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#173276504541912524-413: The theme park industry, and in July 1955 he opened Disneyland in Anaheim, California . To fund the project he diversified into television programs, such as Walt Disney's Disneyland and The Mickey Mouse Club . He was also involved in planning the 1959 Moscow Fair , the 1960 Winter Olympics , and the 1964 New York World's Fair . In 1965, he began development of another theme park, Disney World ,
12726-445: The "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" ( EPCOT ), which he described as: an experimental prototype community of tomorrow that will take its cue from the new ideas and new technologies that are now emerging from the creative centers of American industry. It will be a community of tomorrow that will never be completed, but will always be introducing and testing and demonstrating new materials and systems. And EPCOT will always be
12928-501: The 1930s and 1940s stated, "As far as I'm concerned, there was no evidence of antisemitism. I think the whole idea should be put to rest and buried deep. He was not antisemitic. Some of the most influential people at the studio were Jewish. It's much ado about nothing. I never once had a problem with him in that way." In addition songwriter Robert B. Sherman recalled that when one of Disney's lawyers made antisemitic remarks towards him and his brother Richard , Disney defended them and fired
13130-529: The 2013 film Saving Mr. Banks . In 2001, the German author Peter Stephan Jungk published Der König von Amerika (trans: The King of America ), a fictional work of Disney's later years that re-imagines him as a power-hungry racist. The composer Philip Glass later adapted the book into the opera The Perfect American (2013). Several commentators have described Disney as a cultural icon . On Disney's death, journalism professor Ralph S. Izard comments that
13332-483: The 24½th Century , One Froggy Evening , What's Opera, Doc? , (for McKimson) Walky Talky Hawky , Hillbilly Hare , Devil May Hare , The Hole Idea and Stupor Duck . Besides McKimson being promoted to director in the mid-1940s, Arthur Davis took over Clampett's unit in mid-1945 after abruptly leaving the studio. Clampett went to work on Beany and Cecil . Many of the studios most well known recurring characters would be created or restablished following
13534-569: The 60s, but also began dabbling into television production, such as co-producing the Popeye the Sailor TV series, The New Casper Cartoon Show and Felix the Cat . Their new theatrical cartoons at this time included Modern Madcaps , The Cat, Swifty and Shorty, and Comic Kings. Paramount would also distribute a handful of cartoons from Rembrandt Films , most notably a series of shorts featuring
13736-591: The Arts (colloquially called CalArts), and had an architect draw up blueprints for a new building. Disney provided four exhibits for the 1964 New York World's Fair , for which he obtained funding from selected corporate sponsors. For PepsiCo , who planned a tribute to UNICEF , Disney developed It's a Small World , a boat ride with audio-animatronic dolls depicting children of the world; Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln contained an animatronic Abraham Lincoln giving excerpts from his speeches; Carousel of Progress promoted
13938-598: The Blustery Day was released two years later, while The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was released in 1977. Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day also won the 1968 Academy Award for Animated Short Film . After Walt Disney's death, the animation department did not fully recover until the late 1980s and early 1990s with the Disney Renaissance . One of Walt Disney's main competitors was Max Fleischer ,
14140-595: The Cat , was eclipsed by Mickey's popularity and the studio closed in 1932. Merchandising based on Disney cartoons rescued a number of companies from bankruptcy during the depths of the Depression, and Disney took advantage of this popularity to move forward with further innovations in animation. In 1929, he launched a new series entitled the Silly Symphonies which was based around music with no recurring characters. However, they did not become as popular as
14342-411: The Cat. In February 1926, Disney built a larger studio at 2719 Hyperion Avenue and changed the name of the company to Walt Disney Cartoons. In November 1923, Winkler married Charles Mintz and handed over the business to him when she became pregnant a few months later. Mintz was often described as a cold, stern and ruthless chain-smoking tyrant; one employee remembered him as "a grim-faced man, with
14544-629: The Disney company produced a series of "modernized" adaptations of fairy tales including Little Red Riding Hood , The Four Musicians of Bremen , Jack and the Beanstalk , Jack the Giant Killer , Goldielocks and the Three Bears , Puss in Boots , Cinderella and Tommy Tucker's Tooth , the latter being mostly a live-action film about dental hygiene. None of these films turned
14746-404: The Fleischer style and gloss, however animation fans and historians would note the studio's diverging tone after the end of the war, as the style was criticized for its highly formulaic story telling, lack of artistic ambition, unusually violent gags, and its overall appeal towards children rather than both kids and adults. By October 1956, Paramount took over the studio entirely, with the studio
14948-558: The Kansas City Film Ad Company, run by A. V. Cauger; the following month Iwerks, who was not able to run their business alone, also joined. The company produced commercials using the cutout animation technique. Disney became interested in animation, although he preferred drawn cartoons such as Mutt and Jeff and Max Fleischer 's Out of the Inkwell . With the assistance of a borrowed book on animation and
15150-563: The Lamb , Wolfie (Blackie's main rival), Casper the Friendly Ghost (created by Joe Oriolo and Seymour Reit from an unpublished children's book), Little Audrey (a character similar to and replaced Little Lulu), Herman and Katnip (A cat and mouse duel similar to Tom and Jerry ), Baby Huey and several other lesser known characters. Famous also revived Screen Songs , another series inherited from Fleischer's. The series
15352-479: The Mickey Mouse cartoon The Sorcerer's Apprentice in an attempt to recapture Mickey's popularity, which had sharply declined due to the popularity of Max Fleischer's Popeye and Disney's Donald Duck . In the Sorcerer's Apprentice , Mickey Mouse was redesigned by Fred Moore . This redesign of Mickey is still in use today. The short featured no dialogue, only music which was conducted by Leopold Stokowski . When
15554-471: The Mickey Mouse cartoon series. In 1930, after a falling-out with Powers, Disney switched distributors to Columbia Pictures . However, Ub Iwerks left Walt Disney after an offer from Powers to be in charge of his own studio. In 1932, Mickey Mouse had become an international sensation, but the Silly Symphonies had not. Columbia Pictures had backed out of its distribution of the series and Disney
15756-461: The Oswald series by himself. Walt refused, and Winkler Pictures dropped its distribution. While Disney was finishing the remaining cartoons for Mintz, Disney and his staff secretly came up with a new cartoon character to replace Oswald — Mickey Mouse . The inspiration for Mickey has never been clear. Walt Disney said that he came up with the idea on the train ride back to Los Angeles shortly after
15958-570: The Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio, where he drew commercial illustrations for advertising, theater programs and catalogs, and befriended fellow artist Ub Iwerks . In January 1920, as Pesmen-Rubin's revenue declined after Christmas, Disney, aged 18, and Iwerks were laid off. They started their own business, the short-lived Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists. Failing to attract many customers, Disney and Iwerks agreed that Disney should leave temporarily to earn money at
16160-465: The Pooh (1977); since the short Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966) was released during his lifetime and he was also involved in the production of Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968). The animated musical comedy feature, The Jungle Book , and the live-action big-screen musical, The Happiest Millionaire , were released in 1967, a year after his death, and Winnie the Pooh and
16362-637: The Pooh and the Blustery Day was released in 1968, it earned Disney an Academy Award in the Short Subject (Cartoon) category, awarded posthumously. After Disney's death, his studios continued to produce live-action films prolifically while the quality of their animated films was allowed to languish. In the late 1980s, this trend was reversed in what The New York Times describes as the " Disney Renaissance " that began with The Little Mermaid (1989). Disney's studios continue to produce successful film, television and stage entertainment. Disney's plans for
16564-691: The Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor in 1936, Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves in 1937, and Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp in 1939. In 1938, after Disney's success with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , Paramount had given the Fleischer's permission to produce an animated feature film and Fleischer studio relocated itself from New York to Miami, Florida in order to avoid organized unions, which became
16766-417: The Seven Dwarfs (1937), Pinocchio , Fantasia (both 1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942), furthered the development of animated film. New animated and live-action films followed after World War II, including the critically successful Cinderella (1950), Sleeping Beauty (1959) and Mary Poppins (1964), the last of which received five Academy Awards. In the 1950s, Disney expanded into
16968-440: The Seven Dwarfs , based on the fairy tale . When news leaked out about the project, many in the film industry predicted it would bankrupt the company; industry insiders nicknamed it "Disney's Folly". The film, which was the first animated feature made in full color and sound, cost $ 1.5 million to produce—three times over budget. To ensure the animation was as realistic as possible, Disney sent his animators on courses at
17170-402: The Seven Dwarfs , the first American feature-length animated musical fantasy film. This was the culmination of four years of effort by Disney studios. Walt Disney was convinced that short cartoons would not keep his studio profitable in the long run, so he took what was seen as an enormous gamble. The critics predicted that Snow White would result in financial ruin for the studio. They said that
17372-455: The South (1946), Dangerous When Wet (1953), Mary Poppins (1964) and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), the last one being the last theatrical film to receive an Academy Award for their animated special effects. In addition, stop motion animation and special effects were also developed, with films such as King Kong (1933), The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), The War of
17574-531: The Stone in 1963. In 1964, Disney produced Mary Poppins , based on the book series by P. L. Travers ; he had been trying to acquire the rights to the story since the 1940s. It became the most successful Disney film of the 1960s, although Travers disliked the film intensely and regretted having sold the rights. The same year he also became involved in plans to expand the California Institute of
17776-593: The U.S. Government would have disqualified him from making these films. The Walt Disney Family Museum acknowledges that ethnic stereotypes common to films of the 1930s were included in some early cartoons but also points out that Disney donated regularly to Jewish charities and was named the 1955 "Man of the Year" by the B'nai B'rith chapter in Beverly Hills. The organization itself found no evidence of antisemitism on Disney's part. The plaque read: "For exemplifying
17978-475: The U.S. to analyze what worked and what pitfalls or problems there were in the various locations and incorporated their findings into his design. Construction work started in July 1954, and Disneyland opened in July 1955; the opening ceremony was broadcast on ABC, which reached 70 million viewers. The park was designed as a series of themed lands, linked by the central Main Street, U.S.A. —a replica of
18180-766: The Warner acquisition. This included Tweety (1942), Pepé Le Pew (1945), Sylvester the Cat (1945), Yosemite Sam (1945), Foghorn Leghorn (1946), The Goofy Gophers (1947), Marvin the Martian (1948), Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner (1949), Granny (1950), Speedy Gonzales (1953), The Tasmanian Devil (1954), among others. Davis' unit was shut down in late 1947 by Warners due to budget issues, causing him to move to Freleng's unit to become one of his key animators. In 1948, Warners could no longer force theaters to buy their movies and shorts together as packages, due to
18382-658: The Worlds (1953), Hansel and Gretel: An Opera Fantasy (1954), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Forbidden Planet (1956), The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Animation also began on television during this period with Crusader Rabbit (the first animated series broadcast in 1948 ) and early versions of Rocky and Bullwinkle (1959), both from Jay Ward Productions. The rise of television animation
18584-525: The Xerox resulted in films with a "sketchier" look and lacked the quality of the hand-inked films. According to Floyd Norman , who was working at Disney at the time, it felt like the end of an era. On December 15, 1966, Walt Disney died of lung cancer . The last films he was involved in were Mary Poppins (1964), The Jungle Book (1967), The Love Bug (1968), The Aristocats (1970), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) and The Many Adventures of Winnie
18786-450: The affluent ... [' Yankee '] lifestyle has a direct pedagogic effect". Disney has been portrayed numerous times in fictional works. H. G. Wells references Disney in his 1938 novel The Holy Terror , in which World Dictator Rud fears that Donald Duck is meant to lampoon the dictator. Disney was portrayed by Len Cariou in the 1995 made-for-TV film A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story , and by Tom Hanks in
18988-474: The attorney. Gabler, the first writer to gain unrestricted access to the Disney archives, concludes that the available evidence does not support accusations of antisemitism and that Disney largely got that reputation due to his association with Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals – an anti-Communist organization formed in 1944, that was rumored to have antisemitic undertones. Gabler concludes that "...though Walt himself, in my estimation,
19190-435: The best tenets of American citizenship and inter-group understanding and interpreting into action the ideals of B'nai B'rith." Disney had numerous Jewish employees, many of whom were in influential positions. None of Disney's employees including animator Art Babbitt , who disliked Disney intensely – ever accused him of making antisemitic slurs or taunts. Jewish story man Joe Grant , who worked closely with Disney throughout
19392-521: The box office. On top of the low earnings from Pinocchio and Fantasia , the company had debts of $ 4 million with the Bank of America in 1944. At a meeting with Bank of America executives to discuss the future of the company, the bank's chairman and founder, Amadeo Giannini , told his executives, "I've been watching the Disneys' pictures quite closely because I knew we were lending them money far above
19594-462: The budget for the short grew very expensive, Stokowski suggested to Disney that it could be a feature film with other pieces of classical music matched to animation. Disney agreed and production started. Fantasia would also become the first commercial film to be released in stereophonic sound . However, like Pinocchio , Fantasia was not a financial success. Fantasia was also the first Disney film not to be received well, receiving mixed reviews from
19796-527: The cartoon Two By Two , a lampoon of Noah's Ark that not only included a clone of Warner's Daffy Duck , but was also accused of having anti-religious overtones. Post was replaced by James Culhane in late-1965, who wanted to make diversify the content the studio made at the time, but he too also left in 1967 due to growing conflicts with studio higher ups. Ex- Terrytoons animator Ralph Bakshi succeeded Culhane that year, and quickly put several shorts into production. But by that point, Paramount's new owners at
19998-425: The cartoons in the new CinemaScope format. However, the budget per short was nowhere near as high as it had been in the 1940s as Disney had been focusing more on live action, television, and feature animation and less on short animation. In 1953, shortly after the switch from RKO to Buena Vista, Disney released its final Mickey Mouse short, The Simple Things . From there, the studio produced fewer animated shorts by
20200-436: The central figure in the history of animation. Through technological innovations and alliances with governments and corporations, he transformed a minor studio in a marginal form of communication into a multinational leisure industry giant. Despite his critics, his vision of a modern, corporate utopia as an extension of traditional American values has possibly gained greater currency in the years after his death. In December 2021,
20402-463: The character Nudnik , created by Gene Deitch . Kneitel's death in 1964 brought sudden changes to the studio as Paramount now had to look for new artists. Cartoonist Howard Post was initially placed as the studios primary director, and would create the Honey Halfwitch short series. However, Post's tenure was not successful, and even brought the ire of Paramount's board of directors with
20604-468: The character easier to animate. Disney, who had begun to distance himself from the animation process, provided Mickey's voice until 1947. In the words of one Disney employee, "Ub designed Mickey's physical appearance, but Walt gave him his soul." Mickey Mouse first appeared in May 1928 as a single test screening of the short Plane Crazy , but it, and the second feature, The Gallopin' Gaucho , failed to find
20806-517: The closure of Laugh-O-Grams, Walt Disney worked as a freelance filmmaker before selling his camera for a one-way ticket to Los Angeles. Once arriving he moved in with his Uncle Robert and his brother Roy, who was recovering at a nearby government hospital from tuberculosis he had suffered during the war. After failing to get a job as a director of live-action films he sent the unfinished Alice's Wonderland reel to short-subjects distributor Margaret J. Winkler of Winkler Pictures in New York. Winkler
21008-458: The colors would be too bright for the audience and they would get sick of the gags and leave. However, the critics were proven wrong. Snow White was a worldwide box office success, and was universally acclaimed as a landmark in the development of animation as a serious art form. After the success of Snow White , Disney went on to produce Pinocchio , which was released in 1940. However, costing twice as much to make as Snow White , Pinocchio
21210-637: The company's first public stock offering in 1940, and implemented heavy salary cuts. The latter measure, and Disney's sometimes high-handed and insensitive manner of dealing with staff, led to a 1941 animators' strike which lasted five weeks. While a federal mediator from the National Labor Relations Board negotiated with the two sides, Disney accepted an offer from the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs to make
21412-435: The confrontation with Mintz, but other records say that he came up with the idea after he returned to the studio. Walt Disney once said that he was inspired by a pet mouse he once had at the old Laugh-O-Grams studio, but more commonly said that he chose a mouse because a mouse had never been the central character of a cartoon series before. In 1928, Plane Crazy became the first entry into the Mickey Mouse series; however, it
21614-710: The construction of Disneyland, Disney worked on other projects away from the studio. He was consultant to the 1959 American National Exhibition in Moscow; Disney Studios' contribution was America the Beautiful , a 19-minute film in the 360-degree Circarama theater that was one of the most popular attractions. The following year he acted as the chairman of the Pageantry Committee for the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California , where he designed
21816-445: The country in imitation of Mickey's fan clubs; in 1935, polls showed that Popeye was even more popular than Mickey Mouse. However, during the early 1930s, stricter censorship rules enforced by the new Production Code in 1934 required animation producers to remove risqué humor. The Fleischer's, in particular, had to tone down the content of their Betty Boop cartoons, which waned in popularity afterwards. The Fleischer's also had produced
22018-408: The creation of Mickey Mouse". In 1933, Disney produced The Three Little Pigs , a film described by the media historian Adrian Danks as "the most successful short animation of all time". The film won Disney another Academy Award in the Short Subject (Cartoon) category. The film's success led to a further increase in the studio's staff, which numbered nearly 200 by the end of the year. Disney realized
22220-449: The critics. It was looked down upon by music critics and audiences, who felt that Walt Disney was striving for something beyond his reach by trying to introduce mainstream animation to abstract art, classical music, and "elite" subjects. However, the film would be reevaluated in later years and considered an animated masterpiece. In 1941, in order to compensate for the relative poor box office of Pinocchio and Fantasia , Disney produced
22422-406: The decades, and there have been polarized opinions. Mark Langer, in the American Dictionary of National Biography , writes that "Earlier evaluations of Disney hailed him as a patriot, folk artist, and popularizer of culture. More recently, Disney has been regarded as a paradigm of American imperialism and intolerance, as well as a debaser of culture." Steven Watts wrote that some denounce Disney "as
22624-532: The early to mid-1950s, Disney began to devote less attention to the animation department, entrusting most of its operations to his key animators, the Nine Old Men , although he was always present at story meetings. Instead, he started concentrating on other ventures. Around the same time, Disney established his own film distribution division Buena Vista , replacing his most recent distributor RKO Pictures . For several years Disney had been considering building
22826-422: The end of 1953, instead of renewing it as usual, Disney was concerned about the instability of RKO (due to owner Howard Hughes ' increasingly erratic control of the studio) and started distributing films through the newly created Buena Vista Distribution subsidiary. This allowed a higher budget for shorts and features than the last few years of cartoons made for RKO dictated, which made it possible to make some of
23028-527: The end of the war in 1945, Disney struggled to restart his studio, and had a low amount of cash on hand. Further Disney feature films of the 1940s were modestly budgeted collections of animated short segments put together to make a feature film. These began with Saludos Amigos in 1942 and continued during the war with The Three Caballeros in 1944 and after the war with Make Mine Music in 1946, Fun and Fancy Free in 1947, Melody Time in 1948, and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad in 1949. For
23230-399: The expensive Superman cartoons in 1943, instead adapting Marge's Little Lulu comic strip to theaters. Famous Studios continued to produce Popeye cartoons, which shifted to color in 1943 as well as creating Noveltoons , an anthology short series similar to Fleischer's Color Classics . The Noveltoons shorts series introduced many of Famous' recurring characters such as Blackie
23432-479: The family , neither Disney nor his wife hid the fact Sharon had been adopted, although they became annoyed if people outside the family raised the point. The Disneys were careful to keep their daughters out of the public eye as much as possible, particularly in the light of the Lindbergh kidnapping ; Disney took steps to ensure his daughters were not photographed by the press. In 1949, Disney and his family moved to
23634-591: The feature films Mickey and the Beanstalk , Bongo , and Wind in the Willows , he condensed them into the package films Fun and Fancy Free and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad since Walt feared that the low-budget animation would not become profitable. The most ambitious Disney film of this period was the 1946 film Song of the South , a musical film blending live-action and animation which drew criticism in later years for accusations of racial stereotyping . In 1950, Disney produced Cinderella . Cinderella
23836-423: The film went over budget, costing $ 6 million, and the film failed to make back its expenditure. The studio was in serious debt and had to cut the cost of animation. In 1960, this resulted in Disney switching to xerography , that replaced the traditional hand-inking . First feature films that used Xerox cels were 101 Dalmatians (1961) and The Sword in the Stone (1963) which were box-office successes. However,
24038-441: The film would be hailed as one of Disney's greatest classics, making millions in subsequent theatrical and home video releases. In 1953, he released Peter Pan , which, like Alice in Wonderland , had been in production since the late 1930s/early 1940s and was shelved during the war. However unlike Alice , Peter Pan was a big success both critically and financially on its first release. When Disney's contract with RKO expired at
24240-410: The film's production, with Walt even sending him gifts. When Baskett was in failing health, Disney not only began financially supporting him and his family, but also campaigned successfully for an Honorary Academy Award for his performance, making Baskett the first black actor so honored. Baskett died shortly afterward, and his widow wrote Disney a letter of gratitude for his support claiming he had been
24442-479: The financial risk. ... They're good this year, they're good next year, and they're good the year after. ... You have to relax and give them time to market their product." Disney's production of short films decreased in the late 1940s, coinciding with increasing competition in the animation market from Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . Roy Disney, for financial reasons, suggested more combined animation and live-action productions. In 1948, Disney initiated
24644-427: The first of which being Seal Island (1948). As a result, Walt Disney was needed on several different units at one time and was spending less time on animation. In 1951, he released Alice in Wonderland , a project he had been working on since the late 1930s, though it was shelved during the war. Alice in Wonderland was initially moderately successful and received mixed reviews from the critics. A few decades later,
24846-546: The first to win Emmy Awards for their contribution to American television. Other Hanna-Barbera productions related to the golden age were Wacky Races (1968) and the theatrical animations with Columbia Pictures , such as Loopy De Loop (1959) and the feature films released between 1964 and 1966. Walt Disney had decided to become a newspaper cartoonist drawing political caricatures and comic strips. However, nobody would hire Disney, so his older brother Roy , who
25048-532: The former Soviet Union , the hammer and sickle symbol and statues of Vladimir Lenin instead represented the country's most prominent cultural icons. The values, norms, and ideals represented by a cultural icon vary among people who subscribe to it and more widely among others who may interpret cultural icons as symbolizing quite different values. Thus an apple pie is a cultural icon of the United States, but its significance varies among Americans. National icons can become targets for those opposing or criticising
25250-400: The futuristic city of EPCOT did not come to fruition. After Disney's death, his brother Roy deferred his retirement to take full control of the Disney companies. He changed the focus of the project from a town to an attraction. At the inauguration in 1971, Roy dedicated Walt Disney World to his brother. Walt Disney World expanded with the opening of Epcot Center in 1982; Walt Disney's vision of
25452-517: The head of Fleischer Studios , which produced cartoons for Paramount Pictures . Fleischer Studios was a family-owned business, operated by Max Fleischer and his younger brother Dave Fleischer , who supervised the production of the cartoons. The Fleischer's scored successful hits with the Betty Boop cartoons and the Popeye the Sailor series. Popeye's popularity during the 1930s rivaled Mickey Mouse at times, and Popeye fan clubs sprang up across
25654-428: The head of the cartoon studio. Following the resignation of the Fleischer's, Paramount renamed the studio to Famous Studios and continued where the brothers left off. Three top staff members, Isadore Sparber , Seymour Kneitel and Dan Gordon (who was later replaced by Bill Tytla after Gordon left the studio) were placed as directors, while Sam Buchwald was placed to executive producer. Paramount also discontinued
25856-532: The heart of which was to be a new type of city, the " Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow " (EPCOT). Disney was a heavy smoker throughout his life and died of lung cancer in 1966 before either the park or the EPCOT project were completed. Disney was a shy, self-deprecating and insecure man in private but adopted a warm and outgoing public persona. He had high standards and high expectations of those with whom he worked. Although there have been accusations that he
26058-633: The importance of electricity; and Ford's Magic Skyway portrayed the progress of mankind. Elements of all four exhibits—principally concepts and technology—were re-installed in Disneyland, although It's a Small World is the ride that most closely resembles the original. During the early to mid-1960s, Disney developed plans for a ski resort in Mineral King , a glacial valley in California's Sierra Nevada . He hired experts such as
26260-428: The importance of telling emotionally gripping stories that would interest the audience, and he invested in a "story department" separate from the animators, with storyboard artists who would detail the plots of Disney's films. By 1934, Disney had become dissatisfied with producing cartoon shorts, and believed a feature-length cartoon would be more profitable. The studio began the four-year production of Snow White and
26462-564: The impression of a camera passing through the scene. The first work created on the camera—a Silly Symphony called The Old Mill (1937)—won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film because of its impressive visual power. Although Snow White had been largely finished by the time the multiplane camera had been completed, Disney ordered some scenes be re-drawn to use the new effects. Snow White premiered in December 1937 to high praise from critics and audiences. The film became
26664-722: The industry would grow significantly with the rise of television following the golden age's conclusion. Furthermore, the history of animation became very important artistically in the United States . Feature-length animation began during this period, most notably with Disney's "Walt-era" films, spanning from 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and 1940's Pinocchio to 1967's The Jungle Book and 1970's The Aristocats (last animated films produced before his death in 1966). During this period, several live-action films that included animation were made, such as Saludos Amigos (1942), Anchors Aweigh (1945), Song of
26866-402: The land, but the deal later collapsed over funding. In late 1965, he announced plans to develop another theme park to be called "Disney World" (now Walt Disney World ), a few miles southwest of Orlando, Florida . Disney World was to include the "Magic Kingdom"—a larger and more elaborate version of Disneyland—plus golf courses and resort hotels. The heart of Disney World was to be
27068-559: The library, the Barbie doll, DNA, and the New York Yankees ." A web-based survey was set up in 2006 allowing the public to nominate their ideas for national icons of England, and the results show the range of different types of icons associated with an English view of English culture. One example is the red AEC Routemaster London double-decker bus. Matryoshka dolls are seen internationally as cultural icons of Russia. In
27270-416: The live-action musical feature The Happiest Millionaire (both 1967) and the animated short Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968). Disney had been a heavy smoker since World War I. He did not use cigarettes with filters and had smoked a pipe as a young man. In early November 1966, he was diagnosed with lung cancer and was treated with cobalt therapy . On November 30, he felt unwell and
27472-427: The local library called Animated Cartoons: How They Are Made, Their Origin and Development by Edwin G. Lutz and decided that cel animation would produce better quality and decided to open up his own animation studio. Disney then teamed up with Fred Harman and made their first film, The Little Artist which was nothing more than an artist (Disney) taking a cigarette break at his work desk. Harman soon dropped out of
27674-488: The main street in his hometown of Marceline. The connected themed areas were Adventureland , Frontierland , Fantasyland and Tomorrowland . The park also contained the narrow gauge Disneyland Railroad that linked the lands; around the outside of the park was a high berm to separate the park from the outside world. An editorial in The New York Times considered that Disney had "tastefully combined some of
27876-508: The making of Alice in Wonderland . Roy believed the program added millions to the box office takings. In a March 1951 letter to shareholders, he wrote that "television can be a most powerful selling aid for us, as well as a source of revenue. It will probably be on this premise that we enter television when we do". In 1954, after the Disneyland funding had been agreed, ABC broadcast Walt Disney's Disneyland , an anthology consisting of animated cartoons, live-action features and other material from
28078-482: The most successful motion picture of 1938 and by May 1939 its total gross of $ 6.5 million made it the most successful sound film made to that date. Disney won another Honorary Academy Award, which consisted of one full-sized and seven miniature Oscar statuettes. The success of Snow White heralded one of the most productive eras for the studio; the Walt Disney Family Museum calls the following years "the 'Golden Age of Animation ' ". With work on Snow White finished,
28280-481: The new name Leon Schlesinger Productions . Animator Tom Palmer created a Bosko clone known as Buddy and answered to Walt Disney's use of color in the Silly Symphonies cartoons in 1934, and began making all future Merrie Melodies cartoons in color. However, since Walt Disney had an exclusive deal with Technicolor, Schlesinger was forced to use Cinecolor and Two Strip Technicolor until 1935 when Disney's contract with Technicolor had expired. The new studio had
28482-441: The newer medium of television. Animated media from after the golden age, especially on television , were produced on cheaper budgets and with more limited techniques between the late 1950s and 1980s. Many popular and famous animated cartoon characters emerged from this period, including: Over the course of these four decades, the quality of the media released throughout the golden age has often been debated. The peak of this era
28684-486: The notice on October 15, he convinced Roy to leave the hospital and help him set up his business. The next day, on October 16, 1923, Disney Bros. Cartoon Studio opened its doors at a small rented office two blocks away from his uncle's house with Roy managing business and Walt handling creative affairs. He convinced Virginia Davis's parents which caused the first official Alice short, Alice's Day at Sea , to be released on January 1, 1924; delayed by eleven days. Ub Iwerks
28886-455: The pleasant things of yesterday with fantasy and dreams of tomorrow". Although there were early minor problems with the park, it was a success, and after a month's operation, Disneyland was receiving over 20,000 visitors a day; by the end of its first year, it attracted 3.6 million guests. The money from ABC was contingent on Disney television programs. The studio had been involved in a successful television special on Christmas Day 1950 about
29088-492: The process by urging Iwerks to abandon the practice of drawing every frame individually in favor of the more efficient technique of drawing key poses and letting assistants sketch the inbetween poses . Disney asked Powers for an increase in payments for the cartoons. Powers refused and signed Iwerks to work for him; Stalling resigned shortly afterwards, thinking that without Iwerks, the Disney Studio would close. Disney had
29290-651: The quality of the music, Disney hired the professional composer and arranger Carl Stalling , on whose suggestion the Silly Symphony series was developed, providing stories through the use of music; the first in the series, The Skeleton Dance (1929), was drawn and animated entirely by Iwerks. Also hired at this time were several artists, both local and from New York. Both the Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies series were successful, but Disney and his brother felt they were not receiving their rightful share of profits from Powers. In 1930, Disney tried to trim costs from
29492-639: The recently begun War in Europe would affect its construction - to which Disney responded by asking: "What war?" During World War II , Disney was actively involved in making propaganda films against the Nazis, both for the general public (such as Der Fuehrer's Face and Education for Death ), as well as educational and training films exclusively for the United States Government . As early as March 1941 (several months before America's entry into
29694-530: The reductions. Disney declined Mintz's ultimatum and lost most of his animation staff, except Iwerks, who chose to remain with him. To replace Oswald, Disney and Iwerks developed Mickey Mouse , possibly inspired by a pet mouse that Disney had adopted while working in his Laugh-O-Gram studio, although the origins of the character are unclear. Disney's original choice of name was Mortimer Mouse, but his wife Lillian thought it too pompous, and suggested Mickey instead. Iwerks revised Disney's provisional sketches to make
29896-493: The renowned Olympic ski coach and ski-area designer Willy Schaeffler . With income from Disneyland accounting for an increasing proportion of the studio's income, Disney continued to look for venues for other attractions. In 1963, he presented a project to create a theme park in downtown St. Louis , Missouri; he initially reached an agreement with the Civic Center Redevelopment Corp, which controlled
30098-592: The role as producer in 1960 after Burton also left the studio. After more than two decades at the top, Warner Bros. shut down the original Termite Terrace studio in 1963 and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises assumed production of the shorts, licensed by Warner Bros. Most of the Looney Tune characters were retired from theaters, including Warner's biggest star, Bugs Bunny. Daffy Duck, however, would still appear in theatrical cartoons, mostly paired with Speedy Gonzales. Cultural icon In popular culture and elsewhere,
30300-476: The role of a bashful tycoon who was embarrassed in public" and knew that he was doing so. Disney acknowledged the façade and told a friend that "I'm not Walt Disney. I do a lot of things Walt Disney would not do. Walt Disney does not smoke. I smoke. Walt Disney does not drink. I drink." Critic Otis Ferguson , in The New Republic , called the private Disney: "common and everyday, not inaccessible, not in
30502-598: The same time at the Park School in Marceline in late 1909. The Disney family were active members of a Congregational church . In 1911, the Disneys moved to Kansas City, Missouri . There, Disney attended the Benton Grammar School , where he met fellow-student Walter Pfeiffer, who came from a family of theatre fans and introduced him to the world of vaudeville and motion pictures. Before long, Disney
30704-593: The series. Under producer Leon Schlesinger 's guidance, Harman-Ising Productions created Looney Tunes (the title being variation on Disney's award-winning Silly Symphonies ) starring their character Bosko . A second Harman-Ising series, Merrie Melodies , followed in 1931. Both series showed the strong influence of the early Disney movies. After disputes over money, Harman-Ising parted ways with Schlesinger (who rejected their demands for raised budgets) in 1933, taking Bosko with them to work with Metro Goldwyn Mayer . Schlesinger began his own cartoon operation under
30906-487: The short, lead animator Bob Clampett elaborated the exit of the Duck character by having him jump up and down on his head, flip around and holler off into the sunset. This created the character of Daffy Duck . After Daffy was created, he would add even more success to Warner Bros. cartoons and replaced Porky Pig as the studio's most popular animated character, and Bob Clampett took over Termite Terrace, while Tex Avery took over
31108-425: The show). One of the segments of Disneyland consisted of the five-part miniseries Davy Crockett which, according to Disney biographer Neal Gabler , "became an overnight sensation". The show's theme song, " The Ballad of Davy Crockett ", became internationally popular and ten million records were sold. As a result, Disney formed his own record production and distribution entity, Disneyland Records . As well as
31310-407: The star of the color Merrie Melodies cartoons, which had previously been used for one-shot character appearances. Avery would leave Warner Bros. in 1941 and moved to MGM after having a feud with Scheshinger in regard to the ending of The Heckling Hare and the rejection for an idea of a short series of live action animals with animated mouths (which he later sold to Paramount Pictures to create
31512-453: The studio began producing Pinocchio in early 1938 and Fantasia in November of the same year. Both films were released in 1940, and neither performed well at the box office—partly because revenues from Europe had dropped following the start of World War II in 1939. The studio incurred a loss on both pictures and was deeply in debt by the end of February 1941. In response to the financial crisis, Disney and his brother Roy started
31714-574: The studio to make unsuccessful cartoons like Stone Age , Gabby , and Color Classics . However, they still maintained their positions as heads of their studio's production. Under Paramount rule, the Fleischers' brought Popeye into the Navy and contributed to the war effort, and would gain more success by beginning a series of spectacular Superman cartoons (the first of which was nominated for an Oscar) that have become legendary in themselves. Despite
31916-560: The studio's library. The show was successful in terms of ratings and profits, earning an audience share of over 50%. In April 1955, Newsweek called the series an "American institution". ABC was pleased with the ratings, leading to Disney's first daily television program, The Mickey Mouse Club , a variety show catering specifically to children. The program was accompanied by merchandising through various companies (Western Printing, for example, had been producing coloring books and comics for over 20 years, and produced several items connected to
32118-539: The success Superman gave the studio, a major blow to the studio would occur when the married Dave started having an adulterous affair with the Miami secretary. This led to many disputes between the Fleischer Brothers until Max and Dave were no longer speaking to each other. Later that year, Paramount planned to release their next film, Mr. Bug Goes to Town , for Christmas, but was presumably postponed after
32320-522: The term "iconic" is used to describe a wide range of people, places, and things. Some commentators believe that the word "iconic" is overused. According to the Canadian Journal of Communication , academic literature has described all of the following as "cultural icons": Shakespeare, Oprah , Batman , Anne of Green Gables , the Cowboy , the 1960s female pop singer , the horse, Las Vegas ,
32522-448: The three-strip process in animated films—no other studio was permitted to use it. However, he withheld making Mickey Mouse in color because he thought that Technicolor might boost the Silly Symphonies' popularity. By 1932, Walt Disney had realized the success of animated films depended upon telling emotionally gripping stories that would grab the audience and not let go. This realization led to an important innovation around 1932–1933:
32724-502: The time, Gulf+Western , began the process to shutdown the cartoon studio. The shutdown was completed by December. In 1929, former Disney animators Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising made a cartoon entitled Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid , and tried to sell it to a distributor in 1930. Warner Bros. who had previously tried an unsuccessful attempt to set up a cartoon studio in New York in order to compete with Disney, agreed to distribute
32926-597: The time." Disney's office appointment book makes no mention of him attending Bund rallies, and no other employee ever claimed he attended such meetings. According to Gabler, Disney was apolitical and "something of a political naïf" during the 1930s and he had previously told one reporter – as tensions in Europe were brewing – that America should "let 'em fight their own wars" claiming he had "learned my lesson" from World War I . Disney also demonstrated his political naivete in an October 1933 article for Overland Monthly claiming: "Of course there must be millions of people who have
33128-547: The title role . The result, a 12½-minute, one-reel film, was completed too late to save Laugh-O-Gram Studio, which went into bankruptcy in 1923. Disney moved to Hollywood in July 1923 at 21 years old. Although New York was the center of the cartoon industry, he was attracted to Los Angeles because his brother Roy was convalescing from tuberculosis there, and he hoped to become a live-action film director. Disney's efforts to sell Alice's Wonderland were in vain until he heard from New York film distributor Margaret J. Winkler . She
33330-533: The values in Disney's films are those "considered valuable in American Christian society", which include "individualism, decency, ... love for our fellow man, fair play and toleration". Disney's obituary in The Times calls the films "wholesome, warm-hearted and entertaining ... of incomparable artistry and of touching beauty". Journalist Bosley Crowther argues that Disney's "achievement as
33532-456: The venture, but Disney was able to strike a deal with local theater owner Frank L. Newman and animated a cartoon all by himself entitled Newman Laugh-O-Grams screened in roughly February 1921. Walt then quit his job at the film and ad company and incorporated Laugh-O-Gram Films in May 1922, and hired former advertising colleagues as unpaid "students" of animation including Ub Iwerks and Fred Harman's brother, Hugh Harman . Throughout 1922,
33734-506: The war effort. The war (along with the strike) shook Walt Disney's empire, as the US Army had seized Disney's studio as soon as the US entered World War II in December 1941. As a result, Disney put the feature films Alice in Wonderland (1951), Peter Pan (1953), Wind in the Willows (1949), Song of the South (1946), Mickey and the Beanstalk (1947) and Bongo (1947) on hold until
33936-412: The war was over. The only feature film that was allowed to continue production was Bambi , which was released in 1942. Bambi was groundbreaking in terms of animating animals realistically. However, due to the war, Bambi failed at the box-office and received mixed reviews from the critics. This failure was to be short-lived as it grossed a considerable amount of money in the 1947 re-release. Disney
34138-551: The war) Disney began offering his services to various branches of the United States Armed Forces to make training films "...for national defence industries at cost and without profit. In making this offer, I am motivated solely by a desire to help as best I can in the present emergency." These training films contained highly classified information and required the highest level of security clearance to be viewed. If Disney had any previous sympathies toward Nazism,
34340-514: The work of Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart , whose 1971 book Para leer al Pato Donald ( transl. How to Read Donald Duck ) identifies that there are "imperialist ... values 'concealed' behind the innocent, wholesome façade of the world of Walt Disney"; this, they argue, is a powerful tool as "it presents itself as harmless fun for consumption by children." Tomlinson views their argument as flawed, as "they simply assume that reading American comics, seeing adverts, watching pictures of
34542-531: The year until the animated shorts division was eventually closed in 1956. After that, any future short cartoon work was done through the feature animation division until 1969. The last Disney animated short of the golden age of American animation, the Oscar-winning It's Tough to Be a Bird! , was released in 1969. In 1955, Disney created Lady and the Tramp , the first animated film in CinemaScope . Upon building Disneyland in 1955, Walt Disney regained
34744-403: Was racist or antisemitic , they have been contradicted by many who knew him. Historiography of Disney has taken a variety of perspectives, ranging from views of him as a purveyor of homely patriotic values to being a representative of American cultural imperialism . Widely considered to be one of the most influential cultural figures of the 20th century, Disney remains an important presence in
34946-434: Was also able to negotiate a deal giving him the sole right to use the three-strip process until August 31, 1935. All subsequent Silly Symphony cartoons were in color. Flowers and Trees was popular with audiences and won the inaugural Academy Award for best Short Subject (Cartoon) at the 1932 ceremony . Disney had been nominated for another film in that category, Mickey's Orphans , and received an Honorary Award "for
35148-434: Was an enormous success, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1950, and became Disney's most successful film since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Disney's first single-narrative feature film to be entirely animated since Bambi , as films in the interim involved some live-action. Disney's company started to diversify, producing live-action feature films beginning with Treasure Island (1950) and nature documentaries ,
35350-471: Was built by Disney Studios engineer Roger E. Broggie , and Disney named it Lilly Belle after his wife; after three years Disney ordered it into storage due to a series of accidents involving his guests. Disney grew more politically conservative as he got older. A Democratic Party supporter until the 1940 presidential election , when he switched allegiance to the Republican Party , he became
35552-449: Was distributing both the Felix the Cat and Out of the Inkwell cartoons at the time, but the Fleischer brothers were about to leave to set up their own distribution company, Red Seal Films , and Felix producer Pat Sullivan was constantly fighting with Winkler; therefore Winkler agreed to distribute Disney's Alice Comedies as sort of an insurance policy. Once Walt Disney received
35754-436: Was downsized and renamed to Paramount Cartoon Studios. The following year, the studio ended Popeye's theatrical run, with Spooky Swabs (directed by Sparber, who died the next year) being the last short of the series. Further perpetuated were the more strict budgets, forcing the studio use limited animation techniques comparable to television animation at the time. Paramount would continue to release theatrical cartoons into
35956-587: Was generally happy, according to Lillian, although according to Disney's biographer Neal Gabler she did not "accept Walt's decisions meekly or his status unquestionably, and she admitted that he was always telling people 'how henpecked he is'." Lillian had little interest in films or the Hollywood social scene and she was, in the words of the historian Steven Watts, "content with household management and providing support for her husband". Their marriage produced two daughters, Diane (born December 1933) and Sharon (adopted in December 1936, born six weeks previously). Within
36158-427: Was harshly denied by Mintz, who pointed out that in the contract Mintz had signed with Universal, it was Universal—not Disney—that owned the rights to the character. Mintz revealed to Disney that he had hired most of his staff away from the studio (except for Ub Iwerks, Les Clark and Wilfred Jackson who refused to leave) and threatened that unless he took a 20 per cent budget decrease, he would drop Disney and continue
36360-415: Was heavily influenced by European stories and myths, and the work of illustrators such as Doré and Busch . Also in 1937, Disney changed distributors for the Silly Symphonies to RKO Radio Pictures , remaining with this distributor until the early 1950s, when they were re-issued and re-released by Disney's new distribution company, Buena Vista Distribution . In 1937, Walt Disney produced Snow White and
36562-814: Was in turn named the new producer. By this time, Warner cartoons' top directors of the 1940s were Friz Freleng , Chuck Jones , Bob Clampett and Robert McKimson . Their cartoons are now considered classics of the medium. They directed some of the most beloved animated shorts of all time, including (for Clampett) Porky in Wackyland , Wabbit Twouble , A Corny Concerto , The Great Piggy Bank Robbery , The Big Snooze , (for Freleng) You Ought to Be in Pictures , Rhapsody in Rivets , Little Red Riding Rabbit , Birds Anonymous , Knighty Knight Bugs , (for Jones) Rabbit Fire , Duck Amuck , Duck Dodgers in
36764-558: Was less involved than he had been with previous pictures because of his involvement in his first entirely live-action feature, Treasure Island (1950), which was shot in Britain, as was The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952). Other all-live-action features followed, many of which had patriotic themes. He continued to produce full-length animated features too, including Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953). From
36966-616: Was losing the rights to both the Out of the Inkwell and Felix the Cat cartoons, and needed a new series. In October, they signed a contract for six Alice comedies , with an option for two further series of six episodes each. Disney and his brother Roy formed the Disney Brothers Studio—;which later became The Walt Disney Company —to produce the films; they persuaded Davis and her family to relocate to Hollywood to continue production, with Davis on contract at $ 100
37168-570: Was lured to move the Silly Symphonies into United Artists by a budget increase. Walt Disney then worked with the Technicolor company to create the first full three-strip color cartoon, Flowers and Trees . Another great success, it became the first cartoon to win the Academy Award for the Best Animated Short Film. Shortly afterward, Disney negotiated an exclusive, but temporary deal with Technicolor so only he could use
37370-477: Was made a "Special Agent in Charge Contact" in 1954, FBI officials claim this was largely an honorary title regularly awarded to members of a community who might be of use to the bureau. The FBI declassified and released Walt Disney's file on their website, and revealed that much of Disney's correspondence with the bureau (via studio personnel) was in relation to the production of educational films ; such as
37572-445: Was not a financial success, since World War II (which began in Europe in 1939) had cut off 40% of Disney's foreign release market . Although it was a moderate success in the United States, the domestic gross alone was not enough to make back its production budget. However, the film did receive very positive reviews and has made millions from subsequent re-releases. Later that year, Disney produced Fantasia . It originally started with
37774-478: Was not antisemitic, nevertheless, he willingly allied himself with people who were antisemitic, and that reputation stuck. He was never really able to expunge it throughout his life." Disney distanced himself from the Motion Picture Alliance, and had no involvement with the organization after 1947. According to Disney's daughter Diane Disney-Miller , her sister Sharon dated a Jewish boyfriend for
37976-437: Was not released because of a poor reaction from test screenings and failed to gain a distributor. The second Mickey Mouse cartoon The Gallopin' Gaucho also failed to gain the attention of the audience and a distributor. Disney knew what was missing: sound. Sound film had been captivating audiences since 1927 with The Jazz Singer and Walt decided that the next cartoon Steamboat Willie would have sound. Steamboat Willie
38178-439: Was not the first sound cartoon, Max and Dave Fleischer had produced Song Car-Tunes since 1926 after the release of the sound film Don Juan . However, they failed to keep the sound synchronized with the animation and the main focus of the cartoons were the bouncing ball sing-a-longs . The Song Car-Tunes were not a success and some staff members doubted whether a cartoon with sound would be successful. So Disney arranged
38380-460: Was now fully committed to the war effort and contributed by producing propaganda shorts and a feature film entitled Victory Through Air Power . Victory Through Air Power did poorly at the box office and the studio lost around $ 500,000 as a result. The required propaganda cartoon shorts were less popular than Disney's regular shorts, and by the time the Army ended its stay at Walt Disney Studios with
38582-529: Was paid to draw the horse of a retired neighborhood doctor. Elias was a subscriber to the Appeal to Reason newspaper, and Disney practiced drawing by copying the front-page cartoons of Ryan Walker . He also began to develop an ability to work with watercolors and crayons. He lived near the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway line and became enamored with trains. He and his younger sister Ruth started school at
38784-611: Was presented with two Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards and an Emmy Award , among other honors. Several of his films are included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress and have also been named as some of the greatest films ever by the American Film Institute . Born in Chicago in 1901, Disney developed an early interest in drawing. He took art classes as a boy and took
38986-411: Was racially insensitive." The feature film Song of the South was criticized by contemporary film critics, the NAACP , and others for its perpetuation of black stereotypes , but during filming Disney became close friends with its star, James Baskett , describing him in a letter to his sister Ruth as "the best actor, I believe, to be discovered in years." Disney and Baskett stayed in contact long after
39188-446: Was re-hired in February 1925 and the quality of animation on the Alice series improved; this prompted Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Carman Maxwell to follow Disney west in June 1925. Around that time, Davis was replaced with Maggie Gay and the cartoons started to focus less on the live-action scenes and more the fully animated scenes, particularly those featuring Alice's pet sidekick Julius , who bore an uncanny resemblance to Felix
39390-430: Was released on November 18, 1928, and was a big success. Disney quickly gained huge dominance in the animation field using sound in his future cartoons by dubbing Plane Crazy , The Gallopin' Gaucho and the nearly completed The Barn Dance . Mickey Mouse's popularity put the animated character into the ranks of the most popular screen personalities in the world. Disney's biggest competitor, Pat Sullivan with his Felix
39592-477: Was renamed Kartunes in 1951 and would continue for two more years before being discontinued. Buchwald later died from a heart attack in 1951, leaving Sparber and Kneitel as the sole lead producers and directors. Dave Tendlar was promoted to director in 1953. The departure of the Fleischer brothers and Buchwald's death had an pro-longed effect on the studio: the Paramount cartoons of the war years continued to be entertaining and popular and still retained most of
39794-424: Was solicited to Disney by painter and ballet dancer Hurbert "Jay" Stowitts , a close friend of Riefenstahl, and a former colleague of Leopold Stokowski who at the time was collaborating with Disney on Fantasia . A month later a spokesperson for Disney told the New York Daily News : "Miss Refiensthal got into the studio, but she crashed the gate. A Los Angeles man who is known to Disney obtained permission to take
39996-445: Was sometimes strained. The series ran until July 1927, by which time Disney had begun to tire of it and wanted to move away from the mixed format to all animation. After Mintz requested new material to distribute through Universal Pictures , Disney and Iwerks created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit , a character Disney wanted to be "peppy, alert, saucy and venturesome, keeping him also neat and trim". In February 1928, Disney hoped to negotiate
40198-505: Was spending more time at the Pfeiffers' house than at home. Elias had purchased a newspaper delivery route for The Kansas City Star and Kansas City Times . Disney and his brother Roy woke up at 4:30 every morning to deliver the Times before school and repeated the round for the evening Star after school. The schedule was exhausting, and Disney often received poor grades after falling asleep in class, but he continued his paper route for more than six years. He attended Saturday courses at
40400-445: Was taken by ambulance from his home to St. Joseph Hospital where, on December 15, at age 65, he died of circulatory collapse caused by the cancer. His remains were cremated two days later and his ashes interred at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California . The release of The Jungle Book and The Happiest Millionaire in 1967 raised the total number of feature films that Disney had been involved in to 81. When Winnie
40602-498: Was the fourth son of Elias Disney —born in the Province of Canada , to Irish parents—and Flora ( née Call), an American of German and English descent. Aside from Walt, Elias and Flora's sons were Herbert, Raymond and Roy ; and the couple had a fifth child, Ruth, in December 1903. In 1906, when Disney was four, the family moved to a farm in Marceline, Missouri , where his uncle Robert had just purchased land. In Marceline, Disney developed his interest in drawing when he
40804-430: Was working as a banker at the time, got him a job at the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio where he created advertisements for newspapers, magazines, and movie theaters. Here he met fellow cartoonist Ub Iwerks , the two quickly became friends and in January 1920, when their time at the studio expired they decided to open up their own advertising agency together called Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists. The business however got off to
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