Roy O. Disney

Roy Oliver Disney (June 24, 1893 – December 20, 1971) was, with his younger brother Walt Disney, co-founder of what is now The Walt Disney Company. Disney served as the company's chief executive officer (1929–1971) and president (1945–1971). Disney was born to Elias Disney and the former Flora Call in Chicago, Illinois. He married Edna Francis in April 1925 and from this marriage he is the father of Roy Edward Disney, who was born on January 10, 1930. A statue of Roy O. Disney, seated on a park bench beside Minnie Mouse, is located in Town Square at the Magic Kingdom.

External links

- Disney, Roy Oliver Disney, Roy Oliver Disney, Roy Oliver Disney, Roy Oliver Disney, Roy Oliver Disney, Roy Oliver

June 24

June 24 is the 175th day of the year (176th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 190 days remaining.

Events

- 972 - Battle of Cedynia, near Cedynia. Polish forces have had their first documented victory.
- 1128 - Battle of São Mamede, near Guimarães. Portuguese forces led by Alfonso I defeat his mother D.Teresa and D.Fernão Peres de Trava. After this battle, the future king calls himself "Prince of Portugal", the first step towards "official independence" in 1143.
- 1314 - End of the Battle of Bannockburn. Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce defeat Edward II of England. Scotland regains its independence.
- 1374 - A sudden outbreak of St. John's Dance causes people in the streets of Aix-la-Chapelle, Prussia, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion.
- 1441 - Eton College founded.
- 1497 - John Cabot lands on North America in Newfoundland; first European discovery of the region since the Vikings.
- Cornish traitors Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank executed at Tyburn, London
- 1509 - Henry VIII crowned King of England.
- 1534 - Jacques Cartier makes the European discovery of Prince Edward Island.
- 1535 - The Anabaptist state of Münster is conquered and disbanded.
- 1597 - The first Dutch voyage to the East Indies reaches Bantam (on Java).
- 1662 - Dutch attempt but fail to capture Macau.
- 1664 - The colony of New Jersey is founded.
- 1692 - Kingston, Jamaica founded.
- 1793 - First republican constitution in France adopted.
- 1812 - Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon's invasion of Russia begins.
- 1813 - Battle of Beaver Dams : A British, and Indian joint force defeat the U.S Army.
- 1821 - Battle of Carabobo : Venezuela gains total independence from Spain.
- 1859 - Battle of Solferino: (Battle of the Three Sovereigns). Sardinia and France defeat Austria in Solferino, northern Italy.
- 1861 - Tennessee becomes the 11th and last state to secede from the US.
- 1880 - First performance of O Canada, the song that would become the national anthem of Canada, at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français.
- 1894 - The IOC decides to hold the Olympic Games every four years.
- 1901 - First exhibition of Pablo Picasso's work opens.
- 1902 - King Edward VII of the United Kingdom develops appendicitis, delaying his coronation.
- 1910 - Japan invades Korea.
- 1913 - Greece and Serbia annul their alliance with Bulgaria.
- Joseph Cook becomes the 6th Prime Minister of Australia.
- 1916 - Mary Pickford becomes first film star to get million dollar contract.
- 1918 - First airmail service in Canada from Montreal to Toronto.
- The giant cannon Big Bertha begins bombardments on Paris
- 1932 - A military coup ends the absolute power of the king of Siam (Thailand).
- 1940 - France and Italy sign an armistice.
- 1941 - Government of briefly independent Lithuania conducts its first meeting under prime minister Juozas Ambrazevičius
- 1945 - The U.S.S.R. capture the Free Republic of Schwarzenberg.
- 1946 - Georges Bidault becomes Prime Minister of France
- 1947 - First known sighting of UFOs: Kenneth Arnold, flying over Washington, notices nine luminous disks in the form of saucers.
- 1948 - Start of the Berlin Blockade. The Soviet Union makes overland travel between the West with West Berlin impossible.
- 1957 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment.
- 1963 - Zanzibar is granted internal self-government by the UK.
- 1974 - The UPC label is used for the first time to ring up purchases at a supermarket.
- 1975 - An Eastern Airlines Boeing 727 crashes at John F. Kennedy Airport, New York. 113 people die.
- 1981 - For what would be the world's longest single-span suspension bridge for 17 years, the Humber Bridge, connecting Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, opens.
- 1983 - Sally Ride, first female American astronaut, returns to earth.
- Yasir Arafat banned from Damascus.
- 1993 - Yale computer science professor Dr. David Gelernter loses the sight in one eye, the hearing in one ear, and part of his right hand after receiving a mailbomb from the Unabomber.
- 1995 - The New Jersey Devils sweep the Detroit Red Wings in four games in the 1995 NHL Stanley Cup finals.
- In the final of the Rugby Union World Cup held at Ellis Park in Johannesburg, a drop goal in extra time by Joel Stransky lifts South Africa to a 15-12 win over New Zealand.
- 1996 - Michael Johnson breaks the world record in the 200 metres with a time of 19.66 seconds
- 1999 - The guitar with which Eric Clapton recorded Layla is sold at auction for $497,500.
- 2004 - Habib Dodo, the general secretary of the Communist Youth of Côte d'Ivoire is assassinated by pro-government forces.

Births

1244 to 1899

- 1244 - Henry I of Hesse (d. 1308)
- 1340 - John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (d. 1399)
- 1386 - Giovanni da Capistrano, Italian saint (d. 1456)
- 1485 - Johannes Bugenhagen, German reformer (d. 1558)
- 1519 - Theodore Beza, French theologian (d. 1605)
- 1532 - Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, English politician (d. 1588)
- 1542 - St. John of the Cross, Spanish Carmelite friar and poet (d. 1591)
- 1546 - Robert Parsons, English Jesuit priest (d. 1610)
- 1663 - Jean Baptiste Massillon, French churchman (d. 1742)
- 1687 - Johann Albrecht Bengel, German scholar (d. 1757)
- 1694 - Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, Swiss publicist (d. 1748)
- 1704 - Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens, French writer (d. 1771)
- 1777 - John Ross, British naval officer and explorer (d. 1856)
- 1795 - Ernst Heinrich Weber, German anatomist and physiologist (d. 1878)
- 1803 - George James Webb, English-born composer (d. 1887)
- 1804 - Willard Richards, American religious leader (d. 1854)
- 1813 - Henry Ward Beecher, American clergyman and reformer (d. 1887)
- 1826 - George Goyder, surveyor-general of South Australia (d. 1898)
- 1842 - Ambrose Bierce, American author
- 1850 - Horatio Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, British field marshal (d. 1916)
- 1882 - Carl Diem, German Olympic official (d. 1962)
- 1883 - Victor Franz Hess, Austrian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1964)
- 1888 - Gerrit Rietveld, Dutch architect (d. 1964)
- 1895 - Jack Dempsey, American boxer (d. 1983)

1900 to 1999

- 1901 - Harry Partch, American composer (d. 1974)
- 1906 - Pierre Fournier, French cellist (d. 1986)
- 1907 - Arseny Tarkovsky, Russian poet (d. 1989)
- 1908 - Hugo Distler, German composer (d. 1942)
- Guru Gopinath, Indian classical dancer (d 1987)
- Alfons Rebane, Estonian military officer (d. 1976)
- 1909 - David Rose, English composer and musician (d. 1990)
- 1911 - Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentine race car driver (d. 1995)
- 1914 - Robert Aickman, English author (d. 1981)
- 1915 - Fred Hoyle, British astronomer and science fiction author (d. 2001)
- 1922 - Tata Giacobetti, Italian singer and lyricist (Quartetto Cetra)
- 1927 - Martin Lewis Perl, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1930 - Claude Chabrol, French film director
- 1931 - Billy Casper, American golfer
- 1942 - Mick Fleetwood, musician (Fleetwood Mac)
- Michele Lee, American actress
- 1944 - Jeff Beck, English guitarist (Yardbirds)
- Chris Wood, British musician (d. 1983)
- 1945 - Colin Blunstone, British musician (The Zombies)
- George Pataki, Governor of New York
- 1946 - Ellison Onizuka, astronaut (d. 1986)
- 1950 - Mercedes Lackey, American author
- 1953 - Garry Shider, American musician (P Funk)
- 1955 - Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, Guru of Siddha Yoga
- 1956 - Joe Penny, English actor
- 1958 - Jean Charest, Premier of Québec
- 1963 - Anatoly Borisovich Jurkin, Russian writer
- 1967 - Richard Kruspe-Bernstein, German guitarist (Rammstein)
- 1969 - Sissel Kyrkjebø, Norwegian singer
- 1970 - Glenn Medeiros, American singer and songwriter
- 1978 - Erno "Emppu" Vuorinen, Finnish guitarist (Nightwish)
- 1978 - Luis Garcia, Spanish footballer
- 1979 - Craig Shergold, Internet folklore subject
- 1982 - Kevin Nolan, English footballer
- 1986 - Solange Knowles, American actress and singer

Deaths

803 to 1899

- 803 - Higbald of Lindisfarne
- 1398 - Hongwu Emperor of China (b. 1328)
- 1439 - Duke Frederick IV of Austria (b. 1382)
- 1519 - Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara (b. 1480)
- 1520 - Hosokawa Sumimoto, Japanese samurai commander (b. 1489)
- 1604 - Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England (b. 1550)
- 1637 - Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, French astronomer (b. 1580)
- 1766 - Adrien-Maurice, 3rd duc de Noailles, French soldier (b. 1678)
- 1778 - Pieter Burmann the Younger, Dutch philologist (b. 1714)
- 1803 - Matthew Thornton, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1714)
- 1817 - Thomas McKean, American lawyer and signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1734)
- 1894 - Marie François Sadi Carnot, French statesman (b. 1837)

1900 to 1999

- 1908 - Grover Cleveland, President of the United States (heart failure) (b. 1837)
- 1909 - Sarah Orne Jewett, American writer (b. 1849)
- 1922 - Walther Rathenau, German Minister of Foreign Affairs (assassinated) (b. 1867)
- 1935 - Carlos Gardel, Argentine singer (airplane crash) (b. 1890)
- 1947 - Emil Seidel, Mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (b. 1864)
- 1981 - Terry Fox, Canadian runner (b. 1958)
- 1987 - Jackie Gleason, American actor and musician (b. 1916)
- 1993 - Archie Williams, American athlete (b. 1915)

2000 onwards

- 2000 - Vera Atkins, Romanian-born intelligence officer (b. 1908)
- 2002 - Pierre Werner, Prime Minister of Luxembourg (b. 1913)
- 2003 - Maynard Jackson, Mayor of Atlanta (b. 1938)
- Leon Uris, American author (b. 1924)
- 2004 - Ifigeneia Giannopoulou, Greek songwriter (b. 1957)
- 2005 - Paul Winchell, American voice actor and ventriloquist (b. 1922)

Holidays and observances

- Roman Catholic Church - Feast of Saint John the Baptist, patron of farriers
- Original Midsummer's Eve in Finland and Sweden, although the official holiday is now moved to the nearest Friday
- One of the four Irish Quarter days in the Irish Calendar.
- Discovery Day in Newfoundland and Labrador (celebrating the 1497 discovery by John Cabot)
- Fête nationale du Québec, also called St-Jean-Baptiste Day
- Day of Indian in Peru
- Battle of Carabobo Day in Venezuela (1821)
- Bannockburn Day in Scotland (see 1314 above)
- Bahá'í Faith - Feast of Rahmat (Mercy) - First day of the sixth month of the Bahá'í Calendar
- Quarter days in England
- Skt. Hans Day in Denmark
- St. John's Day in Estonia and Sao Joao in Porto

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/24 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.britannica.com/eb/dailycontent?month=6&day=24 Encyclopædia Britannica: This Day in History] ---- June 23 - June 25 - May 24 - July 24 -- listing of all days ko:6월 24일 ms:24 Jun ja:6月24日 simple:June 24 th:24 มิถุนายน

December 20

December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 11 days remaining.

Events

- 1522 - Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually re-settle on Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.
- 1803 - Louisiana Purchase completed
- 1860 - South Carolina becomes first state to secede from the United States
- 1915 - Last Australian troops evacuated from Gallipoli
- 1917 - Cheka, first Soviet secret police, founded
- 1952 - United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses Lake, Washington killing 87
- 1960 - National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam is formed
- 1984 - The Summit tunnel fire is the largest underground fire in history, as a freight train carrying over 1 million litres of petrol derails near the town of Todmorden in the Pennines
- 1988 - The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
- 1989 - Operation Just Cause: United States sends troops into Panama to overthrow government of Manuel Noriega
- 1995 - NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia
- 1995 - An American Airlines Flight 965 Boeing 757 crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia killing 160
- 1996 - NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.
- 1999 - Vermont's Supreme Court rules that homosexual couples are entitled to same benefits and protections as married heterosexual couples
- 1999 - Macau is handed over to the People's Republic of China by Portugal.
- 2002 - US Senator Trent Lott resigns as majority leader.
- 2004 - The Miami Dolphins upset the defending Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots in a fourth quarter comeback and scoring two touchdowns in the final 4 minutes of the game to win 29-28.

Births

- 1537 - King John III of Sweden (d. 1592)
- 1566 - Edward Wightman, English Baptist preacher (d. 1612)
- 1579 - (baptized) John Fletcher, English playwright (d. 1625)
- 1626 - Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff, German statesman (d. 1692)
- 1629 - Pieter de Hooch, Dutch painter (d. 1684)
- 1717 - Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French statesman and diplomat (d. 1787)
- 1786 - Pietro Raimondi, Italian composer (d. 1853)
- 1792 - Nicolas Charlet, French painter (d. 1845)
- 1805 - Thomas Graham, Scottish chemist (d. 1869)
- 1833 - Samuel Mudd, American physician (d. 1883)
- 1838 - Edwin Abbott Abbott, English schoolmaster, theologian, and author (d. 1926)
- 1841 - Ferdinand Buisson, French pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1932)
- 1860 - Dan Leno, English entertainer (d. 1904)
- 1861 - Ivana Kobilca, Slovenian painter (d. 1926)
- 1868 - Harvey Firestone, American automobile pioneer (d. 1938)
- 1881 - Branch Rickey, baseball executive (d. 1965)
- 1886 - Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman, American tennis player (d. 1974)
- 1890 - Yvonne Arnaud, French-born actress (d. 1958)
- 1890 - Jaroslav Heyrovský, Czech chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1967)
- 1894 - Sir Robert Menzies, twelfth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1978)
- 1898 - Irene Dunne, American actress (d. 1990)
- 1901 - Robert Van de Graaff, American physicist and inventor (d. 1967)
- 1902 - Sidney Hook, American philosopher (d. 1989)
- 1902 - George Edward Alexander Windsor, Duke of Kent (d. 1942)
- 1917 - David Bohm, American-born physicist, philosopher, and neuropsychologist (d. 1992)
- 1922 - George Roy Hill, American film director (d. 2002)
- 1926 - Sir Geoffrey Howe, British politician
- 1926 - Otto Graf Lambsdorff, German politician
- 1927 - Kim Young-sam, President of South Korea
- 1933 - Jean Carnahan, U.S. Senator
- 1942 - Bob Hayes, American football player (d. 2002)
- 1946 - Uri Geller, Israeli psychic
- 1946 - Dick Wolf, American television series creator
- 1949 - Soumaïla Cissé, Malian politician
- 1952 - Jenny Agutter, English actress
- 1954 - Michael Badalucco, American actor
- 1957 - Billy Bragg, English singer and songwriter
- 1957 - Mike Watt, American bassist
- 1957 - Joyce Hyser, American actress
- 1957 - Anna Vissi, Greek singer
- 1960 - Nalo Hopkinson, Canadian writer
- 1965 - Rich Gannon, American football player
- 1970 - Nicole DeBoer, Canadian actress
- 1970 - Massimo Ellul, Maltese entrepreneur and philanthropist
- 1978 - Njitap Geremi, Cameroon footballer
- 1980 - Ashley Cole, English footballer
- 1980 - Lloyd Bradbury, Ascendancy 9 Media CEO
- 1990 - JoJo, American singer

Deaths

- 217 - Pope Zephyrinus
- 860 - King Ethelbald of Wessex
- 910 - Alfonso III of Leon
- 1022 - Elvira Mendes, queen of Alfonso V of Castile (b. 996)
- 1494 - Matteo Maria Boiardo, Italian poet
- 1524 - Thomas Linacre, English scholar and physician
- 1539 - Johannes Lupi, Flemish composer
- 1590 - Ambroise Paré, French physician (b. 1510)
- 1722 - Kangxi Emperor of China (b. 1654)
- 1740 - Richard Boyle, 2nd Viscount Shannon, English military officer and statesman (b. 1675)
- 1768 - Carlo Innocenzio Maria Frugoni, Italian poet (b. 1692)
- 1812 - Sacagawea, Shoshone guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition
- 1929 - Émile Loubet, 7th President of France (b.1838)
- 1937 - Erich Ludendorff, German general (b. 1865)
- 1941 - Igor Severyanin, Russian poet (b. 1887)
- 1954 - James Hilton, American author (b. 1900)
- 1961 - Moss Hart, American author (b. 1904)
- 1961 - Earle Page, eleventh Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1880)
- 1968 - John Steinbeck, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
- 1973 - Luis Carrero Blanco, Prime Minister of Spain (assassinated) (b. 1903)
- 1973 - Bobby Darin, American singer (b. 1936)
- 1974 - André Jolivet, French composer (b. 1905)
- 1976 - Richard J. Daley, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1902)
- 1982 - Arthur Rubinstein, Polish-born pianist (b. 1887)
- 1984 - Gonzalo Márquez, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (b. 1946)
- 1989 - Kurt Böhme, German bass (b. 1908)
- 1994 - Dean Rusk, United States Secretary of State (b. 1909)
- 1996 - Carl Sagan, American astronomer and writer (b. 1934)
- 1997 - Denise Levertov, English-born poet (b. 1923)
- 1997 - Juzo Itami, Japanese actor and director (b. 1933)
- 1998 - Irene Hervey, American actress (b. 1910)
- 1998 - Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, British scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1916)
- 1999 - Hank Snow, Canadian singer (b. 1914)
- 2000 - Mirza Ghulam Hafiz, Indian statesman, politician, and philanthropist (b. 1920)
- 2001 - Foster Brooks, American actor and comedian (b. 1912)
- 2001 - Léopold Sédar Senghor, first President of Senegal (b. 1906)

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/20 BBC: On This Day] ---- December 19 - December 21 - November 20 - January 20 -- listing of all days ko:12월 20일 ms:20 Disember ja:12月20日 simple:December 20 th:20 ธันวาคม

Walt Disney

:For the company founded by Disney, see The Walt Disney Company. For other uses, see Walt Disney (disambiguation). Walter Elias "Walt" Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966), was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, and animator. One of the most well-known motion picture producers in the world, Disney was also the cartoon artist of comic books and newspaper comic strips, the creator of an American-based theme park called Disneyland, and is the co-founder with his brother Roy O. Disney of Walt Disney Productions, the corporation now known as The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney is particularly noted for being a successful storyteller, a hands-on film producer, and a popular showman. He and his staff created a number of the world's most popular animated properties, including the one many consider Disney's alter ego, Mickey Mouse.
1901-1919: Childhood
Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois to Elias Disney and the former Flora Call. He was of English and Irish Heritige. Walt was named after his father and after his father's close friend Walter Parr, the minister at St. Paul Congregational Church. In 1906, his family moved to a farm near Marceline, Missouri. The family sold the farm in 1909 and lived in a rented house until 1910, when they moved to Kansas City. Disney was nine years old at the time. According to the Kansas City Public School District records, Disney began attending the Benton Grammar School in 1910, and graduated on June 8, 1911. During this time, Disney also enrolled in classes at the Chicago Art Institute. He left school at the age of sixteen and became a volunteer ambulance driver in World War I, after he changed his birth certificate to show his year of birth as 1900 instead of 1901, in order to be able to enlist in the service. He served as a member of the American Red Cross Ambulance Force in France until 1919.
1920-1936: Early years in animation

Kansas City animation studios
Disney returned to the USA, moved to Kansas City and, with Ub Iwerks, formed a company called "Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists" in January 1920. The company faltered and Disney and Iwerks soon gained employment at the Kansas City Film Ad Corporation, working on primitive animated advertisements for local movie houses. In 1922, Disney started Laugh-O-Grams, Inc., which produced short cartoons based on popular fairy tales and children's stories. (See Laugh-O-Gram Studios) Among his employees were Iwerks, Hugh Harman, Rudolph Ising, Carmen Maxwell, and Friz Freleng. The shorts were popular in the local Kansas City area, but their costs exceeded their returns. After creating one last short, the live-action/animation Alice's Wonderland, the studio declared bankruptcy in July 1923. Disney's brother Roy invited him to move to Hollywood, California, and Disney earned enough money for a one-way train ticket to California, leaving his staff behind, but taking the finished reel of Alice's Wonderland with him.
Alice Comedies: Contract and new California studio
Disney set up shop with his brother Roy, started the Disney Brothers Studio in their Uncle Robert's garage, and got a distribution deal for the Alice Comedies with New York City states-rights distributors Margaret Winkler and her fiancée Charles Mintz. Virginia Davis, the live-action star of Alice's Wonderland, was sequestered from Kansas, as was Ub Iwerks. By 1926, the Disney Brothers Studio had been renamed as the Walt Disney Studio; the name Walt Disney Productions would be adopted in 1928. One of the studio's employees, Lillian Bounds, became Walt Disney's wife; they were married on July 13 1925. The Alice Comedies were reasonably successful, and featured both Dawn O'Day and Margie Gay as Alice after Virginia Davis' parents pulled her out of the series because of a pay cut. Lois Hardwick also briefly assumed the role. By the time the series ended in 1927, the focus was more on the animated characters, in particular a cat named Julius who recalled Felix the Cat, rather than the live-action Alice.
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
By 1927, Charles Mintz had married Margaret Winkler and assumed control of her business, and ordered a new all-animated series to be put into production for distribution through Universal Pictures. The new series, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, was an almost instant success, and the Oswald character, first drawn and created by Ub Iwerks, became a popular property. The Disney studio expanded, and Walt hired Harman, Ising, Maxwell, and Freleng from Kansas City. In February 1928, Disney went to New York to negotiate a higher fee per short from Mintz, but was shocked when Mintz announced that not only did he want to reduce the fee he paid Disney per short, but that he had most of his main animators, including Harman, Ising, Maxwell, and Freleng, but notably excepting Ub Iwerks, under contract and would start his own studio if Disney did not accept the reduced production budgets. Universal, not Disney, owned the Oswald trademark, and could make the films without Disney. Disney declined, lost most of his animation staff, and he, Iwerks, and the few non-defecting animators secretly began work on a new mouse character to take Oswald's place. The defectors became the nucleus of the Winkler Studio, run by Mintz and his brother-in-law George Winkler. When that studio went under after Universal assigned production of the Oswald shorts to an in-house division run by Walter Lantz, Mintz focused his attentions on the studio making the Krazy Kat shorts, which later became Screen Gems, and Harman, Ising, Maxwell, and Freleng marketed an Oswald-like character named Bosko to Leon Schlesinger and Warner Bros., and began work on the first entries in the Looney Tunes series.
The creation of Mickey Mouse
Looney Tunes Mickey Mouse was first drawn and created by Ub Iwerks. Christened by Lillian Disney, Mickey Mouse made his film debut in a short called Plane Crazy, which was, like all of Disney's previous works, a silent film. After failing to find distributor interest in Plane Crazy or its follow-up, The Gallopin' Gaucho, Disney created a Mickey cartoon with sound called Steamboat Willie. A businessman named Pat Powers provided Disney with both distribution and the Cinephone, a sound-synchronization process. Steamboat Willie became a success, and Plane Crazy, The Galloping Gaucho, and all future Mickey cartoons were released with soundtracks. Disney himself provided the vocal effects for the earliest cartoons and performed as the voice of Mickey Mouse until 1947. Joining the Mickey Mouse series in 1929 were a series of musical shorts called Silly Symphonies. The first of these was entitled The Skeleton Dance and was entirely drawn and animated by Ub Iwerks. As a matter of fact, Ub Iwerks was responsible for drawing the majority of cartoons released by Disney in the years 1928 and 1929. Although both series were successful, the Disney studio was not seeing its rightful share of profits from Pat Powers, and in 1930, Disney signed a new distribution deal with Columbia Pictures. Ub Iwerks, who was growing tired of the temperamental Disney, especially as he was doing the majority of the work, was lured by Powers into opening his own studio with an exclusive contract. Needless to say, Disney was devastated and despertately searched for someone who could replace Iwerks as he was not able to draw as well, or especially as quickly, himself - Iwerks was reported to have drawn up to 700 drawings a day for the first Mickey shorts. Meanwhile, Ub Iwerks lauched his successful Flip the Frog series with the first sound cartoon in color, which was entitled "Fiddlesticks." Ub Iwerks also created two other series of cartoons, namely, the Willie Whopper and the Comicolor cartoon series. Ub Iwerks closed his studio in 1936, the Ub Iwerks Studio, to work on various projects dealing with animation technology. Iwerks would return to Disney in 1940 and, in the studio's research and development department, he pioneered a number of film processes and specialized animation technologies. Disney was able to eventually find a number of people to replace the work that had previously been done solely by Iwerks. By 1932, Mickey Mouse had become quite a popular cartoon character. The Van Beuren cartoon studio attempted to cash in on this success by creating a character that was very similar to Mickey Mouse. A law suit by Disney quickly put an end to that. After moving from Columbia to United Artists in 1932, Walt began producing the Silly Symphonies in the new three strip Technicolor process, making them the first commercial films presented in this new process. Ub Iwerks had previously released the first color sound cartoon in 1930, which was a Flip the Frog cartoon entitled "Fiddlesticks" and which had been filmed in two strip Techincolor. The first color Symphony was Flowers and Trees, which won the first Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons in 1932. The same year, Disney received a special Academy Award for the creation of Mickey Mouse, whose series was moved into color in 1935 and soon launched spin-off series for supporting characters such as Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto.
Disney's daughters
As Mickey's co-creator and producer, Disney was almost as famous as his mouse cartoon character, but remained a largely private individual. His greatest hope was to give birth to a child—preferably a son—but he and Lillian tried with no luck. Lillian finally gave birth to a daughter, Diane Marie Disney, on December 18, 1933; and the couple would adopt a second, Sharon Mae Disney, who was born December 21, 1936.
1937-1954: Animated feature films

"Disney's Folly": Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Although his studio produced the two most successful cartoon series in the industry, the returns were still dissatisfying to Disney, and he began plans for a full-length feature in 1934. When the rest of the film industry learned of Disney's plans to produce an animated feature-length version of Snow White, they dubbed the project "Disney's Folly" and were certain that the project would destroy the Disney studio. Both Lillian and Roy tried to talk Disney out of the project, but he continued plans for the feature. He employed Chouinard Art Institute professor Don Graham to start a training operation for the studio staff, and used the Silly Symphonies as a platform for experiments in realistic human animation, distinctive character animation, special effects, and the use of specialized processes and apparatus such as the multiplane camera. All of this development and training was used to elevate the quality of the studio so that it would be able to give the feature the quality Disney desired. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as the feature was named, was in full production from 1935 until mid-1937, when the studio ran out of money. To acquire the funding to complete Snow White, Disney had to show a rough cut of the motion picture to loan officers at the Bank of America, who gave the studio the money to finish the picture. The finished film premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater on December 21, 1937; at the conclusion of the film the audience gave Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs a standing ovation. The first animated feature in English and Technicolor, Snow White was released in February 1938 under a new distribution deal with RKO Radio Pictures. The film became the most successful motion picture of 1938 and earned over US$8 million (today US$98 million) in its original theatrical release, all the more amazing because children were only charged a dime to watch it. The success of Snow White allowed Disney to build a new campus for the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, which opened for business on December 24 1939. The feature animation staff, having just completed Pinocchio, continued work on Fantasia and Bambi, while the shorts staff continued work on the Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto cartoon series, ending the Silly Symphonies at this time.
Wartime troubles
Pinocchio and Fantasia followed Snow White into movie theatres in 1940, but both were financial disappointments. The inexpensive Dumbo was planned as an income generator, but during production of the new film, most of the animation staff went on strike, permanently straining the relationship between Disney and his artists. Shortly after Dumbo was released in October 1941 and became a successful moneymaker, the United States entered World War II. The U.S. Army contracted for most of the Disney studio's facilities and had the staff create training and instructional films for the military, as well as home-front morale such as Der Fuehrer's Face and the feature film Victory Through Air Power in 1943. The military films did not generate income, however, and Bambi underperformed when it was released in April 1942. Disney successfully re-issued Snow White in 1944, establishing the seven-year re-release tradition for Disney features. Inexpensive package films, containing collections of cartoon shorts, were created and issued to theaters during this period as well. The most notable and successful of these were Saludos Amigos (1942), its sequel The Three Caballeros (1945), Song of the South (the first Disney feature to feature dramatic actors), (1946), Fun and Fancy Free (1947), and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949). The later had only two sections: the first based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving and the second based on The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. By the late 1940s, the studio had recovered enough to continue production on the full-length features Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan, which had been shelved during the war years and began work on Cinderella. The studio also began a series of live-action nature films, entitled True-Life Adventures, in 1948 with On Seal Island.
Testimony Before Congress
In 1947, during the early years of the Cold War, Walt Disney [http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/06/documents/huac/disney.html testified] before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and he named one of his employees as a communist. Some historians believe that the animosity from the 1941 strike of Disney Studio employees caused him to bear a grudge. His dislike and distrust of labor unions may have also led to his testimony.
1955-1966: Theme Parks and Beyond
labor union
Carolwood Pacific Railroad
In 1949, when Disney and his family moved to a new home on large piece of property in the Holmby Hills district of Los Angeles, California, with the help of his friends Ward and Betty Kimball, owners of their own backyard railroad, Disney developed the blueprints and immediately set to work creating his own miniature Live steam railroad in his backyard. The name of the railroad, Carolwood Pacific Railroad, originated from the address of his home that was located on Carolwood Drive. The railroad's half-mile long layout included a 46-foot-long trestle, loops, overpasses, gradients, an elevated dirt berm, and a 90-foot tunnel underneath Mrs. Disney's flowerbed. He named the miniature working steam locomotive built by Roger E. Broggie of the Disney Studios Lilly Belle in his wife's honor. He had his attorney draw up right-of-way papers giving the railroad a permanent, legal easement through the garden areas, which his wife dutifully signed; however, there is no evidence the documents were ever recorded as a restriction on the property's title.
Planning Disneyland
On a business trip to Chicago in the late 1940s, Disney drew sketches of his ideas for an amusement park where he envisioned his employees spending time with their children. This plan was originally for a lot south of the Studio, just across the street. However, the city of Burbank declined building permission. The ideas developed into a concept for a larger enterprise that was to become Disneyland. Disney spent five years of his life developing Disneyland and created a new subsidiary of his company, called WED Enterprises to carry out the planning and production of the park. A small group of Disney studio employees joined the Disneyland development project as engineers and planners, and were dubbed Imagineers. When presenting his plan to the Imagineers, Disney said, "I want Disneyland to be the most amazing place on Earth, and I want a train circling it." Entertaining his daughters and their friends in his backyard and taking them for rides on his Carolwood Pacific Railroad had inspired Disney to include a railroad in the plans for Disneyland.
Expanding into new areas
As Walt Disney Productions began work on Disneyland, it also began expanding its other entertainment operations. 1950's Treasure Island became the studio's first all-live-action feature, and was soon followed by such successes as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (in CinemaScope, 1954), The Shaggy Dog (1959), and The Parent Trap (1960). The Walt Disney Studio was one of the first to take full advantage of the then-new medium of television, producing its first TV special, One Hour in Wonderland, in 1950. Walt Disney began hosting a weekly anthology series on ABC named Disneyland after the park, where he showed clips of past Disney productions, gave tours of his studio, and familiarized the public with Disneyland as it was being constructed in Anaheim, California. In 1955, he debuted the studio's first daily television show, the popular Mickey Mouse Club, which would continue in many various incarnations into the 1990s. As the studio expanded and diversified into other media, Disney devoted less of his attention to the animation department, entrusting most of its operations to his key animators, whom he dubbed the Nine Old Men. During Disney's life time, the animation department created the successful Lady and the Tramp (in CinemaScope, 1955) and One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) and the financially disappointing Sleeping Beauty (in Super Technirama 70mm, 1959) and The Sword in the Stone (1963). Production on the short cartoons had kept pace until 1956, when Disney shut down the shorts division. Special shorts projects would continue to be made for the rest of the studio's duration on an irregular basis. These productions were all distributed by Disney's new subsidiary Buena Vista Distribution, which had assumed all distribution duties for Disney films from RKO by 1955. Disneyland, one of the world's first theme parks, finally opened on July 17, 1955, and was immediately successful. Visitors from around the world came to visit Disneyland, which contained attractions based upon a number of successful Disney properties and films. After 1955, the Disneyland TV show became known as Walt Disney Presents, went from black-and-white to color in 1961--changing its name to Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color--and eventually evolved into what is today known as The Wonderful World of Disney, which continues to air on ABC as of 2005. as of 2005 During the mid-1950s, Disney produced a number of educational films on the space program in collaboration with NASA rocket designer Wernher von Braun: Man in Space and Man and the Moon in 1955, and Mars and Beyond in 1957. The films attracted the attention of not only the general public, but also the Soviet space program. The TV series and book Our Friend the Atom (1956, together with Heinz Haber) were produced in an effort of the Eisenhower administration to enhance the image of nuclear energy.
Early 1960s successes
By the early 1960s, the Disney empire was a major success, and Walt Disney Productions had established itself as the world's leading producer of family entertainment. After decades of trying, Disney finally procured the rights to P.L. Travers' books about a magical nanny. Mary Poppins, released in 1964, was the most successful Disney film of the 1960s, and many hailed the live-action/animation combination feature as his greatest achievement. The same year, Disney debuted a number of exhibits at the 1964 New York World's Fair, including Audio-Animatronic figures, all of which later were integrated into attractions at Disneyland and a new theme park project, to be established on the east coast, which Disney had been planning since Disneyland opened.
Ski Resorts
Walt Disney first showed interest in ski resorts with his investment in Sugar Bowl Ski Resort in the 1930s. However, his interest was brought to a new level in the 1960s when he commissioned plans for Disney's Mineral King Ski Resort. Official plans for the resort were announced just months before Walt's death. The project was eventually canceled due to heavy protest from many environmental organizations, most notably the Sierra Club. The 1970s saw yet another set of Disney plans for a ski resort, in Independence Lake near San Francisco. Like the Mineral King plans, the Independence Lake project was scrapped for many of the same reasons.
"The Florida Project"
In 1964, Walt Disney Productions began quietly purchasing land in central Florida west of Orlando in a largely rural area of marginal orange groves for Disney's "Florida Project." The company acquired over 27,000 acres (109 km²) of land, and arranged favorable state legislation which would provide unprecedented quasi-governmental control over the area to be developed in 1966, founding the Reedy Creek Improvement District. Disney and his brother Roy then announced plans for what they called "Disney World."
Plans for Disney World and EPCOT
Disney World was to include a larger, more elaborate version of Disneyland to be called the Magic Kingdom, and would also feature a number of golf courses and resort hotels. The heart of Disney World, however, was to be the Experimental Prototype City (or Community) of Tomorrow, or EPCOT for short. EPCOT was designed to be an operational city where residents would live, work, and interact using advanced and experimental technology, while scientists would develop and test new technologies to improve human life and health.
Death of Walt Disney
However, Disney's involvement in Disney World ended in late 1966, when he was diagnosed with lung cancer in his left lung, after a life-long habit of chain smoking. He was checked into the St. Joseph's Hospital across the street from the Disney Studio lot and his health eventually deteriorated. He was pronounced dead at 3 AM PST on December 15, 1966, having just celebrated his 65th birthday ten days earlier. He was cremated on December 17, 1966 at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California. Roy Disney carried out the Florida project, insisting that the name become Walt Disney World in honor of his brother. Roy O. Disney died three months after the Magic Kingdom opened for business in 1971.
1967 to present: Legacy

The Epcot theme park
When the second phase of the Walt Disney World theme park was built, EPCOT was translated by Walt Disney's successors into EPCOT Center (now simply called Epcot), which opened in 1982. As it currently exists, Epcot is essentially a living world's fair, a far cry from the actual functional city that Disney had envisioned. In [http://disney.danix.info 1992] Walt Disney Imagineering took the step closer to Walt's vision and dedicated Celebration, Florida, a town built by the Walt Disney Company adjacent to Walt Disney World, harkens back to the spirit of EPCOT.
The Disney entertainment empire
Today, Walt Disney's animation/motion picture studios and theme park have developed into a multi-billion dollar television, motion picture, vacation destination and media corporation that carries his name. The Walt Disney Company today owns, among other assets, five vacation resorts, eleven theme parks, two water parks, thirty-nine hotels, eight motion picture studios, six record labels, eleven cable television networks, and one terrestrial television network.
Disney theme parks today
Today, what was known as the Florida Project is now the largest and most popular private-run tourist destination on the planet, but the Walt Disney shine is still there. From the 'Partners' statue at the Magic Kingdom to the Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom, Walt Disney is still remembered and his vision is still continued. His fascination with mass transportation lives in the Walt Disney World Monorail which runs through two theme parks and four hotels, and his dreams of the future live on at Epcot in ahead-of-their-time attractions and technological breakthroughs. Disneyland has developed from a cramped theme park to an open resort of two theme parks, three hotels and a large shopping complex. Walt Disney World is a popular destination for vacations by tourists worldwide, and Tokyo Disneyland is the most visited theme park in the world (its sister park Tokyo DisneySea is the second). In September 2005, The Walt Disney Company opened Hong Kong Disneyland Resort in China. On May 5, 2005, The Walt Disney Company opened the Happiest Homecoming on Earth celebration in front of Walt's Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland, celebrating fifty years of the world's most famous theme park. Part of the celebration involved new rides opening across the parks, like Soarin' in Epcot, Cinderrellabration in the magic kingdom, and Expedition: Everest, which will soon open in the animal kingdom. Walt Disney Parks and Resorts are renowned over the world for their attentions to detail, hygiene and standards, all set by Walt Disney at Disneyland.
Disney Animation today
Traditional hand-drawn animation, with which Walt Disney built the success of his company, no longer continues at the Walt Disney Feature Animation studio. After a stream of financially unsuccessful traditionally-animated features in the late-1990s and early 2000s, the two satellite studios in Paris and Orlando were closed, and the main studio in Burbank was converted to a computer animation production facility. In 2004, Disney released their final traditionally animated feature film for the foreseeable future, Home on the Range. The DisneyToons studio in Australia, which produced lower-budget traditionally animated films, at first appeared to survive the purge, but its closing was announced in July 2005.
CalArts
Disney devoted substantial time in his later years funding The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), which was formed in 1961 through a merger of the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and the Chouinard Art Institute, which had helped in the training of the animation staff during the 1930s. When he died, one fourth of his estate went towards CalArts, which greatly helped the building of its campus. Walt also donated 38 acres (154,000 m²) of the Golden Oaks ranch in Valencia for the school to be built on. CalArts moved onto the Valencia campus in 1971. Lillian Disney devoted a lot of her time after Walt died to pursuing CalArts and organized hundreds of fund raising events for the university in her late husband's honor (as well as funding the Walt Disney Symphony Hall). After Lillian's passing, the legacy continued with daughter Diane and husband Ron continuing the tradition. CalArts is one of the largest independent universities in California today, mostly because of the contributions of the Disneys.
Trivia

- In the fifth grade, Walt memorized the Gettysburg Address (for fun) and surprised everyone by arriving at school dressed as Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States. His costume consisted of his father's old coat and a homemade beard. He even pasted a putty wart to his cheek. His teacher was delighted. Little wonder that years later, when his studio created the first fully functioning audio-animatronic human figure for the 1964 New York World's Fair, the figure looked like Abraham Lincoln.
- Disney had very simple tastes in food. According to his daughter Diane, "He liked fried potatoes, hamburgers, western omelets, hotcakes, canned peas, hash, stew, roast beef sandwiches. He doesn't go for vegetables, but loves chicken livers or macaroni and cheese." Lillian Disney would complain, "Why should I plan a meal when all Disney really wants is a can of chili or a can of spaghetti?" [http://www.jimhillmedia.com/articles/guest/korkis.05272003.1.htm]
- In an essay called "Deeds Rather than Words"[http://www.startedbyamouse.com/archives/WaltPrayer.shtml] Disney talked about prayer in his life saying "I am personally thankful that my parents taught me at a very early age to have a strong personal belief and reliance in the power of prayer for Divine inspiration. My people were members of the Congregational Church in our home town of Marceline, Missouri." However, Walt Disney was not a frequent visitor to churches. Religious people would occasionally ask him to make religious films, but Walt declined. But in the same essay he explained, "Deeds rather than words express my concept of the part religion should play in everyday life. I have watched constantly that in our movie work the highest moral and spiritual standards are upheld, whether it deals with fable or with stories of living action."
- In 1940, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation recruited Disney as an Official Informant. He was later designated as a Special Agent in Charge contact.
- Walt had several hobbies over the years, among them model railroads, polo playing, and a backyard railroad.
- Walt spent countless afternoons, after his typical early morning inspection of the park, in the Main Street Station breakroom or on the line of the Disneyland Railroad (previously known as the Atcheson, Topeka, Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad). Disney's movement west from his birthplace in Chicago, on to Marceline and Kansas City and then on to Los Angeles was paralleled itself by the Atcheson, Topeka, Santa Fe Railroad. Among his closest friends in his last decade of life were Bob Hannah, the trainmaster, and Lorne Cline, lead brakeman, who later regaled park guests with stories about Walt into the late 1970s. Walt did not ever want to lose control of the railroad to the financial backers of Disneyland and so placed the steam train and monorail attractions into a free-standing company called "RETLAW" (which is "Walter" spelled backwards), of which he and his wife were sole owners. Prior to its dissolution into the Disney Corp in the 1980s, he (and heirs) would receive $0.60 for each person through the turnstile at the train stations, and supervisors could be seen currying favor with the owner by spinning the turnstiles to increase the count (and revenues) before park opening and after closing.
- 'Uncle Walt' could be seen around 1950s Disneyland doing menial chores, like getting strollers for people, tinkering under the hood of a car on Main Street U.S.A., fishing in Rivers of America, or piloting the Mark Twain Riverboat.
- In the fall of 1963, while seeking the site for Disney's new "Florida Project", Walt and Roy Disney first flew over a coastal area of Florida, and then the forest and swamps near Orlando which were selected as the site to become Walt Disney World. Shortly later, their plane landed in New Orleans on the way back to California where the Disney brothers learned of the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th President of the United States. He had been assassinated earlier that same afternoon in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.
- One of the audio animatronic pirates on The Pirates of the Caribbean ride introduced in 1967 has Walt Disney's face. It was taken from the same life cast mold that was used to make the statue of Disney that adorns the central square.
- A number of [http://www.snopes.com/disney/waltdisn/walt.asp rumors] have been attributed to Walt Disney: : "Walt Disney was an illegitimate child." : "Walt Disney received a dishonorable discharge from the military during World War I." : "Disney had his body frozen after his death and remains in cryonic storage." (He was cremated.[http://www.snopes.com/disney/info/wd-ice.htm]) :These are all untrue. Widely spread and retold, like many other rumors, they have become urban legends.
Quotes

- "I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse."
- "I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained."
- "You're dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway."
- "I've never believed in doing sequels. I didn't want to waste the time I have doing a sequel; I'd rather be using that time doing something new and different."
- "Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world."
- "We believed in our idea - a family park where parents and children could have fun- together."
- "I take great pride in the artistic development of cartoons. Our characters are made to go through emotions which a few short years ago would have seemed impossible to secure with a cartoon character. Some of the action produced in the finished cartoon of today is more graceful than anything possible for a human to do."
See also

- List of Disney people
- List of Disney animated features
- Carolwood Pacific Railroad
Resources

- Barrier, Michael (1999). Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 019-516729-5.
- Mosley, Leonard. Disney's World: A Biography (1985, 2002). Chelsea, MI: Scarborough House. ISBN 081-288514-7.
- Schickel, Richard and Dee, Ivan R (1967, 1985, 1997). The Disney Version: The Life, Times, Art and Commerce of Walt Disney. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, Publisher. ISBN 156-663158-0.
- Thomas, Bob (1991). Disney's Art of Animation: From Mickey Mouse to Beauty and the Beast. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 156-282899-1
- Thomas, Bob (1976,1994). Walt Disney: An American Original ISBN 0-7868-6027-8
External links

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- [http://www.waltdisney.com/ Walt Disney Family Museum]
- [http://www.sci.fi/~animato/rail/walt.html Walt Disney's hobby: Miniature garden railroading]
- [http://www.time.com/time/time100/builder/profile/disney.html Time Magazine profile] Disney, Walt Disney, Walt Disney, Walt Disney, Walt Disney, Walt Disney, Walt Disney, Walt Disney, Walt Disney, Walt Disney, Walt Disney, Walt Disney, Walt Disney, Walt Disney, Walt Disney, Walt Disney, Walt Disney, Walt Disney, Walt Disney, Walt Disney, Walt Disney, Walt Disney, Walt ja:ウォルト・ディズニー th:วอลท์ ดิสนีย์

The Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company (most commonly known as Disney) () is one of the largest media and entertainment corporations in the world. Founded on October 16, 1921 by Walt Disney and his brother Roy O. Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, it is today the number two media company in the United States. The company's corporate headquarters are located in Burbank, California. Disney had revenues of $30.8 billion in 2004, and it is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. For much of its history, the company was known as Walt Disney Productions, Ltd., until February 6, 1986, when it was rechristened with its current name. "Disney Enterprises, Inc.," commonly seen in company legal notices, is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company.

Divisions

Disney's main operating units are Studio Entertainment, Parks and Resorts, Media Networks, and Consumer Products.

Studio Entertainment

Its Studio Entertainment unit, also known as The Walt Disney Studios, is headed by Chairman Dick Cook. It includes the Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, a collection of movie studios including Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, and Hollywood Pictures. The Miramax Films and Dimension Films studios are also a part of the unit, but operate autonomously in New York. Disney's Buena Vista Music Group, which includes Walt Disney Records, Mammoth Records, Lyric Street Records, and Hollywood Records, also falls under the umbrella of The Walt Disney Studios. The unit also includes Walt Disney Theatrical and Disney's distribution companies: Buena Vista International and Buena Vista Home Entertainment. Buena Vista Home Entertainment One of the company's most successful subsidiaries is its animation studio, Walt Disney Feature Animation, responsible for producing a number of successful and influential traditionally animated features. The traditional Disney films referred to by most fans are those with which Disney took a well-known fairy tale or story and injected its own, distinctively American, style, adding popular-style songs to make them into animated musicals. The first feature length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, began this tradition in 1938. It was followed by such films as Cinderella (1950), Sleeping Beauty (1959), The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Aladdin (1992). In addition to these romantic tales, Disney has dabbled in action animations, again of well-known stories, such as Peter Pan (1953), 101 Dalmations (1961), The Jungle Book (1967), and Robin Hood (1973). The traditional animated movies ended with such movies as The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pocahontas, Hercules and Mulan. In the aftermath of the box office failures of some of its recent animated films and the stellar successes of computer-animated films from Pixar, Disney has shifted its production from "traditional" hand-drawn animated films (which in recent years have incorporated much work done on computer) to entirely computer-animated films. The last traditionally-animated film produced by Disney was Home on the Range. Its first computer-animated film will be Chicken Little. Disney has fallen under much criticism for this change in direction, especially from fans who see the strength of a movie as its plot and its characters and not as the technology used to make it. Disney is becoming a direct competitor to Pixar in a market dominated by the latter. Disney has failed to renew its contract with Pixar to release Pixar's films under the Disney name, an arrangement which had been extremely profitable to Disney and whose termination means that Pixar is now free to pair up with a competing studio. Walt Disney Studios, the company's main film and television production facility and corporate headquarters located in Burbank, California, is the only major Hollywood film studio that has never offered tours to the public. A partial tour of the Orlando, Florida feature animation satellite studio was available to attendees of Disney-MGM Studios until 2003.

Parks and Resorts

2003 Disney operates a total of nine theme parks at the Disneyland Resort, the Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland Resort Paris and the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. Tokyo Disney Resort in Japan is operated and owned by the Oriental Land Company with licenses from Disney, and was built by the company's Imagineers. The company also owned through Anaheim Sports, Inc. the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim hockey club, which it recently agreed to sell to Broadcom executive Henry Samueli, and owned the Anaheim Angels baseball team, which was later sold to advertising magnate Arturo Moreno. Walt Disney Imagineering, Walt Disney Creative Entertainment, the Disney Cruise Line, Disney Vacation Club, and the chain of ESPN Zone sports-themed restaurants also operate as a part of the Parks & Resorts unit.

Media Networks

Its Media Networks unit is centered around the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) television network, which it acquired through a merger with Capital Cities/ABC in 1996. Disney also owns a group of cable networks including The Disney Channel, ABC Family, Toon Disney, the ESPN group and SOAPnet. Disney also holds substantial interest in Lifetime (50%), A&E (37.5%), and E! (40%). Through ABC, Disney also owns 10 local television stations, 26 local radio stations, and ESPN Radio, Radio Disney, and the ABC Radio, which carries such radio personalities as Sean Hannity and Paul Harvey and distributes news bulletins by ABC News. Buena Vista Television, which also is a part of the Media Networks unit, produces such