Walt Disney (disambiguation)

Walt Disney most often refers to:
- Walter Elias Disney, a filmmaker and co-founder of the entertainment empire bearing his name. It may also refer to:
- The Walt Disney Company, especially in news articles
- Walt Disney Pictures, the entertainment company's flagship movie studio
- The Walt Disney anthology series, a television show hosted by Walt Disney himself.

Walter Elias 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

Walt Disney Pictures

Walt Disney Pictures is a United States-based movie studio, and is a division of The Walt Disney Company. It maintains Disney's family-friendly image and generally only releases G and PG rated films with only one exception: 2003's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which was handed a PG-13 rating. Walt Disney Pictures was established as a Disney division in 1983; prior to that Disney films were released under the banner of the parent company, then named Walt Disney Productions. Walt Disney Pictures includes Walt Disney Feature Animation and DisneyToon Studios, and is a part of the Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group.

External links

- [http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/main.html Walt Disney Pictures website]
- Category:Hollywood movie studios Category:Walt Disney Company subsidiaries simple:Walt Disney Pictures

Walt Disney anthology series

The first incarnation of the Walt Disney anthology series, commonly called The Wonderful World of Disney, premiered on ABC on October 27, 1954 under the name Disneyland.

Overview

Hosted by Walt Disney himself, the show presented animated cartoons and other material (some original, some pre-existing) from the studio library. This is significant because the series was the first one from a major movie studio. Other studios feared television would be the death of them. The show spawned the Davy Crockett craze of 1955 with the miniseries about the historical American frontiersman, starring Fess Parker in the title role. Millions of dollars of merchandise were sold relating to the title character, and the theme song, "The Ballad of Davy Crockett," was a hit record that year. Three historically-based hour-long shows aired in late 1954/early 1955, and were followed up by two dramatized installments the following year. The TV episodes were edited into two theatrical films later on. In July of 1955, the opening of Disneyland was covered on this show, hosted by Walt along with Bob Cummings, Art Linkletter, Ronald Reagan, and various other guests. The series moved to NBC in 1961 to take advantage of that network's ability to broadcast in color.In a marvelous display of foresight, Disney had filmed many of the earlier shows in color, so they were able to be repeated on NBC. To emphasize the new color feature, the series was re-dubbed Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color and retained that moniker until 1969. The first NBC episode even dealt with the principles of color, as explained by a comical character named Ludwig Von Drake, a bumbling professor and uncle of Donald Duck. The character's voice was supplied by Paul Frees (After his death, Corey Burton took over to replace him as the role of Ludwig Von Drake). When Walt Disney died in 1966, no one replaced him as host, as everyone agreed that his presence, characterized by a warm, folksy persona, was irreplaceable. The series continued to get solid ratings, often in the Top 20, until the mid-1970s. At this time, Walt Disney Productions was facing a decline in fortunes, with declining box-office revenues. It also did not help that CBS had placed 60 Minutes directly opposite it. The show continued to slip in the ratings until NBC cancelled it in 1981; an attempt to modernize the show in the fall of 1979 was purely cosmetic. Much of the decline is often attributed to the declining amount of new material. The show became increasingly dependent on airings of theatrical features and cartoons and reruns of older episodes. CBS picked it up and moved it to Saturday night; the format remained unchanged, and ratings were marginally improved. It lasted two years there, its end coinciding with the birth of The Disney Channel on cable TV. While ratings were a factor, the final decision to end the show came from then-company CEO E. Cardon Walker who felt that having both the show and the new channel active would cannibalize each other. After the studio underwent a change in management, the series was revived on ABC in 1986, with new CEO Michael Eisner hosting. His presence couldn't compare with Walt's (Eisner himself is said to have required 68 takes in his first introduction), and the show moved to NBC in 1988 before ending in 1990. The series was revived again on ABC in 1997 after Disney purchased ABC where it ran on Sundays until 2003 when it moved to Saturday night. Reruns of the 1954-1983 shows were a staple of the Disney Channel for several years, when it was an outlet for vintage Disney cartoons, TV shows and movies, basically serving the same function that the anthology series served in the days before cable. When the channel purged all vintage material, this show went with it. However, a few select episodes can be found on VHS or DVD, and there is no reason to suggest that more won't come out eventually. All of the episodes from 1954-1990 are listed in the book The Wonderful World of Disney Television, by Bill Cotter, published in 1997. DVD DVD

Format

The original format consisted of a balance of theatrical cartoons, live-action features, and informational material. Much of the original informational material was to create awareness for Disneyland. In spite of being essentially ads for the park, entertainment value was emphasized as well to make the shows palatable. Some informational shows were made to promote upcoming studio feature films such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Darby O'Gill and the Little People. Some programs focused on the art and technology of animation itself. Later original programs consisted of dramatizations of other historical figures and legends along the lines of the Davy Crockett mini-series. These included Texas John Slaughter, Elfego Baca, and Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox." Also included were nature and animal programs similar to the True-Life Adventures released in theatres, as well as various dramatic installments which were either one part or two, but sometimes more. This format remained basically unchanged through the 1980s, though new material, as discussed earlier, was scarce in later years. When the show was revived in 1986, the format was similar to a movie-of-the-week, with family-oriented TV movies from the studio making up much of the material. Theatrical films were also shown, but with the advent of cable television and home video, they were not as popular. The 1997 revival has followed this format as well.

Theme music

- For its first four years, the series used the song "When You Wish Upon a Star" as its theme. The recording was the same one that was used in the movie Pinocchio
- From 1961 to 1969, an original song was used, written by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. This song helped to emphasize the use of color with its lyrics.
- From 1969 to 1979, various orchestral medleys of various Disney songs from movies and theme parks were used as theme songs.
- From 1979 to 1983, a disco-styled theme was written to emphasize the new visual changes, even though the format remained the same. The song was by John Debney and John Klawitter.
- From 1981 to 1983, a short disco arrangement of "When You Wish Upon a Star," believed to have been arranged by Frank Gari, served as theme against some elaborate, then-state-of-the-art computer graphics.
- From 1986 to 1990, a synthesized, pop-rock arrangement of "When You Wish Upon a Star" was the theme.
- Since 1997, an orchestral medley of When You Wish Upon a Star and A Whole New World (the latter was used in the movie Aladdin). This is the current theme music.

Dates of network affiliation, show titles, and time slots

ABC:
- Disneyland
- October 27, 1954 – September 3, 1958: Wednesday, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
- Walt Disney Presents
- September 12, 1958 – September 25, 1959: Friday, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- October 2, 1959 – September 23, 1960: Friday, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
- September 25, 1960 – September 17, 1961: Sunday, 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM NBC:
- Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color
- September 24, 1961 – September 7, 1969: Sunday, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
- The Wonderful World of Disney
- September 14, 1969 – August 31, 1975: Sunday, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
- September 7, 1975 – September 11, 1977: Sunday, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- September 18, 1977 – October 23, 1977: Sunday, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- October 30, 1977 – September 2, 1979: Sunday, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- Disney's Wonderful World
- September 9, 1979 – September 13, 1981: Sunday, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM CBS:
- Walt Disney
- September 26, 1981 – January 1, 1983: Saturday, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- January 4, 1983 – February 15, 1983: Tuesday, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- July 9, 1983 – September 24, 1983: Saturday, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM ABC:
- The Disney Sunday Movie
- February 2, 1986 – September 6, 1987: Sunday, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- September 13, 1987 – September 11, 1988: Sunday, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM NBC:
- The Magical World of Disney
- October 9, 1988 – July 2, 1989: Sunday, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- July 9, 1989 – July 23, 1989: Sunday, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- August 6, 1989 – February 25, 1990: Sunday, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- March 4, 1990 – April 15, 1990: Sunday, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- April 22, 1990 – May 6, 1990: Sunday, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
- May 27, 1990 – July 22, 1990: Sunday, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- August 5, 1990 – September 9, 1990: Sunday, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM Disney Channel:
- 1990 - 1997: Sunday, 7:00 PM (various formats) ABC:
- The Wonderful World of Disney
- September 28, 1997 – September 2003: Sunday, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
- September 2003 – September 2004: Saturday, 8:00 PM – 10:00 PM
- September 2004 – September 2005: Saturday, 8:00 PM – 11:00 PM

External links

-
- [http://www.billcotter.com/tvbook/index.htm Information about the book The Wonderful World of Disney Television by Bill Cotter]
- [http://www.billcotter.com/tvbook/appendix-b.htm Episode list (1954–1996)] Category:Disney television series Category:ABC network shows Category:NBC network shows Category:CBS network shows Category:1950s TV shows in the United States Category:1960s TV shows in the United States Category:1970s TV shows in the United States Category:1980s TV shows in the United States Category:1990s TV shows in the United States Category:2000s TV shows in the United States Category:Anthology television series Category:Disney Channel shows

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