Walter Elias Disney
Awards and Milestones:
Sharon Mae (adopted in January 1937)
Walt's Biography:
Walt Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois, the fourth of five children. While none of the children finished school, Walt, a talented artist, attended the Kansas City Art Institute for one year. In 1918, he joined the Red Cross Ambulance Corps, and although he arrived in Europe just as World War I was ending, the time he spent in France made a lasting impression on him. Following his discharge Walt settled in Kansas City where he worked in a commercial art studio and later for a film ad company. Disney was a reserved and private man devoted to his family, wife Lillian Bounds Disney, and his two daughters, Sharon and Diane.
Unable to find satisfactory work in the film business, he and his brother Roy moved to Hollywood in 1923, forming Laugh-O-Gram Films, which made animated commercials shown in local movie theaters. They began making cartoon shorts in a relative’s garage. By 1927, the brothers formed the Disney Brothers’ Cartoon Studio. The following year the studio released Steamboat Willie, starring Mickey Mouse in the first synchronized sound cartoon, and Walt Disney was established. Disney himself was the voice behind Mickey Mouse, who he originally named Mortimer. However, Lillian Disney, his new wife, said that Mortimer sounded too formal, and suggested Mickey. And so began the life of the world’s best-loved and most well-known character.
The World War II years were difficult for the studio. It wasn’t until the debut of the two television programs in 1955, Disneyland and The Mickey Mouse Club, and the July, 1955 opening of the Walt’s "brain child", Disneyland Theme Park, that
Walt Disney Enterprises became financially successful. In 1955 however, nobody, especially the Disney Board of Directors, thought that the theme park would succeed. Walt Disney saw himself as an entertainer and a man with a creative vision. He was involved in every step of his studio’s creative processes, and he was always willing to risk his personal fortune on the success of a project. His unique contributions to the world — a stable of family entertainment standards, and a vision of the possibilities of the future — remain synonymous with his name.During Walt Disney’s lifetime he received 39 Oscars, 4 television Emmy Awards, and over 800 other awards. Disney paved the way in his industry by being the first to create the following:
Before Disney’s untimely death on December 15, 1966 from lung cancer, he purchased land in Orlando, Florida for Walt Disney World (28,000 acres). While he did not live to see the completion of the park, he was instrumental in its planning. Walt Disney World quickly became one of the world’s premier tourist vacation destinations. The various Disney theme parks set standards globally for theme parks and resort development with a variety of entertainment venues, hotels, restaurants, golf courses, campgrounds, and shopping villages.
Today, the Walt Disney Company has grown into a multi-faceted, multi-billion dollar empire that includes not only the theme parks, motion picture and television studios, but also a television network, cable and radio stations, newspaper and book publishing companies, record companies, travel divisions, a cruise line, retail stores, special effects and engineering firms, new media companies, and much more. Walt Disney’s accomplishments provide extraordinary examples from which others seeking careers in the hospitality industry can learn.
Walt Disney Is My Hero:Who is your hero and why?
Walt Disney because he started off as a poor kid trying to make a
buck, to a multi-billionaire. His simple dream of drawing cartoon
strips in the comic page of news papers turned into something so BIG
not even he could imagine. He wanted to try his hands at cartoons,
he conquered that. Went to make films, conquered that. Then one day
at a small park with daughters he dreamed of a BIGGER park where
kids & adults could go and have fun together, That dream still lives
on today. See he didn’t just build Disneyland, or the rest of the
Disney Theme Parks, he built Sea World, Six Flags, Universal
Studios, Busch Gardens and so on. Indirectly of course but he
created the Theme Park Industry as it is known today. The other
parks came around to copy his idea and build their own parks. So
even today 39 years after he died Walt Disney is still making
families smile and have fun together and that’s why he is my hero."
Walt's Accomplishments:
Anaheim
Sports, Inc.
• Mighty Ducks of Anaheim
• Anaheim Angels
Broadcasting
• ABC, Inc.
• Disney Channel
Disney Consumer Products
• Disney Licensing
• Disney Publishing Worldwide
• Disney Interactive
Disney Regional Entertainment
• DisneyQuest
• ESPN Zone
Disneyland Resort
• Disneyland Park
• Disney's California Adventure Park
• Disneyland Hotel
• Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel
• Disney's Grand Californian Hotel
• Disneyland International
• Disney Entertainment Productions
• Walt Disney Special Events Group
Disney Theatrical Productions
The Disney Store
• The Walt Disney Gallery
• The Disney Catalog
• Disney Sourcing
The Walt Disney Company Corporate Administration
The Walt Disney Studios
• Walt Disney Pictures and Television
(Motion Pictures, Television Animation)
• Buena Vista Home Entertainment
(Home Video and DVD)
• Buena Vista International
(International Film Distribution)
• Buena Vista Music Group
(Hollywood records, Walt Disney records, Lyric Street records,
Mammoth records)
• Buena Vista Television
(Syndicated Television)
Walt Disney Feature Animation
Walt Disney Imagineering
Walt Disney Internet Group
Walt Disney World Resort
•
Magic Kingdom Theme Park
• Epcot Theme Park
• Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park
• Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park
• Downtown Disney
• River Country, Typhoon Lagoon & Blizzard Beach Water Parks
• Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex
• Walt Disney World Entertainment/Event Productions
• Walt Disney World Speedway
• All Star Resorts
• Animal Kingdom Lodge Resort
Yacht and Beach Club Resort
• Boardwalk Resort