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Walt Disney

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Cartoons; Producers,
directors and media figures

                            Walt Disney
                            Walt Disney
         Born December 5, 1901
              Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
      Died    December 15, 1966
              Los Angeles, California, U.S.
   Occupation Film producer, Co-founder of The Walt Disney Company
     Spouse   Lillian Disney

   Walter Elias Disney ( December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966), was an
   American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator,
   entrepreneur, visionary, and philanthropist. He was the son of Flora
   and Elias Disney, and had three brothers and one sister. As the
   co-founder (with his brother Roy O. Disney) of Walt Disney Productions,
   Walt became one of the best-known motion picture producers in the
   world. The corporation he co-founded, now known as The Walt Disney
   Company, today has annual revenues of approximately U.S. $30 billion.

   Walt Disney is particularly noted for being a film producer, and a
   popular showman, as well as an innovator in animation and theme park
   design. He was nominated for 48 Academy awards and 7 Emmys, holding the
   record for most Oscar nominations. He also had two daughters, Diane and
   Sharon; Sharon was adopted. He and his staff created a number of the
   world's most famous productions, including the one many consider
   Disney's alter ego, Mickey Mouse. He is also well-known as the namesake
   of the Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort theme parks in the
   United States.

   Walt Disney died of lung cancer on December 15, 1966, a few years prior
   to the opening of his Walt Disney World dream project in Orlando,
   Florida.

1901-1937: The beginnings

Childhood

   Disney as an ambulance driver during the war.
   Enlarge
   Disney as an ambulance driver during the war.

   Walt Disney's ancestors had emigrated from Gowran, County Kilkenny in
   Ireland. His father Elias Disney had moved to the United States after
   his parents failed at farming in Canada. As a child Elias moved with
   his family all around the United States, as his father chased various
   business ventures. He also worked as a mailman in Kissimmee (Orlando),
   Florida, future home of Walt Disney World. Elias moved to Chicago in
   the late 1800s soon after his marriage to Flora Call. Walt was born in
   Chicago.

   In April, 1906 Elias grew disenchanted with the violence in Chicago and
   moved his family to Marceline, Missouri where his brother owned
   property. There he bought a house and 45 acres of farmland. While in
   Marceline, Disney developed his love for drawing. One of their
   neighbors, a retired doctor named "Doc" Sherwood, paid him to draw
   pictures of Sherwood's horse, Rupert. He also developed his love for
   trains in Marceline, which owed its existence to the Atchison, Topeka
   and Santa Fe Railway which ran through town. Walt would put his ear to
   the tracks in anticipation of the coming train. Then he would look for
   his uncle, engineer Michael Martin, running the train.

   The Disneys remained in Marceline for four years, moving to Kansas City
   in 1910. There Walt and his sister Ruth attended the Benton Grammar
   School where he met Walter Pfeiffer. The Pfeiffers were theatre
   aficionados and introduced Walt to the world of vaudeville and motion
   pictures. Soon Walt was spending more time at the Pfeiffers than at
   home.

Chicago

   In 1917, Elias purchased an interest in the O-Zell jelly factory in
   Chicago and moved his family back there. In the fall, Disney began his
   freshman year at McKinley High School there and began taking night
   courses at the Chicago Art Institute. Disney was the cartoonist for the
   school newspaper. His cartoons were very patriotic, focusing on World
   War I. Disney dropped out of high school at 16 so he could join the
   Army, but the army didn't take him because he was too young.

   Instead, Walt and one of his friends decided to join the Red Cross.
   They were supposed to be 17 years old to join but, against his father's
   will, his mother forged Walt's birth certificate saying he was born in
   1900 instead of 1901. The Red Cross sent him to France for a year.
   During that year, he drove an ambulance covered from top to bottom with
   his imaginative Disney characters.

   He moved to Kansas City to begin his artistic career. His brother Roy
   worked at a bank in the area and got a job for him through a friend at
   the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio. At Pesmen-Rubin, Disney made ads for
   newspapers, magazines, and movie theaters. It was also there that he
   met a shy cartoonist named Ubbe Iwwerks. The two respected each other's
   work so much, they became fast friends and decided to start their own
   art business.

   Disney and Iwerks (who now shortened his name to Ub Iwerks) formed a
   company called "Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists" in January 1920 (it
   was originally called Disney-Iwerks, but the two thought they would be
   confused with a shop that made eyeglasses). Unfortunately, few clients
   were willing to hire the inexperienced duo. Iwerks left temporarily to
   earn money at Kansas City Film Ad Company. Disney followed suit after
   the business venture was taken over by his New York financial backers
   Winkler and Mintz.

Hollywood

   When Disney arrived in Los Angeles, he had $40 in his pocket and an
   unfinished cartoon in his suitcase. Interestingly, he first wanted to
   break away from animation, thinking he could not compete with the
   studios in New York City. Disney said that his first ambition was to be
   a film director. He went to every studio in town looking for directing
   work; they all promptly turned him down.

   Because of the lack of success in live-action film, Disney turned back
   to animation. His first Hollywood cartoon studio was a garage in his
   uncle Robert's house. Disney sent an unfinished print to New York
   distributor Margaret Winkler, who promptly wrote back to him. She
   wanted a distribution deal with Disney for more live-action/animated
   shorts based upon Alice's Wonderland.

   Disney looked up his brother Roy, who was recovering from tuberculosis
   in a Los Angeles veteran's hospital. Disney pleaded with his brother to
   help him with his fledgling studio, saying that he could not keep his
   finances straight without him. Roy agreed and left the hospital with
   his brother. He never went back and never had a recurrence of
   tuberculosis. Virginia Davis (the live-action star of Alice’s
   Wonderland) and her family were relocated at Disney's request from
   Kansas City to Hollywood, as were Iwerks and his family. This was the
   beginning of the Disney Brothers' Studio. It was located on Hyperion
   Avenue in the Silver Lake district, where the studio would remain until
   1939.

   In 1925, Disney hired a young woman named Lillian Bounds to ink and
   paint celluloid. He was immediately taken with her. She began to pull
   double duty as secretary a few months later. Disney then began to take
   her out on dates, their first being the Broadway show, No, No, Nanette.
   He would also take her out on drives in the hills of Los Angeles. On
   one drive, he asked her if he should buy a new car or a ring for her
   finger. They were married on July 15, 1925. She later jokingly
   commented that he was disappointed that she did not tell him to buy the
   car. They honeymooned at Mount Rainier.

Alice Comedies

   The new series, " Alice Comedies," was 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 B. 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 Iwerks, became a
   popular property. The Disney studio expanded, and Walt hired back
   Harman, Ising, Maxwell, and Freleng from Kansas City.

   In February of 1928, Disney went to New York to negotiate a higher fee
   per short from Mintz. Disney 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 (notably excepting 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 Mintz's offer and lost most of his animation staff. 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.

   It took Disney's company 78 years to get back the rights to the Oswald
   character. In a move that sent sports broadcaster Al Michaels to NBC
   Sports for their Sunday night NFL coverage, the Walt Disney Company
   reacquired the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit from NBC Universal in
   2006.

Mickey Mouse

   After having lost the rights to Oswald, Disney had to develop a new
   "star". Most Disney biographies state that Disney came up with a mouse
   character on his trip back from New York. It is debated whether it was
   he, or Iwerks who actually designed the mouse (which basically looked
   like Oswald, but with round instead of long ears). The first films were
   animated by Iwerks, his name was prominently featured on the title
   cards. The mouse was originally named "Mortimer", but later christened
   " Mickey Mouse" by Lillian Disney.

   Mickey's first animated short produced was 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 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 1946. Disney believed Mickey would make
   it far into television.

Silly Symphonies

   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 Iwerks, who was also
   responsible for drawing the majority of cartoons released by Disney in
   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.

   Iwerks was growing tired of the temperamental Disney, especially as he
   was doing the majority of the work, and so was lured by Powers into
   opening his own studio with an exclusive contract. Disney desperately
   searched for someone who could replace Iwerks, as he was not able to
   draw as well or as quickly; Iwerks was reported to have drawn up to 700
   drawings a day for the first Mickey shorts.

   Meanwhile, Iwerks launched his successful Flip the Frog series with the
   first sound cartoon in colour, "Fiddlesticks," filmed in two-strip
   Technicolor. Iwerks also created two other series of cartoons, the
   Willie Whopper and the Comicolor cartoon series. Iwerks closed his
   studio in 1936 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, would go on to pioneer a number of
   film processes and specialized animation technologies.

   Eventually, Disney was able to find a number of people to replace
   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 specific process, making these the first
   commercial films presented in this new process. The first colour
   Symphony was Flowers and Trees, which won the first Academy Award for
   Best Short Subject: Cartoons in 1932.

   Mickey Mouse also known as Steamboat Willie was stolen from Buster
   Keaton's Steamboat Bill.

First Academy Award

   In 1932, Disney received a special Academy Award for the creation of
   Mickey Mouse, whose series was moved into colour in 1935 and soon
   launched spinoff series for supporting characters such as Donald Duck,
   Goofy, and Pluto.

The family grows

   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 be a father to many children. However, the
   Disneys' first attempts at pregnancy ended in miscarriage. This,
   coupled with pressures at the studio, led to Disney having "a hell of a
   breakdown", as he called it. His doctors said that he had to get away
   for a while, so he and his wife went on a Caribbean cruise and then
   traveled to Washington, D.C.

   When Lilly Disney became pregnant again, Disney told his sister in a
   letter that he did not care what gender the child was, just as long as
   they were not disappointed again. Lilly finally gave birth to a
   daughter, Diane Marie Disney, on December 18, 1933. Disney was excited
   to finally have a child. A few years later the Disneys adopted a second
   daughter, Sharon Mae Disney, born on December 21, 1934.

1937-1941: The Golden Age of Animation

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

   Disney introduces his popular creations: Mickey, Minnie Mouse and Pluto
   to Hansel and Gretel (Dorothy Rodin and Virginia Murray).
   Enlarge
   Disney introduces his popular creations: Mickey, Minnie Mouse and Pluto
   to Hansel and Gretel ( Dorothy Rodin and Virginia Murray).

   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 Theatre on December
   21, 1937; at the conclusion of the film the audience gave Snow White
   and the Seven Dwarfs a standing ovation. Snow White, the first animated
   feature in English and Technicolor, 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 $8 million
   (today $98 million) in its original theatrical release, all the more
   amazing because children were only charged a dime to see it. The
   success of Snow White (for which Disney received one full-size, and
   seven miniature Oscar statuettes) 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 Woes

   Pinocchio and Fantasia followed Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 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-boosting shorts 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 the feature film Bambi underperformed
   when it was released in April 1942. Disney successfully re-issued Snow
   White in 1944, establishing a 7-year re-release tradition for Disney
   features. (The pattern was not always strictly followed - Disney's
   version of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was first
   re-released in 1963, nine years after its first run in movie theatres,
   and Disney's financially disappointing and critically drubbed version
   of Babes in Toyland, went straight to television after its theatrical
   run, and never re-appeared in movie theatres.)

   The Disney studios also created inexpensive package films, containing
   collections of cartoon shorts, and issued them to theaters during this
   period. The most notable and successful of these were Saludos Amigos
   (1942), its sequel The Three Caballeros (1945), Song of the South (the
   first Disney film to feature dramatic actors) (1946), Fun and Fancy
   Free (1947), and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949). The
   latter 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

   After the 1941 strike of Disney Studio employees, Walt Disney deeply
   distrusted organized labor. In 1947, during the early years of the Cold
   War, he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee,
   where he branded Herbert Sorrell, David Hilberman and William
   Pomerance, former animators and labor union organizers, as Communist
   agitators. (All three men denied the allegations.) Disney implicated
   the Screen Actors Guild as a Communist front, and charged that the 1941
   strike was part of an organized Communist effort to gain influence in
   Hollywood.

1955-1966: Theme Parks and beyond

Carolwood Pacific Railroad

   The Lilly Belle on display at Disneyland Main Station in 1993. The
   caboose's woodwork was done entirely by Walt himself.
   Enlarge
   The Lilly Belle on display at Disneyland Main Station in 1993. The
   caboose's woodwork was done entirely by Walt himself.

   During 1949, Disney and his family moved to a new home on a 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 a miniature live steam railroad for 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 honour. 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

   The "Partners" statue at Disneyland in Anaheim, featuring Walt Disney
   and Mickey Mouse.
   Enlarge
   The "Partners" statue at Disneyland in Anaheim, featuring Walt Disney
   and Mickey Mouse.

   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. He got his idea for a children's
   theme park after visiting Children's Fairyland in Oakland, California.
   This plan was originally for a lot south of the Studio, just across the
   street. However, the city of Burbank declined building permission. The
   original 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 describing one of his earliest plans to Herb Ryman (who created
   the first aerial drawing of Disneyland to present to the Bank of
   America for funds), Disney said, "Herbie, I just want it to look like
   nothing else in the world. And it should be surrounded by a train."
   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.

   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 &mdash 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 favour with the owner
   by spinning the turnstiles to increase the count (and revenues) before
   park opening and after closing.

Expanding into new areas

   As Walt Disney Productions began work on Disneyland, it also began
   expanding its other entertainment operations. Treasure Island (1950)
   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 (1961).
   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. 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.
   Walt Disney meets with Wernher von Braun.
   Enlarge
   Walt Disney meets with Wernher von Braun.

   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 lifetime, the animation department created the
   successful Lady and the Tramp (in CinemaScope, 1955), One Hundred and
   One Dalmatians (1961), 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.
   Disney's mind was set toward expansion, and he wanted to make longer
   films.

   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. The show went from black-and-white to colour
   in 1961 — changing its name to Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Colour
   — and eventually evolved into what is today known as The Wonderful
   World of Disney, which continued to air on ABC until 2005, when it
   ceased as a regular series, due in part to premium pay-cable rights
   currently held by the Starz! movie network. Since 2005, Disney features
   have been split between ABC, the Hallmark Channel, and Cartoon Network
   via separate broadcast rights deals. It currently airs periodically,
   with features such as the December 2005 revival of Once Upon a
   Mattress.

   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 as part of an effort by 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. Walt Disney was the Head of Pageantry
   for the 1960 Winter Olympics. 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 featured a memorable song score written by Disney favorites,
   the Sherman Brothers. Many hailed the live-action/animation combination
   feature as Disney's 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 were later integrated into
   attractions at Disneyland and a new theme park project to be
   established on the East Coast, which Disney had been planning ever
   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 his 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. There are plans for two more new ski resorts to open in
   2008.

"Florida Project"

   In 1964, Walt Disney Productions began quietly purchasing land in
   central Florida southwest of Orlando in a largely rural area of
   marginal orange groves for Disney's "Florida Project." Disney did so
   under the mask of many fake companies, in order to keep the price of
   land as low as he could. As soon as the word got out that Disney was
   purchasing the land, however, the prices immediately rose. 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

   Walt Disney's grave site.
   Enlarge
   Walt Disney's grave site.

   Songwriter Robert B. Sherman said about the last time he saw Walt
   Disney:


   Walt Disney

       He was up in the third floor of the animation building after a
    run-through of The Happiest Millionaire. He usually held court in the
     hallway afterward for the people involved with the picture. And he
      started talking to them, telling them what he liked and what they
    should change, and then, when they were through, he turned to us and
   with a big smile, he said, 'Keep up the good work, boys.' And he walked
             to his office. It was the last we ever saw of him.


   Walt Disney

   Disney's involvement in Disney World ended in late 1966; after many
   years of chain-smoking cigarettes, he was diagnosed with lung cancer.
   He was checked into the St. Joseph's Hospital across the street from
   the Disney Studio lot and his health began to deteriorate, causing him
   to suffer cardiac arrest.

   He died on December 15, 1966 at 9:30am, ten days after his 65th
   birthday. He was cremated on December 17, 1966 at the Forest Lawn
   Cemetery in Glendale, California. Roy Disney continued to carry out the
   Florida project, insisting that the name be changed to Walt Disney
   World in honour of his brother. Roy O. Disney died just three months
   after the Magic Kingdom opened for business in 1971.

   There has been a long-standing rumor that after his death, Disney was
   cryopreserved so he may be revived at a later date. However, this has
   been refuted on numerous occasions. In fact, Disney was cremated, and
   his ashes were interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.

   A similar rumor has sprung up that shortly after his death, top Disney
   executives were shown a film that Disney made shortly before his death,
   that basically outlines the company's strategies for the next five (or
   ten) years. To bolster the story, pictures (or perhaps a short clip) of
   Walt planning EPCOT is shown. This is also false. The footage is from a
   pitch film Walt made to promote the building of EPCOT. According to
   www.snopes.com, Disney really didn't like talking about death, and
   wouldn't even go to funerals of close friends and aunts.

1967-present: Legacy

Continuing the vision

   Roy O. Disney returned from retirement to take full control of Walt
   Disney Productions and WED Enterprises. He still refused to talk about
   his brother, and his grief, though rarely shown to other people, lasted
   until his death in 1971. In October of that year, their families met in
   front of Cinderella's Castle at the Magic Kingdom to officially open
   the Walt Disney World Resort. After an orchestra made up of over 66
   countries performed a medley of Disney music, Roy stepped up to the
   podium.

   After giving his dedication for Walt Disney World, he then asked
   Lillian Disney to join him. As the orchestra played " When You Wish
   Upon a Star", she stepped up to the podium accompanied by Mickey Mouse.
   He then said, "Lilly, you knew all of Walt's ideas and hopes as well as
   anybody; what would Walt think of it [Walt Disney World]?". "I think
   Walt would have approved," she replied. Roy died from a cerebral
   hemorrhage in December, the day he was due to open the Disneyland
   Christmas parade.

   When the second phase of the Walt Disney World theme park was built,
   EPCOT was translated by Walt Disney's successors into EPCOT Centre,
   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 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, that
   harkens back to the spirit of EPCOT. EPCOT was also originally intended
   to be devoid of Disney characters which initially limited the appeal of
   the park to young children. The company later changed this policy. The
   sale of alcoholic beverages is also permitted at EPCOT, something never
   allowed in the Magic Kingdom.

The Disney entertainment empire

   Today, Walt Disney's animation/motion picture studios and theme parks
   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 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, 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.

   Only recently with Roy E. Disney's return and Bob Iger now the CEO and
   with the Disney purchase of Pixar Animation Studios, reviving the
   traditional style of animation for which Disney has been famous for is
   again a reality. New creative head of Disney animation, John Lasseter,
   commissioned veteran Disney animator James Baxter to produce an
   animated test sequence for Disney CEO Robert Iger in February of 2006.
   If approved, the film based on this test sequence, called the Frog
   Princess, will be released in 2007.

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. He 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 much of her time after her husband died to
   pursuing CalArts and organized hundreds of fund raising events for the
   university in her late husband's honour (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.

Academy Awards

   Among many awards, Walt Disney holds the record for having the most
   Academy Awards. 22 won, and 4 honorary.
     * 1969 Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Winnie the Pooh and the
       Blustery Day
     * 1959 Best Short Subject, Live Action Subjects for: Grand Canyon
     * 1956 Best Documentary, Short Subjects for: Men Against the Arctic
     * 1955 Best Documentary, Features for: The Vanishing Prairie (1954)
     * 1954 Best Documentary, Features for: The Living Desert (1953)
     * Best Documentary, Short Subjects for: The Alaskan Eskimo (1953)
     * Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom
       (1953)
     * Best Short Subject, Two-reel for: Bear Country (1953)
     * 1953 Best Short Subject, Two-reel for: Water Birds (1952)
     * 1952 Best Short Subject, Two-reel for: Nature's Half Acre (1951)
     * 1951 Best Short Subject, Two-reel for: Beaver Valley (1950)
     * 1949 Best Short Subject, Two-reel for: Seal Island (1948)
     * 1943 Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Der Fuehrer's Face (1942)
     * 1942 Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Lend a Paw (1941)
     * Honorary Award for: Fantasia (1940)

   Shared with: William E. Garity J.N.A. Hawkins For their outstanding
   contribution to the advancement of the use of sound in motion pictures
   through the production of Fantasia (certificate).
     * Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award
     * 1940 Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Ugly Duckling(1939)
     * 1939 Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Ferdinand the Bull (1938)
     * Honorary Award for: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

   For Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, recognized as a significant screen
   innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new
   entertainment field (one statuette - seven miniature statuettes).
     * 1938 Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: The Old Mill (1937)
     * 1937 Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: The Country Cousin (1936)
     * 1936 Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Three Orphan Kittens (1935)
     * 1935 Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: The Tortoise and the Hare
       (1934)
     * 1934 Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Three Little Pigs (1933)
     * 1932 Best Short Subject, Cartoons for: Flowers and Trees (1932)
     * Honorary Award For the creation of Mickey Mouse.

Other Honours

   Walt Disney was the inaugural recipient of a star on the Anaheim walk
   of stars. The star is in honour of Walt's significant contributions to
   the city of Anaheim, California, specifically, Disneyland, now the
   Disneyland Resort. It is located at the pedestrian entrance to the
   Disneyland Resort on Harbour Boulevard.

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