Jenna Kaijala
6/6/12
Core: 1
“I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing –that it was all started by a mouse.” – Walt Disney. This paper will show the life of Walt Disney and how the Disney name became known world-wide. When people hear “Disney” they usually think of Mickey Mouse, the theme parks, or one of Walt’s incredibly famous films. There is so much more history behind his name that not many people know about. Walt Disney was an extremely creative and driven man, and personally he is one of my biggest role models. To start off, Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1901 (Webster’s 285). The proud parents of Walt are Elias Disney and Flora Call (Mosley 24-25). He had 3 older brothers and 1 younger sister (Fisher 13). When Walt was just an infant he and his family moved to Marceline, Missouri (bio. true story). In fact, Marceline was the inspiration for Main Street USA, in Disneyland (bio.true). Then as he got older they packed up and moved again, this time to Kansas City, Missouri (Watts 9). In his time in Kansas City he attended art classes at the Kansas City Art Institute (Watts 9). In 1917, Walt returned to Chicago, where he went to McKinley High school (bio.true). He had hopes of becoming a newspaper cartoonist, but they were cut short because he went to France and Germany to drive an ambulance for the American Red Cross (bio.true). In addition, In 1925 Walt married Lillian Bounds (Fisher 31). Together Lillian and Walt had two daughters, Diane and Sharon (Fisher 31). Diane was born in 1933 and Sharon was born in 1936 (Fisher 31). Walt worked as a world famous American film producer (Webster’s 285). In 1922 he and a friend opened an animation studio; there they made short 1-2 minute animated films (bio.true). Then on December 15, 1966 he died in Los Angeles, California (bio.true). He was, like most people back then, a smoker and died from lung cancer (OK). Walter was so devoted and passionate about his work