Walter Elias Disney

Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago Illinois, to his father Elias Disney, and mother Flora Call Disney. Walt had three brothers, Herbert, Raymond, and Roy, and had one sister, Ruth. After Walt's birth, the Disney family moved to Marceline, Missouri, where Walt lived most of his childhood. Walt had very early interests in art; he would often sell drawings to neighbors to make extra money. He pursued his art career by studying art and photography in McKinley High School in Chicago.

Walt began to love, and appreciate nature and wildlife, and his family and community, which were a large part of agrarian living. Though his father could be quite stern, and often there was little money, Walt was encouraged by his mother, and older brother, Roy to pursue his talents in art.

When Disney was 16, his brother Roy decided to fight in World War I. He was too young to join, but he still wanted to be close to his brother. So when he heard that ambulance drivers for the Red Cross needed to be only seventeen, he changed his birth date on his birth certificate and managed to enlist. He spent most of his time in France, where he would draw all over his ambulance and draw fake medals on his friends’ jackets. In 1919, with the war over, he returned back to the United States, as he now knew what his true passion in life was: art.

Once Walt returned from France, he searched for a job with the love of art on his mind. He landed a job as an apprentice illustrator for an agency and while there he met Ub Iwerks. Disney quickly mastered simple techniques and was soon bored with the basics. With the goal of making his own cartoon shorts and attempting to get local theaters to show them, he borrowed a camera, and he and Iwerks began doing their own animation at night. Disney and Iwerks put in long hours on their cartoons and precision. Most young aspiring animators usually tried to play it safe with uncomplicated, familiar material, but ambitious Disney wanted to attempt something more challenging. On his own, he later started a small company called Laugh-O-Grams, which eventually fell bankrupt. With his suitcase, and twenty dollars, Walt headed to Hollywood to start anew.

After making a success of his "Alice Comedies," Walt became a recognized Hollywood figure. On July 13, 1925, Walt married one of his first employees, Lillian Bounds, in Lewiston, Idaho. They were later blessed with two daughters, Diane and Sharon Disney. In 1932, the production entitled Flowers and Trees, Disney’s first color cartoon, won Walt the first of his studio's Academy Awards. In 1937, he released The Old Mill, the first short subject to utilize the multi-plane camera technique.

On December 21, 1937, Snow White and the