The Man Behind The Micky Mouse
“The era we are living in today is a
dream of coming true,” Walt Disney once said. Indeed, Disney’s life was
of the stuff dreams are made.
The man who had one of
the most fertile imaginations in history, who managed to turn his
musings into a billion dollar company and whose legacy would continue
to live on for decades after his death, was born Walter Elias
Disney on December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois. The family quickly
moved from the increasingly dangerous city of Chicago to Marceline,
Missouri, where they purchased a farm. Because he was too young to
work, Disney spent most of his time on the farm playing with his four
siblings and the animals. He would later reflect on this period as the
best years of his life.
It was on the farm where Disney first discovered his passion for
drawing when a retired doctor who lived next door to the family paid
Disney to draw pictures of his horse. But, his idyllic farm days would
not last long. In 1909, his father developed typhoid fever and, unable
to work, was forced to sell the farm. The family moved to Kansas City,
much to the dismay of Disney, where his father made him wake up at 3am
to work on a local newspaper route delivering the Kansas City Star.
In school, Disney was an average student, with a penchant for doodling
rather than listening to his teachers. When he was 15, he got a summer
job working for the Santa Fe Railroad, selling items to passengers as
trains rolled in. But, Disney found himself more fascinated with the
trains than sales and did not last long on the job. During high school,
he also occupied his time drawing patriotic cartoons for the school
newspaper. And, when he could find enough time, he would attend night
classes at the Chicago Art Institute.
At 16, Disney finally dropped out of school to join the Army, only to
be rejected for being too young. He then decided to forge his birth
certificate and join the American Red Cross Ambulance Corps, but by the
time he finished his training, the war had ended. Disney decided to
stay in France and worked as an ambulance driver, all the while
continuing to spend his spare time drawing, completely covering his
ambulance with his own cartoon creations. After two years, Disney grew
lonely in Europe and returned to America, where he decided to finally
pursue his passion seriously.
Upon returning, Disney immediately went to see his family; he wanted to
share with them his newfound dreams of becoming an artist. But, his
father did not support his career choice and so Disney returned to
Kansas City on his own. With the help of his older brother, Roy, Disney
found work making print ads at the Pesemen-Rubin Art Studio and
continued experimenting with animation. He soon found himself
fascinated with the possibilities of animation and knew he had finally
found his niche.