Who Was Walt Disney

“Almost as soon as he could hold a pencil, Walt spent hours and hours drawing.”

Again, childhood interests are read as evidence of the traits that would lead Walt to greatness. His first successes were in the field of animation. Although he only took formal art classes later in his life, Stewart emphasizes that he nurtured a love for drawing since his youngest years.

“He started delivering papers at nine years old. He had to get up every morning before sunrise. Sometimes he was so tired that he curled up in a doorway and fell asleep. When he awoke, he ran to finish his paper route and get to school.”

Walt’s early experiences with hard work emphasize The Importance of Resilience in Overcoming Setbacks. When he first opened Walt Disney Studios, he had to work long hours into the night to complete his projects and ensure that they were of high quality. Perhaps his childhood experience delivering newspapers at the crack of dawn prepared him for the harsh work hours of his early career.

“The only thing he liked was drawing cartoons for the school newspaper. After a year he dropped out of school.”

Stewart’s account of Walt’s life borrows tropes from the biographies of more recent business leaders. A common thread in the biographies of tech founders including Steve Jobs and Bill Gates is that they dropped out of school to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams, the implication being that they had progressed beyond what academia could offer them. Stewart asserts that Walt did not often pay attention in class, finding the subjects boring and using his time instead to perfect his drawing skills and explore storytelling, acting, and filmmaking, all of which would be key abilities for his future career.

“Against his father’s wishes, he decided to go back to Kansas City and find work as an artist.”

This statement characterizes Walt as rebellious and self-assured. He knew at 18 years old that he did not want to simply follow his father’s path. He trusted in himself and his dream of working as an artist.

“The two started their own company. They hoped to create art for ads and signs. They had plenty of ideas. They were missing only one thing—customers. The shop closed after only a month.”

Walt and his friend Ub tried and failed to open a business twice. Both knew that they were talented and had great ideas, but they could not find clients that would pay for their art. Walt learned about the importance of resilience from this experience.

“If he wanted to make it big, he had better go where movies were made. Hollywood.”

Walt always had ambitious visions for his future. He did not want to work for others, instead preferring to realize his own ideas. His move to California highlights the importance of Innovation as a Driver of Success: For his own innovations to succeed, Walt had to relocate to a place as obsessed with innovation as he was.

“Over the years Ub did more and more of the drawing while Walt focused on thinking up the stories and directing.”

Walt began as an illustrator and animator, but over the years, he moved away from drawing to directing. This is a testament to his entrepreneurial spirit: Like the CEO of a corporation, he set the direction while others handled the details. Walt would distance himself from animation over the years so that he could work on projects like creating theme parks or participating in the 1964 New York World’s Fair.

“The only way he could save his business was to create another cartoon character, an even better one than Oswald.”

Walt was not deterred that his first two businesses closed, evidence of his resilience. He was also not defeated when his distributor bought away the rights to his character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and hired away many of his artists. Walt saw these as opportunities for learning and made it his goal to create something even bigger and better.

“Confident as he often seemed, he was shy around girls. In fact, he was twenty-two and still hadn’t had a serious girlfriend.”

Walt was afraid to ask Lillian out at first because for most of his life, he had been focused on his work. She was also older than he was and worked as one of his trusted artists. However, he eventually worked up the courage, and soon thereafter, the two married.

“Walt often stretched the truth to make a story more interesting.”

Stewart characterizes Walt as a great storyteller, and Disney’s animated movies often remain popular decades after their initial release. This observation about his conversational habits echoes Stewart’s earlier observations about his childhood: that he was always searching for ways to entertain his friends and family. Although some of his stories might have stretched the truth, this was done purposefully to make them more memorable or interesting.

“The Mickey Mouse Clubs made Micky Mouse cartoons even more popular. And the cartoons made even more kids want to join a Mickey Mouse Club.”

Walt quickly recognized that Mickey Mouse Clubs would greatly benefit him because children across the country would be able to hear about Mickey Mouse even without having seen the cartoons. Similarly, children who are fans of the cartoons could now find friends who shared their interest. This helped Walt in Extending Storytelling Beyond the Screen.

“Roy worked out a deal so that the Disneys kept ownership of Mickey. The distributor, however, did manage to hire away Ub Iwerks.”

Although Ub and Walt were longtime friends, Ub eventually left Walt Disney Studios because he did not feel valued. Walt was strict and often moody, refusing to hear the opinions of his artists. Ub resented Walt’s tendency to take all credit for Mickey Mouse even though Ub was the one doing the actual drawing.

“He made all the final decisions. If the new animators didn’t like it, they had to keep quiet or quit.”

Walt was not always easy to work for. He always had the final say and left little room for other artists or workers to express themselves. This was the reason why Ub and many other artists left Walt Disney Studios over the years.

“Walt Disney was always looking for the next big idea. He was always pushing the boundaries of what could be done in a cartoon.”

This assertion emphasizes innovation as a driver of success. As portrayed by Stewart, Walt always wanted to be the first to implement new ideas and technologies. For example, he was the first to include sound and color in cartoons, he was the first to create a movie-length animated film, and he was an early believer in television.

“Time magazine put Walt on the cover and called Snow White a masterpiece. Walt won a special Academy Award.”

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is Walt’s greatest commercial success in the animation industry. It was the first of its kind because it was long and told a deep story of romance and drama. It propelled Disney’s brand to international fame.

“But the strike changed Walt. He refused to see that any of the workers had honest complaints. He was very bitter.”

Walt did not like being questioned by his workers. If he thought that he paid them a decent wage and gave them a good working condition, he would not hear what they had to say. This was why Roy had to do the negotiations: It was difficult to reason with Walt.

“The U.S. Army took over Walt’s studio. Training films for soldiers were needed. Walt had a hard time feeling creative doing this kind of work.”

Having always followed his own vision, Walt found the period between 1941 and 1945 stifling because he had to use his characters, like Donald Duck, to create films promoting the war. This was a period in which Walt began to distance himself from animation, instead finding comfort making documentary films and thinking of creating Disneyland.

“In some ways Walt Disney always remained a kid at heart.”

This quote speculates on how Walt came up with the idea of creating an amusement park. Since his expertise was in animation, creating a theme park seemed like a completely different industry. However, Walt always loved tinkering with toys and even created a miniature railroad in his backyard. A theme park where his cartoon characters would come to life was perhaps just an extension of this hobby, though it also proved effective in extending storytelling beyond the screen.

“Television had always fascinated Walt. He saw that it was the next big thing.”

For Walt, the new medium of television was another opportunity for innovation. At a time when radio stars and theater halls cursed the rise of television, Walt embraced it as another way to grow his business. Indeed, broadcasting Disney cartoons on TV drastically increased brand recognition.

“Television helped Walt build his Disneyland dream.”

TV not only helped with increasing Disney’s audience but also gave Walt the funds necessary to start building Disneyland. This answered one of Roy’s biggest concerns, as he was unsure how they would raise enough money to build an entire theme park. Children who watched Disney cartoons now also wanted to visit Disneyland to see those characters come to life.

“After hours, Walt had Disneyland all to himself. He drove a mini fire engine through the streets or relaxed in his private apartment over the firehouse on Main Street.”

Even as a grandfather, Walt remained a child at heart. Stewart suggests that his creations not only entertained others but also made him happy. The image of the aging Walt “in his private apartment over the firehouse on Main Street” aims to present a satisfying coda to his life, suggesting that after a lifetime of tireless work, he enjoyed the fruits of his labor.

“Some men slow down as they age, but not Walt Disney. He had too many ideas to quit working.”

Walt’s ideas never ran dry. In his last years, he worked on the development of Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and even found the time to create an exhibition for the 1964 New York World’s Fair. His endless imagination and his drive to create were almost certainly skills that allowed his business to rise to international fame.

“Walt had smoked cigarettes since his days in France. Until 1964, however, people did not know that smoking caused cancer.”

Walt died at the age of 65 due to lung cancer. He had picked up the habit of smoking in France during World War II, at a time when the negative health effects of tobacco were not well known. His health deteriorated very quickly, and he did not live to see the completion of one of his final projects: EPCOT.