French collector card by Chocolat Poulain, Blois, series 42, no. 21. Photo: Walt Disney Productions. Caption: Cinema Father Christmas. Walt Disney won his first Oscar in 1932.
Vintage postcard. In 1932, Walt Disney received an honorary Academy Award for creating Mickey Mouse.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5227/1, 1930-1931. Image: Walt Disney. Collection: Marlene Pilaete. Mickey Mouse.
British postcard in the Picturegoer series. Image: Walt Disney. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.
German postcard by WHB, no. 8969. Image: Walt Disney. Sent by mail in 1932.
French postcard by Imp. Georges Lang, Paris, offered by Chocolats Tobler. Image: Walt Disney. Fifer Pig and Fiddler Pig.
French postcard by Imp. Georges Lang, Paris, offered by Chocolats Tobler. Image: Walt Disney. Publicity still for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (William Cottrell, David Hand, Wilfred Jackson, Larry Morey, Perce Pearce, Ben Sharpsteen, 1937). Caption: Simplet (Dopey).
Silly symphony
Walt Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1901. His father, Elias Disney, was an Irish-Canadian. His mother, Flora Call Disney, was of German-American descent. Walt was one of five children, four boys and a girl and was raised on a farm near Marceline, Missouri. He became interested in drawing early, selling his first sketches to neighbours when he was only seven. At McKinley High School in Chicago, Walt divided his attention between drawing and photography, contributing to the school paper. At night he attended the Academy of Fine Arts. During the fall of 1918, Disney attempted to enlist for military service. Rejected because he was only 16, Walt joined the Red Cross and was sent overseas, where he spent a year driving an ambulance and chauffeuring Red Cross officials. His ambulance was covered from stem to stern, not with stock camouflage, but with drawings and cartoons.
After the war, Walt returned to Kansas City, where he began his career as an advertising cartoonist. Here, in 1920, he created and marketed his first original animated cartoons, and later perfected a new method for combining live-action and animation. In early 1923, animator Walt Disney created a short film entitled Alice's Wonderland, which featured child actress Virginia Davis interacting with animated characters. After the bankruptcy in 1923 of his previous firm, Laugh-O-Gram Studio, Disney moved to Hollywood to join his brother, Roy O. Disney. Film distributor Margaret J. Winkler of M.J. Winkler Productions contacted Disney with plans to distribute a series of Alice Comedies purchased for $1,500 per reel with Disney as a production partner.
Walt and Roy Disney formed the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio that same year. More animated films followed after Alice. In January 1926, with the completion of the Disney studio on Hyperion Street, the Disney Brothers Studio's name was changed to the Walt Disney Studio. Hundreds of Alice Comedies were produced between 1923 and 1927 before they lost popularity. After the demise of the Alice Comedies, Disney developed an all-cartoon series starring his first original character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which Winkler Pictures distributed through Universal Pictures. The distributor owned Oswald, so Disney only made a few hundred dollars. From 1927 on, Disney completed 26 Oswald shorts before losing the contract in February 1928, due to a legal loophole, when Winkler's husband Charles Mintz took over their distribution company. After failing to take over the Disney Studio, Mintz hired away four of Disney's primary animators (the exception being Ub Iwerks) to start another animation studio, Snappy Comedies.
In 1928, to recover from the loss of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Disney came up with the idea of a mouse character named Mortimer while on a train headed to California, drawing up a few simple drawings. The mouse was later renamed Mickey Mouse and starred in several Disney-produced films. Ub Iwerks refined Disney's initial design of Mickey Mouse. Disney's first sound film Steamboat Willie (Walt Disney, Ub Iwerks, 1928), a cartoon starring Mickey, was released in 1928 through Pat Powers' distribution company. It was the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon released, but the third to be created, behind Plane Crazy (Walt Disney, Ub Iwerks, 1928), and The Gallopin' Gaucho (Walt Disney, Ub Iwerks, 1928). Steamboat Willie, with Walt as the voice of Mickey, was an immediate smash hit, and its initial success was attributed not just to Mickey's appeal as a character, but to the fact that it was the first cartoon to feature synchronised sound. Disney's Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho were then retrofitted with synchronised soundtracks and re-released successfully in 1929. Disney continued to produce cartoons with Mickey Mouse and friends, including Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto, and plenty more.
He began the Silly Symphony series, a cartoon series that didn't have a continuous character, with Columbia Pictures signing on as Symphonies distributor in August 1929. In September 1929, theatre manager Harry Woodin requested permission to start a Mickey Mouse Club which Walt approved. In November, test comic strips were sent to King Features, who requested additional samples to show to the publisher, William Randolph Hearst. On 30 December, King Features signed its first newspaper, New York Mirror, to publish the Mickey Mouse comic strip with Walt's permission. In 1932, Disney signed an exclusive contract with Technicolor (through the end of 1935) to produce cartoons in colour. The first, Flowers and Trees (Burt Gillett, 1932), was also the first cartoon to win an Oscar. Another cartoon, Three Little Pigs (Burt Gillett, 1933), was so popular it was often billed above the feature films it accompanied. Disney released cartoons through Powers' Celebrity Pictures (1928–1930), Columbia Pictures (1930–1932), and United Artists (1932–1937). The popularity of the Mickey Mouse series allowed Disney to plan for his first feature-length animation. Criticasters called it "Disney's Folly".
French postcard in the series The Wonderful World of Walt Disney by Editions Kroma, Caissargues, no. 202. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (William Cottrell, David Hand, Wilfred Jackson, Larry Morey, Perce Pearce, Ben Sharpsteen, 1937).
Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti, Verona, no. 115/2. Image: Disney. Publicity still for Pinocchio (Hamilton Luske, Ben Sharpsteen, a.o., 1940).
American postcard by Classico San Francisco, no. 328-008 Image: Walt Disney Productions. Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer's apprentice in Fantasia (James Algar, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Ben Sharpsteen, a.o., 1940).
French postcard in the 'Le monde merveilleux de Walt Disney' series by Editions Kroma, Caisargues. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for Dumbo (Ben Sharpsteen, a.o., 1941). Sent by mail in 1990.
Italian postcard by Grafiche Biondetti, Verona, no. 101. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for Bambi (David Hand, 1942).
Belgian postcard, no. 1. Publicity postcard by The Three Caballeros (Norman Ferguson, Clyde Geronimi, Jack Kinney, Bill Roberts, 1944). Caption: We are the Three Caballeros.
French postcard by Imp. Georges Lang, Paris, offered by Chocolats Tobler. Image: Walt Disney. Pecos Bill is a handsome, tough, rough, funny, and heroic American cowboy from Texas. He is the protagonist of the segment Pecos Bill from Disney's Melody Time (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, Hamilton Luske, 1948).
Disney's Folly
Walt Disney decided to push the boundaries of animation further. He began production of his first feature-length animated film in 1934. Taking three years to complete, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (William Cottrell, David Hand, Wilfred Jackson, Larry Morey, Perce Pearce, Ben Sharpsteen, 1937), premiered in December 1937 and by 1939 became the highest-grossing film of that time. Snow White was released through RKO Radio Pictures, which had assumed distribution of Disney's product in July 1937, after United Artists attempted to attain future television rights to the Disney shorts.
Using the profits from Snow White, Disney financed the construction of a new 51-acre (210,000 m2) studio complex in Burbank, California. The new Walt Disney Studios, in which the company is headquartered to this day, was completed and open for business by the end of 1939. The studio continued releasing animated shorts and features, such as Pinocchio (Hamilton Luske, Ben Sharpsteen, a.o., 1940), Fantasia (James Algar, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Ben Sharpsteen, a.o., 1940), Dumbo (Ben Sharpsteen, a.o., 1941), and Bambi (David Hand, 1942).
After World War II began, box office profits declined. When the United States entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor, many of Disney's animators were drafted into the armed forces. The U.S. and Canadian governments commissioned the studio to produce training and propaganda films. By 1942, 90% of its 550 employees were working on war-related films. Films such as the feature Victory Through Air Power (Perce Pearce, a.o., 1943) and the short Education for Death (Clyde Geronimi, 1943) were meant to increase public support for the war effort.
Even the studio's characters joined the effort, as Donald Duck appeared in several comical propaganda shorts, including the Academy Award-winning Der Fuehrer's Face (Jack Kinney, 1943). With limited staff and little operating capital during and after the war, Disney's feature films during much of the 1940s were 'package films', or collections of shorts, such as The Three Caballeros (Norman Ferguson, a.o., 1944) and Melody Time (Jack Kinney, Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, Wilfred Jackson, 1948), which performed poorly at the box office. At the same time, the studio began producing live-action films and documentaries. Song of the South (Harve Foster, Wilfred Jackson, 1946) and So Dear to My Heart (Harold D. Schuster, Hamilton Luske, 1948) featured animated segments, while the True-Life Adventures series, which included such films as Seal Island (James Algar, 1948) and The Vanishing Prairie (James Algar, 1954), were also popular. Eight of the films in the series won Academy Awards.
The release of Cinderella (Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, Wilfred Jackson, 1950) proved that feature-length animation could still succeed in the marketplace. Other releases of the period included Alice in Wonderland (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1951) and Peter Pan (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1953), both in production before the war began, and Disney's first all-live action feature, Treasure Island (Byron Haskin, 1950). Disney ended its distribution contract with RKO in 1953, forming its distribution arm, Buena Vista Distribution. In December 1950, Walt Disney Productions and the Coca-Cola Company teamed up for Disney's first venture into television, the NBC television network special An Hour in Wonderland. In October 1954, the ABC network launched Disney's first regular television series.
American postcard by Disneyland Inc., Anaheim, California. Caption: "Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals. the dreams and the heart facts that have created America... with the hope that it will be a source of joy to all the world." Walt Disney.
French postcard by Tobler. Image: Walt Disney. Br'er Rabbit is the protagonist of the animated sequences of the Disney feature film Song of the South (Harve Foster, Wilfred Jackson, 1946).
French postcard by Imp. Georges Lang, Paris, offered by Chocolats Tobler. Image: Walt Disney. The March Hare is a wacky, mallet-carrying rabbit in Disney's animated feature film, Alice in Wonderland (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1951). He is a resident of Wonderland and the best friend of the Mad Hatter, with whom the Hare regularly engages in tea and 'unbirthday' parties.
French postcard by Editions G. Picard, Paris, no. WD 2/20, 1978. Image: Walt Disney Production. Still from Peter Pan (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1953).
Vintage postcard in the Disney Classics series by European Greetings, no. 535552. Image: Walt Disney. Tinker Bell in Peter Pan (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1953). Sent by mail in 1997.
French card by Jouets Masport, Chanas (Isère), no. 39/882. Photo: Walt Disney. Fess Parker and Buddy Ebsen in Davy Crockett - King of the Wild Frontier/Davy Crockett (Norman Foster, 1955).
French postcard by Les Presses de Belville, Paris, no. 109. Photo: Walt Disney Productions, 1964. Zorro (1957-1959) was an American half-hour television series, produced by Walt Disney Guy Williams plays Don Diego de la Vega who opposes the corrupt tyrants of Spanish California as the masked swordsman, Zorro.
Walt Disney's magnum opus
In 1954, Walt Disney used his Disneyland series to unveil what would become Disneyland, an idea conceived out of a desire for a place where parents and children could both have fun at the same time. In 1955, Disney opened Disneyland to the general public. After a shaky start, Disneyland continued to grow and attract visitors from across the country and around the world. In 1965, a second Disney theme park, Disney World', was announced, outside of Orlando, Florida.
Disney continued to focus its talents on television throughout the 1950s. Its weekday afternoon children's television program The Mickey Mouse Club (1955) was a great success, as was the Davy Crockett miniseries, starring Fess Parker and broadcast on the Disneyland anthology show. Two years later, Zorro (1957) would prove just as popular, running for two seasons on ABC.
Disney's film studios stayed busy as well, averaging five or six releases per year during this period. While the production of shorts slowed significantly during the 1950s and 1960s, the studio released many popular animated features, like Lady and the Tramp (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1955), Sleeping Beauty (Clyde Geronimi, a.o., 1959) and One Hundred and One Dalmatians (Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, 1961), which introduced a new xerography process to transfer the drawings to animation cels.
Disney's live-action releases were spread across several genres, including the historical fiction film Johnny Tremain (Robert Stevenson, 1957), the children's book adaptation Pollyanna (David Swift, 1960) starring Hayley Mills, and the modern-day comedy The Shaggy Dog (Charles Barton, 1959), with Fred MacMurray. Disney's most successful film of the 1960s was a musical adaptation of Mary Poppins (Robert Stevenson, 1964), which mixed live-action with animation. It is considered by many to be Walt Disney's magnum opus. Mary Poppins became one of the all-time highest-grossing films and received five Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Julie Andrews and Best Song for Robert B. Sherman & Richard M. Sherman for 'Chim Chim Cher-ee'.
In 1966, Walt Disney died of complications relating to lung cancer. His brother Roy Disney took over as chairman, CEO, and president of the company. In 1925, Walt Disney married one of his first employees, Lillian Bounds. They had two daughters — Diane, married to Ron Miller, former president and chief executive officer of Walt Disney Productions, and Sharon Disney Lund, formerly a member of Disney’s Board of Directors.
American postcard by The Animated Animations Company, no. 300. Image: Walt Disney Animation Art. Walt Disney and Julie Andrews between animated characters from Mary Poppins (Robert Stevenson, 1964). Caption: Come Join the Party with Walt & Mary... "A Supercalifragilstic Tea Party".
Belgian postcard by Editions Corna, Brussels. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for Lady and the Tramp (Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, 1955).
French postcard by Kroma, Caissargues, no. B. 86. Publicity still for One Hundred and One Dalmatians (Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, 1961).
French postcard. Image: Walt Disney Productions. Publicity still for One Hundred and One Dalmatians (Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, 1961).
Vintage postcard, no. SP302. Photo: Walt Disney Productions Limited. Collection: Marlene Pilaete. Hayley Mills.
French postcard by Les Presses de Belleville, Paris, no. 108. Photo: Walt Disney Productions. Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins (Robert Stevenson, 1964).
Spanish postcard by Ediciones Tarje Fher/Ediciones Mandolina, 1964. Photo: Walt Disney Productions. Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins (1964).
Sources: D23: The Official Disney Fan Club, Wikipedia and IMDb.
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