22 Academy Awards · 59 Nominations · 1 Magic Kingdom
December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966 · Chicago, Illinois
He was fired from a newspaper for "lacking imagination." He went bankrupt at twenty-one. He mortgaged his house to make a cartoon about a princess and seven dwarfs. The cartoon made more money than any film in history. Then he built a castle.
Six acts. One relentless dreamer who kept going bankrupt until the world caught up with his imagination.
A kid from Marceline, Missouri who sold his first drawing to a neighbor at seven years old.
Born in Chicago, raised on a farm in Marceline, Missouri — a small town that would later inspire Main Street, U.S.A. His father Elias was a stern, sometimes abusive disciplinarian who dragged the family from failed venture to failed venture. Walt found escape in drawing. At sixteen, he lied about his age to join the Red Cross Ambulance Corps in World War I, driving ambulances in France covered in his own cartoons. Back in Kansas City, he started Laugh-O-Gram Studio — which promptly went bankrupt. At twenty-one, with $40 in his pocket and a suitcase of drawings, he took a train to Hollywood.
A distributor stole his first successful character. So he drew a mouse on a train and changed the world.
Walt created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit — and his distributor Charles Mintz stole the character and most of his animators. On the train ride home from that devastating meeting, Walt sketched a new character: a mouse named Mortimer (his wife Lillian insisted on Mickey). Steamboat Willie debuted on November 18, 1928 — one of the first cartoons with synchronized sound. The audience went wild. Mickey Mouse became a global phenomenon. Walt won his first Academy Award in 1932 for Flowers and Trees — the first commercial Technicolor film. The Silly Symphonies pushed animation technology forward with every short.
Hollywood called it "Disney's Folly." Then Snow White made more money than any film ever released.
Walt mortgaged his house to finance Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs — the first full-length animated feature film. The industry was certain it would fail. Who would sit through 83 minutes of a cartoon? The film premiered on December 21, 1937 at the Carthay Circle Theatre. The audience — Hollywood's toughest critics — gave it a standing ovation. It earned $8 million in its initial release (equivalent to $170 million today). Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi followed in rapid succession. Then the war came. The studio pivoted to propaganda films for the U.S. military.
When the film industry shunned TV, Walt embraced it — and used it to fund the impossible.
Post-war Disney was in financial trouble. The golden age films were expensive and the war years had cut off international revenue. Walt pivoted to live-action films (Treasure Island, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) and, controversially, television. Hollywood studios despised TV as the enemy. Walt saw it as free advertising. The Disneyland TV series premiered in 1954 on ABC — and Walt used the show to promote a project every other businessman in America thought was insane: a theme park in Anaheim, California.
Every banker said no. Every expert said it would fail. He built it anyway. On opening day, the asphalt was still wet.
Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955. The asphalt was freshly poured and women's heels sank into it. Water fountains didn't work. Rides broke down. The press called it "Black Sunday." Walt didn't care. Within seven weeks, a million people had visited. Within a year, it was the most successful entertainment venue on earth. He followed with Mary Poppins (1964) — five Oscars and the biggest hit of his career. He was already planning something bigger: an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow in Florida. He would die before it opened.
Partners, rivals, artists, and the people who built the magic — or tried to stop it.
He built the happiest place on earth. The people who built it with him tell a more complicated story.
First-person accounts, historical research, fact-checks, and scene pitches from 312 contributors.
You grew up on his stories. Now help tell his.