On December 5, 1901 Walter Elias Disney was born. He was born in the city of Chicago in the state of Illinois. When he was four Walter and his family moved to Marceline, Missouri. He lived on a farm. It had two apple orchards and big weeping willows. He fed a pig named Skinny with a baby bottle. Skinny followed Walt around the farm like a farm dog. Then in the summer of 1910, the family moved to Kansas City leaving behind the farm that Walt loved dearly.

In there new home, Elias (Walt's dad) made Walt deliver newspapers everyday at 3:30 am. If it snowed or rained he would still have to deliver the newspapers. By the time Walt finished the 8^th grade he had decided that his future career would be a cartoonist.
   Elias, always on the lookout for a business opportunity, invested all his savings in a Chicago jelly factory. This meant another move for the Disney family. Elias, Flora and Ruth (Walt's little sister) packed up for Chicago. Walt stayed behind with his brother Roy and his newly married brother Herbert. Walt, looking for some money, looked for a summer

job. Roy suggested that Walt work as a railroad "news butcher", selling papers, drinks, and snacks. Walt jumped at the idea. Walt walked down the street to the railroad station and convinced his employers that he was 16 instead of his true age of 15. In 1919, at the age of 18, the Kansas City Slide Company hired Walt, his first job in cartoon making. Walt got tired of the way the Slide Company was making their cartoons. He wanted to learn how to do motion animation so he went to the Kansas City public library. He found Eadweard Muybridge's classic photographic studies of humans and animals in motion and a basic handbook on animation.         

When Walt turned 23, he married a girl named Lillian Bounds. She was a worker at the Slide Company. She had recently come to Kansas from Idaho. Before Walt's wedding Roy and Walt bought an empty lot on Hyperion Avenue in Los Angeles. They started a studio called laugh-o-grams. When Walt and Lillian were riding a train from Manhattan to Hollywood, an idea popped into his head. At the studio in Los Angeles, Walt had adopted a mouse named Mortimer. Walt said to Lilly "I got it! My next cartoon will be about a mouse! His name will be…Mortimer." Lilly objected. "How about Mickey Mouse?" and that was the beginning of

Mickey Mouse. After two attempts on the screen, Mickey Mouse was a flop. The third animation was called "Steamboat Willie", which contained sound and Mickey Mouse together. This cartoon was a success, at this time Walt had no idea how famous the mouse was to become. In 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt's first full length animated feature premiered. During the production of Snow White Walt and his brother Roy did not always agree, however Walt strived to make Snow White a success. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs were a smashing hit earning 8 million dollars.
In 1954, the "Disneyland" TV series premiered which was the start of the Disney channel we know today. In Anaheim, California, July 17, 1955, Disneyland opens an amusement park for all ages. On that day many things happened. Rides broke down; food and drink ran out; Fantasyland was closed because of a gas leak; and high heels of women stuck in the hot asphalt of Main Street. In just seven weeks, 1 million guests had visited Disneyland. Disneyland was a huge hit. It was Walt's triumph. The "Disneyland" TV series continued with a TV show exclusively for kids. It was called the Mickey Mouse Club. After many years of producing cartoons, on December 15, 1966, Walter Elias Disney died of lung cancer. Roy wanted to make another amusement park in onor of Walt. Roy announced that the amusement park would be opened in Orlando, Florida. Roy said it would be called Walt Disney World. I think Walt Disney was the most Imaginative man we know today.