The Disney Family was from Normandy in France originally called d’Isigny with the family name anglicized when they moved to to Britain. The family with infant Kepple Disney moved to Ireland before settling in Goederich in Ontario. Kepple married Mary Richardson in Goederich before moving to California during the gold rush but ended up in Kansas instead. His son Elias moved to Florida, where one of his Kansas neighbors had also moved and married the daughter of that neighbor having Herbert together the same year they got married in 1888. It wasn’t until their fourth son before Walter Disney was born.
Walt started his cartoon adventures as a schoolboy scribbling comics onto blank pieces of paper. He wanted to become a newspaper comic artist so much he joined his high school paper as a cartoonist and photographer. After fudging his age to drive ambulances in France in the second world war, he returned to Missouri to draw short silent cartoon Laugh-O-gram Films. The company went bankrupt and Walt, who had a $300 camera, went to Hollywood to start a new studio.
He shot a series of Alice in Wonderland themed films starring Virginia Davis. Illustrator Rob Iwerks later drew Plane Crazy and Steamboat Willy with the earliest known drawing of Mickey Mouse produced in 1928. He is believed to have drawn 700 frames a day, or about 30 seconds of cartoon. Mickey Mouse became a hit in 1928, saving Walt from another bankruptcy. By 1929, he capitalized on Mickey by selling merchandise and starting the first Mickey Mouse Club in theatres with hundreds of members at some of them.
Walt Disney’s pictures differentiated themselves from the competition with superior music and synchronized sound effects. In the 1930s, he jumped on Technicolor and re-animated his old cartoons with color. There are a lot of original sketches to look through and admire, even stories about how they chose to character each of the seven dwarves and music for Fantasia.
Walt liked miniatures so he ended up with a collection of 13,000. Originally, he wanted to make Disneylandia a miniature of American history, but that didn’t work out so he made little rooms and tools for fun instead. As a handyman, he also made an 18K gold bracelet for his wife with the 18 mini Oscars He had won.
Best $25 I spent all trip.
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