Company Perspectives:
The Walt Disney
Company's objective is to be one of the world's leading producers and providers
of entertainment and information, using its portfolio of brands to
differentiate its content, services and consumer products.
History of The Walt Disney Company
A colossal force in the entertainment industry, The Walt Disney
Company (Disney) is best known for bringing decades of fantasy and fun to
families through its amusement parks, television series, and many classic
live-action and animated motion pictures. Beginning in 1984, Disney enjoyed an
enormous creative and financial renaissance, due to the leadership of CEO
Michael Eisner; the success of such subsidiaries as Touchstone Films, Hollywood
Pictures, The Disney Studios, Buena Vista Distribution, The Disney Channel, and
Buena Vista Home Video; the sales of Disney consumer products through The
Disney Stores and a multitude of licensing arrangements; and a recommitment to
excellence in the making of original feature-length animated films. Under
Eisner's reign, Disney acquired Capital Cities/ABC in 1996, a $19 billion deal
that increased the company's stature enormously. Adding to the theme parks,
cruise ships, professional sports teams, and dozens of other businesses owned
by the company, the acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC gave Disney the power of
broadcasting and the ability to meld entertainment content with programming.
During the late 1990s, the company was aggressively building a presence on the
Internet and adopting a concerted approach to international expansion.
The Birth of a U.S. Icon
Walt Disney, the company's founder, was born in Chicago in 1901.
His appeal to the greater United States is said to have had roots in his
humble, middle-class upbringing. Disney's father, Elias, moved the family
throughout the Midwest seeking employment. Young Disney grew up in a household
where hard work was prized: feeding the family's five children left little pocket
change for amusement. Walt Disney began working at the age of nine as a
newspaper delivery boy. His father instructed him and his siblings in the
teachings of the Congregational Church and socialism.
Drawing provided an escape for Disney, and at the age of 14 he took his work on the road and enrolled at the Kansas City Art Institute. His art was temporarily put on hold when he joined the Red Cross at age 16 to serve as an ambulance driver at the end of World War I. In 1919 he returned to the United States and found work as a commercial artist. Together with Ub Iwerks, another artist at the studio, Disney soon formed an animated cartoon company in Kansas City.
In 1923, following the bankruptcy of this company, Disney joined
his brother Roy O. Disney in Hollywood. By the time he arrived on the West
Coast, word came from New York that a company wanted to purchase the rights to
a series of Disney's live-action cartoon reels, ultimately titled Alice Comedies. A distributor
named M.J. Winkler offered $1,500 per reel, and Disney joined her as a
production partner.
A series of animated films followed on Alice's
heels. In 1927 Disney started a series called Oswald
the Lucky Rabbit, which met with public acclaim. The distributor,
however, had the character copyrighted in its own name, so Disney earned only a
few hundred dollars. It was while pondering the unfairness of this situation on
a California-bound train that Disney first thought of creating a mouse
character named Mortimer. He changed the name to Mickey Mouse, drew up some
simple sketches, and went on to make several Mickey Mouse films with his
brother Roy, using their own money.
On the third Mickey Mouse film, Disney decided to take a bold step
and add sound to Steamboat Willie. The
cartoon was synchronized with a simple musical background. The process provided
some of the first technical steps in film continuity: music was played at two
beats a second and the film was marked every 12 frames as a guide to the
animator, and later an orchestra.
Film distributors laughed at Disney's idea. Finally one, Pat
Powers, released Steamboat Willie in
theaters. Audiences loved what they saw and heard, and suddenly Disney was a
hit in the animation business. In 1935 the New
York Times called Mickey Mouse "the best-known and most popular
international figure of his day." Meanwhile, Disney suffered criticism
from observers who judged him to be a cartoonist of only mediocre ability.
(Iwerks was responsible for the actual design of Mickey Mouse and the other
characters.) Disney was, however, given credit for his ability to conceptualize
characters and stories.
The Mickey Mouse projects brought in enough cash to allow Walt
Disney to develop other projects, including several full-length motion pictures
and advances in Technicolor film. Disney's first full-length film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, opened
in 1937 to impressive crowds and led to a string of Disney hits, including Pinocchio and Fantasia in
1940, Dumbo in 1941, Bambi in 1942, and Saludos Amigos in 1943.
Around 1940 Disney decided to tackle live-action films, first with The Reluctant Dragon and to a
greater extent with 1946's Song of the
South. Meanwhile, during World War II, Disney lent his characters to
the war effort, making shorts, including one in which Minnie Mouse showed U.S.
homemakers the importance of saving fats. After the war, Walt Disney
Productions was back in business with live-action features including 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The Living Desert was released in the
early 1950s by Disney's new distribution company, Buena Vista, to tremendous
box office success.
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