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Walt Disney is known worldwide for his unique cartooning skills. During his 43 year career, he has been given close to a thousand different awards and honors from all over the world. He was one of the most innovative and unique entertainment artists of all time. He started a huge movie empire and the world famous theme parks Disneyland and Disneyworld.
Walt Disney was born Walter Elias Disney on December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois. From a young age he showed a strong interest in drawing. While he was still a kid, he would draw cartoons and sell them. People looked forward to seeing what he had to offer. As he got older, he began showing an interest in photography along with cartooning. While in high school he began attending night classes at the Academy of Fine Arts.
At the age of 16 Walt was too young to join the military, so he joined the Red Cross and then traveled overseas to help out during the war. After the war, he returned to Kansas City where he started a career as an advertising cartoonist. He created his first animated cartoons, and then created a new way to combine live action with animation.
After working in Kansas City for 3 years, Walt decided to join his brother Roy Disney in Hollywood. The two put their money together and began working out of their uncle's garage. They eventually moved into a bigger office after a New York company placed an order for an "Alice in Cartoonland" featurette. This was the first in a series of featurettes done by Disney. On July 13, 1925, Walt married Lillian Bounds who was one of his first employees. Together they had two daughters, Diane and Sharon.
Mickey Mouse was created 1928. The first sound cartoon was Steamboat Willie featuring Mickey Mouse. It premiered at the Colony Theatre in New York on November 18, 1928. This was only the beginning. Walt then began doing more features and then created the first full-length animated movie "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". Because of the success of Snow White, Disney then continued making more full-length movies. In the 5 years after Snow White, he created other films such as Bambi, Fantasia, Dumbo and others. It was said that if Snow White had been a failure, Disney would have never made any other full-length animated features. Back in the days that Snow White was created, the nation was in the depression and Disney had invested 2 million dollars into the production of the feature.
Then after the success of his other films, Walt began making movies that combined live action with animation. The first film created was "The Three Caballeros" After that he went on to create "Song of the South" and the most popular even to this day, "Mary Poppins".
In 1955 Walt launched his theme park "Disneyland". This park was one of the most innovative and original of all parks. Not only are there rides, but there are also exhibits for all ages. This park has been visited by some of the most famous people in the world. In 1971 Disneyworld opened in Florida. He had purchased 43 square miles of vacant land to build this New World that would contain prototypes of futuristic inventions and other things of fun and educational value. To this day Disneyworld is continually growing.
Unfortunately Walt never got to see Disneyworld's completion. He passed away on December 15, 1966 five years before the park opened.
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