Walt Disney arrived in California in the summer of 1923 with a lot of hopes but little else.

He
had made a cartoon in Kansas City about a little girl in a cartoon world, called Alice’s
Wonderland, and he decided that he could use it as his “pilot” film to sell a series of these
“Alice Comedies” to a distributor. Soon after arriving in California, he was successful. A
distributor in New York, M. J. Winkler, contracted to distribute the “Alice Comedies” on
October 16, 1923, and this date became the start of the Disney company. Originally known
as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, with Walt Disney and his brother, Roy, as equal
partners, the company soon changed its name, at Roy’s suggestion, to the Walt Disney Studio.
Walt Disney made his Alice Comedies for four years, but in 1927, he decided to move instead
to an all-cartoon series. To star in this new series, he created a character named Oswald the
Lucky Rabbit. Within a year, Walt made 26 of these Oswald cartoons, but when he tried to
get some additional money from his distributor for a second year of the cartoons, he found
out that the distributor had gone behind his back and signed up almost all of his animators,
hoping to make the Oswald cartoons in his own studio for less money without Walt Disney.
On rereading his contract, Walt realized that he did not own the rights to Oswald-the
distributor did. It was a painful lesson for the young cartoon producer to learn. From then
on, he saw to it that he owned everything that he made.
The original Disney Studio had been in the back half of a real estate office on Kingswell
Avenue in Hollywood, but soon Walt had enough money to move next door and rent a whole
store for his studio. That small studio was sufficient for a couple of years, but the company
eventually outgrew it and Walt had to look elsewhere. He found an ideal piece of property
on Hyperion Avenue in Hollywood, built a studio, and in 1926 moved his staff to the new
facility.
It was at the Hyperion Studio, after the loss of Oswald, that Walt had to come up with a new
character, and that character was Mickey Mouse. With his chief animator, Ub Iwerks, Walt
designed the famous mouse and gave him a personality that endeared him to all. Ub animated
two Mickey Mouse cartoons, but Walt was unable to sell them because they were silent films,
and sound was revolutionizing the movie industry. So, they made a third Mickey Mouse
cartoon, this time with fully synchronized sound, and Steamboat Willie opened to rave
reviews at the Colony Theater in New York November 18, 1928. A cartoon star, Mickey
Mouse, was born. The new character was immediately popular, and a lengthy series of
Mickey Mouse cartoons followed.
Not one to rest on his laurels, Walt Disney soon produced another series — the Silly
Symphonies — to go with the Mickey series. It featured different casts of characters in each
film and enabled the animators to experiment with stories that relied less on the gags and
quick humor of the Mickey cartoons and more on mood, emotion, and musical themes.
Eventually the Silly Symphonies turned into the training ground for all Disney artists as they
prepared for the advent of animated feature films. Flowers and Trees, a Silly Symphony and
the first full-color cartoon, won the Academy Award® for Best Cartoon for 1932, the first
year that the Academy offered such a category. For the rest of that decade, a Disney cartoon
won the Oscar® every year.
While the cartoons were gaining popularity in movie houses, the Disney staff found that
merchandising the characters was an additional source of revenue. A man in New York
offered Walt $300 for the license to put Mickey Mouse on some pencil tablets he was
manufacturing. Walt Disney needed the $300, so he said okay. That was the start of Disney
merchandising. Soon there were Mickey Mouse dolls, dishes, toothbrushes, radios, figurines-
almost everything you could think of bore Mickey’s likeness. The first Mickey Mouse book
was published in 1930, as was the first Mickey Mouse newspaper comic strip.
In 1934, Walt Disney informed his animators one night that they were going to make an
animated feature film, and then he told them the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
There were some skeptics in the group, but before long everyone had caught Walt’s
enthusiasm, and work began in earnest. It took three years, but at Christmas time, 1937, the
film was finished, and it was a spectacular hit. Snow White soon became the highest grossing
film of all time, a record it held until it was surpassed by Gone With the Wind. Now Walt
Disney’s studio was on a firmer footing. The short cartoons paid the bills, but Walt knew that
future profits would come from feature films.
Work immediately began on other feature projects, but just as things were looking rosy,
along came World War II. The next two features, Pinocchio and Fantasia, were released in
1940. They were technical masterpieces, but their costs were too high for a company losing
most of its foreign markets because of the war. Dumbo was made in 1941 on a very limited
budget, but Bambi, in 1942, was another expensive film, and caused the studio to retrench.
It would be many years before animated features of the highest caliber could be put into
production.
During the war, Walt Disney made two films in South America, Saludos Amigos and The Three
Caballeros, at the request of the State Department. His studio concentrated on making
propaganda and training films for the military. When the war ended, it was difficult for the
Disney Studio to regain its pre-war footing. Several years went by with the release of
“package” features-films such as Make Mine Music and Melody Time, containing groups of
short cartoons packaged together. Walt also moved into live action production with Song of
the South and So Dear to My Heart, but because audiences expected animation from Walt
Disney, these films included animated segments. Walt opened some new doors by beginning
the award-winning True-Life Adventure series featuring nature photography of a style never
seen before.
1950 saw big successes at Disney-the first completely live action film, Treasure Island, the
return to classic animated features with Cinderella and the first Disney television show at
Christmas time. The Company was moving forward again. After two Christmas specials, Walt
Disney went onto television in a big way in 1954 with the beginning of the Disneyland
anthology series. This series eventually would run on all three networks and go through six
title changes, but it remained on the air for 29 years, making it the longest-running
primetime television series ever. The Mickey Mouse Club, one of television’s most popular
children’s series, debuted in 1955 and made stars of a group of talented Mouseketeers.
Walt Disney was never satisfied with what he had already accomplished. As his motion
pictures and television programs became successful, he felt a desire to branch out. One area
that intrigued him was amusement parks. As a father, he had taken his two young daughters
to zoos, carnivals and other entertainment enterprises, but he always ended up sitting on the
bench as they rode the merry-go-round and had all the fun. He felt that there should be a
park where parents and children could go and have a good time together. This was the
genesis of Disneyland. After several years of planning and construction, the new park opened
July 17, 1955.
Disneyland was a totally new kind of park. Observers coined the term “theme park,” but even
that does not seem to do Disneyland justice. It has been used as a pattern for every
amusement park built since its opening, becoming internationally famous, and attracting
hundreds of millions of visitors. Walt said that Disneyland would never be completed as long
as there was imagination left in the world, and that statement remains true today. New
attractions are added regularly, and Disneyland still is as popular as it was in 1955.
The 1950s saw the release of the classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the first in a series of
wacky comedies The Shaggy Dog and a popular TV series about the legendary hero Zorro. In
the 1960s came Audio-Animatronics®, pioneered with the Enchanted Tiki Room at
Disneyland and then four shows at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, and Mary Poppins,
perhaps the culmination of all Walt Disney had learned during his long movie-making career.
But the ’60s also brought the end of an era: Walt Disney died December 15, 1966.
Plans that Walt left behind carried the company for a number of years under the supervision
of Roy Disney. The Jungle Book in 1967 and The Aristocats in 1970 showed that the Company
could still make animated classics, and The Love Bug in 1969 was the highest grossing film
of the year. Disney got into educational films and materials in a big way with the start of an
educational subsidiary in 1969.
After the success of Disneyland, it was only natural for Walt to consider another park on the
East Coast. Prior to his death the Company purchased land in Florida, and the Walt Disney
World project, located on some 28,000 acres near Orlando, was announced. It opened
October 1, 1971. In Florida, the Company had the space it lacked in California. Finally there
was room to create a destination resort, unencumbered by the urban sprawl that had grown
up around Disneyland. Walt Disney World would include not only a Magic Kingdom theme
park like Disneyland but also hotels, campgrounds, golf courses, and shopping villages. It did
not take long for Walt Disney World to become the premier vacation destination in the world.
Roy O. Disney, who after Walt’s death oversaw the building and financing of Walt Disney
World, died late in 1971, and for the next decade the Company was led by a team including
Card Walker, Donn Tatum and Ron Miller — all originally trained by the Disney brothers.
One of Walt Disney’s last plans had been for the Experimental Prototype Community of
Tomorrow, or EPCOT, as he called it. While he died before the plans could be refined, they
were brought out again in a few years, and in 1979 ground was broken for the new park in
Florida. Epcot Center, a combination of Future World and World Showcase representing an
investment of over a billion dollars, opened to great acclaim October 1, 1982.
WED Enterprises (later renamed Walt Disney Imagineering), the design and development
division for the parks, had several projects in the works during the early 1980s. In addition
to designing Epcot, it was hard at work on plans for Tokyo Disneyland, the first foreign
Disney park. Tokyo Disneyland opened April 15, 1983, and was an immediate success in a
country that had always loved anything Disney. Now that the Japanese had their own
Disneyland, they flocked to it in increasing numbers.
Moviemaking also was changing in America in the early 1980s. Audiences were diminishing
for the family films that had been the mainstay of the Company for many years, and Disney
was not meeting the competition for films that attracted the huge teenage and adult market.
To reverse that trend, Disney established a new label, Touchstone Pictures, with the release
of Splash in 1984. At the same time, because of the widespread perception that Disney stock
was undervalued relative to the company’s assets, two “corporate raiders” attempted to take
over Disney. The efforts to keep the company from being broken up ended when Michael
Eisner and Frank Wells became chairman and president, respectively.
The new management team immediately saw ways for Disney to maximize its assets. The
Company had left network television in 1983 to prepare for the launch of a cable network,
The Disney Channel. While the pay-TV service was successful, Eisner and Wells felt Disney
should have a strong network presence as well, so in 1985 Disney’s Touchstone division
began the immensely successful Golden Girls, followed in 1986 by a return to Sunday night
television with the Disney Sunday Movie (later The Magical World of Disney and The
Wonderful World of Disney). Films from the Disney library were selected for the syndication
market, and some of the classic animated films were released on video cassette. Using the
sell-through technique, Disney classics soon reached the top of the all-time best seller lists.
At Disneyland, new collaborations with filmmakers George Lucas and Francis Coppola
brought Captain EO and Star Tours to the park, and Splash Mountain opened in 1989. Disney’s
Grand Floridian Beach and Caribbean Beach Resorts opened at Walt Disney World in 1988,
and three new gated attractions opened in 1989: the Disney/MGM Studios Theme Park,
Pleasure Island, and Typhoon Lagoon. More resort hotels opened in 1990 and 1991.
Filmmaking hit new heights in 1988 as Disney for the first time led Hollywood studios in
box-office gross. Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Good Morning, Vietnam, Three Men and a Baby,
and later, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Dick Tracy, Pretty Woman and Sister Act, passed the $100
million milestone. Disney moved into new areas by starting Hollywood Pictures and
acquiring the Wrather Corp. (owner of the Disneyland Hotel) and television station KHJ (Los
Angeles), which was renamed KCAL. In merchandising, Disney purchased Childcraft and
opened numerous highly successful and profitable Disney Stores.
Disney animation began reaching even greater audiences, with The Little Mermaid being
topped by Beauty and the Beast which was in turn topped by Aladdin (1992). Hollywood
Records was formed to offer a wide selection of recordings ranging from rap to movie
soundtracks. New television shows, such as Live With Regis and Kathy Lee, Empty Nest,
Dinosaurs and Home Improvement, expanded Disney’s television base. For the first time,
Disney moved into publishing, forming Hyperion Books, Hyperion Books for Childre and
Disney Press, which released books on Disney and non-Disney subjects. In 1991, Disney
purchased Discover magazine, the leading consumer science monthly. As a totally new
venture, Disney was awarded in 1993 the franchise for a National Hockey League team, the
Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
Over in France, the park now known as Disneyland Paris opened on April 12, 1992. Eagerly
anticipated, the beautifully designed park attracted almost 11 million visitors during its first
year. Disneyland Paris is complemented by six uniquely designed resort hotels and a
campground. Dixie Landings and Port Orleans, and a well-received Disney Vacation Club
enlarged lodging possibilities at the Walt Disney World Resort, while Mickey’s Toontown
and the Indiana Jones Adventure helped increase attendance at Disneyland. Walt Disney
World opened the All-Star Resorts, Wilderness Lodge, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror,
Blizzard Beach, the BoardWalk Resort, the Coronado Springs Resort, the Disney Institute,
Downtown Disney West Side and redesigned Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom.
The Disney success with animated films continued in 1994 with The Lion King, which soon
became one of the highest-grossing films of all-time. It was followed by Pocahontas in 1995,
The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1996, Hercules in 1997, Mulan in 1998, Tarzan in 1999 and
Fantasia/2000 at the turn of the century. Toy Story pioneered computer-animation
techniques, and was followed by a successful sequel. Disney also continued its strong
presence in children’s animated programs for television, and found success with sequels to
animated features released directly to the video market.
In 1994, Disney ventured onto Broadway with a very successful stage production of Beauty
and the Beast, followed in 1997 by a unique staging of a show based on The Lion King and in
2000 by Aida. By restoring the historic New Amsterdam Theatre on 42nd Street, Disney
became the catalyst for a successful makeover of the famous Times Square area. A musical
version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame opened in Berlin, Germany.
By 1996, there were more than 450 Disney Stores worldwide, and by 1999 that number was
up to 725. In Florida, the first home sites were sold in the new city of Celebration, located
next to Walt Disney World. Eventually, 20,000 people will call Celebration their home. After
the death of the owner Gene Autry, Disney acquired the California Angels baseball team to
add to its hockey team, and in 1997 opened Disney’s Wide World of Sports at Walt Disney
World.
Early in 1996, Disney completed its acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC. The $19 billion
transaction, second-largest in U.S. history, brought the country’s top television network to
Disney, in addition to 10 TV stations, 21 radio stations, seven daily newspapers and
ownership positions in four cable networks.
Recent years have seen the release of a group of very popular live action films, such as Mr.
Holland’s Opus, The Rock, Ransom, Flubber, Con Air, Armageddon, and culminating in the
hugely successful The Sixth Sense, which soon reached the 10th spot among the all-time
highest grossing releases. Computer animation was showcased in A Bug’s Life and Dinosaur.
A whole new park, Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened at Walt Disney World in 1998. With a
gigantic Tree of Life as its centerpiece, the park was Disney’s largest, spanning 500 acres. A
major attraction was the Kilimanjaro Safaris, where Guests could experience live African
animals in an amazingly accurate reproduction of the African savannah. An Asian area
opened at Animal Kingdom in 1999. In California, Tomorrowland at Disneyland was
redesigned.
As the world moved toward a new century, Epcot became the host of Millennium Celebration,
Test Track (the longest and fastest Disney park attraction) opened, and other attractions
were revised and updated. The Walt Disney Company welcomed a new president — Robert
A. Iger — and the Company reached the $25 billion revenue threshold for the first time.
Disney regional entertainment expanded with DisneyQuest and the ESPN Zone in 1998, and
that same year, the Disney Magic, the first of two luxury cruise ships made its maiden voyage
to the Caribbean, stopping at Disney’s own island paradise, Castaway Cay.
2000 opened with the release in IMAX theaters of an almost totally new version of Fantasia
entitled Fantasia/2000. Other classically animated features were The Emperor’s New Groove,
Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Lilo & Stitch, Treasure Planet and Brother Bear. Continuing
collaborations with Pixar brought the computer-animated blockbuster, Monsters, Inc.
Popular live action productions continued with Remember the Titans, Mission to Mars, Pearl
Harbor, The Princess Diaries, and The Rookie. The new cable network, SoapNet, was launched,
and award-winning productions on ABC included The Miracle Worker, Anne Frank, and Child
Star: The Shirley Temple Story.
DVD releases became increasingly popular, especially when the company began adding
generous amounts of bonus material for viewers. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ DVD in
2001 sold more than one million units on the first day of release.
For the first time, in 2001, Walt Disney Attractions opened two new theme parks in the same
year. In February, Disney’s California Adventure opened after several years of major
construction which transformed the entire Anaheim area. The new park celebrates the
history, culture and spirit of California, with areas ranging from a Hollywood Pictures
Backlot to the amusements of Paradise Pier. Joining it was an upscale shopping area,
Downtown Disney and the Grand Californian Hotel, celebrating the Craftsman style of
architecture. Across the Pacific in Japan, Tokyo DisneySea opened in September, looking to
the myths, legends and lore of the ocean as the inspiration for its attractions and shows.
March, 2002, saw the opening of another foreign park, Walt Disney Studios, featuring the
history and lore and excitement of the movies, adjacent to Disneyland Paris. Ground was
broken in January, 2003, for Hong Kong Disneyland.
In 2001, the entire Walt Disney Company honored the 100th Anniversary of the birth of its
founder, Walt Disney. The celebration, called “100 Years of Magic,” was centered at the
Disney-MGM Studios theme park in Florida, and included several parades, an exhibit of
archival memorabilia and the installation of a gigantic Mickey’s sorcerer cap in the Chinese
Theater plaza.
2003 saw two Disney films grossing over $300 million at the box office — Pirates of the
Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Disney-Pixar’s Finding Nemo. In fact, Disney
became the first studio in history to surpass $3 billion in global box office. In October,
Mission: Space opened at Epcot to great acclaim, and the following month the Company
celebrated the 75th anniversary of Mickey Mouse. As the year drew to a close the Pop
Century Resort opened at Walt Disney World.
After years of partnering, Disney acquired The Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House in
April 2004. Senator George Mitchell became chairman of the board, and movie theaters
welcomed The Incredibles. ABC had a rebirth with such popular series as Desperate
Housewives, Lost and Grey’s Anatomy.
A major anniversary came in 2005 as Disneyland celebrated its 50th, and all of the Disney
theme parks joined in a Happiest Celebration on Earth. A brand new theme park, Hong Kong
Disneyland, opened in September and the fall saw the successful releases of Chicken Little
and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Robert Iger took over
as CEO on October 1 with the retirement of Michael Eisner.
2006 saw High School Musical air on Disney Channel and become an overnight sensation. In
May, Disney made a major purchase of Pixar Animation Studios, at the same time gaining the
services of Ed Catmull and John Lasseter to be creative heads of Disney Feature Animation.
Disney-Pixar’s Cars was released in June. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest beat
Company records to become the company’s highest grossing feature after its July release.
Disney parks celebrated the Year of a Million Dreams with special promotions.
With 2007 came another popular release from Pixar, Ratatouille, and Disney had its first co-
production in China— The Secret of the Magic Gourd. The year ended with the hits Enchanted
and National Treasure: Book of Secrets. The third Pirates of the Caribbean feature, subtitled
At World’s End, became the top-grossing film of the year internationally. Disney Channel
reached new heights with High School Musical 2, and Hannah Montana shot Miley Cyrus to
stardom. In the summer, Disney acquired Club Penguin. At the parks, Disney built on the
Pixar brand with the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage at Disneyland, The Seas with Nemo and
Friends at Epcot and Finding Nemo — The Musical at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
At the Disney parks in 2008, Disney-MGM Studios was renamed Disney’s Hollywood Studios,
Toy Story Midway Mania! opened there and at Disney’s California Adventure, and It’s a Small
World opened at Hong Kong Disneyland. The company reacquired ownership of the Disney
Stores’ retail locations from The Children’s Place, and the first Disney-operated language
training center, Disney English, opened in China. In theaters, audiences flocked to WALL•E
and Bolt. Tinker Bell, the first of a series of Disney Fairies films, was released, and Camp Rock
and Phineas and Ferb debuted on Disney Channel. The Little Mermaid opened on Broadway.
The big news in 2009 was the acquisition of Marvel Entertainment. Theaters presented Up
(which would win two Oscars), the first Disneynature film, Earth, and a return to hand-
drawn animation with The Princess and the Frog. The first Disney film locally produced in
Russia, The Book of Masters, was released. D23: The Official Disney Fan Club launched, Disney
twenty-three magazine began publication, and the first biennial D23 Expo was held in
Anaheim. Bay Lake Tower opened at Walt Disney World, and a Disney Vacation Club section
was added to the Grand Californian Hotel. Disney XD replaced Toon Disney, and at the end
of the year the company mourned the passing of Roy E. Disney.
In business news in 2010, the company sold Miramax. Alice in Wonderland and Toy Story 3
were released, and they would go on to win two Oscars each. The latter picture would
become the highest grossing animated film of all time. Also on movie screens were Tangled
and Tron: Legacy. Video gamers entered the world of Epic Mickey, and World of Color debuted
at the renamed Disney California Adventure.
The year 2011 saw the launch of the Disney Dream and the repositioning of the Disney
Wonder to the West Coast. The company purchased the rights to the Avatar franchise for
theme parks, the Aulani Resort opened in Hawaii, The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea
Adventure debuted at Disney California Adventure, and groundbreaking ceremonies were
held for Shanghai Disneyland. In theaters, Disney began distributing DreamWorks films, with
The Help winning wide acclaim and a Supporting Actress Oscar for Octavia Spencer. Disney
films included Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Winnie the Pooh, The Muppets
(Oscar for Best Song), and Cars 2. In New York, Sister Act opened on Broadway and Peter and
the Starcatcher off-Broadway.
In theaters in 2012 were John Carter, Marvel’s The Avengers, Brave, Wreck-It Ralph,
Frankenweenie, and Lincoln (DreamWorks). Bob Iger took on the additional title of chairman
of the board, and Alan Horn became chairman of Walt Disney Studios. The Disney Junior
cable channel replaced SOAPnet. On Broadway, Newsies opened and won two Tony Awards.
Cars Land opened at Disney California Adventure, and the Disney Fantasy set sail. At the Walt
Disney World Resort, Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, an enlarged and enhanced
Fantasyland, and a new Test Track opened. D23 sponsored a Treasures of the Walt Disney
Archives exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. The big corporate
news was the acquisition of Lucasfilm, Ltd.
For nine decades, The Walt Disney Company has succeeded in making its name preeminent
in the field of family entertainment. From humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the 1920s
to today’s major corporation, it continues its mandate of providing quality entertainment for
the entire family.