Millions of people around the world have at least one cherished childhood memory involving
a Walt Disney film or character—the appeal is simply universal, and somewhere in the
massive catalogue of Disney branded works there’s a story for you as well.
One that can inspire you, warm your heart, make you laugh, or just remind you not to
forget to wish upon a star once in a while.
But as for the legendary man behind the entertainment powerhouse, there’s plenty more to him than
meets the eye.
Here are some surprising facts you may not already know about Walt Disney and the global
brand that he created.
Walt Disney was born in 1901 as the fourth of five children in a Chicago home built by
his father’s own two hands.
It was this same self-made attitude which would carry Walt through all of the successes
and setbacks during his life.
According to his family, Walt’s favorite meal was two cans of Hormel and Gebhardt’s
chili mixed together, with lemon Jell-O for dessert.
Despite his creative genius, Walt Disney “never had any knack for business” according to
his brother Roy—a fact that would return to haunt him throughout his career.
Walt Disney Animation Studios wasn’t actually Disney’s first business venture.
In 1919, after a brief stint in France with the Red Cross, Walt moved to Kansas City,
Missouri—where he developed his passion for art by taking a job as a newspaper artist.
Within the next two years he began investigating cel animation and founded an animation studio,
where he produced the Laugh-O-Grams series of cartoons.
By 1923, the studio was forced to declare bankruptcy, proving that failure is just another
twist on the path to success.
Perseverance is key, my friends.
Disney was also a trend-setter in the realm of television, creating popular children’s
programming like Zorro and Davy Crockett as well as The Mickey Mouse Club, which spawned
the Mouseketeers and saw a modern revival in the early nineties.
Ryan Gosling, Britney Spears, and Justin Timberlake are all former members of the Mouseketeers,
just to name a few contemporary celebrities who had they early careers propelled by Disney
and the House of Mouse.
Walt Disney wasn’t afraid to get involved with political issues, stirring controversy
as one of the founders of the anti-communist group Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation
of American Ideals.
He also produced many pieces of animated propaganda during World War II—ranging from anti-Hitler
pieces to encouraging the timely payment of taxes in order to bolster the war effort.
However, Disney firmly stated that outside of very specific instances during wartime
he and his team “work hard to see that nothing of that sort creeps in”.
The quality control folks at Disney can be ruthless.
“Part of Your World” was almost cut from The Little Mermaid and “Can You Feel the
Love Tonight” was almost removed from The Lion King.
Beyoncé refused to audition for the role of Princess Tiana and simply expected to be
offered the role.
She lost the role to her “Dreamgirls” co-star Anika Noni Rose.
The people who voiced Minnie and Mickey Mouse were married in real life.
When Walt Disney was given an Oscar for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, it was presented
to him as one normal-sized statuette and seven miniature Oscars.
Before Disney created the famous mouse mascot, he had Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
But for Walt, Oswald was anything but lucky—after being hired by Universal in 1927 to develop
the character, and using Oswald for two years in 26 different cartoons, Disney discovered
that he didn’t actually retain any rights to the character as an asset for use in his
own works.
Ownership of Oswald was completely usurped by another party shortly thereafter, so Walt
proceeded to conceive a new character which would be wholly his—a happy-go-lucky, steamboat
piloting mouse by the name of Mickey.
Almost eighty years later, Oswald rejoined his younger brother under the Walt Disney
Animation Studios banner.
A tireless worker, Walt Disney was the creative force driving the teams behind more than six
hundred cartoons, both feature length and short form.
As ranked by Forbes, the Disney brand is the 11th most valuable brand in the world as of
2015.
It is also the most valuable brand in the leisure industry.
Disneyland was a passion project for Walt’s namesake, who dreamed of an idyllic place
for wholesome family fun—where children could be themselves and adults could be kids
again.
It wasn’t to be just another amusement park, but a celebration of mid-20th century America
and a magical place where dreams could come true.
It opened to the public on July 17th, 1955.
The site where the park was built in Anaheim, California, was formerly an orange grove.
Nestled in the heart of Disneyland’s New Orleans Square is a secretive club Disney
created for VIPs and discerning visitors to the park, called Club 33, inspired by the
private VIP lounges he visited at the 1964 World’s Fair.
Becoming the member of the club is an appropriately exclusive process, requiring a written letter
of inquiry which places you on a wait list for an opening, but promises world-class dining
and a place of refuge for park visitors who grow wearied of the traffic outside.
Near the front of the park, on the second floor of the Main Street Firehouse, Walt arranged
for the construction of a special apartment for himself and his family to stay.
To this day, a light remains lit in the window as a tribute to him.
There are now Disneyland parks operating in Tokyo, Paris, Hong Kong, and Shanghai—bringing
Walt’s vision to the rest of the world.
This also means the sun is always shining on at least one Disney park.
Oh and there is a small basketball court inside the Matterhorn at Disneyland, California.
But there’s also a dark side to Disneyland.
Numerous people have died at Disney parks.
In 1966 a teenager was killed whilst attempting to sneak into Disneyland by climbing onto
the monorail track.
He was struck by the train and dragged 12 metres down the track, despite a security
guard yelling at him the whole time to stop.
In fact, staff at the Haunted Mansion rides at Disney parks have to constantly be on the
lookout for people dumping ashes.
Strangely, having one’s ashes scattered on the ride is a popular request, obviously
Disney aren’t overly pleased about the trend.
In 1970 yippies took over Tom Sawyer island at Disneyland to stage a smoke-in to protest
Disneyland’s dress code.
Disney was not amused.
They closed the park early and called in the riot police.
Ever the innovator, in 1937 Walt Disney pioneered the use of a new type of camera for filming
animation—one which allowed for greater depth to reinforce the illusion of the action
on-screen occurring in three dimensions.
The result was the “multiplane camera”, first tested in one of Disney’s Silly Symphony
shorts before being used in the filming of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
The success of Snow White spawned what would be remembered as the “Golden Age of Animation”,
as Walt Disney gained the financial stability and public confidence necessary to produce
more films destined to become classics like Pinocchio and Fantasia.
The California Institute of the Arts was the brainchild of Walt Disney, who dreamed of
a school for the performing and visual arts where fellow artists could learn from and
encourage one another.
The staggering list of noteworthy CalArts alumni includes animation legends Arlene Klasky,
Tim Burton, Lauren Faust, and one whom many consider to be Walt Disney’s spiritual successor:
John Lasseter, the acting chief creative officer of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios.
To date, Walt Disney has received the most Oscars out of any multiple Oscar recipient,
holding twenty-two of the prestigious awards for his creative work.
He also holds the record for most Academy Award nominations, with fifty-nine nominations
to his credit.
His last Academy Award was granted posthumously.
Seven of Walt Disney’s films have been deemed so culturally significant to the United States
that they were selected for preservation by the National Film Preservation Board of the
Library of Congress.
Among their number are Mary Poppins, Steamboat Willie, and Bambi.
Decades of smoking eventually caught up with Walt on November 11th of 1966, when doctors
discovered a walnut sized lump on his left lung.
By the time it was discovered the tumor had metastasized, prompting the lung’s removal.
He died on December 15th, 1966 of acute circulatory collapse caused by the lung cancer.
Rumors persist that Disney wasn’t actually cremated as claimed by his family, but instead
had his body cryogenically frozen and tucked away for safekeeping beneath the Pirates of
the Caribbean ride at Disneyland, California—presumably to be resuscitated at a later date, once medical
technology progressed sufficiently.
Perhaps Tomorrowland was simply a conceptual testing ground for living in the future?