Walt Disney Success story

Career

In 1919, Walt Disney was rejected by many publishers who said he did not have enough creativity to work for their newspapers. Soon he joined the Kansas City Film Ad Company where he made commercials bases on cut-out animations. Here he came across animation as an interesting field of work.

Walt Disney learnt animation by reading books and experimenting with a borrowed camera. Soon he decided to open his own animation business. He produced a series of cartoons called ‘Laugh-O-Grams’ which played at the local theatre. His cartoons became immensely popular in Kansas City area enabling him to acquire his own studio. But in a short time this studio had to close because of improper use of revenue and bankruptcy.

Now Walt and his brother Roy pooled their money and opened a cartoon studio in Hollywood, California. Here they distributed their cartoon ‘Alice comedies’ which met with reasonable success. 

In 1927, Walt Disney produced the cartoon, ‘Oswald the Lucky Rabbit’ in association with Universal Pictures. This cartoon became a huge hit and helped their company earn high revenues. But soon he lost most of his employees and was unable to continue production of ‘Oswald the Lucky Rabbit’.

Now Walt Disney decided on creating a new character in order to produce a new cartoon series. This is where Mickey Mouse was born. In Disney’s studio both he and Iwerks worked on giving Mickey Mouse a good physical appearance and other important features. After initially failing to find anybody to distribute their cartoon character, a businessman called Pat Powers came to their rescue. He provided the distribution as well as gave them the Cinephone with which they were able to add sound to their silent cartoons.

The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique. - Walt Disney

They released ‘Steamboat Willie’ which became an instant hit. Soon after all the cartoons they released went on to receive huge viewership. Soon the character Mickey Mouse became a household name becoming the most popular cartoon in America. Soon they introduced the cartoon ‘Popeye the Sailor’ which again became enormously popular. In 193, Walt Disney released ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ which went on to earn around $8 million and became the highest grossing movie that year.                                                                         

Tour of Disneyland