WDFM Blog Club: Walt's Life

Every wondered where Walt Disney came from? Take a journey with us as we explore his origins. 

In late 1919, Walt Disney returned from his voluntary Red Cross service in post-World War I France. An independent eighteen-year-old, he’d resettled in Kansas City, Missouri and attempted to establish a career in illustration, graphic design, and cartooning. However, within a year’s time, a different art form caught his attention. 

During production of the 1955 Disneyland television show, Winsor McCay’s son, Robert, came to the Studios to act as a consultant for the program. As John Canemaker would report, Walt, greeting Robert McCay in his office, “gestured out the window toward his bustling studio complex and said, ‘Bob, all this should be your father’s.’”

Through Walt’s varied experience with outside companies, he would take to heart owning his own characters, stories, and means of production; a lesson The Walt Disney Company embodies to this day.

Which Disney led the studio? It was a partnership. Both Walt and Roy Disney have been described as the spirit of Walt Disney Productions. Walt had the curiosity and drive that led from putting a little girl in an animated cartoon to welcoming families into an entertainment world spanning past, future, sky and sea. Roy, Walt’s 7½-year-older brother, took a protective attitude toward him, in finances and everything else.

In 1940, a newly-formed government post known as the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (CIAA) began asking prominent members of Hollywood to visit various countries in Latin America and/or infuse Latin American themes into their films, as part of the Good Neighbor Program. The U.S. government then called upon Walt Disney.

Walt Disney and his youngest daughter, Sharon, left Los Angeles on August 10, 1947 for a three week trip to Candle, Alaska. What was supposed to be a relaxing flight turned out to be quite an adventure… as well as a wonderful father-and-daughter bonding experience.

In honor of Father’s Day, we share the stories told by Diane Disney Miller about her father, Walt Disney. In 1956, Diane sat down with journalist Peter Martin where she spoke candidly about what it was like to be Walt’s daughter.

On July 13, 1925, Walt Disney married Lillian Bounds at her brother’s home in Lewiston, Idaho. Walt and Lilly had met when Ms. Bounds acquired a job at the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studios as an inker and painter. Now newlyweds, they would honeymoon on Mount Rainier and in Seattle, escaping to a world apart from their own. Thirty years later, in 1955, the couple celebrated their anniversary with friends and family as Walt readied to open his own world, his own new experience in entertainment.

While exploring the story of Walt Disney through the museum’s galleries, visitors can pick up on many themes that recur throughout his lifetime. One of the most prominent of these themes is Walt’s patriotism. In honor of Independence Day, we’ll take a look at this particular theme and how it influenced the Disney films and attractions we love today.