The Walt Disney Company which was founded on October 16, 1923 has a long and distinguished history. But it is a history that might never have existed if not for the perseverance of one man. That man of course was Walt Disney who together with his brother Roy O. Disney were the founders of The Walt Disney Company. Of course The Walt Disney Company has a long and colorful history that has had many books already written about it. So we’ll just cover one particular area of the story. Walt Disney’s perseverance.
You see Walt Disney was a man that would not give up no matter what. No matter how many setbacks he had he did not know when to call it quits. So how did he get started? Well early on in Walt Disney’s life he got into drawing cartoons first for his school newspaper and after World War I he began working for newspapers and magazines. He would draw cartoons and do advertising work for them to pay his bills.
It was through this work that he met a fellow artist by the name of Ubbe Iwerks. Together they would form Walt Disney’s first attempt at building a business. This was in 1920 and the company was known as Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists. Unfortunately the business got off to a rough start and soon had to be closed. But Walt Disney wasn’t finished there.
His next job led him into the field of animation. This of course is where he would really leave his mark on the world. Soon Walt Disney was ready for his next attempt at building his own studio. The one would be known as the Laugh O Gram Studio. The name came from a series of cartoons that Walt Disney was producing for a local Kansas City theatre operator. And it was nearly a success too. Walt Disney’s inability to handle money would be his downfall this time around. And so after the company went bankrupt. Walt Disney packed up his bags and moved to Hollywood, California.
This time around Walt would team up with his brother Roy O. Disney. Roy was a former banker so he knew how to handle the money side of the house while Roy would handle the creative side. And so the Disney Brother’s Studio was born. And it started off with a hit. Known as the Alice Comedies the studio began to turn out a number of short films based around the story Alice in Wonderland. They would turn out to be very successful and would lead to another character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
Walt Disney though had one final bump in the road before becoming ultimately successful. You see Walt had made the mistake of selling the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to its distributor. And now the distributor wanted to cut the fees they were paying. Further pressuring the Disney brothers they threatened to hire the people that were actually doing the work on Oswald the Lucky Rabbit away from Disney and they would form their own studio to do the work. Walt Disney wouldn’t give in and so he lost both Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and most of his staff.
After what had happened to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Walt Disney found his studio in need of a replacement character. And so Mickey Mouse was born. The rest of the story you probably already know as Mickey would become extremely popular. But Mickey wouldn’t be here today if Walt Disney had given up. It was through his perseverance that The Walt Disney Company would become a reality. And millions of children can get a hug each year from a big furry mouse.