Walt Disney
Sun Dec 17 2000 at 0:46:42
Walt Disney, the man who would one day lead the world in film animation and children s entertainment, was born on December 5, 1901, in Chicago, Illinois. After delivering newspapers while a schoolboy, Walt enrolled at the Kansas City Art Institute at the age of 14. At 16 he volunteered his time to the Red Cross as an ambulance driver in France during World War I.
Upon his return to America, he began working at a commercial art studio in Kansas City. It was here that he met Ub Iwerks, another young and promising artist, who was to become his lifelong partner. They joined the Kansas City Film Ad Company, where they produced animated commericals. They later turned out a series of satirical cartoons which they sold to a local theater under the name of Laugh-O-Grams.
By Peter Tonguette Correpsondent
Most people would identify Snow White, Grumpy, and Sleepy as cartoon characters, but it would have been a mistake to call them that within earshot of Walt Disney. Upon the release of his masterpiece “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” in 1937, Disney objected to a journalist describing his film as a “cartoon.” “It’s no more a cartoon,” Disney said, “than a painting by Whistler is a cartoon.”
In an exhaustive and highly entertaining new book, journalist Reid Mitenbuler demonstrates that he shares Disney’s belief in the artistic value of animated works – though they are, too often, thought of as mere kids’ stuff.