97 Fun Facts About Walt Disney

Which Disney character first appeared in 1932 as a nameless old-timer whose raucous laugh stole a Mickey cartoon?

Goofy's laugh came from story man and former circus clown Pinto Colvig; it so tickled Walt that the bit player was given more cartoons, at first under the name Dippy Dawg.

In which U.S. state was Walt Disney born?

Illinois: Walt was born in Chicago in 1901, in a house his father had built with his own hands; the family left for a Missouri farm when he was four.

Which 1950 animated feature restored the fortunes of Walt Disney's studio?

Cinderella ended a run of cheaper package films made while the studio was deep in debt; the gamble paid off, and its success kept Walt's feature animation alive.

Which futuristic transport system began daily service at Disneyland in 1959, the first of its kind in America?

The monorail was opened by Vice President Richard Nixon and his family; two years later it was extended to the Disneyland Hotel, turning a ride into working public transport.

What was Mickey Mouse first going to be called, before Walt Disney's wife is said to have suggested Mickey?

Mortimer was later recycled as the name of Mickey's smug rival.

What was the first name of Walt Disney's wife?

Lillian Bounds was working at Walt's young studio when she married him in 1925; in 1987 she pledged $50 million for a Los Angeles concert hall in his name.

What was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon to feature synchronized sound throughout?

Steamboat Willie opened at New York's Colony Theatre on November 18, 1928, the date Disney still counts as Mickey's birthday, after two silent Mickey cartoons had failed to find a distributor.

Which of Walt Disney's older brothers co-founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio?

Roy found the money while Walt supplied the ideas; after Walt died he put off his own retirement to see Walt Disney World built, and died two months after it opened.

What does legend say happened to Walt Disney's body?

Frozen is the myth; in fact Walt was cremated two days after he died, and his daughter Diane said there was absolutely no truth to the rumour.

Which cartoon character did Walt Disney lose the rights to in 1928, a loss that prompted him to create Mickey Mouse?

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit belonged to Universal, which kept him when Walt's distributor turned on him; Disney got the rabbit back in 2006 in a deal that sent sportscaster Al Michaels to NBC.

What small Missouri town did Walt Disney grow up in, later inspiring Disneyland's Main Street, U.S.A.?

Marceline was home for only about five years, yet Walt called them the happiest of his childhood; a neighbour there paid him to draw a horse, one of his first sales as an artist.

Which 1967 animated feature was the last one Walt Disney personally produced?

The Jungle Book was steered by Walt away from the dark tone of Kipling's stories, at the cost of his first writer; he died ten months before its release.

Which Disney film was the first shown in multi-channel stereo sound?

Fantasia needed cinemas to be fitted with special Fantasound equipment, so costly that the film first opened in only a handful of theatres.

What did Hollywood insiders nickname Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs while it was in production?

Disney's Folly was the trade's verdict on a cartoon feature that ran far over its budget; it then became the biggest box-office hit of 1938.

During World War II, what did the Walt Disney Studios primarily produce?

Training and propaganda films took up some nine-tenths of the studio's work by 1942; Walt made them at cost, so the war kept his artists busy without easing his debts.

Which Brazilian parrot, introduced in 1942's Saludos Amigos, went on to become one of The Three Caballeros?

José Carioca teaches a visiting Disney star the samba in the film, which had its world premiere in Rio de Janeiro in August 1942, months before it opened in the United States.

Which American actor played both Bert the chimney sweep and the ancient banker Mr. Dawes in Mary Poppins?

Dick Van Dyke was billed for the old banker as 'Navckid Keyd', letters that unscramble into his real name during the closing credits.

What was Disney's first cartoon series, made in the early 1920s before the move to Hollywood?

Laugh-O-Grams were modernised fairy tales Walt Disney made in Missouri from 1921; the Laugh-O-Gram studio went bankrupt in 1923, which is what sent him to Hollywood.

Which cartoon was the first color Silly Symphony and won Disney his first competitive Oscar?

Flowers and Trees was already under way in black and white when Walt scrapped that work and remade it in colour, then secured sole cartoon rights to the new process for the next few years.

The 'Dancing Man', a forerunner of Disney's Audio-Animatronic figures, copied the tap routine of which actor?

Buddy Ebsen, later Jed Clampett of The Beverly Hillbillies, was filmed dancing in front of a grid so that Walt's technicians could copy his steps into a small mechanical figure.

Under what name was Walt Disney's park design company known for decades before it became Walt Disney Imagineering?

WED Enterprises took Walt's initials; he set it up in 1952 with his own money, apart from the studio, so that shareholders could not object to his park plans.

What attraction was the first to use Disney's Audio-Animatronics technology?

The Enchanted Tiki Room was planned as a restaurant where mechanical parrots would serenade diners, until Walt saw how few guests it could serve and made it a show instead, opening in 1963.

What was Walt Disney's vision for EPCOT before it became a theme park?

An experimental planned city of some 20,000 residents was Walt's idea for EPCOT, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow; after he died the company dropped the city and built a theme park.

Which 1959 Disneyland ride was the first permanent roller coaster with tubular steel track?

Matterhorn Bobsleds grew from Walt's Swiss film Third Man on the Mountain; the trees on its slopes get smaller towards the top, a trick to make the peak look taller.

Which network bought into Disneyland and aired Walt Disney's weekly anthology from 1954?

ABC helped pay for the park in return for the weekly show; four decades later Disney bought ABC itself.

What did Disney staff call Disneyland's mishap-strewn opening day in 1955?

Black Sunday earned its name: counterfeit tickets nearly doubled the invited crowd to about 28,000, and fresh asphalt on Main Street melted in the heat and trapped women's high heels.

What Disney theme park attraction was the last one Walt Disney personally supervised before his death?

Pirates of the Caribbean was so elaborate that Walt, who worked on it for years, never saw it finished: it opened in March 1967, three months after he died.

What Florida city is Walt Disney World located near?

Walt Disney World is located near Orlando, Florida. Walt Disney secretly purchased approximately 27,000 acres of land southwest of Orlando using shell companies to prevent price speculation.

At which Los Angeles spot did Walt Disney first dream up Disneyland while his daughters rode the merry-go-round?

Griffith Park's merry-go-round left Walt on a bench watching his daughters have all the fun; he wanted a clean place where parents and children could enjoy themselves together.

What job did Walt Disney take in World War I after being turned down for military service as too young?

A Red Cross ambulance driver at 16, he reached France only after the fighting had stopped, and covered his ambulance from end to end with his own cartoons.

What did Walt Disney's honorary Oscar for Snow White consist of?

One full-size and seven mini Oscars made up the special award, handed to Walt in 1939 by child star Shirley Temple; the citation called the film a significant screen innovation.

What was the live-action/animation hybrid series Walt Disney produced in the 1920s before Mickey?

Alice Comedies put a real girl into a cartoon world; the 1923 contract for the first of them is the event The Walt Disney Company counts as its founding.

What was growing on the 160-acre Anaheim site Walt Disney bought for Disneyland in 1953?

Orange groves and walnut trees covered the 160 acres; Walt had hired the Stanford Research Institute to find a site, and its analyst chose Anaheim by forecasting where the region's population would grow.

Which 1940 Disney feature introduced the song 'When You Wish Upon a Star'?

'When You Wish Upon a Star', sung by Cliff Edwards as Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio (1940), won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and became the Disney company's signature theme.

Which story did Walt Disney consider for his first feature before choosing Snow White?

Alice in Wonderland, proposed with Mary Pickford in the lead, was dropped when Paramount began its own version; Disney's animated Alice finally arrived in 1951.

Which company's process replaced hand inking at Walt Disney's studio?

Xerox cameras copied the animators' pencil drawings straight onto cels, sparing the studio the time and cost of inking each one by hand; One Hundred and One Dalmatians in 1961 was the first feature made that way.

What was the name of the first Silly Symphony cartoon, released in 1929?

The Skeleton Dance grew from composer Carl Stalling's idea for cartoons built around music; Ub Iwerks drew and animated almost all of it himself.

What 1941 event disrupted work at Walt Disney's studio?

An animators' strike over pay and the firing of union members split the studio; Walt blamed Communist agitators, and his relations with his artists never recovered.

What was Walt Disney World called inside the company while its land was being bought in secret?

The Florida Project hid Disney's hand behind dummy companies until a local reporter worked out who was buying; Walt confirmed it at a press conference in November 1965.

Which 1938 Disney short about a gentle flower-sniffing hero won the cartoon Oscar?

Ferdinand the Bull came from Munro Leaf's picture book: stung by a bee, the gentle bull is mistaken for a fighter and hauled to the ring, where he simply sits down to smell the flowers.

Which Disney attraction was first built for New York's 1964 fair?

It's a Small World has just one song because Walt asked his staff songwriters for a simple tune that could be sung over and over in many languages as the boats drift past.

What was Walt Disney's middle name?

Walt Disney's full name was Walter Elias Disney. His middle name Elias came from his father, Elias Disney, who was of Irish-Canadian descent.

Which 1941 feature did Walt Disney make quickly and cheaply after two costly films had lost money?

Dumbo ran barely an hour and turned a welcome profit; Time planned to put the little elephant on its cover in December 1941, until Pearl Harbor pushed him off.

What did Walt Disney personally supply for Mickey Mouse in the cartoons for nearly two decades?

The voice of Mickey was Walt's own, starting with the squeaks he recorded for the first sound cartoon; Jimmy Macdonald took over in the late 1940s and kept the role for three decades.

Which railway ran past Walt Disney's boyhood farm in Missouri, sparking his lifelong love of trains?

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe stayed in his life: a relative drove its engines, and in 1955 the railway sponsored the steam line that circles his theme park.

Which Disney film, made 25 years after Walt's death, was the first animated feature nominated for the Best Picture Oscar?

Until Best Animated Feature arrived at the 74th Academy Awards, 1991's Beauty and the Beast was the only animated film ever nominated for Best Picture. Snow White's Oscar was honorary.

Which 1950 adventure film was the first entirely live-action feature produced by Walt Disney?

Treasure Island (1950), starring Robert Newton as Long John Silver, was shot in Britain partly to use Disney earnings frozen there, as was The Story of Robin Hood two years later.

Which chief executive renamed Walt Disney Productions as The Walt Disney Company?

Michael Eisner arrived after Walt's nephew led a shareholder revolt against the old management; he ran the company for 21 years, until the same nephew campaigned to push him out.

Which British teenager won a special juvenile Oscar for Walt Disney's Pollyanna and then played twins in The Parent Trap?

Hayley Mills, then 14, could not be at the ceremony, so a fellow Disney star collected the child-size statuette, the last juvenile Oscar the Academy ever gave.

Which US president did Walt Disney recreate as a talking Audio-Animatronic figure for the 1964 New York World's Fair?

Abraham Lincoln rose from his chair and spoke, his lines recorded by Royal Dano, an actor who had played him on screen; fair chief Robert Moses saw a test and insisted on having the figure.

Which newspaper did young Walt Disney deliver before and after school in Missouri?

Walt delivered The Kansas City Star for more than six years, rising at 4:30 a.m. for the route his father had bought in 1911, and often dozed off in class.

Which filmmaking tool, now used across Hollywood, took its modern form at Walt Disney's studio in the early 1930s?

The storyboard, by Walt's account, began when story man Webb Smith pinned his sketches to a board in order; artists found a story easier to judge that way than from a script.

Which Mouseketeer did Walt Disney personally discover at an amateur show in 1955?

Annette Funicello was 12 when Walt spotted her on stage; she became a pop singer on Disney's own record labels as well as a regular in his films and television shows.

Which Surrealist painter began the short film Destino with Walt Disney in the 1940s, though it was finished only in 2003?

Salvador Dalí worked on it at the studio before the project was shelved; decades later Walt's nephew took up the cause and had it finished, and it earned an Oscar nomination.

Which colour film process did Walt Disney secure for cartoons with an exclusive deal in 1932?

Technicolor's new three-strip process was Walt's alone for cartoons until 1935, leaving rival studios with duller two-colour systems while his Silly Symphonies went to full colour.

Disneyland once sold lettered ride coupons; which letter, kept for the biggest thrills, entered American slang?

E tickets joined the park's coupon books in 1959 and lasted until 1982; astronaut Sally Ride later likened her first trip into space to an E ticket ride.

In which short did Mickey Mouse first appear, at a single test screening in May 1928?

Plane Crazy was test-screened on May 15, 1928; it and the second short, The Gallopin' Gaucho, found no distributor, so Disney added synchronized sound to the third attempt.

Which Disney cartoon star was introduced in 1934?

Donald Duck first quacked in The Wise Little Hen in June 1934; his fiery temper made him so popular that he was soon starring in cartoons of his own.

Which 1933 Disney short made a hit of the song Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

The Three Little Pigs won the 1934 cartoon Oscar and proved so popular that Disney brought the pigs and their wolf back for three sequels.

Which 1937 Silly Symphony was the first film made with Disney's multiplane camera?

The Old Mill was a test bed for the storm, light and depth effects Walt needed for his first feature, and it won the cartoon Oscar on its own account.

Where did Walt Disney travel on a 1941 goodwill tour offered by the U.S. government?

South America gave Walt and his artists the sketches for two films; the first, Saludos Amigos, wove their own travel footage between its cartoon segments.

Which future children's author, then an RAF officer, wrote The Gremlins for a Walt Disney film that was never made?

Roald Dahl's tale of imps who sabotage aircraft never reached the screen, but the 1943 picture book made from it became his first book for children.

Which Disney cartoon, renamed after its song became a hit for Spike Jones, won an Oscar in 1943?

Der Fuehrer's Face was first to be a 'Nutziland' title; the nightmare of bayonet drill and shell-making under Hitler ends with its hero waking, relieved, in America.

Which lender, founded by Amadeo Giannini, advanced Walt Disney the money to finish Snow White?

Bank of America's Joe Rosenberg was the man Walt had to persuade; shown a rough cut of the unfinished film, he approved the money to complete it.

Where was Disney's first True-Life Adventure, 1948's Seal Island, filmed?

Alaska's fur seals did not impress Walt's distributor, which doubted anyone would sit through a half-hour nature film; he arranged a cinema run himself, and the film won an Oscar.

Which European amusement park did Walt Disney take as a model for Disneyland?

Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen impressed Walt with its cleanliness, layout and atmosphere; he hoped to recreate that at home, and went back to study it even after his own park had opened.

What was the adult general-admission price when Disneyland opened in 1955?

General admission was $1 for adults and 50 cents for children, but every ride cost extra; the lettered ticket books that bundled them arrived that October.

Which 1950s miniseries on Walt Disney's TV anthology set off a national craze, its theme ballad selling millions?

Davy Crockett died at the Alamo in the third episode, before Walt grasped how popular he was; with no hero left, two more shows had to be made from earlier legends.

Which 1954 Walt Disney epic, with Kirk Douglas as a harpooner, won Oscars for effects and sets?

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea had its giant-squid battle shot twice: the first, calm-sea version disappointed Walt, so it was restaged in a storm, which hid the monster's workings.

Which rocket designer collaborated with Walt Disney on 'Man in Space', a 1955 episode of the Disneyland TV series?

Wernher von Braun's episode aired two years before Sputnik, and President Eisenhower asked for a copy to show the Pentagon's rocket experts.

Which 1955 Disney film was the first animated feature made in CinemaScope?

Lady and the Tramp went widescreen during production, so its artists had to replan scenes and stage the action to fill the broader frame.

Which author refused Walt Disney's bids for her books' film rights for about twenty years before relenting?

P. L. Travers finally sold, then disliked the finished Mary Poppins musical intensely and regretted ever parting with the rights.

Under what pseudonym did Walt Disney take his only story credit, on a 1966 castaway comedy?

Retlaw Yensid is Walter Disney backwards, used on Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.; he played the same trick with Retlaw Enterprises, the family firm that owned his park's steam trains.

In which California city did Walt Disney build the studio, paid for by Snow White, that remains Disney's headquarters?

Burbank's lot opened in 1940; Walt first meant to build his amusement park on a strip of land across the street, until his plans outgrew it.

Where were Walt Disney's ashes interred?

Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale holds his ashes in a marked family plot; Walt was a very private man, and his family kept the funeral small and private to match.

Which 1968 short earned Walt Disney a posthumous Academy Award?

Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day outdid the first Pooh featurette by winning the Oscar; Walt had worked on its story before he died, some two years before its release.

Which songwriting duo, hired by Walt Disney as staff writers, won two Oscars for Mary Poppins?

The Sherman Brothers caught Walt's ear with a pop hit written for one of his Mouseketeers; their Oscars came for the film's score and for the song 'Chim Chim Cher-ee'.

Which arts college did Walt Disney help create by merging the Chouinard Art Institute with a music conservatory?

CalArts was, Walt said, the principal thing he hoped to leave behind, a place to develop the talent of the future; many of its graduates went on to become Disney animators.

Which 1959 Disney fairy tale took its score from Tchaikovsky's ballet of the same story?

Sleeping Beauty also handed its whole look to one painter, Eyvind Earle, whose stylised backgrounds were shot in the wide Technirama 70 format.

Which sport did Walt Disney give up on his doctor's advice after a serious injury?

Polo was Walt's passion from 1932, played at the Riviera Country Club against stars such as Spencer Tracy and Will Rogers, until fractured vertebrae forced him to stop.

Which animator, the creator of Jiminy Cricket, ran a full-size backyard railroad that helped inspire Walt Disney's own?

Ward Kimball ran a full-size steam locomotive on his Grizzly Flats line in San Gabriel; his enthusiasm helped hook Walt on trains, and he and his wife Betty advised on Walt's blueprints.

Before which congressional body did Walt Disney testify in 1947 about communists in Hollywood?

The House Un-American Activities Committee heard Walt name men he called communist agitators; soon afterwards the 'Hollywood Ten' who refused to answer its questions were blacklisted.

Who played Walt Disney in the 2013 film Saving Mr. Banks?

Tom Hanks had to play a lifelong heavy smoker without ever inhaling on screen, because the studio bars smoking in films released under the Disney name.

Which president presented Walt Disney with the Presidential Medal of Freedom?

Lyndon B. Johnson gave Walt the medal in September 1964; John F. Kennedy had created the award in its modern form only the year before.

In which city did the Walt Disney Family Museum open in 2009?

San Francisco's Presidio has housed the museum in a restored building since October 2009; his daughter Diane spearheaded it to honour her father and ran it closely until her death in 2013.

Which future U.S. president co-hosted the televised opening of Disneyland in 1955?

Ronald Reagan, then an actor, was recruited by his friend Art Linkletter, who anchored the live broadcast with him and Bob Cummings; about half the 28,000 people in the park had not been invited.

Which Soviet leader was denied a visit to Disneyland during a U.S. tour?

Nikita Khrushchev was refused the visit on security grounds and made his displeasure loudly known during his stop in Los Angeles in September 1959.

Above which Main Street, U.S.A. building was Walt Disney's private Disneyland apartment?

Walt's apartment sits on the second story of the Main Street Firehouse; after his death a lamp in its window was left burning in his memory.

During World War II, what did squadrons and ships' crews ask Walt Disney's artists to design?

Unit insignia poured out of the studio by the hundred, many built around a Disney character; even the Flying Tigers, who had a mascot of their own in mind, had their emblem drawn by Walt's artists.

What was the special governing district Florida created for Walt Disney World in 1967?

The Reedy Creek Improvement District gave Disney most of the powers of a county, from building codes to its own fire department, until Florida replaced it with a state-run district in 2023.

Which masked hero did Guy Williams play in the Walt Disney television series that ran from 1957 to 1959?

Zorro ran for 78 half-hour episodes; its star became so popular in Latin America that he later retired to Argentina, where he died in 1989.

Which Alfred Hitchcock film had its special effects supervised by Disney's Ub Iwerks?

The Birds needed cleaner composite shots than blue screen could give, because fast-flapping wings left fringes; Iwerks used Disney's sodium-vapor process and earned an Oscar nomination.

Julie Andrews lost which film role shortly before Disney cast her as Mary Poppins?

Passed over for Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady in favour of Audrey Hepburn, Andrews accepted Mary Poppins; she was pregnant when Disney approached her and he delayed filming until after the birth.

What nickname did Walt Disney give his core team of animators?

The Nine Old Men was Walt's joke on a 1930s label for the Supreme Court's elderly justices; Ollie Johnston, the last of the group, died in 2008.

Which son-in-law of Walt Disney rose to become president and CEO of the Disney company?

Ron Miller, husband of Walt's daughter Diane, became president in 1980 and launched Touchstone Films and The Disney Channel, but a shareholder revolt led by Walt's nephew forced him out in 1984.

Which land, dedicated by Walt Disney in July 1966, was the first added to Disneyland after its opening?

New Orleans Square was dedicated with the real mayor of New Orleans at Walt's side; Walt joked that it had cost as much as the Louisiana Purchase.

Which composer turned a novel about Disney into the 2013 opera The Perfect American?

Philip Glass was handed the novel, an unflattering portrait of Walt's last months, by the director of New York City Opera, which commissioned the work; it opened in Madrid in January 2013 instead.