98 Fun Facts About Walt Disney

What iconic cartoon character did Walt Disney co-create with Ub Iwerks in 1928?

Walt Disney and animator Ub Iwerks co-created Mickey Mouse in 1928, with Iwerks doing nearly all the drawing on the earliest Mickey shorts himself.

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

Walt Disney was born on December 5, 1901, in Chicago, Illinois. His family later moved to Marceline, Missouri, when he was four years old.

What was the first full-length animated feature film produced by Walt Disney?

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre on December 21, 1937, and briefly held the record as the highest-grossing sound film until Gone with the Wind.

What theme park did Walt Disney open in Anaheim, California, in 1955?

Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955, in Anaheim, California. It was the first Disney theme park and was personally overseen by Walt Disney himself.

What was Mickey Mouse's original name, before Walt Disney's wife suggested Mickey instead?

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

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

Lillian Bounds married Walt Disney on July 13, 1925. She worked as an ink-and-paint artist at the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio before their marriage.

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

Steamboat Willie (1928) was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon to be released and the first to feature a fully synchronized soundtrack throughout the entire film.

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

Roy handled the money and Walt the drawing, and the partnership grew into The Walt Disney Company.

In what year did Walt Disney pass away?

Walt Disney died on December 15, 1966, at the age of 65, from lung cancer. He passed away just ten days after his 65th birthday.

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 was made for Universal in 1927, and Mickey was created as his replacement after a contractual dispute took him away.

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

Walt Disney spent part of his childhood in Marceline, Missouri, from 1906 to 1911. His fond memories of the town's Main Street directly inspired the design of Main Street, U.S.A. at Disneyland.

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

The Jungle Book, released in October 1967, was the last animated feature Walt Disney personally produced; he died during its production, and Wolfgang Reitherman directed it.

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

Fantasia (1940) was the first commercial film to use Fantasound, a pioneering stereo sound system developed by Disney and RCA engineers. It was decades ahead of its time in multi-channel audio.

What did Hollywood critics nickname Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs during production?

Hollywood dubbed the project 'Disney's Folly'; Walt's wife and brother Roy both tried to talk him out of it, he mortgaged his house to finish it, and Snow White became the highest-grossing film of 1938.

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

The studio turned mostly to training and propaganda films, from Four Methods of Flush Riveting to Donald Duck shorts urging people to pay taxes and buy war bonds; by 1942 about 90 percent of its staff worked on war-related pictures.

Which Disney film introduced the Brazilian parrot José Carioca?

José Carioca, the cigar-smoking Brazilian parrot, first appeared in Saludos Amigos (1942) and returned alongside Donald Duck in The Three Caballeros (1944).

What 1964 Disney film combined live-action actors with animated characters and won five Academy Awards?

Mary Poppins (1964) starred Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke and seamlessly blended live-action with animation. It won five Academy Awards including Best Actress for Andrews and Best Visual Effects.

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 Kansas City 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 (1932) was the first commercially released film to be produced entirely in three-strip Technicolor. It won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

Disney's earliest Audio-Animatronic prototype, the 'Dancing Man', copied the tap routine of which actor?

Ebsen, later Jed Clampett of The Beverly Hillbillies, was filmed dancing so the engineers could reproduce his moves; the term Audio-Animatronics was first used commercially in 1961.

What was the original name of Walt Disney's park design team, now Walt Disney Imagineering?

WED Enterprises, named for Walt's initials, was the private company he founded in December 1952 to design Disneyland; it was renamed Walt Disney Imagineering in 1986.

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

Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room, which opened at Disneyland on June 23, 1963, was the first attraction to feature Audio-Animatronics technology, with over 150 singing birds, flowers, and tiki gods.

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

EPCOT stood for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. Walt envisioned it as a real, functioning city of 20,000 residents showcasing futuristic urban planning and technology. After his death, the concept was changed to a theme park.

What did it cost to build Disneyland in 1955, after barely a year of construction?

Disneyland cost about $17 million to build; construction began on July 16, 1954, barely a year before the park opened on July 17, 1955.

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

ABC put up $500,000 plus loan guarantees for a stake in Disneyland in return for the weekly show; Disney bought out ABC's share in 1960 and bought the whole network in 1996.

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

Staff dubbed July 17, 1955 'Black Sunday': rides broke down, fresh asphalt softened enough to trap women's heels, and counterfeit tickets swelled the invited crowd to roughly 28,000.

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

Pirates of the Caribbean was the last attraction Walt Disney personally oversaw. It opened at Disneyland on March 18, 1967, just three months after his death in December 1966.

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?

Watching his daughters on the Griffith Park merry-go-round, Walt wanted a clean place where parents could have fun alongside their children instead of sitting on a bench eating peanuts.

What did Walt Disney do during World War I, despite being too young to enlist?

He forged his birth date to become a Red Cross ambulance driver, reached France only after the armistice, and decorated his ambulance with cartoons; some of his drawings ran in Stars and Stripes.

What did the honorary Oscar Walt Disney received for Snow White physically consist of?

In 1939, Walt Disney received one full-sized Oscar statuette and seven miniature ones for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, presented by child star Shirley Temple. It recognized the film as a significant screen innovation.

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

Alice Comedies put a live-action girl into an animated world alongside a cartoon cat named Julius; the series ran from 1923 to 1927 and was the first from the Disney Brothers studio.

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

The 160 acres were orange groves with some walnut trees; Disney had hired the Stanford Research Institute to pick the Anaheim site, chosen for its spot beside the planned Santa Ana Freeway.

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 fairy tale did Walt Disney consider for his first feature before choosing Snow White?

The Alice idea was dropped when Paramount announced its own version; Disney then toyed with a Rip Van Winkle film starring Will Rogers before settling on Snow White. Alice would not reach screens until 1951.

How many daughters did Walt Disney have?

Walt and Lillian Disney had two daughters, Diane, born in 1933, and Sharon, born in 1936; Diane later co-founded the Walt Disney Family Museum.

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

The Skeleton Dance (1929) was the first Silly Symphony cartoon. It featured skeletons dancing in a graveyard and was animated by Ub Iwerks. The Silly Symphonies series focused on music and artistic experimentation.

What 1941 event severely impacted the Disney studio and Walt's relationship with his employees?

The Disney animators' strike of 1941 lasted five weeks and deeply wounded Walt personally. He saw it as a betrayal by his employees. The strike resulted in better wages and working conditions but forever changed the studio's family-like atmosphere.

What code name did Walt Disney use while quietly buying land for Walt Disney World?

Disney called it 'The Florida Project', buying the land through dummy corporations to keep prices down; the Orlando Sentinel unmasked the buyer in October 1965 and Walt announced the plan that November.

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

Ferdinand the Bull, released by RKO on November 25, 1938 as a stand-alone Special rather than a Silly Symphony, won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons).

What Disney attraction was originally created for the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair?

It's a Small World was originally created for the UNICEF pavilion at the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair. After the fair ended, the attraction was relocated to Disneyland in 1966.

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.

What was the estimated total cost of producing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs?

The final bill was $1,488,422.74, about $1.5 million; Walt mortgaged his house to get it finished, and it earned more than $8 million on its first release.

What did Walt Disney originally provide for Mickey Mouse that no one else did until 1947?

Walt Disney personally provided the voice of Mickey Mouse from 1928 until 1947, when sound effects artist Jimmy MacDonald took over. Walt voiced Mickey in over 100 cartoons during that period.

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

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe ran past the family farm, where Walt's uncle Mike Martin drove its engines; as an adult Disney built a rideable miniature railroad in his backyard.

Which Disney film was the first animated feature ever nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, years before an animated category existed?

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.

In what year was Walt Disney Productions renamed The Walt Disney Company?

Walt Disney Productions became The Walt Disney Company on February 6, 1986, under new chief executive Michael Eisner; the business had begun in October 1923 as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio.

In which Chicago neighborhood was Walt Disney born in 1901?

He was born in the Hermosa neighborhood, at 1249 North Tripp Avenue in a cottage his father had built; the family left for a Missouri farm when he was four.

What was the name of Walt Disney's younger sister, born in 1903?

Ruth, born December 6, 1903, was the fifth and last child after four sons; Walt's schooling was delayed so the two could start school together in 1909.

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.

At which Kansas City studio did Walt Disney first befriend Ub Iwerks?

Walt met Iwerks at the Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio in 1919; both were laid off in January 1920 when revenue dipped after Christmas, and they briefly ran their own firm, Iwerks-Disney.

Which child actress starred as Alice in Disney's 1923 short Alice's Wonderland?

Virginia Davis, then four, played Alice; her family moved from Kansas City to Hollywood so she could keep making the Alice Comedies on a contract of $100 a month.

Which distributor signed Disney's first contract for six Alice comedies in 1923?

Margaret J. Winkler, who was losing the rights to Out of the Inkwell and Felix the Cat, signed Disney on October 16, 1923 to deliver six Alice comedies.

How old was Walt Disney when he moved to Hollywood in July 1923?

Born in December 1901, he was 21 when he arrived in July 1923 hoping to become a live-action director; he chose Los Angeles partly because brother Roy was convalescing from tuberculosis there.

Which sound system did Disney license from Pat Powers for his early sound cartoons?

Powers Cinephone, an unlicensed copy of Lee de Forest's Phonofilm system, recorded Disney's first sound cartoons; Powers also distributed them, then lured Ub Iwerks away in 1930 when Disney asked for better terms.

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.

Where did Walt and his wife take an extended holiday after his 1931 nervous breakdown?

Walt blamed the 1931 breakdown on overwork and Pat Powers' business tactics; he and his wife recovered with a holiday in Cuba followed by a cruise to Panama.

Which Disney cartoon star was introduced in 1934?

Donald Duck debuted in the June 1934 Silly Symphony The Wise Little Hen; Pluto had arrived in 1930 and Goofy in 1932.

Which 1933 short has been called "the most successful short animation of all time"?

The Three Little Pigs, with its song 'Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?', won the 1934 cartoon Oscar; its success pushed staff to nearly 200 and led Disney to set up a separate story department.

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

The Old Mill (1937) won the Oscar for animated short, and Disney had some already-completed Snow White scenes redone to use the camera's new depth effect.

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

The South America tour, offered by the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, took Disney and a team of artists to Brazil, Argentina and Chile from August 1941, gathering material for two package films.

Which studio did former Disney animators found in 1943, later known for Mr. Magoo?

United Productions of America (UPA), formed in 1943 by ex-Disney artists including Stephen Bosustow, made its flatter, stylized look a major alternative to Disney realism.

Which wartime Disney propaganda short won an Academy Award?

Der Fuehrer's Face, in which Donald Duck dreams he works in a Nazi munitions factory, won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short in 1943; Disney also released the feature Victory Through Air Power that year.

Whose founder, Amadeo Giannini, urged his executives to "give them time" on Disney's debt?

Bank of America founder Amadeo Giannini told his loan officers he had been watching the Disney pictures closely and judged them good for years to come, so the bank kept lending.

Which 1948 film launched Disney's True-Life Adventures series of live-action nature documentaries?

Seal Island won the Oscar for two-reel short subject, and the series later earned Disney the National Audubon Society's Audubon Medal.

Which Copenhagen amusement park heavily influenced Disney's plans for his own park?

Walt visited Tivoli Gardens in 1951 and was struck by its cleanliness and layout; Greenfield Village and the Chicago Railroad Fair were other inspirations.

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

General admission was $1 for adults and 50 cents for children on July 17, 1955, with rides charged separately at 10 to 35 cents each; the lettered ticket books arrived that October.

Which miniseries on Disney's TV anthology became an "overnight sensation" in the 1950s?

Davy Crockett, starring Fess Parker, became an overnight sensation in 1954–55; its theme ballad sold ten million records, prompting Walt to start his own label, Disneyland Records.

What projection format did Disney's America the Beautiful use at the 1959 Moscow fair?

Circarama projected film on a ring of screens surrounding the audience; the 19-minute America the Beautiful was among the most popular attractions at the 1959 American National Exhibition in Moscow.

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.

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

Lady and the Tramp (1955) was the first animated feature made in CinemaScope; Sleeping Beauty (1959) followed as the first in Technirama 70 mm.

Which author refused Walt Disney's bids for her books' film rights from 1938 until she finally relented in 1961?

P. L. Travers gave in with script-approval rights, disliked the finished Mary Poppins musical intensely, and regretted selling.

Under what pseudonym did Disney take a story credit on 1966's Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.?

It is his name spelled backwards; the same trick named the Yensid Valley shelf behind his Holmby Hills home.

To which Burbank hospital, across from his studio, was Walt Disney taken before his death?

St. Joseph Hospital in Burbank, across the street from the Disney studio, admitted him by ambulance from home on November 30, 1966; he died there of circulatory collapse caused by lung cancer, aged 65.

Where were Walt Disney's ashes interred?

He was cremated two days after his death and his ashes interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, where his widow Lillian was later buried alongside him.

Which 1968 short earned Walt Disney a posthumous Academy Award?

Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968) won the Oscar for Best Animated Short, credited to Walt Disney as producer more than two years after his death.

Which of Walt Disney's daughters was adopted?

Sharon, born December 31, 1936, was adopted at six weeks old; the family never hid the adoption but disliked outsiders raising it.

In which Los Angeles neighborhood did Disney build his 1949 home and backyard railroad?

The Carolwood Pacific ran through the garden of his Holmby Hills home on Carolwood Drive; Walt even had his lawyers draw up a tongue-in-cheek right-of-way contract signed by his wife and daughters.

Which studio engineer built Disney's 1:8-scale backyard locomotive?

Roger E. Broggie of the studio machine shop built the Lilly Belle, its design copied from blueprints of the Central Pacific No. 173; Walt built the wooden cab and most of the caboose himself.

Which sport did Walt Disney give up in the late 1930s after a serious injury?

Walt played polo with Hollywood friends at the Riviera Country Club from 1932 until a bad fall injured his neck and his doctor ordered him to stop; the injury troubled him for the rest of his life.

Which animator's full-size Grizzly Flats Railroad helped inspire Disney's own line?

Ollie Johnston had a ridable miniature railroad too; Kimball and his wife Betty helped Walt with his blueprints.

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

Walt told the House Un-American Activities Committee on October 24, 1947 that communists had tried to take over his studio through its animators' union and had smeared him as a labor exploiter.

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

Tom Hanks played Walt in Saving Mr. Banks, which dramatised the 1961 negotiations over the Mary Poppins film rights and cast Emma Thompson as the book's author.

Which president awarded Walt Disney the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964?

Lyndon B. Johnson presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Disney on September 14, 1964; Congress followed with a posthumous Congressional Gold Medal in May 1968.

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

The museum opened in October 2009 in the Presidio of San Francisco, founded by his daughter Diane; his backyard locomotive is on display there.

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

Ronald Reagan, then a Hollywood actor, co-hosted ABC's live broadcast with Art Linkletter and Bob Cummings; thousands of the 28,000 attendees had counterfeit tickets or climbed the fence.

Which Soviet leader was denied a visit to Disneyland during his 1959 U.S. tour?

Nikita Khrushchev was told the Los Angeles police could not guarantee his safety at Disneyland, and famously fumed about it at a Hollywood studio luncheon 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.

Which Florida governor hosted the November 1965 press conference announcing Disney's Orlando project?

Governor Haydon Burns hosted the November 15, 1965 press conference at Orlando's Cherry Plaza Hotel, where Walt and Roy Disney confirmed the Florida project and Walt sketched out his city-of-tomorrow ideas.

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

Florida's legislature created the Reedy Creek Improvement District in May 1967, giving Disney near-municipal control of building codes, utilities and roads across its roughly 39 square miles.

In which U.S. military branch did Walt Disney's brother Roy serve in World War I?

Roy enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1917; tuberculosis cut his service short, and he was convalescing at a Los Angeles veterans hospital when Walt asked him to help start the studio.

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

Iwerks supervised the sodium-vapor travelling-matte work on The Birds (1963), much of it done at the Disney studio, earning him a 1964 Oscar nomination for special effects.

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.

Who was the last surviving member of Disney's Nine Old Men, dying in 2008?

Ollie Johnston died in April 2008 at 95, the last of the Nine Old Men; he and Frank Thomas had a voiced cameo as two old men in The Incredibles (2004).

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

Ron Miller, a USC football player who married Diane in 1954 after a blind date, became president of Walt Disney Productions in 1980 and CEO in 1983; the couple later founded Silverado Vineyards in Napa.

Which author referenced Disney and one of his ducks in the novel The Holy Terror?

In H. G. Wells's The Holy Terror, the world dictator Rud Whitlow suspects a Disney duck cartoon is meant to lampoon him.

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

Philip Glass's opera The Perfect American premiered at Madrid's Teatro Real in January 2013; it adapts Peter Stephan Jungk's 2001 novel Der König von Amerika, an unflattering portrait of Disney's final months.