2. Walt Disney was a high school dropout. Walt was just 16 when he left school to join the Red Cross Ambulance Corps, wanting to do his part in World War I. But because he was just shy of the minimum age requirement of 17, he forged a different date on his birth certificate.
How old was Walt Disney when he dropped out of school?
In 1917, his father sold the paper route and moved the family back to Chicago, where he was employed at a jelly and fruit juice company. An inattentive student who drew constantly, Walt dropped out of high school at 16.
Having attended just one year of high school, Walt left his formal education behind in 1918 to serve in the aftermath of World War I as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross. Instead of learning from behind a desk, Walt pieced together an education through his own life experiences, using the world as his classroom.
Walt Disney was a heavy smoker for most of his life, beginning with his time in France in WWI. Because of this, he was diagnosed with lung cancer in his mid-60's, and died from it shortly after turning 65. However, he was far from forgotten. Walt left a mark on the world that continues to this day.
After the war, Walt returned to Kansas City, where he began his career as an advertising cartoonist. Here, in 1920, he created and marketed his first original animated cartoons, and later perfected a new method for combining live-action and animation.
In 1938, Walt received a Master of Science from the University of Southern California (USC) and two Masters of Arts degrees from Yale University and Harvard University.
Walt was just 16 when he left school to join the Red Cross Ambulance Corps, wanting to do his part in World War I. But because he was just shy of the minimum age requirement of 17, he forged a different date on his birth certificate.
Roy Oliver Disney was, with his younger brother Walter Disney, the co-founder of what is now The Walt Disney Company. After Walt died, Roy became the chairman of the company.
He was the fourth of five children, and his family had very little money--which is why they bounced from Chicago to a Missouri farm to Kansas City in search of a living. Two of his older brothers ran away when he was just 4, sick of the constant work and deprivations.
It was 100 years ago that Walt Disney founded The Walt Disney Company The company has become a pop culture empire — with movies such as Fantasia and Frozen. To celebrate the milestone anniversary, Disney is releasing a restored 4k version of the 1937 film Snow White.
The short answer is that Walt was never in the military, so he couldn't be discharged—either honorably or dishonorably. However, most legends have some basis in fact, and here is the true story as told by Walt himself: “It was in February…they sent me with a white truck. I was the driver and I had a helper.
While still in high school, Walt started taking night courses at the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago. He then dropped out at the age of 16 in hopes of joining the army but was rejected due to his age. Instead, he forged a birth certificate, joined the Red Cross, and was sent to France for a year to drive an ambulance.
1901 Walter Elias Disney is born in Chicago to Elias Disney and Flora Call Disney. 1906 The Disneys move to Marceline, MO, where Walt has an idyllic childhood on a farm and develops a strong interest in drawing.
Although Walt went through many struggles and problems, he pushed on and eventually saw results for all his hard work. Many hardships got in Disney's way such as unsupportive parents and even bankruptcy; Walt pushed on through, always creating, working hard, and persevering to accomplish his dream.
Early in 1925, Disney hired an ink artist, Lillian Bounds. They married in July of that year, at her brother's house in her home town of Lewiston, Idaho.
Walt Disney gets all the credit for creating Mickey Mouse, but it was actually his best friend Ub Iwerks who first brought the iconic character to life in 1928. For more stories like this one, subscribe to A People's History of Kansas City on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher.
Walt Disney was an international celebrity by the time he was 30 and hailed a genius before he was 40, with honorary degrees from Harvard and Yale. He was also a son, a brother, a father, and a husband.
Was Walt Disney the original voice of Mickey Mouse?
Mickey Mouse was voiced by just three voice actors between 1929 and 2009. Walt Disney lent his voice to Mickey beginning in 1929. Jimmy MacDonald took over in 1946. Wayne Allwine voiced Mickey beginning in 1983 and continued for the next 32 years, until his death in 2009.
It's not known just how much the Disney family is worth. GOBankingRates estimated the company's net worth to be roughly $130 billion. Roy O.'s grandson, Roy P., said at one point that the family owns less than 3% of the company.
At the time of his death, he was working on EPCOT, which he foresaw as an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow—a fully functioning city attached to Disney World in which he could try out ideas of urban planning.
