On the 16th of October 2023, the Walt Disney Company marked 100 years of its existence. It has a fascinating history. It was 100 years ago when Walt Elias Disney founded the Walt Disney Company.
Walt Disney left his unsuccessful animation company called Laugh-O-gram Films, used his last $40 to get on a train to join his brother, Roy, in Los Angeles. There they began making animated films out of their uncle's garage. Today Disney is a worldwide known Company employing over 200.000 people and is worth more than $150b. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was Disney’s first animated movie, which was based on the fairytale by the brothers Grimm, and it will now be released as a 4k version of the 1937 movie to mark the occasion.
Walt Disney was born on December the 5th 1901 in Chicago, Illinois. He had unfortunately passed away on the 15th of December 1966 in Burbank, California. He was 65 when he died.
His company’s biggest hits were Lion King, Frozen 2, Moana, Beauty and the Beast, Incredibles 2, Little Mermaid and many more.
The next big thing for Walt Disney, after his movies, was to build an enormous amusement park. While he was on the playground with his daughter, he thought that he should create a place where parents and kids can have fun. That led to the creation of Disneyland, which opened in 1955, but, the opening day for Disneyland Park was a catastrophe. Tens of thousands of people showed up, but the rides and plumbing did not work, roads and restaurants were overwhelmed. Still, it became a success. After Disneyland in California, Walt Disney set his sight on another location. Florida would become the home of Disneyworld, built on an area slightly bigger than Paris. He wanted this to become the city of the future. Unfortunately, Walt Disney passed away before the park was completed. His brother helped finish Disneyworld, but sadly also died two months before the opening. Despite all this, it still became a massive success. To this day 10 more Disney amusement parks have been established across the globe, for example in Paris and Tokyo.
The Walt Disney Company created Disney Plus, a streaming service, which was launched on November the 12th 2019. It features over 500 movies and more than 350 TV series. This became extremely popular during the pandemic, because people could not visit cinemas to watch new movies and this service was the only one to stream all Disney movies.
Walt Disney was one of the most successful film producers of all time and has been awarded 26 Academy Awards, holding the record for the most Academy Awards in history. He also holds the records for most wins and most nominations as an individual. He won 26 Acadamy Awards; 3 Golden Globes and one Emmy.
Walt Disney goes down in history as one of the most prolific people in the movie industry after he has captured the hearts of millions of people.