Walter Elias Disney was born on the 5th of December, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois. He spent his childhood on a farm near Marceline, Missouri. Walt started drawing at very early age and when he turned 7 he was already selling his sketches to the neighbors. Although, Walt Disney’s father worked hard to support his wife and five children, the family still had to count every penny. Walt had to start working young, selling candies and newspapers on the train that traveled between Kansas City and Chicago, Illinois. He also took some art lessons at McKinley High School in Chicago.

In 1918 Disney dropped out of high school to serve in World War I. Rejected because he was only 16 years old at the time, he still joined the Red Cross and was sent to France, where he spent a year driving ambulances. When people saw Disney’s ambulance they always followed it with a smile, because instead of the stock camouflage it was covered with Disney cartoons.

After returning to the US, Disney won a scholarship to the Kansas City Art Institute. There he met one of his best friends Ub Iwwerks. Together they started their own company Laugh-O-Grams, which eventually fell bankrupt. In August 1923 with his suitcase, a few drawing materials and a twenty dollar bill, Walt Disney headed to Hollywood to meet his brother Roy O. Disney and to start anew. Ub Iwerks joined them shortly after. Soon they received an order from New York for the first “Alice Comedies”, distributed by M.J. Winkler. Business took off and Walt could afford to hire more people to join his team. On July 13, 1925, Walt married one of his first employees, Lillian Bounds and later on they would be blessed with two daughters, Diane and Sharon.

By 1927 the “Alice Comedies” started to lose their popularity and the brothers began working on a new animated character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. This series was successful, but in 1928, Walt discovered that M.J. Winkler and her husband, Charles Mintz had not only stolen the rights to the character from him, but also all of his animators, except for Ub Iwerks. The rights to the Oswald trademark, was now owned by Universal.

Taking the train back home and trying to take his mind of the fact that the people he had trusted and worked together with for so long had betrayed him, Walt started doodling on a piece of paper. The result of these doodles was a mouse named Mickey.

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