Drawing Dreams: Walt Disney’s Early Life
Walt Disney is a household name in American culture and entertainment. His childhood was a tough one, but it helped him to become the man the world knew and loved. Here is what you need to know about the childhood of Walter “Walt” Disney.
This is how the dream begin
Drawing Dreams: Walt Disney’s Early Life
Drawing Dreams was how the extraordinary journey of Walt Disney began
Walt Disney, one of the most recognized names in American entertainment culture, wasn’t always famous. Born on December 5, 1901, in Chicago, Walt was the fourth son (and fourth overall out of five children) of Elias Disney and Flora Call.
Drawing Dreams: Walt Disney’s Early Life
He had three older brothers — Herbert, Raymond, and Roy — and a younger sister, Ruth. The Disneys were a farm family in the Midwest in early 20th century America. It doesn’t get more humble and obscure than that. It was Walt’s early experiences on the farm, however, that helped hone his already keen imagination to become the animation powerhouse we know him for today. Here is a look at the childhood of Walt Disney, and how it shaped him to become the man the world knows and loves.
After moving to Kansas City, Missouri when he was ten, Walt attended the Benton Grammar School. It was there that he met and befriended a fellow student named Walter Pfeiffer. Walter’s family were fans of the theater and introduced young Walt Disney to vaudeville and the movies.
Drawing Dreams: Walt Disney’s Early Life
When Walt was 16, Elias moved the family back to Chicago. Elias had purchased stock in the O-Zell Company there and took a job in the management of the company, which was headquartered there. While in Chicago, Walt attended McKinley High School, where he became the cartoonist for the school’s newspaper. As the school’s cartoonist, he drew cartoons about WWI that were patriotic in nature. He took night classes at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.
Looking to get away from Elias, Walt tried to join the war in 1918, but the Army rejected him because he was still under 18. He tried again, forging his birth date on his birth certificate. With the forged document in hand, he was able to join the Red Cross as an ambulance driver and was sent to France. However, he arrived there after the armistice so didn’t get to do much. Instead, he spent his short time in France drawing cartoons on the side of his ambulance, and some of his work was published in the Stars and Stripes, which was the Army’s newspaper.