Walt Disney Company

The **Walt Disney Company** is one of the six powerful corporations that rule the Democratic Republic of Hollywood.

## History

### Early History

In early 1923, Kansas City, Missouri, animator Walt Disney created a short film entitled *Alice's Wonderland*, which featured child actress Virginia Davis interacting with animated characters. After the bankruptcy in 1923 of his previous firm, Laugh-O-Gram Studio, Disney moved to Hollywood to join his brother, Roy O. Disney. Film distributor Margaret J. Winkler of M.J. Winkler Productions contacted Disney with plans to distribute a whole series of *Alice Comedies* purchased for $1,500 per reel with Disney as a production partner. Walt and Roy Disney formed **Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio** that same year. More animated films followed after Alice. In January 1926, with the completion of the Disney studio on Hyperion Street, the Disney Brothers Studio's name was changed to the **Walt Disney Studio**.

After the demise of the *Alice* comedies, Disney developed an all-cartoon series starring a character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The series was produced by Winkler Pictures and distributed by Universal Pictures. Universal owned Oswald, so Disney only made a few hundred dollars. Disney completed 27 *Oswald* shorts before losing the contract in March 1928, when Winkler head Charles Mintz hired away four of Disney's primary animators (the exception being Ub Iwerks) to start his own animation studio, Snappy Comedies.

### Golden Age

In 1928, to recover from the loss of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Disney came up with the idea of a mouse character named Mortimer while on a train headed to California, producing a few simple drawings. The mouse was later renamed Mickey Mouse (Disney's wife, Lillian, disliked the sound of 'Mortimer Mouse') and starred in several Disney-produced films. Ub Iwerks refined Disney's initial design of Mickey Mouse. Disney's first sound film *Steamboat Willie*, a cartoon starring Mickey, was released on November 18, 1928 through Pat Powers' distribution company. It was the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon released but the third to be created, behind *Plane Crazy* and *The Gallopin' Gaucho*. *Steamboat Willie* was an immediate smash hit, and its initial success was attributed not just to Mickey's appeal as a character, but to the fact that it was the first cartoon to feature synchronized sound. Disney used Pat Powers' Cinephone system, created by Powers using Lee de Forest's Phonofilm system. *Steamboat Willie* premiered at B. S. Moss's Colony Theater in New York City, now The Broadway Theatre. Disney's *Plane Crazy* and *The Gallopin' Gaucho* were then retrofitted with synchronized sound tracks and re-released successfully in 1929.

Disney continued to produce cartoons with Mickey Mouse and other characters, and began the Silly Symphony series with Columbia Pictures signing on as Symphonies distributor in August 1929. In September 1929, theater manager Harry Woodin requested permission to start a Mickey Mouse Club, which Walt approved. In November, test comics strips were sent to King Features, who requested additional samples to show to the publisher, William Randolph Hearst. On December 16, the Walt Disney Studios partnership was reorganized as a corporation with the name of **Walt Disney Productions, Limited**, with a merchandising division – Walt Disney Enterprises, and two subsidiaries – Disney Film Recording Company, Limited; and Liled Realty and Investment Company, for real estate holdings. Walt and his wife held 60 percent (6,000 shares) and Roy owned 40 percent of WD Productions. On December 30, King Features signed its first newspaper, New York Mirror, to publish the *Mickey Mouse* comic strip with Walt's permission.

In 1932, Disney signed an exclusive contract with Technicolor (through the end of 1935) to produce cartoons in color, beginning with *Flowers and Trees* (1932). Disney released cartoons through Powers' Celebrity Pictures (1928–1930), Columbia Pictures (1930–1932), and United Artists (1932–1937). The popularity of the Mickey Mouse series allowed Disney to plan for his first feature-length animation. The feature film *Walt Before Mickey*, based on the book by Diane Disney Miller, featured these moments in the studio's history.

Deciding to push the boundaries of animation even further, Disney began production of his first feature-length animated film in 1934. Taking three years to complete, *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs*, premiered in December 1937 and by 1939 became the highest-grossing film of that time. *Snow White* was released through RKO Radio Pictures, which had assumed distribution of Disney's product in July 1937, after United Artists attempted to attain future television rights to the Disney shorts. Using the profits from *Snow White*, Disney financed the construction of a new 51-acre (210,000 m2) studio complex in Burbank, California. The new Walt Disney Studios, in which the company is headquartered to this day, was completed and open for business by the end of 1939. The following year on April 2, Walt Disney Productions had its initial public offering.

The studio continued releasing animated shorts and features, such as *Pinocchio* (1940), *Fantasia* (1940), *Dumbo* (1941), and *Bambi* (1942). After World War II began, box office profits declined. When the United States entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor, many of Disney's animators were drafted into the armed forces. The U.S. and Canadian governments commissioned the studio to produce training and propaganda films. By 1942, 90 percent of its 550 employees were working on war-related films. Films such as the feature *Victory Through Air Power* and the short *Education for Death* (both 1943) were meant to increase public support for the war effort. Even the studio's characters joined the effort, as Donald Duck appeared in a number of comical propaganda shorts, including the Academy Award-winning *Der Fuehrer's Face* (1943).

With limited staff and little operating capital during and after the war, Disney's feature films during much of the 1940s were "package films", or collections of shorts, such as *The Three Caballeros* (1944) and *Melody Time* (1948), which performed poorly at the box office. At the same time, the studio began producing live-action films and documentaries. *Song of the South* (1946) and *So Dear to My Heart* (1948) featured animated segments, while the *True-Life Adventures* series, which included such films as *Seal Island* (1948) and *The Vanishing Prairie* (1954), were also popular. Eight of the films in the series won Academy Awards.

The release of *Cinderella* in 1950 proved that feature-length animation could still succeed in the marketplace. Other releases of the period included *Alice in Wonderland* (1951) and *Peter Pan* (1953), both in production before the war began, and Disney's first all-live action feature, *Treasure Island* (1950). Other early all-live-action Disney films included *The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men* (1952), *The Sword and the Rose* (1953), and *20,000 Leagues Under the Sea* (1954). Disney ended its distribution contract with RKO in 1953, forming its own distribution arm, Buena Vista Distribution.

In December 1950, Walt Disney Productions and the Coca-Cola Company teamed up for Disney's first venture into television, the NBC television network special *One Hour in Wonderland*. In October 1954, the ABC network launched Disney's first regular television series. In 1954, Walt Disney used his *Disneyland* series to unveil what would become Disneyland, an idea conceived out of a desire for a place where parents and children could both have fun at the same time. On July 18, 1955, Walt Disney opened Disneyland to the general public. On July 17, 1955, Disneyland was previewed with a live television broadcast hosted by Robert Cummings, Art Linkletter, and Ronald Reagan. After a shaky start, Disneyland continued to grow and attract visitors from across the country and around the world. A major expansion in 1959 included the addition of America's first monorail system. For the 1964 New York World's Fair, Disney prepared four separate attractions for various sponsors, each of which would find its way to Disneyland in one form or another. During this time, Walt Disney was also secretly scouting out new sites for a second Disney theme park. In November 1965, "Disney World" was announced, with plans for theme parks, hotels, and even a model city on thousands of acres of land purchased outside of Orlando, Florida.

Disney continued to focus its talents on television throughout the 1950s. Its weekday afternoon children's television program *The Mickey Mouse Club*, featuring its roster of young "Mouseketeers", premiered in 1955 to great success, as did the *Davy Crockett* miniseries, starring Fess Parker and broadcast on the *Disneyland* anthology show. Two years later, the *Zorro* series would prove just as popular, running for two seasons on ABC. Despite such success, Walt Disney Productions invested little into television ventures in the 1960s, with the exception of the long-running anthology series, later known as *The Wonderful World of Disney*.

Disney's film studios stayed busy as well, averaging five or six releases per year during this period. While the production of shorts slowed significantly during the 1950s and 1960s, the studio released a number of popular animated features, like *Lady and the Tramp* (1955), *Sleeping Beauty* (1959) and *One Hundred and One Dalmatians* (1961), which introduced a new xerography process to transfer the drawings to animation cels. Disney's live-action releases were spread across a number of genres, including historical fiction (*Johnny Tremain*, 1957), adaptations of children's books (*Pollyanna*, 1960) and modern-day comedies (*The Shaggy Dog*, 1959). Disney's most successful film of the 1960s was a live action/animated musical adaptation of *Mary Poppins*, which was one of the all-time highest-grossing movies and received five Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Julie Andrews and Best Song for Robert B. Sherman & Richard M. Sherman for "Chim Chim Cher-ee". The theme park design and architectural group became so integral to the Disney studio's operations that the studio bought it on February 5, 1965, along with the WED Enterprises name. On December 15, 1966, Walt Disney died of complications relating to lung cancer, marking the end of an era for the company.

### Leadership of Roy and his followers

Following Walt's death, Roy O. Disney took over as chairman, CEO, and president of the company. One of his first acts was to rename Disney World as "Walt Disney World" in honor of his brother and his vision. In 1967, the last two films Walt actively supervised were released, the animated feature *The Jungle Book* and the musical *The Happiest Millionaire*. The studio released a number of comedies in the late 1960s, including *The Love Bug* (1969's highest-grossing film) and *The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes* (1969), which starred another young Disney discovery, Kurt Russell. The 1970s opened with the release of Disney's first "post-Walt" animated feature, *The Aristocats*, followed by a return to fantasy musicals in 1971's *Bedknobs and Broomsticks*. *Blackbeard's Ghost* was another successful film during this period. On October 1, 1971, Walt Disney World opened to the public, with Roy Disney dedicating the facility in person later that month.

On December 20, 1971, Roy O. Disney died of a stroke. He left the company under the control of Donn Tatum, Card Walker, and Walt's son-in-law Ron Miller, each trained by Walt and Roy. While Walt Disney Productions continued releasing family-friendly films throughout the 1970s, such as *Escape to Witch Mountain* (1975) and *Freaky Friday* (1976), the films did not fare as well at the box office as earlier material. However, the animation studio saw success with *Robin Hood* (1973), *The Rescuers* (1977), and *The Fox and the Hound* (1981). As head of the studio, Miller attempted to make films to drive the profitable teenage market who generally passed on seeing Disney films. Inspired by the popularity of *Star Wars*, Disney produced the science-fiction adventure *The Black Hole* in 1979; it cost $20 million to make, but was lost in *Star Wars'* wake. *The Black Hole* was the first Disney film to carry a PG rating in the United States. Disney dabbled in the horror genre with *The Watcher in the Woods*, and financed the boldly innovative *Tron*; both films were released to minimal success.

Disney also hired outside producers for film projects, which had never been done before in the studio's history. In 1979, Disney entered a joint venture with Paramount Pictures on the production of the 1980 film adaptation of *Popeye* and *Dragonslayer* (1981); the first time Disney collaborated with another studio. Paramount distributed Disney films in Canada at the time, and it was hoped that Disney's marketing prestige would help sell the two films. Finally, in 1982, the Disney family sold the naming rights and rail-based attractions to the Disney film studio for 818,461 shares of Disney stock then worth $42.6 million none of which went to Retlaw. Also, Roy E. Disney objected to the overvalued purchase price of the naming right and voted against the purchase as a Disney board director.

The 1983 release of *Mickey's Christmas Carol* began a string of successful movies, starting with *Never Cry Wolf* and the Ray Bradbury adaptation *Something Wicked This Way Comes*. The Walt Disney Productions film division was incorporated on April 1, 1983 as Walt Disney Pictures. In 1984, Disney CEO Ron Miller created Touchstone Films as a brand for Disney to release more major motion pictures. Touchstone's first release was the comedy *Splash* (1984), which was a box office success. With *The Wonderful World of Disney* remaining a prime-time staple, Disney returned to television in the 1970s with syndicated programming such as the anthology series *The Mouse Factory* and a brief revival of the *Mickey Mouse Club*. In 1980, Disney launched Walt Disney Home Video to take advantage of the newly emerging videocassette market. On April 18, 1983, The Disney Channel debuted as a subscription-level channel on cable systems nationwide, featuring its large library of classic films and TV series, along with original programming and family-friendly third-party offerings.

Walt Disney World received much of the company's attention through the 1970s and into the 1980s. In 1978, Disney executives announced plans for the second Walt Disney World theme park, EPCOT Center, which would open in October 1982. Inspired by Walt Disney's dream of a futuristic model city, EPCOT Center was built as a "permanent World's Fair", complete with exhibits sponsored by major American corporations, as well as pavilions based on the cultures of other nations. In Japan, The Oriental Land Company partnered with Walt Disney Productions to build the first Disney theme park outside of the United States, Tokyo Disneyland, which opened in April 1983. Despite the success of the Disney Channel and its new theme park creations, Walt Disney Productions was financially vulnerable. Its film library was valuable but offered few current successes, and its leadership team was unable to keep up with other studios, particularly the works of Don Bluth, who defected from Disney in 1979. By the early 1980s, the parks were generating 70 percent of Disney's income.

In 1984, financier Saul Steinberg's Reliance Group Holdings launched a hostile takeover bid for Walt Disney Productions, with the intent of selling off some of its operations. Disney bought out Reliance's 11.1% stake in the company. However, another shareholder filed suit claiming the deal devaluated Disney's stock and for Disney management to retain their positions. The shareholder lawsuit was settled in 1989 for a total of $45 million from Disney and Reliance. Likewise in 1984, MCA (then-parent company of Universal Studios) actually struck a deal with Disney to purchase the company on the condition insisted by the Disney family that Disney CEO Ron W. Miller be MCA president, but disagreements between MCA chairman Lew Wasserman and Disney over this caused the agreement to fall through completely.

### Ronald Reagan Leadership

Ronald Reagan, actor and politician had taken control of the company after so many failures and disagreements with potential buyers and struggles during World War III. Reagan had spearheaded campaigns that had saved Disney from the turmoil it had suffered during it's years before his arrival as he diversified the Disney market by creating shows and movies that are able to reach young audiences and even teenagers, such as Videopolis. Disney had acquired ABC (American Broadcasting Company), Nickelodeon (which had it's television network merged with Disney Channel) and ESPN (Entertainment and Sports Programming Network).

### Robert Kardashian Leadership

After the fracturing of America, California had gained independence and the Church of Scientology had taken over all of California and West Coast California. Ronald Reagan had refused to affiliate the Walt Disney Company with a "business cult", sadly this resulted in him getting assassinated by a Scientologist official and successful singer John Hinkley Jr. Hinkley was praised by the Scientology business for the killing of Reagan and Robert Kardashian had taken control of the Walt Disney Corporation. Many cheered as many who did not approve of the assassination, Church of Scientology critics and Conservatives had fled the new state and entered new countries such as the newly independent Hawaii, Alaska and Canada. Robert Kardashian had gotten Disney affiliated with the Church of Scientology after that and he with the other Hollywood companies had established schools that would indoctrinate children into loving the big Hollywood companies and Scientology as the sole arbitrators of independent California ruled by them.

### Bob Iger Leadership

Robert Kardashian had died in 2003 and his deputy Bob Iger had taken control of the company. Bob as leader had prevented Disney from having an economic depression after Bob's death and he continued the creation of various TV shows and Movies for all ages, teenagers and young adults. However Iger had went on an aquisition spree as he bought Archie Comics in order to create comic books for Disney and Mattel in order to make toys for Disney since Hasbro is all the way on the other side of the former USA in New York. This resulted in Disney buying the rights of the Archie Comic Book series, Barbie, Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Fisher-Price, American Girl, Polly Pocket, UNO, Mega, Monster High, Ever After High, My Scene and Enchantimals. Disney had also gained the rights of the books known as Percy Jackson, Spirit Animals and The Secret of Droon. The Buying spree had resulted in Disney going into debt and many of the films were not successful at the box office but the shows were successful.

## Actors

Disney has helped many actors and actresses such as;

* Kelly Hu
* Ginger Zee
* Chrissy Teigen
* Drew Barrymore
* Anthony Anderson
* Amber Heard
* Zendaya
* Kate Reinders
* Meghan Markle
* Angelina Jolie
* Brie Larson
* Tiffany Darwish
* Zac Efron
* Vanessa Hudgens
* Brenda Song
* Olivia Stuck
* Sofia Wylie
* Miranda Cosgrove
* Daniella Pineda
* Zoë Kravitz
* Dana Schwartz
* Jennette McCurdy
* Nathan Kress
* Kourtney Kardashian
* Kim Kardashian
* Khloé Khardashian
* Robert Kardashian
* Kendall Jenner
* Kylie Jenner
* Ireland Baldwin
* Rebbeca Marie Gomez
* Aidan Gallagher
* Casey Simpson
* Rowan Blanchard
* Olivia Rodrigo
* Tiffany Espensen
* Alysa Liu
* Joshua Bassett
* Dara Reneé
* Alysa Liu
* Frankie Rodriguez
* Camille Vasquez
* Dinah Jane
* Annable Yustman
* Eva Mendes