Although Walt Disney’s first illustration company went broke, the ambitious animator took his sketchbook to Hollywood where he made it big with a mouse named Mickey. Disney pioneered the field of animation, creating the first sound-synchronized cartoon, the first cartoon in color.

The first full-length feature cartoon and, of course, the first cartoon theme park. Early Days
Walt Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 5, 1901, to Elias and Flora Call Disney. He and his four siblings moved to Marceline, Missouri, when Disney was in elementary school.

As a child, Walt Disney was interested in drawing, photography and vaudeville. In high school, he used his artistic talent as an illustrator for the school newspaper and attended night school at the Academy of Fine Arts, studying cartoon illustration.

After a brief stint at the Red Cross (he was fired when the organization discovered he was under age), Disney enrolled in the Kansas City Art Institute, where he met Ub Iwerks, who would become his partner and friend.

The two established their own illustration company, which soon went bankrupt. They moved to Hollywood in 1923 and established a cartoon series called the “Alice Comedies,” which ran successfully from 1923 to 1927, with the financial support of Disney’s older brother, Roy.

One evening, while riding the train home from work, Walt doodled a mouse onto a piece of paper and named it “Mickey.” With illustration assistance from Iwerks, Disney created the Mickey Mouse series.