The Disney Story
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Walt's family immigrated from Ireland.
December 5 - Walter Elias Disney is born in Chicago, Illinois
Walt's family moves to Marceline, Missouri
Walt's family then moves to Kansas City, Missouri
Walt graduates from Benton High School.
Walt works for the American Ambulance Corps in France.
Walt returns to KC to work at Posman-Rubin Commercial Art Studio for $50 a month.
Walt and Ub Iwerks start Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists - it goes belly up.
May 23 - Walt Disney starts Laugh-O-Gram Films, Inc in Kansas City.
October 4 - A group of creditors throw Walt Disney's company, Laugh O Gram Films into bankruptcy to seize the assets to pay the debt. The case was filed in Kansas City, Missouri.
Walt moves to California to join his brother Roy Disney.
October 16 - Walt & Roy sign on with M.J. Winkler.
Disney Bros. Studio was formed
June 1 - Ub Iwerks move to California and join's Walt
September 13 - Walt married Lillian Bounds who was secretary and inker. Lillian was instrumental in morphing the character of Mortimer Mouse into Mickey Mouse.
Disney Bros. Studio became the Walt Disney Studio
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was born. The rights were sold to Mintz distribution which took over Oswald before Universal took control. Oswald was the precursor to Mickey Mouse. If you compare Oswald and Mickey you will see that Walt squished Oswald's ears into mouse ears and stuck a mouse tail on him.
The bankruptcy case was finalized.
May 18 - Plane Crazy debuted and failed.
August 2 - Gallopin' Gaucho debuted and failed.
November 18 - Mickey Mouse is born and spends his birthday showing off his talents in Steamboat Willie.
50 years later, Mickey Mouse receives his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Oswald the Rabbit finally returns home to the Disney Studio.
Walt went into bankruptcy and lost Laugh-O-Gram Films. Strike One.
Then he created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and found out he was not so lucky and lost Oswald due to poor business decisions. Strike Two.
Walt could have thrown in the towel, given up and called it a day. Instead he took a deep breath, focused his attention, stepped up to the plate and created Mickey Mouse.
I would say that Mickey is definitely a home run! Wouldn't you?
Click here to see the Articles of Incorporation of this famous Missouri company: Laugh-O-Gram
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Walt Disney and Bankruptcy
"But for the bankruptcy, Mickey may have never been born."
Knowledge is truly power! No matter what tragedy you are facing, we believe that you can take the knowledge from your experiences combined with the knowledge that we can provide you to produce a financial home run of your own.