Walter Elias “Walt” Disney is the co-founder of the famous Walt Disney Productions. He was born December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois. He was one of five children of Elias Disney and Flora Call Disney Walter attended McKinley High, where he took drawing and photography classes and was a cartoonist for the school newspaper. He also took classes at the Chicago Art Institute. At the age of 16 he dropped out of school to join the army but was underage, which led him to join the Red Cross and was sent to France. When Disney returned from France, he pursued a career as a newspaper artist. Disney worked at the Kansas City Film Ad Company, where he made commercials based on cut-out animation. He began experimenting with a camera, making hand-drawn animations, and decided to open his own animation company. His first cartoon was Laugh-o-Grams, but in 1923 Disney declared bankruptcy. Later, Disney and his brother moved to Hollywood and founded the Disney Brothers' Studio. They also invented a character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and in 1925 Walt Disney developed the famous Mickey Mouse character. The same year he married Lillian Bound, a painter and inker. In 1929, Disney created Silly Symphonies, which included Mickey Mouse's Friends, starring Minnie Mouse. Toward the end of 1937, Disney's first feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was released and grossed $1.499 million and won a total of eight Academy Awards. In total, more than 100 feature films have been produced by his studio. In 1939, a new campus for Walt Disney Studios opened in Burbank. In 1955, Disney's theme park, Disneyland, opened. Walt Disney received 22 Academy Awards and four honorary Academy Awards. In addition to 59 Oscar nominations, a minor planet n...... middle of paper...... awesome. "Five leadership lessons from Quantum Workplace from Walt Disney's comments. http://www.quantumworkplace.com/five-leadership-lessons-from-walt-disney/ (accessed December 21, 2013). 2. "Walter Elias Disney Entrepreneur” http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/197528 (accessed December 21, 2013). 3. “Walt Disney Biography”. walt-disney-9275533?page=1 (accessed December 19, 2013).4. “The surprising financial failures of Walt Disney. http://www.byrdseed.com/the-surprising-financial-failures-of-walt-disney/ (accessed December 21, 2013).5. "Capodagli, B. and L. Jackson. 1999. The Disney Way: Harnessing Disney's Management Secrets in Your Business. McGraw-Hill.." What Are Disney's Management Secrets?. http://maaw.info/ArticleSummaries/ArtSumCapodagliJackson99.htm (accessed December 21, 2013).