Walt Disney was born to Elias Disney and Flora Call Disney on December 5th, 1901 in Hermosa, Illinois. He was the second youngest of 5 siblings, the oldest born in 1888 and the youngest in 1903
Walt Disney went to high school at McKinley High School and took art classes under Louis Grell. He became the school newspaper cartoonist, drawing patriotic cartoons about World War 1. After being rejected by the army, he joined the Red Cross and drove ambulances in France. |
Walt Disney tried to get a job as a newspaper cartoonist, but he was rejected by the industry, where he was told he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” Walt's first studio, Laugh-O-Gram Studio, went bankrupt. In 1923, he and his brother co-founded what would later become Walt Disney Studios. Their fist work was a comedy series called Alice's Day at Sea.