His film production company was one of the most successful in the US at the time, and it had been around for more than 30 years.
Mickey Mouse was already grinning on T-shirts, footballs, and toothbrush cups in addition to becoming a cinematic hero. The animated mouse even came to life when the first Disneyland to open in California a year later, in 1955.
Walt Disney, who was raised on a Missouri farm, initially worked as a commercial artist before discovering animated movies. He left for Hollywood with only $40 in his pocket and created the Walt Disney Company, which is now a billion-dollar company, precisely 100 years ago, in 1923.
“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible,” was one of the cartoon pioneer’s convictions.
Behind this flippant attitude, however, was not just a relentless, even frantic effort but also a steadfast trust in his own beliefs. The farm boy born in 1901 was repeatedly on the edge of becoming bankrupt. His endeavors were viewed as being excessively audacious; new filmmaking techniques were constantly being experimented with and refined. With this motivation, Walt Disney soon found himself sleeping on a couch at his studios, hardly seeing his own kids, but toiling away to enthrall other, foreign kids with his fairy stories on the screen.
