Walter Elias Disney, established himself as a legend in the cartoon industry. His by products have become a genuine part of the American culture. Walt Disney has had a profound effect on many people and will continue to have for many years to come. .

             In 1901, on December 5th in Chicago, Illinois, Walter Elias Disney was born to Elias and Flora Disney. Even though he loved to draw, moving to a farm near Marceline, Montana in 1906 is probably what influenced his later creations. His first drawings were creations of farm animals. At the age of sixteen his family returned to Chicago where he attended McKinley High School. His real interests were at night when he took courses at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. He enlisted in Military service during World War I, but was rejected because of his young age of sixteen. He then joined the Red Cross where he spent a year overseas driving an ambulance. The exterior of his ambulance was covered all over with his cartoon drawings. .

             After World War I, he returned to Kansas City, where he began his career as an advertising cartoonist. Here, in 1920 he created and marketed his first original animated cartoons. A few years later, he perfected a new method for combining live-action and animation. .

             In Kansas City, Missouri, Walt Disney met animator, Ub Iwerks and composer Carl Stalling, whom later became important to his future success. Unfortunately, the company that they had started soon went bankrupt.

             In August of 1923, Walt Disney left Kansas City for Hollywood with nothing but a few drawings, forty dollars in his pocket, and a completed animated and live-action film. His brother, Roy O. Disney, gave Walt $250. They pooled all their resources. They borrowed an additional five-hundred dollars, and constructed a camera stand in their uncle"s garage. Soon, they received an order from New York for the first "Alice Comedy" featurette. The brothers began their production operation in the rear of Hollywood real estate office.