Walt Disney - Man of the Century

Essay by JustLilMeHigh School, 11th gradeA+, April 2004

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Walt Disney has touched the hearts of many, adults and children alike all over the world, with his amazing effects of Disney films over the years.

Walt's parents were married on January 1st, 1888. Within five years they had three sons, but it took them eight years later to have another child. In Chicago on December 5th, 1901 Walter Elias Disney was born. In April of 1906 they moved to a forty-five acre farm. Walt grew up on the farm and cherished the friends and neighbors that were his big family. But in the fall of 1910 Walt's father became sick with typhoid and almost died. After a very slow recovery the family sold their farm for a little over five thousand and moved to Kansas City in the summer of 1911.

As a boy growing up in Kansas, he began to show his creative art side. He loved to study Charlie Chaplin movies for tips on performing and he began to draw his own versions of Maggie and Jiggs, which is a popular comic strip at the time.

Walt's father and mother moved to Chicago when his dad became the head of the O'Zell Company's plant construction maintenance. But Walt decided to stay back with his two brothers and get a summer job. At the end of the summer Walt moved back to Chicago with his parents. There, he attended McKinley High School. Walt wanted to join the "War to End All Wars" but was too young. Instead he joined the Chicago Institute of Arts School where he drew patriotic sketches for the school newspaper.

But in the summer of 1918 Walt heard about the Red Cross Ambulance Corps would accept men at the age of seventeen. So Walt lied about his age and joined; but he almost died...