It Was All Started by a Mouse

When people hear the word movie, a few other words come to mind as well: theater, popcorn, Hollywood, and, most prominent of them all, Disney.  For almost a century Walt Disney and his legacy have brought magical and exciting adventures to theaters and television screens alike all over the world, while his history still lies buried and undiscovered from many of those that enjoy the fruits of his rich history.  For instance, not many people have any recollection of Walt Disney’s role in the First World War, or have heard of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, or even know why such a comparatively small man’s company has such a high standing in the movie industry today.  Fortunately, his story is, although often neglected, not completely forgotten.  Disney’s story can still be heard.

When America finally joined the war that had been raging on in Europe for three years, men and boys began clamoring to join up, sail across the Atlantic, and show the Germans that America would not stand by and watch as its allies were defending the front lines.  Even boys at the ages of fifteen attempted to enlist, with some having been accepted while others were turned away.  Young Walt Disney was a member of the latter group, having tried to enlist at the age of sixteen.  Despite his rejection, he was still determined to join the millions of Americans already fighting overseas and decided to join the Red Cross Ambulance Corps, which was less particular about the age of those that signed up.  He was deemed eligible, although a signed permission form from his parents was required for him to enlist.  His father adamantly refused to sign, so Disney forged his father’s signature, with the blessing of his mother, and was accepted.  In the training camp for those in the Ambulance Corps, he met Ray Kroc, who would one day purchase and nationalize the McDonald’s franchise.  Unfortunately for young Walt, the war was ended before he could be shipped out for Europe, dashing his hopes of glory in combat.  Although he would not be allowed to fulfill his dreams of seeing combat, he was still sent to Europe, as one of fifty men, to act as drivers for the Red Cross during the aftermath of the war.  However, he did not end up driving an ambulance, but, rather, acted as a chauffeur and tour guide for important officials.  He was actually in extremely high demand as such.  Finally, in 1918, a lonely, homesick Walt requested discharge, which was granted allowing him to return to his home in Chicago one day later.  It was most likely to Disney’s advantage that he was not exposed to the horrendous events of such a bloody conflict as the Great War, since he was able to return to America with his childlike sense of wonder still intact.  It was this quality that led him to the success that he would achieve in later years.

Before he could achieve success, he had to face many new experiences, trials, and failures.  His first attempt at a career in cartoons began with a small endeavor by the name of Laugh-O-Grams.  It was during this time that Disney decided to try out an idea of his, in which he would merge cartoons with real life.  He called this series of cartoons Alice in Cartoonland, where he placed a real-life actress, a little girl as a matter of fact, in a world of cartoons.  These cartoons, however original, could not produce enough income to keep Walt going, resulting in the company declaring bankruptcy.  A few years later Disney had set up shop in Los Angeles, when he was approached by a movie distributor named Charles Mintz, who had seen one of Disney’s Alice projects and was willing to hire him to make more.  For a while the films did well enough, but not exceptionally.  Thus Mintz suggested that Walt come up with a new cartoon to put into production.  Disney and his co-workers decided that the new series would feature a rabbit, although what his name would be they could not decide.  As a solution they wrote all the possible names on pieces of paper, threw them in a house, and picked one out.  And so Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was born.  The rabbit began bringing in lots more money than Disney’s previous films, which allowed him to start putting more money into them to increase the quality.  Throughout his entire career, Walt’s primary concern was the enhancement of quality, one of the many factors in his eventual success, although it led him to make many decisions that business experts would label as risky, rash, and outright stupid.  Regardless, his quest to drastically increase quality led him to New York in an attempt to renegotiate the next year’s contract with Mintz to allow for more pay per cartoon produced, although he was in for an astounding surprise.  Rather than increase his pay, Mintz told him that he would be cutting it by almost twenty percent and that if he didn’t agree to the new terms of his contract he would hire away all of his employees, leaving him stranded.  He was also informed the he would need to agree in order to be able to use Oswald the Rabbit, since the star had been created under contract and officially belonged to Mintz.  Outraged, Disney ignored his distributor’s threats and quit on the spot.  As promised, all of Disney’s employees were stolen from him, except for his brother, Roy, who stayed loyal to him through the trial.  Disney then hopped on a train and made the long, sorrowful trip back to Los Angeles.  It was during this train ride, however, that a picture began to form in the recesses of Walt’s mind.  It slowly took shape, starting with a head, then a nose, two perfectly round ears, and some red pants.  Unknown to Disney at the time, that image would be the figurehead of a new era of his success.

Although Walt’s success in the film industry officially began around the time of the creation of Mickey Mouse, it was not Mickey himself that created the success.  In fact, the original Mickey Mouse was nothing like the one that the world puts on T-shirts, posters, and television screens.  He was more of a childishly cruel nature, abusing his fellow characters and even his female counterpart, Minnie Mouse, in the first cartoon that he appeared in.  Now Disney’s intent was not to support bullying, but simply to draw laughs through the slapstick comedy.  Although audiences seemed to enjoy the cartoons, they were not of the quality that Disney was constantly striving for, which is why he took a huge leap in attempting to create one of the first films with an accompanying soundtrack.  Up to that time, many theaters would hire musicians to play music in live with the movies to liven them up a little bit, but what Walt wanted to do was a huge risk that cost him thousands of dollars in addition to his already large-budgeted cartoons.  After dealing with many setbacks, including a sleazy dirt bag of partner, the soundtrack was recorded and added to the film Steamboat Willie.  Many people recognize some of this cartoon, not necessarily by name, due to the use of the clip of Mickey Mouse manning the ship’s wheel and whistling an upbeat little tune before the showing of modern-day Disney cartoon productions.  Another innovation that Walt pursued was colored movies, which were classically black-and-white at that time.  He partnered with the company Technicolor, which had much in common with Disney’s own studio in the fact that both, although small in size, were constantly pursuing superior quality in their work.  Walt benefitted extremely well from this partnership, when Technicolor improved the coloring technique.  By that time many other studios were producing colored movies and wanted to use the new method.  But Technicolor stayed loyal to Disney, who had believed in and worked with them for years before anyone else started taking notice.  It was risks like these that made Walt Disney’s company such a success with such a huge name in quality movies for decades to come.

These days the word “movie” is sometimes considered synonymous with the word “Disney”.  But obviously that has not always been the case.  Yes, there was a time without the infamous Walt Disney Pictures logo that appears sitting in front of Cinderella’s castle before the magical cartoon began playing on the silver screen.  Yes, there was a time when nobody wore cute shirts decorated with a smiling mouse, wearing red shorts and yellow shoes.  And yes, there was a time when a man named Walt Disney walked and talked, and worked and ate just like regular people of the 21^st Century.  He was an ambulance driver in World War II, an entrepreneur in the movie industry, and a risk-taker with the will and ability to reach farther than the stars.  And as that man himself said, “I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse.”