User:TheDisneyGamer/sandbox/Class Work

Walter Elias Disney was a producer and businessman who formed and headed the Walt Disney Studios until his death in 1966.

Early Life
Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 5, 1901 to Flora and Elias Disney, and grew up alongside siblings Herbert, Raymond and Roy Disney. In 1906, he and his family moved to Marceline, Missouri, and again to Kansas City in 1911. Disney gained a fondness for drawing cartoons while living in Marceline, attending art classes in Kansas City and later becoming a cartoonist for his high school's newspaper. In 1918, Disney enlisted in the army at age 16, forging his birth certificate since he wasn't old enough at the time, and worked as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross. During this period, he was stationed in France, and would often draw cartoons on the side of his ambulance.

Career
After returning to the United States, Disney became an apprentice at the Pesmin-Rubin Commercial Art Studio, where he met and made friends with fellow artist Ub Iwerks, where they were both laid off in 1920 after just a few months. After forming their own art business together which failed to find any success, the two went to work at the Kansas City Film Ad Company, where Disney became introduced in the relatively new medium of animation. Disney and Iwerks quit their jobs at the ad company and formed their own studio for creating animated cartoons. After hiring a group of artists, they began producing animated shorts known as "Newman's Laugh-O-Grams", made using cel animation, which Disney believed held more promise than cut-out animation.