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1924
THE DISNEY BROTHERS STUDIO
Walt poses with brother Roy and their first group of employees
in front of their storefront office in Los Angeles. Using the
unfinished reel of "Alice's Wonderland," they had sold
a complete "Alice" series to a distributor in New York,
Margaret Winkler. The woman standing next to Walt is Lillian Bounds.
When this photograph was taken, she was still just an employee,
but soon thereafter they began to date. (More
about the early years in Hollywood)
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1925
WEDDING BELLS
With the income from the "Alice" contract, Roy felt it was time
at last to propose to his Kansas City girlfriend, Edna Francis.
This film clip shows the happy couple right after the wedding
ceremony, which took place in the house of Uncle Robert Disney.
A beaming Walt brought his own sweetheart along. A few months
later, on July 13, 1925, he and Lilly were married in her brother's
house in Lewiston, Idaho. As Diane relates, the wedding dress
that Lilly wears in the film was made by her. (More
about Lilly)
To see a clip of the weddings, choose either 56K
modem or DSL/ISDN.
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1928
BIRTH OF MICKEY MOUSE
After the Alice Comedies, Walt had developed a new character called
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. By 1928, "Oswald" had become a very popular
series, and Charles Mintz, Walt's new distributor, decided to
take the character away from Walt. Crestfallen, Walt vowed that
from here on, he would own the characters he developed. He sketched
a mouse, and wanted to call him Mortimer. Lilly did not agree;
"Call him Mickey," she said. In 1928, Walt premiered "Steamboat
Willie," his first sound cartoon starring Mickey Mouse. It was
a smash hit. (More
about "Steamboat Willie")
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1930s
A CARTOON MENAGERIE
In the years that followed, Walt and his animators came up with many
more characters that soon became as popular as Mickey himself,
including Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto. But Walt was not content
making cartoons like "Steamboat Willie." He was once again looking
to develop something new.
(More about Mickey and Friends)
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1932
THE FIRST COLOR CARTOON
"I wanted to do something different," Walt said later,
"and playing with music was intriguing." The result
was a cartoon series called "Silly Symphonies," in which the action
and characters were based on well-known works of music. With a
Silly Symphony called "Flowers and Trees," Walt went one step
further: a color cartoon with sound. (More
about the Silly Symphonies)
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