When thinking of animated cartoons, one name immediately comes to mind: Walt Disney. Disney is the most popular and well-known animator in history. He wasn't successful at the beginning of his career but his vision thrived because of his entrepreneurial work ethic. Walt made America's most popular cartoon character, Mickey Mouse. As an animator and the owner of the Disney Corporation, he became one of the world's most influential artists.
             Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 5th, 1901, the fourth child of five children of Elias and Flora Disney. The family often moved from place to place as his father tried his hand as a farmer, a businessman, an orange grower, and a carpenter. But he expected all members of his family, no matter how young, to spend most of their time working for him without any compensation. During Walt's childhood and adolescence, his father operated a farm in Marceline, Missouri. It was there that Walt spent his early years and developed his interest in drawing. In 1910, the family moved again, this time to Kansas City. There he enrolled in art classes at the Kansas City Art Institute. In 1917 the family moved back to Chicago. While in Chicago, Walt joined ta Red Cross unit and spent nine months as an ambulance driver in France at the end of World War I. In 1919, Walt returned from France and decided to build a career as an artist.
             Disney joined the staff of the Kansas City Film Advertising Company, which was producing a simple type of animation. He and a colleague, Ubbe Iwerks, learned enough about animation to try doing some of their own. They formed a company called Laugh-O-Gram Films. The company made fun of local problem and scandals in cartoon form. They sold well enough to give Walt and Iwerks the courage to go into business for themselves. But the Laugh-O-Grams didn't hold Walt's interest very long. He had a new idea to try, which was illustrating updated fairy tales in a se...