Dear Barbra Walters,
Have you ever wondered who had the biggest influence on American culture, and how society views entertainment today? Do you know who is known worldwide? Walt Disney is. Walt Disney had a very interesting life, and he should be on the "Ten most facinating people ever" list because of his HUGE influence on American culture, his continued power and influence on the Disney Company and how we as a society view and enjoy entertainment.
The first reason is that Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse are known world-wide as icons of American culture. Walt is a major part because he recreated American entertainment by making shorts and movies that familys could enjoy together. He epitomizes the American dream. He was born into a poor farm family. He had multiple failures, but despite this he became a success and is known worldwide. Walt was a pioneer in cinema. He made the first full-length feature cartoon, the first film to syncronize the sound with the cartoon, and the first color cartoon. He devoloped a multiplane camera that made cartoons look more 3D, and created the first combined live-action/animation show. In the 1950's, Disney became an innovator of entertainment by creating the first theme park, Disneyland.

The second reason is that Walt Disney's concepts and influences still lead his company today. When the Disney Company makes a movie or changes the theme parks, they still go back to Walt Disney's attitudes, guidelines and concepts, even though he died nearly 45 years ago. For example, Walt Disney did not want any alcoholic beverages in Disneyland or in Magic Kingdom at Disney World. Depsite the many changes throughout the parks, there is still no sale of alcoholic beverages today. Everytime the company gets a new project, they always go back to Disney's outlines and make sure that it matches part of Disney's Vision. They always keep the theme parks clean because that was the way Walt wanted it. In speaking about Disneyland, he said that ''it would be so clean, it would be eerie''.
The third reason is that Disney is responsible for altering how we as a society view and enjoy entertaiment. Walt changed the way we watch and see cartoons today. When films came out, there was no sound, and they were black and white. Disney found a way to both put sound in films and have it syncronized with the film. He was the first to use a process called technicolor to add color to animation. The way he put sound in his cartoons was by using one employee's mouth, banging pencils and a guy made other noises, and they recorded it while watching the animation. He though he would be able to match the music to the film by having musicians play while they watched the film. But they were unable to follow the action and this didn't work. He solved the problem by animating a moving ball in the corner of the film to show the beats. It now worked perfectly. Steamboat Willie was the first synchronized animated film and was a big success. He had a concept of the future, the thought of a self-contained commnunity was very progressive thinking for 50 years ago. Family was important to Walt. He wanted to create a place that encouraged familys to have fun together. He was also a family man, with many grandchildren. Walt began to worry about the future they would live in. He started to notice that the modern cities were