The Walt Disney Company Essay

Submitted By katierone
Words: 1753
Pages: 8

The Walt Disney Company, which is commonly known as Disney is the largest media conglomerate in the world in the terms of revenue. Its headquarters, Walt Disney Studios is located in Burbank, California (The Walt Disney Company). One of the reasons why Disney has a reputation of delivering a seamless "magical" experience to its guests in all of its operations; theme parks, hotels, restaurants, retail stores, and the list keeps going is because it has one overriding vision and mission for all of its business operations.
The mission of The Walt Disney Company is to be one of the world's leading producers and providers of entertainment and information. Using our portfolio of brands to differentiate our content, services and consumer products, we seek to develop the most creative, innovative and profitable entertainment experiences and related products in the world ( Walt Disney Company Mission Statement ).
Disney was founded on October 16, 1923 by Walt and Roy Disney. Walt Disney moved to Hollywood to join his brother Roy Disney after the bankruptcy of his previous firm, Laugh-O-Gram Films. Walt, an animator, signed a contract with M.J. Winkler to produce a series of Alice Comedies which were based on a short film Walt created called Alice’s Wonderland. This was the first known start of The Disney Brothers Studio. More animated films followed after Alice.
In January 1926, the brothers completed the Disney studio on Hyperion Street and then changed the name to Walt Disney Studio. Disney developed an all-cartoon series, starring its first original character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. This was distributed by Winkler pictures through Universal Studios. The distributor owned Oswald, so Disney only made a few hundred dollars. After only completing 26 Oswald shorts before losing the contract in February 1928, when Winkler’s husband Charles Mintz took over their distribution company. After failing to take over the Disney Studio, Mintz hired away four of Disney’s primary animators to start his own animation studio, Snappy Comedies (The Walt Disney Company). In 1928, to recover the loss of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Disney came up with the idea of a mouse character named Mortimer while on a train headed to California. That mouse was later renamed Mickey Mouse and starred in several Disney produced films. Ub Iwerks, one of the only animators who did not leave to join Snappy Comedies refined the design of Mickey Mouse who went to star in the cartoon Steamboat Willie, the first sound film, which was released November 18, 1928. This was the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon released, but the third to be created. Disney continued to produce cartoons with Mickey Mouse and other characters, and began the Silly Symphonies series with Columbia Pictures signing on as the distributor in 1929. In September 1929, the Mickey Mouse Club was approved by Walt (Walt Disney Biography). December 16, the Walt Disney Studios partnership reorganized as a corporation with the name Walt Disney Productions. It had a merchandising division, Walt Disney Enterprises, and two subsidiaries, Disney Film Recording Company, and Limited and Liled Realty and Investment Company. Walt and his wife held 60% or 6,000 shares and Roy owned 40% of Walt Disney Productions. Disney continued to release movies like the classic, Cinderella, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi, and Snow White. Using the profit from Snow White, which became the highest grossing film in 1939, Disney financed the construction of a new 51-acre studio complex in Burbank, California. The new Walt Disney Studios, in which the company is headquartered to this day, was completed and open for business by the end of 1939. The following year in April, Walt Disney Productions had its initial public offering (The Walt Disney Company).
In December 1950, Walt Disney Productions and The Coca-Cola Company teamed up for Disney's first venture into television, the NBC television network special An Hour in Wonderland. In