Entrepreneurship Management

Submitted By:Prachi Chaturvedi (13)Pushpalata Choudhary (14)

Company Overview

Since its founding in 1923, The Walt Disney Company and its affiliated companies have remained faithful to their commitment to produce unparalleled entertainment experiences based on the rich legacy of quality creative content and exceptional storytelling. The Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise with ftheir business segments: media networks, parks and resorts, studio entertainment and consumer products.

The Walt Disney Studios

Mickey Mouse and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the world's first full-length animated feature, the Disney name quickly became synonymous with quality entertainment for the whole family.

The Walt Disney Studios distributes motion pictures under Walt Disney Pictures - which includes Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios and DisneyToon Studios - Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures and Miramax Films. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International serves as the studio's international distribution arm. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment distributes Disney and other film titles to the rental and sell-through home entertainment markets worldwide. Disney, one of the largest producers of Broadway musicals, also includes Disney Live Family Entertainment and Disney on Ice. Disney Music Group distributes original music and motion picture soundtracks under Walt Disney Records, Hollywood Records, and Lyric Street Records. Advancing its strategy of developing outstanding creative content, Disney acquired renowned computer animation leader Pixar in an all-stock transaction completed in May 2006. In February 2007, The Walt Disney Studios joined forces with Academy Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis and his Image Movers partners/producers Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey to form Image Movers Digital, a new state of the art studio devoted exclusively to the production of performance capture projects.

Parks and Resorts

Disney's Parks and Resorts is not just home to Disney's beloved characters but the place "Where Dreams Come True." The segment traces its roots to 1952, when Walt Disney formed what is today known as Walt Disney Imagineering to build Disneyland

Park in Anaheim, California. 

Since then, Parks and Resorts has grown to encompass the world-classDisney Cruise Line, eight Disney  Vacation Club  resorts (with more than 100,000 members), Adventures by Disney (immersive Disney-guided travel around the world), and five resort locations (encompassing 11 theme parks, including some owned or co-owned by independent entities) on three continents:

Disneyland Resort, Anaheim, CaliforniaWalt Disney World Resort, Lake Buena Vista, FloridaTokyo Disney Resort, Urayasu, ChibaDisneyland Resort Paris, Marne La Valle, FranceHong Kong Disneyland, Penny's Bay, Lantau Island

Wherever the Guest experience takes place in parks, on the high seas, on a guided their of exotic locales, through their vacation ownership program -- they remain dedicated to the promise that their Cast members turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. Making dreams come true every day is central to their global growth strategy.

Disney Consumer Products 

Disney merchandising began in 1929 when Walt Disney was approached by a businessman interested in placing Mickey Mouse on the cover of a children's writing tablet. Disney Consumer Products and affiliates (DCP) extend the Disney brand to merchandise ranging from apparel, toys, home décor and books and magazines to interactive games, foods and beverages, stationery, electronics and fine art. This is accomplished through DCP's various lines of business which include: Disney Toys, Disney Apparel, Accessories & Footwear, Disney Food, Health & Beauty, Disney Home and Disney Stationery.

Disney Publishing Worldwide (DPW) is the world's largest publisher of children’s books and magazines, reaching more than 100 million readers each month in 75 countries. Disney's imprints include Disney Libri, Hyperion Books for Children, Jump at the Sun, Disney Press, and Disney Editions.

Other businesses involved in Disney's consumer products sales are disneystore.com, the company's official shopping portal and the Disney stores retail chain. The Disney stores retail chain, which debuted in 1987, is owned and operated by an unaffiliated third party in Japan under a license agreement with The Walt Disney Company. Disney owns and operates the Disney Store chain in North America and Europe.

Media Networks

Media Networks comprise a vast array of broadcast, cable, radio, publishing and Internet businesses. Key areas include: Disney-ABC Television Group, ESPN Inc., Walt Disney Internet Group, ABC owned television stations, and a supporting headquarters group. Marketing, research, sales and communications functions also exist within the segment.

The Disney-ABC Television Group is home to all of Disney's worldwide entertainment and news television properties. The Group includes the ABC Television Network(including ABC Daytime, ABC Entertainment Group and ABC News divisions); theDisney Channels Worldwide global kids' TV business, ABC Family and SOAPnet; as well as television distribution divisions Disney-ABC Domestic Television and Disney-ABC ESPN Television. The Disney-ABC Television Group also manages the Radio Disney Network, general interest and non-fiction book

imprint Hyperion, as well the Company's equity interest in A&E Television Networks.

ESPN, Inc., The Worldwide Leader in Sports, is the leading multinational, multimedia sports entertainment company featuring the broadest portfolio of multimedia sports assets with over 50 business entities. Sports media assets include ESPN on ABC, six domestic cable television networks (ESPN, launched in 1979; ESPN2; ESPN Classic; ESPNEWS; ESPN Deportes; ESPNU), ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD (high-definition simulcast services of ESPN and ESPN2, respectively), ESPN Regional Television, ESPN International (31 international networks and syndication), ESPN Radio, ESPN.com, ESPN The Magazine, ESPN Enterprises, ESPN Zones (sports-themed restaurants licensed by ESPN), and other growing new businesses including

ESPN360.com (Broadband), ESPN Mobile Properties (wireless), ESPN On Demand, ESPN Interactive and ESPN PPV. Based in Bristol, Ct., ESPN is 80 percent owned by ABC, Inc., which is an indirect subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. The Hearst Corporation holds a 20 percent interest in ESPN.

About Disney Interactive Media Group

The Disney Interactive Media Group   (DIMG) is a segment of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) responsible for the creation and delivery of Disney branded interactive entertainment and informational content across multiple platforms including online, mobile and video game consoles around the globe. DIMG core businesses include Disney Interactive Studios, which self publishes and distributes a broad portfolio of multi-platform video games, mobile games and interactive entertainment worldwide; and Disney Online, which produces the No. 1 Community-Family & Parenting Web site and an industry-leading suite of online virtual worlds for kids and families.

Company History

From the very beginning, Disney's founder Walter Elias Disney fostered the spirit of creativity, innovation and excellence that continues to underlie all of the company's success.

Walt arrived in California in the summer of 1923 with dreams and determination, but little else. He had made a short film in Kansas City about a little girl in a cartoon world, called Alice's Wonderland, and he planned to use it as his "pilot" film to sell a series of these Alice Comedies to a distributor. On October 16, 1923, a New York distributor, M. J. Winkler, contracted to release the Alice Comedies, and this date became the formal beginning of The Walt Disney Company. Originally known as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, with Walt Disney and his brother Roy as equal partners, the company soon changed its name, at Roy's suggestion, to the Walt Disney Studio, which was initially housed in a succession of storefront buildings in Hollywood before becoming established on Hyperion Avenue.

Walt made his Alice Comedies for four years, constantly pushing the visual bounds as well as the studio's finances with innovative effects. In 1927, he decided to move to an all-cartoon series, and for its star he created a character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Within a year, Walt made 26 Oswald cartoons, but when he tried to get some additional money from Winkler for a second year of the cartoons, he found out that the

distributor had gone behind his back and signed up almost all of his animators, hoping to make the Oswald cartoons in his own studio for less money without Walt. Since the distributor owned the rights to Oswald, there was nothing Walt could do. It was a painful lesson for the young cartoon producer. From then on, he saw to it that he owned everything that he made.

Walt now had to come up with a new character. With his chief animator, Ub Iwerks, Walt designed a mouse whom Walt first wanted to name Mortimer, but his wife Lilly preferred Mickey. And so a star was born. Ub animated two Mickey Mouse cartoons. But the first film with synchronized sound The Jazz Singer had premiered, and Walt decided that his studio should make the first sound cartoon. So, the studio poured all of its resources into a third Mickey Mouse cartoon before the first two were released, this one with fully synchronized sound. Steamboat Willie opened to rave reviews at the Colony Theater in New York November 18, 1928. Mickey Mouse was an immediate sensation around the world, and a series of Mickey Mouse cartoons followed.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Walt Disney soon produced another series -- the Silly Symphonies. Each of the films in this series featured different casts of characters, enabling the animators to experiment with stories that relied less on the gags and quick humor of the Mickey cartoons and more on mood, emotion, and musical themes. Eventually the Silly Symphonies turned into the training ground for all Disney artists, as they prepared for the advent of animated feature films. Flowers and Trees, a Silly Symphony and the first full-color cartoon, won the Academy Award for Best Cartoon for 1932, the first year that the Academy offered such a category. For the rest of that decade, a Disney cartoon won the Oscar every year. The most sensational one was released in 1933 -- Three Little Pigs. This was a breakthrough in character animation and provided something of an anthem for fighting the Great Depression "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" The animated short was so popular, it sometimes was listed above the feature film on theater marquees.

While the studio's cartoons were gaining popularity in movie houses, they also generated interest in related merchandise. As Walt recounted, "A fellow kept hanging around my hotel waving $300 at me and saying that he wanted to put the mouse on paper tablets for school children. As usual, Roy and I needed money, so I took the $300." This was the start of Disney's consumer products business. Soon there were Mickey Mouse dolls, dishes, toothbrushes, radios, figurines -- almost everything imaginable bore Mickey's likeness. The first Mickey Mouse book was published in 1930, as was the first Mickey Mouse newspaper comic strip.

One night in 1934, Walt brought his animators together to tell them they were going to make an animated feature film, and proceeded to act out the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. At the time, this was a radical concept. Most people thought that a cartoon couldn't hold an audience's attention beyond the usual eight-minute running

time. It took three years and severely taxed the resources of the studio, but at Christmas time, 1937, the film was finished, and it was a spectacular hit. Snow White became the highest grossing film of all time, a record it held until it was surpassed by Gone With the Wind. Work immediately began on other feature projects and the company moved to its current site in Burbank, California. But, with the advent of World War II, the company lost access to most of its foreign markets. Consequently, its next two features, Pinocchio and Fantasia, which were released in 1940, were unable to recoup their production costs. Both were masterpieces that would be phenomenally profitable in subsequent releases in the decades to come, but their immediate effect was to put the studio at some financial risk. Then came Dumbo in 1941, which was produced on a very limited budget and was profitable. This was followed by Bambi, which was another expensive film and came in 1942 after the U.S. had entered the war. For the next number of years, Walt would have to restrain his animation ambitions. However, it is remarkable to consider how far he had taken the art form in little more than a decade. From the "rubber hose" animation of Steamboat Willie to the extraordinary imagery and emotional storytelling of the company's first five feature length films, the studio had revolutionized animation forever.

During the war, Walt Disney made two films about South America, Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros, at the request of the State Department. His studio also concentrated on producing propaganda and training films for the military. When the war ended, it was difficult for the Disney Studio to regain its pre-war footing. Several years went by during which the studio released "package" feature films, such as Make Mine Music and Melody Time, containing groups of short cartoons. Walt also moved into live action production, with Song of the South and So Dear to My Heart, which also included animated segments. Walt further branched out with the award-winning True-Life Adventure series, featuring dramatic nature photography of a style never seen before.

1950 saw three landmark achievements the studio's first completely live action film, Treasure Island, the return to classic animated features with Cinderella and the first Disney television show at Christmas time. Unlike the heads of the other Hollywood studios, Walt saw the potential of television and, after another Christmas special, in 1954 he launched the Disneyland anthology series, famously featuring the first television mini-series Davy Crockett. The Disneyland series would eventually run on all three networks and go through six title changes, but it remained on the air for 29 years, making it the longest-running prime-time television series in history. The Mickey Mouse Club, one of television's most popular children's series, debuted in 1955, and made stars of a number of talented Mouseketeers.

Walt Disney was always anxious to try something new. And so, as his motion pictures and television programs achieved steady success, he looked for other entertainment mountains to climb. One area that intrigued him was amusement parks. As a father, he had taken his two young daughters to zoos, carnivals, and parks, but he always ended

up sitting on a bench as they rode the merry-go-round and had all the fun. He felt that there should be a place where parents and children could have a good time together. This was the genesis of Disneyland. After several years of planning and construction, the new park opened July 17, 1955.

Disneyland was a totally new kind of entertainment experience. It was like entering the movie screen and being able to fly with Peter Pan, explore the Wild West with Davy Crockett and have a wild tea party with the Mad Hatter. Disneyland has served as the inspiration for every amusement park built since its opening, attracting hundreds of millions of visitors from around the world. Walt said that Disneyland would "never be completed as long as there is imagination left in the world," and that statement remains true today. New attractions are added regularly, and Disneyland has steadily grown in popularity since its widely watched opening, which was co-hosted on television by future American president Ronald Reagan.

The studio continued to produce highly popular filmed entertainment, with animated films like Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty, live action films 20,000 Leagues under the Sea and The Shaggy Dog, and a popular TV series about the legendary hero, Zorro. In the 1960s came more classic films, like 101 Dalmatians and Pollyanna at Disneyland, Walt pioneered the use of Audio-Animatronics, first at the park's Enchanted Tiki Room, and then in four shows at the 1964 New York World's fair. Also in 1964 came Mary Poppins, which was Walt Disney's crowning achievement as a filmmaker, combining live action, animation and animatronics to tell a classic story for the entire family. Just two years later came the end of an era, as Walt Disney died December 15, 1966. It was said at the time that he was probably the best known individual in the world.

Roy Disney, who was older than Walt and had been planning to retire, took over supervision of the company, The Jungle Book in 1967 and The Aristocrats in 1970 showed that the company was still the leader in animation, and The Love Bug in 1969 was the highest grossing film of the year. Disney also established itself in the area of educational films and materials with the start of an educational subsidiary in 1969.

Prior to Walt's death, the company had purchased land in Florida to fulfill Walt's next major project the development of 28,000 acres that would dwarf the 400 acres of Disneyland. Roy was determined to realize his brother's vision, and honored him by naming it Walt Disney World. It opened October 1, 1971 with a Disneyland-style theme park, hotels, campgrounds, golf courses, shopping villages and a monorail connecting them all. This was to be a destination resort, removed from the urban sprawl that had grown up around Disneyland. It did not take long for Walt Disney World to become the world's premier vacation destination.

Roy Disney died just two months after realizing his brother's final dream. For the next decade the company was led by a team including Card Walker, Donn Tatum, and Ron Miller, all originally trained by the Disney brothers. One of Walt Disney's last plans had been for what he called the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, or EPCOT. While he died before the plans could be refined, they became the inspiration for the second major phase of development at Walt Disney World, and in 1979 ground was broken for the new park in Florida. EPCOT Center, a combination of Future World and World Showcase and representing an investment of over one billion dollars, opened to great acclaim October 1, 1982.

WED Enterprises (later renamed Walt Disney Imagineering), the design and development division for the parks, had several projects in the works during the early 1980s. In addition to designing Epcot, it planned Tokyo Disneyland, the first foreign Disney Park, which opened April 15, 1983. It was an immediate success in a country that had always loved anything Disney. Now that the Japanese had their own Disneyland, they flocked to it in increasing numbers. Tokyo Disneyland set a range of theme park attendance records and on one memorable day actually sold more mouse ear hats than there were people in the park!

In an effort to expand its business, Disney initiated the Disney Channel in 1983 and established a new film label, Touchstone Pictures, with the release of Splash in 1984. However, because of the widespread perception that Disney stock was undervalued relative to the company's assets, in 1984 there were attempts to stage hostile takeovers of the company. These efforts were rebuffed and, in October, Michael Eisner and Frank Wells became chief executive officer and president, respectively.

The new management team immediately saw ways for Disney to maximize its assets. They established Touchstone Television to produce network TV shows, beginning with the immensely successful Golden Girls, followed in 1986 by a return to Sunday night television with the Disney Sunday Movie (later The Magical World of Disney and The Wonderful World of Disney). Films from the Disney library were selected for the television syndication market, and some of the classic animated films were released on video cassette. Eventually, the company pioneered the "sell-through" approach of pricing video releases at lower prices and Disney classics were suddenly setting a whole new kind of box office record as they reached a new generation of kids, who could watch them in the convenience of their home.

At Disneyland, collaborations with filmmakers George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola contemporized the park with Captain EO and Star Tours, while Splash Mountain opened in 1989. Walt Disney World experienced a major expansion, with Disney's Grand Floridian and Caribbean Beach Resorts opening in 1988 and, in 1989, the introduction of three new gated attractions: the Disney/MGM Studios Theme Park, Pleasure Island and Typhoon Lagoon.

Filmmaking hit new heights in 1988 as, for the first time, Disney led all the Hollywood studios in box-office gross, with Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Good Morning, Vietnam, Three Men and a Baby each earning more than $100 million at the U.S. box office. In merchandising, Disney opened numerous highly successful Disney Stores.

Disney animation experienced a renaissance. In 1989, The Little Mermaid reminded the world that animation wasn't just for kids. In 1991, Beauty and the Beast became the only animated film ever to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. In 1992, Aladdin became the first animated film to gross more than $200 million in the U.S. and, in 1994, The Lion King shattered records, grossing $312 million in the U.S. and $783 million worldwide.

Meanwhile, Hollywood Records was formed to offer a wide selection of music, ranging from rap to movie soundtracks. New television shows, such as Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, Empty Nest, Dinosaurs and Home Improvement, expanded Disney's television base. Disney moved into publishing, forming Hyperion Books, Hyperion Books for Children, and Disney Press, which released books on Disney and non-Disney subjects. In 1991, as a totally new venture, Disney was awarded in 1993 the franchise for a National Hockey League team in Anaheim, the Mighty Ducks, named after a popular Walt Disney Pictures film, which the company operated until selling it in 2005.

In France, the park now known as Disneyland Resort Paris opened on April 12, 1992. This spectacular new Disneyland attracted almost 11 million visitors during its first year. Disneyland Paris is complemented by six uniquely designed resort hotels and a campground and is now the most visited tourist attraction in all of Europe. At the Walt Disney World Resort, six new resort hotels were opened during the 1990s, as well as new attractions at all the theme parks, while such enhancements as Mickey's Toontown and the Indiana Jones Adventure helped fulfill Disneyland's mandate that it would "never be completed."

Disney's leadership in animation continued with Pocahontas in 1995, The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1996, Hercules in 1997, Mulan in 1998, Tarzan in 1999 and Fantasia/2000 at the turn of the century. In 1995, in partnership with Pixar Animation, the company released the first computer-animated feature film, Toy Story. This was followed by a series of highly successful Disney/Pixar collaborations, a bug's life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo and The Incredibles.

In 1994, Disney ventured onto Broadway with the stage production of Beauty and the Beast, followed in 1997 by The Lion King, which won the Tony Award for best musical. Aida was Disney Theatrical's first production not based on an animated film and, in 2006, Tarzan opened on The Great White Way. By restoring the historic New Amsterdam Theater on 42nd Street, Disney became the catalyst for a successful makeover of the famous Times Square area.

In 1996, the first home sites were sold in the new city of Celebration, Florida, a model community built on Disney property that will one day be home to 20,000 people. That year, Disney also invested in the California Angels and saw the team win the 2002 World Series before selling it in 2003.

However, by far the biggest event of 1996 was Disney's acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC. The $19 billion transaction, which at the time was the second largest in U.S. history, brought the ABC television network to Disney, in addition to 10 TV stations, 21 radio stations, seven daily newspapers, and ownership positions in the cable networks A&E, Lifetime, History Channel and the powerhouse sports network, ESPN. Today, it is estimated that ESPN alone is worth the Cap Cities/ABC acquisition price.

A whole new park, Disney's Animal Kingdom, opened at Walt Disney World in 1998. With a gigantic Tree of Life as its centerpiece, the park was Disney's largest, spanning 500 acres. A major attraction was the Kilimanjaro Safaris, where guests could experience live animals in a highly accurate reproduction of the African savannah. An Asian area opened at Animal Kingdom in 1999.

Also in 1998, the company entered the cruise line business with the launch of the Disney Magic, which was joined one year later by the Disney Wonder. Both ships tour the Caribbean, stopping at Disney's own island paradise, Castaway Cay. In 2001, Walt Disney Attractions, for the first time, opened two new theme parks in the same year. In February, Disney's California Adventure began operation, transforming Disney's Anaheim property into a true resort destination with two theme parks, an upscale shopping area called Downtown Disney and three hotels, including the new Grand Californian Hotel. In September, Tokyo Disney Sea opened, highlighting the myths, legends and lore of the ocean. March, 2002, saw the opening of another overseas park, Walt Disney Studios, adjacent to Disneyland Paris.

The company's film studio, which has been number one or two at the U.S. box office for 13 of the past 16 years, had a particularly banner year in 2003, with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Disney-Pixar's Finding Nemo both grossing more than $300 million at the U.S. box office.. That year, Disney became the first studio in history to surpass $3 billion in global box office.

On October 1, 2005, Robert Iger assumed the position of chief executive officer, becoming only the seventh individual to lead the company in its entire history. Iger quickly established his intention to take advantage of emerging technologies in order to connect with consumers in new ways. Within weeks of becoming CEO, he arranged for Disney to become the first broadcaster to have its TV shows made available on Apple's iPod. Iger also emphasized his determination to grow the company by building on its legacy of great creativity and his first major initiative, announced in January 2006, was the acquisition of creative powerhouse Pixar Animation. The Disney/Pixar partnership

had been one of the most successful in film history and, by acquiring the studio, the continuation of Disney's animation legacy is all but assured. Iger also orchestrated another much smaller, but highly significant, animation acquisition, as Disney bought the rights to Walt's original creation Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

Disney's performance during Iger's first year was stellar, with record revenues, record cash flow and record net earnings for fiscal year 2006. These financial results were driven in large measure by the company's outstanding creative product, such as the films Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Cars, ABC's Desperate Housewives, Lost and Grey's Anatomy Disney Channel's High School Musical and Hannah Montana, ESPN's popular sports coverage and, of course, the beloved attractions at Disney theme parks.

As much as the company has changed since its Oswald days, much has remained the same, as it continues to be dedicated to providing innovative, quality entertainment for all members of the family, across America and around the world.

The Walt Disney Family Museum

Beginnings

Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago on December 5, 1901, the fourth of Flora and Elias Disney's five children. Of his siblings, Walt formed an especially close bond with his brother Roy, eight and a half years his senior. They became best friends and, in later years, business partners. When Walt was four years old his family moved from Chicago to a farm in Marceline, Misstheiri, where he enjoyed the idyllic rural life and first discovered his love of drawing. Five years later the Disneys moved again, this time to the contrasting urban environment of Kansas City. Elias had bought a Kansas City Star paper route, and young Walt worked long hours delivering morning and evening papers while simultaneously attending school. It was in Kansas City, too, that he discovered the world of motion pictures, vaudeville, and amusement parks. In 1917 Walt and his parents moved back to Chicago. When the United States entered World War I, Roy joined the navy. Walt, too young for the armed forces, joined the Red Cross instead. He arrived in France just after the Armistice and drove an ambulance there for a year during the army's cleanup operation.

 Upon his return to the States, Walt was determined to pursue a career as a cartoonist. The Kansas City Film Ad Company, which produced advertising films for local theaters, hired him, and here a momentous event occurred: Walt was introduced to the world of animated cartoons. So intrigued was he that he experimented on his own, then formed an animation studio: Laugh-O-gram Films Inc. But the little company soon failed, and in 1923 Walt boarded a train to try his luck in Hollywood.

Hollywood

“I came to Hollywood and arrived here in August 1923 with forty dollars in my pocket and a coat and a pair of trousers that didn’t match. And one half of my suitcase had my shirts and underwear and things and the other half had my drawing materials. I was a little discouraged with cartoons at that time. I thought I was getting into it too late. In other words, I thought the cartoon business was established in such a way that there was no chance to break into it. So I tried to get a job in Hollywood, working in the picture business so I could learn it. I would have liked to have been a director, [but] before I knew it I had my drawing board out. I started back at the cartoons and I was able to secure a contract for twelve of these short films.”—Walt “He was always worried, but always enthusiastic. Tomorrow was always gonna answer all his problems.”—Roy Arriving in Hollywood and finding no openings in the major movie studios, Walt continued to pursue his idea for the Alice Comedies. Soon he had sold the series to a national distributor, and he and his brother Roy established their new animation studio. The Alice Comedies were a modest success and led to the creation of a new character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit—and then, at the end of the 1920s, the event that would prove to be the turning point for the Walt Disney Studio: the birth of Mickey Mouse.

New horizons in the 1930’s

"By nature, I'm an experimenter. So, with the success of Mickey, I was determined to diversify. I had another idea - the Silly Symphonies - a series without a central character, which would give me latitude to develop the animated cartoon medium."

 "The first was The Skeleton Dance. The reaction was - why does Walt fool around with skeletons? Give us more mice. So, for a while, it looked like the first Silly Symphony would not get out of the graveyard. But once more, a showman came to the rescue. Fred Miller, who was managing director of the Carthay Circle Theater in Los Angeles, took a chance on the film. The Skeleton Dance got a wonderful reception, and wonderful reviews. Thus was the series launched" - Walt "At first the cartoon medium was just a novelty, but it never really began to hit until we had more than tricks. We had to get beyond getting a laugh." - Walt The 1930s witnessed a phenomenal creative explosion at the Walt Disney Studio. The Mickey Mouse series continued, building on Mickey's success in 1928 and '29 and producing new cartoons that were increasingly fresh, funny, and popular. At the same time, Walt launched a new series in 1929: the Silly Symphonies. These innovative cartoons, founded on the bond between animation and music, flourished during the 1930s and allowed Walt to explore new creative horizons. They brought a new level of prestige to the Disney studio and to animation itself.

The move to features

“The short subject was just filler on any program. So I just felt I had to diversify my business and get into these other things that would give me a better chance. Now if I could crack the feature-length field that would give me sort of an unlimited field. I could do things.”—Walt “I don’t know why I picked Snow White. It’s a thing I remembered as a kid. I saw Marguerite Clark in it [the 1916 live-action film] in Kansas City one time, and I thought it was the perfect story. I had the sympathetic dwarfs, I had the heavy, I had the prince and the girl, the romance—I just thought it was the perfect story. I think it is one of the more perfect plots, I mean, basic all the way through. From the very start you have sympathy.”—Walt “I was afraid. Roy was too. But Walt wanted to do it.”—Lilly “We were pioneering, yet we had to be right the first time.”—WaltHaving carried the one-reel animated cartoon to new heights, Walt now decided to tackle a feature-length film. The making of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs would become one of the greatest challenges of his career. No one had ever attempted a film

such as Walt now envisioned—a feature-length story told through his carefully crafted brand of character animation—and some industry insiders predicted it would fail. Instead the finished film achieved enormous worldwide success, and laid the groundwork for even more ambitious projects.

They Were In A New Business

“When Snow White hit, we realized we were in a new business. We knew it within a week after the picture had opened at the Carthay Circle in Los Angeles. We had been heavily in debt, and within six months we had millions in the bank. I also had a big staff that I had to keep busy.”—Walt “We accomplished a great deal with Snow White and we want to go on from here. We have learned that the tempo of a feature differs from that of a short. We learned hundreds of things that cost us a lot of money. . . . We have an organization of young men to whom nothing is impossible.”—Walt, in The New York Times, March 6, 1938 The success of Snow White marked a profound turning point for Walt Disney. No longer bound by the practical and financial restrictions that had held him back, Walt was free to indulge his most far-reaching creative ideas. Now he plunged into production of three new and even more ambitious features: Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Bambi. To facilitate all this new production, he and Roy started construction on a new, state-of-the-art animation studio in Burbank. Here, in a custom-designed environment with the latest and best equipment, Walt and his artists could strive to reach new artistic heights. His struggles were over—for a time.

The toughest Period

“As I remember, it was the toughest period I’ve had in my whole life. It wasn’t a worry of losing anything; it was just sort of a big disappointment in a lot of things. But something comes out of it. Sometimes you’ve got to build yourself up and explode. And then you begin to pick up the pieces and take stock.”—Walt “The 1940s, with the war and their frozen markets, was a bad decade for us. We really got in a tight bind around here. We were a young organization and their fellows were subject to the draft—to the service—and we lost many, many of them. Walt jumped in and started making films for the services, and on the strength of that, was able to keep some of the boys to keep a nucleus of an organization going.”—Roy

 During the early 1940s Walt and his studio were sorely tested by two major crises. The first was a bitter three-month-long artists’ strike, which drastically disrupted the staff’s working relationships. The second crisis was World War II, which consumed the studio’s attention from the moment the United States entered the war in December 1941. Either one of these events, alone, would have altered the course of Walt’s future; together they amounted to an enormous personal and professional challenge. The strike took its toll, but Walt met the war emergency with a series of creative responses. The studio diversified its activities, producing a distinctive variety of films and other products, and emerged from the war years newly strengthened.

Post War Production

“I said, by hook or by crook we’ve got to get going. We’ve got to get back in the business that we were in before the war. . . . I wanted to set up so that all my eggs were not in that cartoon basket. I wanted different types of things that I could do so that I could fall on my nose with one of these pictures but I had another one right behind it. So we finally got together...we decided to go ahead.”—Walt “Their re-conversion job consists of reorganizing their staff to include the experienced men whom we lost and who have now returned, of training others to provide for increased production, and to build up their inventory of stories in preparation and of pictures in work. I believe it can be done quickly and efficiently in proportion to the enthusiasm and the teamwork we can apply to it. All these qualities mean good pictures, and good pictures mean that their future is assured. We have a clear road ahead. Let’s get on their way.”—Walt in Annual Report, December 31, 1945 Walt and Roy met the challenge of the postwar years by diversifying their production. The animation department channeled its efforts into new and creative directions, and eventually revived some feature-length projects that had been started before the war. And—more than twenty years after his arrival in Hollywood—Walt finally realized his ambition to become a producer of live-action films.

Walt and the Natural world

One of the most unusual highlights of Walt’s career was a series of nature documentaries, the True-Life Adventures. The first of these films, Seal Island(1949), set the pattern: Walt would hire a team of naturalist-photographers to spend months or even years in the wild, filming the animal life of a region; then the studio would edit their hours of raw footage into a theatrical film. The result was an authentic record of nature’s wonders, presented with all the production polish of a major movie studio. The nature series ran for more than a decade and produced ten short subjects and seven features, winning nine Academy Awards along the way. The True-Life films also led to a second, similar series of travel documentaries titled People and Places. “The biggest problem was getting [the photographers] to keep shooting. They would be too conservative with film because when they were working on their own they had to buy that film. They would cut the camera just as an animal would do something. I had to pound: Shoot, shoot! I had to sell them on the idea that the film was the cheapest thing [in their operation], and if they missed something—it got to the point that they never dared come in to tell me something they saw that they didn’t photograph because I would raise heck with them. Also, they would quit too early in the day. They’d think the sun wasn’t right. I said, Keep shooting!”—Walt

The Big Screen and beyond

“When television first hit, I went back to New York and spent a week in New York just to study television. . . . I had the feeling then that it was important and that we ought to get in it. The feeling of the motion picture business was that television was something we should fight. Or we should ignore it and maybe it would go away, or some darn thing.”—Walt “[Disneyland] is something that will never be finished. Something that I can keep developing, keep plussing and adding to. It’s alive. It will be a live breathing thing that will need changes. A picture is a thing, once you wrap it up and turn it over to Technicolor, you’re through. . . . I wanted something live, something that could grow, something I could keep plussing with ideas, you see? The park is that.”—Walt “I use the same talents to develop the different attractions at the park that I do to make my cartoons and make my other films here. So—it was a wise move some fifteen years ago when I decided that I should diversify.”—Walt Even as the Disney studio continued to produce animated and live-action films, Walt was moving into new fields. As the 1950s dawned, he would embrace the medium of

television and leave his unique stamp on it; and after creating so many fanciful worlds on the screen he would build a new, three-dimensional world that visitors could experience for themselves. A fresh explosion of creativity was just around the corner.

Death of Walt Disney 

Walter Elias Disney died on December 15, 1966, ten days after his sixty-fifth birthday, in St. Joseph’s Hospital—directly across the street from the studio that he and his brother had built in Burbank, California. The nation and the world reacted in grief and disbelief, and condolences came to his family and his company from all over. His brother Roy led the family and the company in continuing the projects Walt had begun. The Mineral King project, which had been enthusiastically approved at the time of Walt’s death, was defeated by the Sierra Club in a lawsuit that went as far as the Supreme Court. The concept of EPCOT, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, was revised to World Showcase and Future World. The acronym was kept, however, and EPCOT Center became Epcot. The California Institute of the Arts was built in 1969 on a hill overlooking California’s Interstate 5. The School of Animation was added by the Walt Disney Studio in 1978, staffed entirely by veterans of the Disney Animation Department, and its first class produced such stellar graduates as John Lasseter. Roy Disney declared that “Disney World,” the Florida project so important to Walt, would be named Walt Disney World, so that everyone would know it was his creation. The park opened in 1971, and Roy himself died soon afterward—but not before ensuring that Walt’s legacy would be carried on.

Legends

Mario Gentilini (Publishing)Inducted 1997

Mario Gentilini pushed the envelope of invention in the world of comic publishing. As former director of "Topolino" magazine, he had an artistic, captivating and tireless

personality, which he infused into the popular Italian publication featuring Mickey Mouse. Under his leadership, "Topolino" transformed from a monthly into a weekly publication and featured original Disney stories by classically-trained Italian artists.

As vice chairman of The Walt Disney Company, Roy E. Disney, recalled, "Mario was a great pioneer in the comic field."

Born July 8, 1909, in Luzzara, Italy, Mario studied art at the Accademia di Brera in Milan and in time, became a well-known figurative painter with work featured in exhibitions in Paris and Rome.

He taught at a local high school until 1936 when he was offered the opportunity to fill in for an artist on leave from Arnoldo Mondadori Editore. While at the prestigious publishing firm, Mario learned of "Topolino" magazine, which the company had recently acquired the rights to publish. He became enchanted by Disney's little mouse star and as a result, quit teaching and began a new career in publishing, retouching drawings for "Topolino." Nine years later, in 1945, Mario was promoted to its editor.

Typically, during this time, only Disney stories from the U.S. were translated and published in the magazine. Mario, however, transformed the publication from a monthly into a weekly and as a result, initiated original Disney stories by Italian artists to help fill "Topolino's" estimated 3,500 published pages per year. The artists he recruited were from top Italian schools such as Scarpa in Venezia.

Mario's other contributions include "I Classici di Walt Disney," a monthly magazine that featured only the best stories of "Topolino." First published in 1958, the magazine was a huge success selling two million copies in seven languages per issue. Ten years later, Mario published the first of a successful series of Disney-themed handbooks for the Italian boy scouts (Junior Woodchucks) called Manuale dell Giovani Marmotte.

In addition to his publishing genius, Mario was also a clever marketer and in 1960, founded the "Topolino" Ski Trophy for children ages 6 to 12, the first sports program of its kind in Europe. He also developed Il Club di Topolino for readers of "Topolino," who collected and traded special stamps that were published in the magazine. Founded in 1954, the club grew to more than 500,000 members by the late 1960s.

After 35 years with Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Mario retired in 1980. Future fellow Disney Legend Gaudenzio Capelli assumed his responsibilities as director of "Topolino."

Mario Gentilini died in February 1988, in Milan.

Disney Legends: Motivation Factor

The Disney Legends program was established in 1987 to acknowledge and honor the many individuals whose imagination, talents and dreams have created the Disney magic. The awards are given annually by Robert Iger and Roy E. Disney during a ceremony at The Walt Disney Studios.

The Legends are chosen by a selection committee chosen by Roy E. Disney. Since its inception, the program has honored many gifted animators, Imagineers, songwriters, actors and business leaders as having made a significant impact on the Disney legacy.

In 1997, the Legends program was established in Europe with a ceremony held at Disneyland Paris, commemorating the 5th anniversary of the park and honoring those who established many of the Disney European businesses. During the ceremony, a 14-foot bronze enlargement of the Disney Legends award was unveiled as an enduring reminder of their contributions.

On October 16, 1998, the new Disney Legends Plaza was dedicated at The Walt Disney Studios to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the The Walt Disney Company. The Plaza features a second edition of the bronze sculpture first placed in Disneyland Paris, with bronze plaques representing the individual Legends lining the columns of the Plaza.

Each year, new Legends will join this celebrated group so that they may always remember the gifts of those people who know the secret of making dreams come true.

Legends Philosophy

The Disney Legends award has three distinct elements that characterize the contributions made by each talented recipient.

The Spiral - stands for imagination, the power of an idea.

The Hand - holds the gifts of skill, discipline and craftsmanship. The Wand and the Star - represent magic: the spark that is ignited when

imagination and skill combine to create a new dream.

Legend Award Details

The Disney Legends award was created in 1987 by Andrea Favilli. The awards are cast in bronze and hand-crafted each year by the artist that characterizes the contribution made by each talented recipient.

The ultimate authority on all things Disney

Dave Smith founded the Walt Disney Archives in 1970 and served as the Company's Chief Archivist for the past four decades. In 1996, he assembled an unprecedented amount of Disney lore, facts, and figures into his unparalleled reference work, "Disney A to Z: The Official Encyclopedia." He updated this magnum opus for a new edition in 1998 and then again in 2006. A current supplement to the latest edition is available by clicking the button below. Dave has appeared on numerous television shows as a Disney expert and has attended every Disneyana Convention to date, as a resourrce person and occasional guest speaker. He co-authored "The Ultimate Disney Trivia Books 1, 2, 3, and 4" with Kevin Neary, as well as "Disney: The First 100 Years," with Steven Clark. Named a Disney Legend in 2007, Dave retired from his prestigious Chief Archivist position in late 2010, but continues to update "Disney A to Z."

More About Disney

Over the years, many authors have written about different aspects of the Disney vision, so now you can find a wealth of Disney-related titles at ytheir favorite bookstore. The following list, which covers subjects from films to personalities and art to imagineering, forms the backbone of the Disney archives featured here in Disney A-Z.

Walt and Roy Disney 

The Story of Walt Disney by Diane Disney Miller & Pete Martin (Holt, 1957)

The Disney Version by Richard Schickel (Simon & Schuster, 1968, 1985, 1997)

Walt Disney: An American Original by Bob Thomas (Simon & Schuster, 1976; Hyperion, 1994)

The Man Behind the Magic; the Story of Walt Disney by Katherine & Richard Greene (Viking, 1991, 1998)

Walt Disney: His Life in Pictures edited by Russell Schroeder (Disney Press, 1996)

Walt Disney's Railroad Story by Michael Broggie (Pentrex, 1997) The Magic Kingdom; Walt Disney and the American Way of Life by

Steven Watts (H. Mifflin, 1997; 2001 pbk) Building a Company; Roy O. Disney and the Creation of an

Entertainment Empire by Bob Thomas (Hyperion, 1998) Remembering Walt: Favorite Memories of Walt Disney by Howard

Green & Amy Boothe Green (Hyperion, 1999) The Quotable Walt Disney compiled by Dave Smith (Disney Editions,

2001) Discovering Walt by Jean-Pierre Isbouts (Disney Editions, 2001) Inside the Dream: The Personal Story of Walt Disney by Katherine &

Richard Greene (Disney Editions, 2001) Walt Disney's Misstheiri by Brian Burnes, et al (Kansas City Star

Books, 2002)

Disney Company 

Donald Duck Joins Up; the Walt Disney Studio During World War II by Richard Shale (UMI Research Press, 1982)

Storming the Magic Kingdom by John Taylor (Knopf, 1987) The Disney Studio Story by Richard Holliss & Brian Sibley (Crown,

1988) The Disney Touch by Ron Grover (Business One Irwin, 1991, 1997) Prince of the Magic Kingdom: Michael Eisner and the Re-Making of

Disney by Joe Flower (Wiley, 1991) Disney Dons Dogtags: The Best of Disney Military Insignia from World

War II by Walton Rawls (Abbeville, 1992) Walt in Wonderland: The Silent Films of Walt Disney by Russell Merritt

& J.B. Kaufman (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993) The Disney Films by Leonard Maltin (Crown, 1973, 1984; Hyperion,

1995) Work in Progress by Michael Eisner & Tony Schwartz (Random House,

1998) Disney: The First 100 Years by Dave Smith & Steven Clark (Hyperion,

1999; Disney Editions, updated 2002) The Little Big Book of Disney by Monique Peterson (Disney Editions,

2001)

Animated Characters 

Mickey Mouse: Fifty Happy Years edited by David Bain & Bruce Harris (Harmony Books, 1977)

Donald Duck, 50 Years of Happy Frustration (HP Books, 1984) Goofy, the Good Sport (HP Books, 1985) Mickey Mouse, His Life and Times (Harper & Row, 1986) Mickey Mouse in Color (Pantheon Books, 1988) Mickey Mouse; My Life in Pictures by Russell Schroeder (Disney

Press, 1997) Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters by John Grant

(Hyperion, 1998) Disney's Winnie the Pooh: A Celebration of the Silly Old Bear by

Christopher Finch (Disney Editions, 2000) Mickey Mouse: The Evolution, the Legend, the Phenomenon by Robert

Heide & John Gilman (Disney Editions, 2001)

Behind The Scenes 

The Art of Walt Disney by Robert D. Feild (Macmillan, 1942) The Art of Animation by Bob Thomas (Simon & Schuster, 1958) The Art of Walt Disney by Christopher Finch (Harry N. Abrams, 1973,

1995, updated 2004) Fantasia by John Culhane (Harry N. Abrams, 1983) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs & the Making of the Classic Film by

Richard Holliss & Brian Sibley (Simon & Schuster, 1987; Hyperion, 1994)

Walt Disney's Bambi: The Story and the Film by Ollie Johnston & Frank Thomas (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1990 )

Art of Animation: From Mickey Mouse to Beauty and the Beast by Bob Thomas (Hyperion, 1991; updated including Hercules, 1997)

Aladdin, The Making of an Animated Film by John Culhane (Hyperion,

1992) The Art of The Lion King by Christopher Finch (Hyperion, 1994) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: An Art in Its Making by Martin

Krause & Linda Witkowski (Hyperion, 1994) The Art of Pocahontas by Stephen Rebello (Hyperion, 1995) The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation by Frank Thomas & Ollie

Johnston (Hyperion, 1995) The Disney that Never Was by Charles Solomon (Hyperion, 1995) Toy Story; the Art and Making of the Animated Film by John Lasseter &

Steve Daly (Hyperion, 1995) The Art of the Hunchback of Notre Dame by Stephen Rebello

(Hyperion, 1996) Before the Animation Begins: The Art and Lives of Disney Inspirational

Sketch Artists by John Canemaker (Hyperion, 1996) Animation Magic: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at How an Animated Film

Is Made by Don Hahn (Hyperion, 1996) The Art of Hercules by Stephen Rebello and Jane Healey (Hyperion,

1997) The Art of Mulan by Jeff Kurtti (Hyperion, 1998) A Bug's Life: The Art and Making of an Epic of Miniature Proportions by

Jeff Kurtti (Hyperion, 1998) The Tarzan Chronicles by Howard Green (Hyperion, 1999) Fantasia/2000: Visions of Hope by John Culhane (Disney Editions,

1999) Paper Dreams: The Art & Artists of Disney Storyboards by John

Canemaker (Hyperion, 1999) Dinosaur: The Evolution of an Animated Feature by Jeff Kurtti (Disney

Editions, 2000) Walt Disney's Nine Old Men & The Art of Animation by John

Canemaker (Hyperion, 2001) The Art of Monsters, Inc. (Chronicle Books, 2001) Lilo & Stitch: Collected Stories from the Film's Creators (Disney

Editions, 2002) Treasure Planet: A Voyage of Discovery (Disney Editions, 2002) The Art of Finding Nemo by Mark Cotta Vez (Chronicle Books, 2003) The Art and Flair of Mary Blair by John Canemaker (Disney Editions,

2003) Brother Bear: A Transformation Tale by H. Clark Wakabayashi (Disney

Editions, 2003) The Art of the Incredibles by Mark Cotta Vaz (Chronicle Books, 2004) Chicken Little: From Henhouse to Hollywood by Monique Peterson

(Disney Editions, 2005)

Music 

The Musical World of Walt Disney by David Tietyen (Hal Leonard, 1990)

The Golden Age of Walt Disney Records, 1933-1988 by R. Michael Murray (Antique Trader Books, 1997)

The Illustrated Treasury of Disney Songs (Hyperion, 1998) Walt's Time by Robert B. Sherman & Richard M. Sherman (Camphor

Tree, 1998)

Theme Parks 

Walt Disney's Epcot Center by Richard R. Beard (Harry N. Abrams, 1982)

Disneyland: Inside Story by Randy Bright (Abrams, 1987) Gardens of the Walt Disney World Resort by Dee Hansford (Walt

Disney World, 1988) Disneyland: The Nickel Tour by Bruce Gordon and David Mumford

(Camphor Tree, 1995; updated 2000) Building a Dream; The Art of Disney Architecture by Beth Dunlop

(Abrams, 1996) Walt Disney Imagineering: A Behind the Dreams Look at Making the

Magic (Hyperion, 1996) Since the World Began: Walt Disney World's First 25 Years by Jeff

Kurtti (Hyperion, 1996) Designing Disney's Theme Parks, ed. by Karal Ann Marling

(Flammarion, 1997) The Making of Disney's Animal Kingdom by Melody Malmberg

(Hyperion, 1998) Riding the Black Ship Japan and Tokyo Disneyland by Aviad E. Raz

(Harvard University, 1999) Walt Disney World Resort-A Souvenir for the Millennium (Disney

Editions, 1999) Once Upon an American Dream: The Story of Euro Disneyland by

Andrew Lainsbury (U. of Kansas Press, 2000) Disneyland Resort: Magical Memories for a Lifetime (Disney Editions,

2002) Disneyland Paris: From Sketch to Reality by Alain Littaye & Didier

Ghez (Nouveau Millionaire, 2002) Hidden Mickeys: A Field Guide to Walt Disney World's Best Kept

Secrets by Steven Barrett (Intrepid Traveller, 2003) Designing Disney: Imagineering and the Art of the Show by John

Hench (Disney Editions, 2003) The Haunted Mansion: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies by

Jason Surrell (Disney Editions, 2003) 101 Things You Never Knew About Disneyland by Kevin Yee & Jason

Schultz (Zauberreigh Press, 2005) Around the World with Disney by Kevin Markey (Disney Editions, 2005) Disneyland: Then, Now and Forever by Bruce Gordon & Tim O'Day

(Disney Editions, 2005) Disneyland Hotel: The Early Years (1954-1988) by Donald W. Ballard

(Ape Pen Pub., 2005) The Imagineering Field Guide to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney

World by Alex Wright (Disney Editions, 2005) Behind the Magic: 50 Years of Disneyland by Karal Ann Marling (The

Henry Ford, 2005) Pirates of the Caribbean: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies by

Jason Surrell (Disney Editions, 2005) Birnbaum's Walt Disney World and Birnbaum's Disneyland (Disney

Editions, 2006)

Television 

Mickey Mouse Club Scrapbook by Keith Keller (Grosset & Dunlap, 1975)

The Official Mickey Mouse Club Book by Lorraine Santoli (Hyperion, 1995)

The Wonderful World of Disney Television by Bill Cotter (Hyperion, 1997)

Collectibles 

Disneyana: Walt Disney Collectibles by Cecil Munsey (Hawthorn, 1974)

Disneyana Catalog and Price Guide (5 vols.) by Tom Tumbusch (Tomart, 1985-89)

Mickey Mouse Memorabilia (Abrams, 1986) Disneyana: Classic Collectibles 1928-1958 by Robert Heide & John

Gilman (Disney Editions, 2002) The Mickey Mouse Watch Book by Robert Heide & John Gilman

(Hyperion, 1997) The Disney Poster Book (Disney Editions, 2002) The Disney Treasures by Robert Tieman (Disney Editions, 2003) The Disney Keepsakes by Robert Tieman (Disney Editions, 2005) Official Price Guide to Disney Collectibles by Ted Hake (Gemstone

Pub., 2005)

Reference/Trivia 

The Ultimate Disney Trivia Book by Kevin Neary & Dave Smith (Hyperion, 1992); Book 2 (Hyperion, 1994); Book 3 (Hyperion, 1997) Book 4 (Disney Editions, 2000)

Disney A to Z; the Official Encyclopedia by Dave Smith (Hyperion, 1996; updated ed. 1998)

Disney: The Ultimate Visual Guide by Russell Schroeder (DK Publishing, 2002)

Miscellaneous 

Beauty and the Beast; a Celebration of the Broadway Musical by Donald Frantz (Hyperion, 1995)

The Lion King: Pride Rock on Broadway by Julie Taymor (Hyperion, 1997)

Disney on Broadway ed. by Michael Lassell (Disney Editions, 2002) A Day at the New Amsterdam Theater by Dana Amendola (Disney

Editions, 2004) Celebration: The Story of a Town by Michael Lassell (Disney Editions,

2004)

Board of Directors

Their Board's composition today is a strong, balanced blend of skills and experience, allowing it to offer guidance in core areas important to Disney.

Click on a Director's name to see his or her full background information.

Susan ArnoldDirector since 2007

John E. BrysonDirector since 2000

John S. ChenDirector since 2004

Judith L. EstrinDirector since 1998

Robert A. IgerDirector since 2000

Steve JobsDirector since 2006

Fred H. LanghammerDirector since 2005

Aylwin B. LewisDirector since 2004

Monica C. LozanoDirector since 2000

Robert W. MatschullatDirector since 2002

John E. Pepper, Jr.Chairman of the Board since January 2007

Sheryl SandbergDirector since 2010

Orin C. SmithDirector since 2006

Strategic Sourcing And Procurement

The Walt Disney Company is a diversified worldwide entertainment company with operations in four major business segments: Studio Entertainment, Parks and Resorts, Media Networks and Consumer Products.

The Company's Strategic Sourcing and Procurement organization works with all their Business Units and their Suppliers across the globe to establish the best value for The Walt Disney Company.

Strategic Sourcing provides opportunities for Suppliers to partner with the Company to provide goods and services. This partnering approach is designed to create a mutually beneficial relationship between their Suppliers and The Walt Disney Company.

Disney Sourcing Professionals seek out and contract with companies of all sizes and capabilities, from local and regional Suppliers to those with a global reach finding Suppliers for a specific Company division or the entire enterprise.

They rely on a dedicated, competitive, world-class Supplier base to collaborate with their Sourcing Professionals and work within their

infrastructure to bring the Disney magic to their customers and guests around the world.

Supplier Diversity And Sustainment

The Walt Disney Company is committed to making Minority and Women Business Enterprises (MWBEs) an important part of its Sourcing and procurement activities by actively seeking minority- and woman-owned firms for inclusion in the competitive bidding process, and utilizing these businesses to the fullest extent possible.

The MWBE Program

The MWBE program enhances value received from the supply base by identifying, developing, and referring qualified minority- and women-owned businesses that are capable of meeting The Walt Disney Company's business objectives.

Their team of dedicated supplier diversity professionals engages in several activities to ensure that the diversity they find in their communities is reflected in their supply base:

Outreach actively seeks diverse Suppliers through participation in national, regional, and local minority- and women-owned business development organizations, advocacy groups, and trade shows.

Due Diligence validates MWBE status through certification compliance, site visits, management interviews, and/or third-party research.

Qualification determines relevant MWBE business criteria such as competencies, geographical scope, capacity, etc.

Utilization assists Disney professionals in identifying minority- and woman-owned businesses capable of meeting their procurement objectives.

Development acts as liaison between internal stakeholders and diverse Suppliers to promote goodwill and ensure that each party has their respective needs met.

The Walt Disney Company, have developed a program that goes beyond

solely creating access for minority- and women-owned businesses by fostering a Companywide atmosphere of support and appreciation for the value that diversity brings to their Company's supply base.

Technology Focus

The Walt Disney Company continues to invest in technology to bring efficiencies to the procurement and accounts payable processes. They work with their Suppliers to:

Create electronic Catalogs to maximize use of preferred Suppliers, products and services.

Enable electronic Purchase Order and Invoice transactions to minimize cost, including support for EDI.

Receive electronic payment via ACH (direct deposit). Implement Evaluated Receipt Settlement (ERS) to simplify the PO and

Invoice process. Utilize electronic bidding to reduce cycle time and increase

consistency. Fostering Networking and Honoring Accomplishments

Creative Networking Events from The Disney Event Group

It's a proven fact that networking is constantly acknowledged at the top of the benefit list for face-to-face meetings - but many organizations believe it happens spontaneously or leave it to chance. At Disney, they believe that putting people in a creative networking environment fosters creativity - and nobody offers more creative networking environments than The Disney Event Group. With 47 square miles of the most amazing and imaginative venues on earth, your attendees can mix and mingle while strengthening their business relationships or celebrating accomplishments. 

Value Earned

No networking or recognition event,can compare to the surroundings of multi-million dollar theming and décor elements in the Disney Theme Parks - not to mention how special their attendees feel when they have a corner of their World all to themselves. 

Be it for an intimate dinner, unique networking venue or large-scale celebration, a portion of a Disney Theme Park or an entire park buyout, they can customize their locations to fit their needs. At The Disney Event Group it's all about satisfying customers.

Disney Institute

Disney Institute is a true Disney Advantage that cannot be compared with any other meeting destination, with world-class training that helps businesses learn to think differently. Its called D'Think. 

Disney Institute has paved the way for millions of business professionals and more than half of the Fortune 100 companies to benchmark and adapt proven best practices that have sustained the success of the Disney organization for over 85 years. It remains the only professional development company where you can literally step into a "living laboratory" at Disney Theme Parks and Resorts for guided behind-the-scenes field experiences. They can transport their attendees out of the traditional classroom setting and into real behind-the-scenes interactions with Disney leaders who share proven business practices first-hand. It's an effective and cost-efficient way to be immersed in Disney proven business principles. 

Programs are available in a variety of formats to meet the scheduling demands of the event and the needs of their delegates, adding to the educational content of the meeting. One can select from an array of topics that are based on five core Disney business strengths:

Leadership Excellence

People Management

Quality Service

Brand Loyalty

Inspiring Creativity

In addition, engaging 90-minute keynote presentations are available in topics such as: 

Change Leadership

A Disney Legacy: Keep Moving Forward

Disney Service Guidelines

Inspiration to Innovation

Leading Through Turbulent Times

Storytelling: A Meaningful Translation of Culture

Business standards and Ethics

The Walt Disney Company incorporates best-in-class business standards as a key pillar of its business practices.

Business Standards and Ethics TrainingCompliance training, including the Company's Standards of Business Conduct and ethics, is provided to employees and Cast Members worldwide through the Company's learning management system known as Disney Development Connection. It is the Company's intent, through its compliance training, to ensure that all of its employees and Cast Members have the knowledge and training to act ethically and legally, in compliance with the Company's Standards of Business Conduct.

Hiring PracticesIt is the policy of The Walt Disney Company to provide equal opportunity for all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, marital status, covered veteran status, mental or physical disability, pregnancy, or any other basis prohibited by state or federal law.

Human ResourcesThe Walt Disney Company's employees and cast members are essential to fulfilling their business goals. Their mission is to drive the people dimension of their business, consistent with Disney's culture

and values.  Harassment Prevention and Discrimination Policies

The Walt Disney Company's policy prohibits employees from harassing any other employee, guest or other person in the course of the company's business for any reason prohibited by law, including, but not limited to, race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, marital status, covered veteran status, mental or physical disability, pregnancy, or any other basis prohibited by state or federal law.

Safety and Security

The safety and security of their guests and their cast members is of paramount importance to us and is evident in programs throughout Disney.

Parks Safety Programs and PoliciesSince Disney began building and operating theme parks in the 1950's, the Company has established hundreds of internal standards for the development and operation of theme park attractions. Their aggressive quality assurance program is designed to enforce both their standards and detailed state regulations for ride systems.

DIMG Internet Safety OverviewSince the launch of its first internet site in 1995, Disney has been committed to promoting both safe Internet practices for children and parental involvement in kids' online experiences. In addition to championing and participating in numerous public education outreach programs which focus on safety, Disney hosts extensive, original interactive content from trusted brands, and offer a variety of community tools that empower parents to control who their children interact with online.

Workplace Safety Programs and TrainingThe Company aims to minimize risks and associated costs by providing quality and professional technical services that foster the safest environment possible for guests, cast members, and property. The Company provides a team of training and development staff that focuses on training employees in the areas of health, safety, and environmental issues. These programs achieve not only compliance with regulatory requirements, but also create a culture that places the highest value on the prevention of injury and illness.

Park Security

Their security teams are dedicated to promoting a safe and secure environment for all of their guests and cast members. More than a thousand cast members are employed in security operations at the Disneyland and Walt Disney World resorts.

Product Safety (Consumer Products)Disney is extremely concerned about the quality and safety of its consumer products, especially those products that are enjoyed by children. The Company's Product Integrity group reviews the safety of all consumer products sold or distributed by Disney entities.

Depiction of Smoking in MoviesDisney is concerned about the impact of the depiction of smoking in movies on youth and actively looks for ways to limit the depiction of smoking in movies marketed to youth. 

Socially Responsive Indices

The Walt Disney Company has been selected as a member of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes. Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes are a cooperation of Dow Jones Indexes, STOXX Limited and SAM Group. By bringing together the expertise of two leading index providers and the pioneer in sustainability investing, the DJSI family rests on a solid foundation to meet the growing market demand for professional, objective and reliable sustainability benchmarks. The Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes recognize the top companies in terms of economic, environmental and social criteria and provide solid benchmarks for sustainability-driven portfolios. The Walt Disney Company is very proud to be a member of the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index.

 

The Walt Disney Company has been independently assessed according to the FTSE4Good criteria, and has satisfied the requirements to become a constituent of the FTSE4Good Index Series. Created by the independent financial index company FTSE Group, FTSE4Good is a financial index series that is designed to identify and facilitate investment in companies that meet globally recognized corporate responsibility standards. Companies in the FTSE4Good Index Series have met stringent social, ethical and environmental criteria, and are positioned to capitalize on the benefits of responsible business practice.

 

The Walt Disney Company is a proud member of a number of KLD Indexes. Disney has been a member of the Domini 400 Social Index (DS400) since its inception on May 1, 1990, and is a current member of KLD's Broad Market Social Index (BMSI), Large Cap Social Index (LCSI), Large-Mid Cap Social Index (LMSI) and the Catholic Values 400 (CV400). KLD Indexes are accepted as the standard for defining strategies and benchmarking investments that integrate environmental, social and governance factors. KLD Indexes define and communicate the standards of social investors to corporations, investment managers and the general public.

Corporate Responsibility

The Company has put in place a comprehensive, integrated approach to corporate responsibility, building on their established infrastructure for addressing crucial issues related to the environment, community, workplaces and product development. Special emphasis has been placed on how these issues affect their key audience of kids and families. 

In March 2009, Disney published a comprehensive Corporate Responsibility Report detailing their approach and progress in these areas for fiscal year 2008. As a supplement to the report, Disney also released a Fiscal Year 2009 Data Update in April 2010.

Eight Success Principles

Walt Disney was an innovator and a visionary. But he was also one of the most successful business leaders of his time. Here are eight principles that made Walt Disney one of the greatest icons of the 20th century:

Provide a promise, not a product: The legend goes that Walt Disney was sitting on a bench watching his daughters ride a carousel when he came up with the concept for Disney World. He noticed amusement parks and state fairs were always littered and poorly organized, and the employees were generally rude and resentful.His wife once asked, “Why do you want to build an amusement park? They’re so dirty.” To which Walt replied, “That’s the point. Mine won’t

be.” From day one, Disney has focused on “the experience” as a key component to increasing the value of its parks.

Always exceed customers’ expectations: One of the reasons the Disney tradition stands the test of time is that Walt Disney was more critical of his creations than anyone else could ever possibly be. He was a relentless perfectionist with a keen eye for detail, often forcing projects to go over budget and past deadline because he wasn’t satisfied with the finished product.

Pursue your passion, and the money will follow: Walt Disney went bankrupt more than once, leveraging everything he had in terms of assets in order to build his studio, his films and his dreams. The more profit one project yielded, the bigger the next would be. His vision was constantly growing, and he used whatever capital he had to allow that vision to evolve. His films and theme parks were labors of love, built to revolutionize an industry, rather than maximize profits.

Stay true to the company’s mission and values: Walt Disney was famous for saying, “I hope that we never lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.”Decades later, Mickey Mouse is still the crown jewel of the Disney franchise, representing all the good will and imagination Disney represents. He’s also a constant reminder that the company has strong roots and it embraces American values.

Differentiate the offer: Every facet of Disney’s operation is unique. Employees are called “associates,” visitors are called “guests,” creative designers are called “Imagineers.” And that’s just the beginning. The experience of being at a Disney theme park or staying at a Disney resort is all about creating a dream vacation – one where the attention to detail and personal service is just as memorable as the attractions themselves.

Lead by example and delegate: Walt Disney was the artist who originally sketched Mickey Mouse, as well as several of the other iconic Disney characters. He even voiced several characters and provided the inspiration for a lot Disney’s animated classics. But as he built a studio and then an empire, he hired reliable men and women who understood his vision and trusted them to translate that vision to others. By the time Walt broke ground on Disney World, he hadn’t drawn a character for decades, nor was he a daily fixture at creative meetings. He built a strong foundation and developed self-reliant managers who embraced his vision. That allowed him to turn his attention to even bigger dreams, while the company and its employees continued to prosper.

Defy convention: So much about Walt Disney’s rise was about bucking the odds and ignoring the critics, whether it was show biz insiders telling him no one would ever sit still for a feature-length animated film, or others saying Walt was crazy for buying acres and acres of murky swampland in central Florida, Disney always trusted his instincts first. Einstein once said, “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” Walt Disney was a perfect example.

Leave behind something to grow: According to one historian, “The true measure of a man’s greatness is what he’s left behind to grow.” Disney World didn’t even open its gates until nearly five years after Walt Disney’s death. And yet, the tradition continues to evolve, almost 45 years later. While Disney has diversified in a number of ways, it’s still the company that started with a mouse. Perhaps Walt himself put it best: “Disney Land is something that will never be finished, something I can keep ‘plussing’ and adding to. I just finished a live-action picture. It’s gone. I can’t touch it. I want something live, something that will grow. The park is that.”