Walt Disney

On New Year's Day, 1888, Elias Disney and Flora Call were married. Over the next five years they added three sons to their family: Herbert in 1888, Raymond in 1890, and Roy in 1893. By the time Flora became pregnant again some eight years later, the couple were living in Chicago, where Elias was making a living as a carpenter and builder. On December 5, 1901, a fourth child, Walter Elias Disney, was born, named after the family's pastor. (The pastor, in turn, named his son Elias, after Walt's father.) Two years later a little girl, Ruth, arrived and the Disney family was complete. But Elias and Flora were unsettled by the raucous, saloon-centered nature of their neighborhood. When two boys in the neighborhood were arrested after killing a policeman, that was the last straw.

1. Disney Family Moves to Marceline Missouri April 1906

Elias's brother Robert owned some property in Marceline, Missouri, a community of about 5,000 that had sprung up along the route of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. And so, in April 1906, the Disney family settled there on a 45-acre farm. They lived in a square, small house built by a recently deceased Civil War veteran named William Crane. Their house was shaded by broad weeping willows, cedars, and silver maples. When they arrived, Walt could smell the perfume of the apple blossoms from the small orchard behind the house. That fall the same trees hung heavy with crispy red Wolf river apples, "so big that people came from miles around to see them," Walt recalled. For the rest of his life he remembered the community spirit that infused this corner of the world -- particularly at harvest time, when friends and neighbors worked together like one big family

Life on the Farm

Walt and Ruth, as the babies of the family, had few tasks on the farm, and those they had weren't overly strenuous. Their memories of the farm were almost entirely favorable -- with the possible exception of the time they got into deep trouble for doodling on the barn with black sticky tar. The same wasn't true of his older brothers, who labored mightily to help Elias squeeze a decent living out of the land. As Walt grew older, his universe expanded to the town, where he became friendly with a variety of interesting characters like Erastus Taylor, a Civil War veteran who told Walt a succession of dramatic tales of battles long past. Family members were ever present, including Grandma Disney and Uncle Mike Disney, who was a railroad engineer. Uncle Mike would come roaring into town behind the throttle of a giant locomotive, carrying striped bags of candy for the children. Aunt Margaret, Uncle Robert's wife, "would bring me big tablets -- Crayola things -- and I'd always draw Aunt Margaret pictures and she'd always rave over them," Walt later recalled.

In 1908 Herbert and Raymond decided they had had enough of farming, and of their father's insistence that they use any extra money they could earn to help support the family. Now 16 and 18 -- grown men by the standards of the time -- they departed for better times in Chicago. In the fall of 1909, Walt started at the brand-new Park School in Marceline. But he wasn't to be there long. In the fall of 1910 Elias contracted typhoid and almost died. He recovered, slowly, but knew he couldn't keep the farm afloat. So the farm was sold for $5,175, and the family moved to Kansas City in the summer of 1911. Paradise was lost.

1. In Kansas City, Elias bought a newspaper route. Walt and Roy were his staff, and he imbued in them a drive for perfectionism. Walt rose at 3:30 a.m. and was required to place every paper behind the customer's storm door -- not out on the lawn like other newsboys. In the winter, crawling up icy steps with heavy bags of papers more than once drove Walt to cold tears. As a result, Walt's schooling was characterized by intermittently successful efforts to stay awake. Occasionally, though, he'd surprise his teachers. In fifth grade he memorized the Gettysburg Address, came to school dressed as Lincoln, and performed for every class in the school. He loved theatrics and studied Charlie Chaplin movies for tips on performing. He and a buddy, Walt Pfeiffer, worked up little skits to act out at amateur-night competitions. A talent for art also clearly emerged, and Walt drew his own versions of Maggie and Jiggs, a popular comic strip.

Elias has often been described as a ne'er-do-well who bounced from job to job. In fact, his newspaper route was very successful, and he began investing money in a jelly firm in Chicago, the O'Zell Company. O'Zell planned to produce a bottled carbonated beverage, and Elias was convinced that such drinks had a big future. So he sold the paper route, increased his investment in the factory to $16,000, and became head of the company's plant construction and maintenance. This, of course, required moving to Chicago. Unfortunately, the executives in charge were less than honest, and O'Zell didn't last very long. When Walt's folks left for Chicago, he chose to stay behind for the summer. He lived in the family house with Roy and his oldest brother, Herbert, who by now was married and had a two-year-old daughter, Dorothy.

Walt Returns to Chicago

Roy decided that it would be educational for Walt to have a summer job selling newspapers, candy, fruit, and soda on the Santa Fe Railroad. Walt loved the uniform, the trains, the candy, and the chance to see the country. He paid scant attention to the business end of the enterprise, however, and wound up losing money. Walt didn't mind. He never did anything for the money. At summer's end, he joined his family in Chicago, where he attended McKinley High School. But his mind was thousands of miles away, on the battlefields of Europe. Walt wanted to be part of the War to End All Wars. In the meantime, he attended the Chicago Institute of Art, worked at the O'Zell Company, and drew patriotic sketches for the school paper. When school let out for the summer, he began to work at the post office, where he narrowly escaped an untimely end when the building was bombed.

In the summer of 1918, Walt was 16 -- too young for the military. When he heard that the Red Cross Ambulance Corps would accept 17-year-olds, he lied about his age, joined, and began training. All the same, he almost missed his chance when he came down with influenza in an epidemic that killed about 20 million people worldwide. The war ended. But the Ambulance Corps still needed 50 more men, and Walt was the fiftieth selected. He was on his way to France. For the next year, Walt drove an ambulance, chauffeured officers, played poker, started smoking, and wrote letters. Contrary to myth;