Walt

Disney, Walt (Walter Elias Disney), 1901-66, American movie producer and pioneer in animated cartoons, b. Chicago. He grew up in Missouri, in the small town of Marceline and in Kansas City. He moved to Chicago in 1917, where he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and began (1920) his career as a cartoonist making animated film advertisements. In 1928 Disney created the character Mickey Mouse in the silent film Plane Crazy. That same year Mickey also appeared in Steamboat Willie, a short that initiated the concept of making a separate cartoon for each animated movement. Instantly famous, the film was also Disney's first attempt to use sound (his own voice for Mickey), and it was followed by many other shorts starring Mickey and his animal sidekicks. An international success, by 1935 Mickey Mouse cartoons had been viewed by some 500 million moviegoers. Disney also experimented with the use of music (The Skeleton Dance), the portrayal of speed (The Tortoise and the Hare), three-dimensional effects (The Old Mill), and the use of color (one of the earliest color shorts was 1933's Three Little Pigs).

Disney produced the first feature-length cartoon, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938), which took three years to complete. Additional features included Pinocchio (1939), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942). In Song of the South (1946), he merged live actors and animated figures. During World War II, Disney's studio produced cartoons for the armed services as training tools and morale builders.

Beginning with Treasure Island in 1951, Disney added live-action movies to his output, while still producing such animated classics as Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953). Thereafter, his studio produced several animal stories (e.g., Greyfriars Bobby, 1960), musical fantasies (e.g., Mary Poppins, 1964), and television programs, beginning in the early 1950s with the weekly Disneyland and its famous Mouseketeers. Disney and his productions received numerous Academy and other awards during his lifetime. After his death, the Disney studios remained active, diversified, and ultimately became enormously successful. In the early 1980s, they began producing films for adults.

Disneyland, a huge theme park in Anaheim, Calif., which in part celebrates America's hometowns and small-town values, was opened by Disney in 1955. Disney's California Adventure, a second, smaller theme park in Anaheim, opened adjacent to Disneyland in 2001. An even bigger park, Walt Disney World, opened near Orlando, Fla., in 1971 as a theme park and resort, and Epcot Center, Disney-MGM Studios, and Animal Kingdom have since been added there. Disneyland parks have also opened near Tokyo (1983), in Marne-la-Vallée, near Paris (1992), and in Hong Kong (2005).

Whitman, Walt (Walter Whitman), 1819-92, American poet, b. West Hills, N.Y. Considered by many to be the greatest of all American poets, Walt Whitman celebrated the freedom and dignity of the individual and sang the praises of democracy and the brotherhood of man. His Leaves of Grass, unconventional in both content and technique, is probably the most influential volume of poems in the history of American literature.

Early Life

Whitman left school in 1830, worked as a printer's devil and later as a compositor. In 1838-39 he taught school on Long Island and edited the Long Islander newspaper. By 1841 he had become a full-time journalist, editing successively several papers and writing prose and verse for New York and Brooklyn journals. His active interest in politics during this period led to the editorship of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, a Democratic party paper; he lost this job, however, because of his vehement advocacy of abolition and the "free-soil" movement. After a brief trip to New Orleans in 1848, Whitman returned to Brooklyn, continued as a journalist, and later worked as a carpenter.

Leaves of Grass

In 1855 Whitman published at his own expense a volume of 12 poems, Leaves of Grass, which he had begun working on probably as early as 1847. Prefaced by a statement of his theories of poetry, the volume included the poem later known as "Song of Myself," in which the author proclaims himself the symbolic representative of common people. Although the book was a commercial failure, critical reviewers recognized the appearance of a bold new voice in poetry. Two larger editions appeared in 1856 and 1860, and they had equally little public success.

Leaves of Grass was criticized because of Whitman's exaltation of the body and sexual love and also because of its innovation in verse form—that it, the use of free verse in long rhythmical lines with a natural, "organic" structure. Emerson was one of the few intellectuals to praise Whitman's work, writing him a famous congratulatory letter. Whitman continued to enlarge and revise further editions of Leaves of Grass; the last edition prepared under his supervision appeared in 1892.

Later Life and Works

From 1862 to 1865 Whitman worked as a volunteer hospital nurse in Washington. His poetry of the Civil War, Drum-Taps (1865), reissued with Sequel to Drum Taps (1865-66), included his two poems about Abraham Lincoln, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd," considered one of the finest elegies in the English language, and the much-recited "O Captain! My Captain!" For a while Whitman served as a clerk in the Dept. of the Interior, but he was discharged because Leaves of Grass was considered an immoral book.

In 1873 Whitman suffered a paralytic stroke and afterward lived in a semi-invalid state. His prose collection Democratic Vistas had appeared in 1871, and his last long poem, "Passage to India," was published in the 1871 edition of Leaves of Grass. From 1884 until his death he lived in Camden, N.J., where he continued to write and to revise his earlier work. His last book, November Boughs, appeared in 1888.

Assessment

Whitman was a complex person. He saw himself as the full-blooded, rough-and-ready spokesman for a young democracy, and he cultivated a bearded, shaggy appearance. Indeed, Whitman's early biographers John Burroughs and R. M. Bucke were so affected by the robust "I" of Whitman's poems and by the poet himself that they depicted him as a rowdy, sensual man, a great lover of women, and the father of several illegitimate children. Most of this was false. In reality Whitman was a quiet, gentle, circumspect man, robust in youth but sickly in middle age, who sired no children and is generally acknowledged to have been homosexual. Whitman had an incalculable effect on later poets, inspiring them to experiment in prosody as well as in subject matter.

Kuhn, Walt, 1880-1949, American painter, b. New York City. At the age of 19 he worked as a cartoonist in San Francisco, contributing later to Life magazine. After travel and study in Europe he devoted himself largely to oil painting. In 1913, in cooperation with his friend Arthur B. Davies, he was instrumental in assembling the famous Armory Show. He is best known for his bold and brilliant interpretive portraits and figure studies of circus and backstage types, such as Blue Clown (Whitney Mus., New York City). He is represented in numerous American museums and several in Europe.

(born May 31, 1819, West Hills, Long Island, N.Y., U.S.—died March 26, 1892, Camden, N.J.) U.S. poet, journalist, and essayist. Whitman lived in Brooklyn as a boy and left school at age 12. He went on to hold a great variety of jobs, including writing and editing for periodicals. His revolutionary poetry dealt with extremely private experiences (including sexuality) while celebrating the collective experience of an idealized democratic American life. His Leaves of Grass (1st ed., 1855), revised and much expanded in successive editions that incorporated his subsequent poetry, was too frank and unconventional to win wide acceptance in its day, but it was hailed by figures such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and exerted a strong influence on American and foreign literature. Written without rhyme or traditional metre, poems such as “I Sing the Body Electric” and “Song of Myself” assert the beauty of the human body, physical health, and sexuality; later editions included “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking,” and the elegies on Abraham Lincoln “O Captain! My Captain!” and “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd.” Whitman served as a volunteer in Washington hospitals during the Civil War. The prose Democratic Vistas (1871) and Specimen Days & Collect (1882–83) drew on his wartime experiences and subsequent reflections. His powerful influence in the 20th century can be seen in the work of poets as diverse as Pablo Neruda, Fernando Pessoa, and Allen Ginsberg.

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(born Dec. 5, 1901, Chicago, Ill., U.S.—died Dec. 15, 1966, Los Angeles, Calif.) U.S. animator and entertainment executive. In the 1920s he joined with his brother Roy and his friend Ub Iwerks (1901–71) to establish an animation studio. Together they created Mickey Mouse, the cheerful rodent—customarily drawn by Iwerks, with Disney providing the voice—that starred in the first animated film with sound, Steamboat Willie (1928). The brothers formed Walt Disney Productions (later the Disney Co.) in 1929. Mickey Mouse's instant popularity led them to invent other characters such as Donald Duck, Pluto, and Goofy and to make several short cartoon films, including The Three Little Pigs (1933). Their first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), was followed by classics such as Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), and Cinderella (1950). A perfectionist, an innovator, and a skilled businessman, Walt Disney maintained tight control over the company in both creative and business aspects. He oversaw the company's expansion into live-action films, television programming, theme parks, and mass merchandising. By his death in 1966, Disney had transformed the family entertainment industry and influenced more than one generation of American children.

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Walt's Time: from before to beyond is a 252 page autobiographic, full color book by Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman. It was edited by Imagineers Bruce Gordon, David Mumford and Jeff Kurtti and was published in 1998 by Camphor Tree Publishers who are out of Santa Clarita, California. Bruce Gordon did the book design and layout.

General Outline

The book is divided into three major sections.

Section One: "Walt's Time"

The first section, "Walt’s Time", describes the Sherman’ years with Walt Disney at the Walt Disney Company starting with their first song, Annette Funicello’s Strummin’ Song and continuing through 1967’s The Jungle Book (1967 film).

Section Two: "Al's Time"

The middle section, called “Al’s Time” talks about the other influential person in their life, their father Al Sherman. Al was a well known songwriter in the 30s and 40s. Walt’s Time spends quite a bit of time discussing Al’s life from a Russian immigrant to a successful songwriter for some very famous musicians including Louis Armstrong, Al Jolson, Lawrence Welk and Maurice Chevalier. This section also talks about the Sherman’s early days growing up in Beverly Hills, their college years, Robert's tour in World War II and their early, separate careers. The section ends where the first section starts, their first meeting with Walt Disney.

Section Three: "Our Time"

The final section of the book, “Our Time”, deals with the Shermans' life after Walt Disney and includes many more Disney projects including Winnie the Pooh and Epcot. This section also includes their many and varied non-Disney projects including Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Snoopy Come Home and Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer: A Musical Adaptation. The section concludes with their work on Disneyland’s 1998 New Tomorrowland. The book also includes appendices with a song list, video list and some notes on their unpublished material. Walt's Time also includes preface by then Walt Disney Company's Vice Chairman Roy E. Disney, a foreword by the Vice Chairman of Walt Disney Imagineering Marty Sklar and introduction by Disney film historian Leonard Maltin. Also included are three afterwords by each of the editors as well as a thorough discography and videography.

Publishing Details

Walt's Time was published by Camphor Tree Publishers in December of 1998 (hardcover, ISBN 0-9646059-3-7)

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