Disney's 99th

October 16th is a very important date in the Walt Disney Company’s history. On that date, in 1923, the Disney Bros. Cartoon Studio was formed, which is what grew into the Walt Disney Company. That means today, October 16th, 2022, is the Disney Company’s 99th anniversary and their 100th anniversary will be next year. In the last century, since its founding, Disney has come a long way. Let’s explore how it grew from being called the Disney Bros. Cartoon Studio to the Walt Disney Company…

At 22 years of age, Walt Disney created Alice’s Wonderland, a short film featuring a live-action Alice (played by Virginia Davis) interacting with animated characters. He showed it to distributor Margaret Winkler, who began negotiating plans with Walt to distribute a series of “Alice Comedies.” When the deal was signed, Walt and Roy, along with a team of animators relocated to Los Angeles where they formed the Disney Bros. Cartoon Studio, set up in their uncle, Robert Disney’s garage.

The success of the “Alice Comedies” led the team to move to another location on Hyperion Avenue in the Silver Lake District of Los Angeles. It was there that Walt renamed the studio Walt Disney Studio and began work on cartoons featuring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. When Disney lost Oswald to Universal Studios due to a contract infraction, he came up with the idea for Mickey Mouse and released Mickey’s first short, Plane Crazy in 1928. He also began work on his Silly Symphonies series in 1929 and that same year, he changed the studio’s name to Walt Disney Productions Ltd., and created subsidiaries Walt Disney Enterprising (for merchandising), Disney Film Recording Company Ltd. (for music) and Liled Realty and Investment Company (for real estate).

After the excruciating process of producing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), each of those subsidiaries were combined to make Walt Disney Productions. The profits they received from “Snow White” ($184.9 million), provided the studio with enough money to build a new studio complex in Burbank, California, where it is located today. While at this location, they continued producing animated films: Fantasia (1940), Cinderella (1950), Peter Pan (1953), and began producing live-action films: Treasure Island (1950), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). They also began constructing Disneyland, which opened on July 17th, 1955. The same year that they produced “Peter Pan,” they ended their distribution contract with RKO Radio Pictures, who had distributed all the animated films to that point, and formed their own distribution company, Buena Vista Film Distribution, which is now known as Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. 

When Walt Disney passed away on December 15th, 1966, Disney films (both animated and live-action) began losing their touch with audiences. Escape to Witch Mountain (1975) and Freaky Friday (1976) were box-office failures and though Robin Hood (1973) and The Rescuers (1977) were successful, they didn’t quite equal the success of the studio’s earlier animated hits. When Disney’s son-in-law Ron W. Miller took over as President and CEO of Walt Disney Productions, he was able to revive the studio, creating Touchstone Pictures, which gave the studio opportunities to produce more adult-oriented movies, beginning with Splash in 1984. Miller is also known for establishing the Disney Channel, as well financing the short films Vincent (1982) and Frankenweenie (1984), both of which were written and directed by Tim Burton and beginning early development on Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). Each of the three aforementioned films were the studio’s first uses of computer and stop-motion animation. (Fun Fact: Miller also funded Disney’s very first Broadway show, Total Abandon, which starred Richard Dreyfuss.)

On February 6th, 1986, when Frank Wells became President, the studio was split into the Walt Disney Company and Walt Disney Feature Animation. The latter oversees production on animated films, and was later renamed Walt Disney Animation Studios (when Pixar was acquired in 2006), while the former oversees production on everything else (Disney Parks, Disney Television, Disney Cruise Line, etc.)

All in all, the Disney companies have a fascinating history. The many iterations, names, combinations and re-combinations are confusing. Walt Disney always said “It was all started by a mouse,” but the literal truth is that it started before then, and was all started by a missionary men. It’s been a remarkable ride, with many achievements along the ways. And it makes sense to start celebrating that century of accomplishments now.