Walt Disney: the dream he saw before it existed

Walt Disney is remembered for the castle and the mouse. Before both, there was a string of closed doors, and every one of them is documented.

The no

The first no wasn't money. In 1921, in Kansas City, Walt opened Laugh-O-Gram, a small animation studio. The studio filed for bankruptcy in July 1923. Walt ended up sleeping in the office and bathing once a week at the train station. He left for California with little more than a suitcase.

The second no was more painful. In 1927, Walt created with Ub Iwerks a successful character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. In March 1928, he went to New York to ask his distributor, Charles Mintz, for a better contract. He heard a worse offer and discovered that the rights to Oswald weren't his: they belonged to Universal. Mintz also took most of the team of animators.

The third came decades later. To build Disneyland, Walt didn't get the support he expected from the banks: amusement parks were seen as a seasonal, risky business. He took out a loan of about US$ 60,000 against his own life insurance and created a company with his initials, WED Enterprises, to run the project.

It circulates online that Walt was fired from a Kansas City newspaper for "lack of imagination". We found no document from the period confirming that phrase, so it doesn't appear here as fact.

What they did

Without Oswald, Walt created a mouse. Steamboat Willie, the cartoon that introduced Mickey to the public with synchronized sound, premiered on November 18, 1928, in New York. Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955, on a first day so full of problems that the staff nicknamed it "Black Sunday". They fixed everything, and the park carried on.

The Florida project was announced in November 1965. Walt died on December 15, 1966. His brother, Roy O. Disney, carried the work forward, and Walt Disney World opened on October 1, 1971.

The story goes that, on opening day, someone remarked to Mike Vance, then creative director of the Disney studios, that it was a shame Walt hadn't lived to see it. Vance is said to have replied: "He did see it. That's why it's here." The story is told by Vance himself in lectures and books; there's no recording from the time.

What this has to do with Bairo

Bairo Leandro Gonzalez Martinez doesn't compare himself to Walt Disney. He pays tribute. If he could speak to Walt, he says he'd tell him one thing only: "Your dreams inspired me."

What he recognizes in Walt's story is the gesture of seeing first. In Bairo's life there were ideas seen too early, an idea his partners took from him and fresh starts from zero. The rule he drew from that names a chapter of his story: no is the foundation of yes.

Bairo's story begins precisely on the anniversary of Walt Disney World, in Fifty-five years later, and closes with the same idea in The seventh attempt: he saw it first, that's why he's building it now.

Dates linked to this story: October 1 · July 17 · November 18

Sources

• Laugh-O-Gram Studio (bankruptcy in 1923): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laugh-O-Gram_Studio
• Walt Disney Family Museum, "100 Years Ago: Walt Goes West": https://www.waltdisney.org/blog/100-years-ago-walt-goes-west
• Oswald and the loss of the rights (1928): https://mouseplanet.com/the-history-of-oswald-the-lucky-rabbit-part-one/4512/
• Steamboat Willie, premiere on 11/18/1928 (D23, official Disney archive): https://d23.com/this-day/steamboat-willie-premieres/
• Life insurance and WED Enterprises: https://impact.acli.com/walt-disney-mickey-mouse-and-life-insurance/
• Walt Disney World, opening on 10/01/1971: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney_World
• Mike Vance and Diane Deacon, Think Out of the Box (1995): https://archive.org/details/thinkoutofbox00vanc