Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago in 1901 and grew up interested in art and animation. He started his own animation company in the early 1920s with a fellow animator, Ub Iwerks, making short films for theaters, but the company went bankrupt. Undaunted, Disney and Iwerks moved to Hollywood in 1923 where they began work on a new series featuring a live-action girl who enters an animated world.

1. Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901
in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Flora Disney and Elias
Disney, a Canadian-born farmer and
businessperson. At age 16, during World War I, he
faked his age to join the American Red Cross. He
soon returned home, where he won a scholarship
to the Kansas City Art Institute. There, he met a
fellow animator, Ub Iwerks. The two soon set up
their own company. In the early 1920s, they made a series of
animated shorts for the Newman theatre chain, entitled "Newman's
Laugh-O-Grams". Their company soon went bankrupt, however the
two then went to Hollywood in 1923. They started work on a new
series, about a live-action little girl who journeys to a world of
animated characters.