Legendary animator and businessman Walt Disney truly left his mark on the world during his 65 years of life. His brainchild went from a whistling mouse at the helm of a musical steamboat to a global media conglomerate that, as Title Max mapped out, now owns everything from Star Wars and Marvel to Fox Sports, ESPN, Vice Media, and more. Needless to say, Walt Disney left behind a thriving and creative business model that will most likely own everything we see, do, and say someday.
Legendary animator and businessman Walt Disney truly left his mark on the world during his 65 years of life. His brainchild went from a whistling mouse at the helm of a musical steamboat to a global media conglomerate that, as Title Max mapped out, now owns everything from Star Wars and Marvel to Fox Sports, ESPN, Vice Media, and more. Needless to say, Walt Disney left behind a thriving and creative business model that will most likely own everything we see, do, and say someday.
There's no doubt that Walt Disney was an icon. What kind of icon, well, that depends on who you ask. Since Disney's death in 1966, he's been remembered as an animation pioneer, theme park inventor, giver-of-happiness, freezer-of-his-own-head, and sexist-slash-racist-slash-antisemite. Not all of these things seem like they would fit together into a single persona, and some of them aren't even true. Still, decades after his death, just about everyone is still trying to figure out who Walt Disney really was.
Disney movies are big business in Hollywood, precisely because audiences know exactly what they're getting. You want singing, dancing animals? You got 'em! You want year after year of continuously disappointing Star Wars sequels? You got that, too! You want a disturbing, morally complex story featuring murder, mutilation, public hangings, and troubling racist tropes? Well, you got tha-! Ummm ... wait, what?
Disneyland, the legendary Anaheim, California, theme park, has been enormously popular since it opened in 1955. Even just saying "I'm going to Disneyland" became an advertising catchphrase. But as familiar as the "Happiest Place on Earth" may seem, there are still things you may not know the first Disney theme park that was one of Walt Disney's greatest achievements. And no, we're not talking about Walt's cryogenically frozen body—he's not frozen there, nor anywhere else.
Disney World is the happiest place on Earth, and Disney would like to keep it that way, thank you very much. So you're not likely to find any of the following facts listed in a travel brochure or on Disney's website, right between "Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge" and "Here's how broke you will be after you take your family of four to Disney World for three days."
