Disney at 100: 7 ways Walt's company forever changed entertainment
Walt Disney once said he hoped "we never lose sight of one thing — that it was all started by a mouse."
One hundred years ago, the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio opened for business in the back half of a real estate office in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles. Walt Disney had come to Hollywood that summer after the bankruptcy of his first venture, Laugh-O-gram Films, in Kansas City, Missouri. He joined his older brother, Roy O. Disney, who was already living in California and willing to risk $250 on his sibling's dreams.
The duo signed a deal — on Oct. 16, 1923 — to produce short films for a New York distributor. The nascent shop was renamed Walt Disney Studio three years later at Roy's urging.
Over the past century, the influence of the Burbank giant on entertainment and pop culture — not just in the U.S. but also globally — has been profound. The company has shaped the very nature of entertainment through its movies, theme parks that have become vacation destinations, merchandising strategies and television networks.
Early on, Walt Disney learned a harsh but critical lesson. He poured his heart into creating "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit." The cartoon character was a breakout hit when it debuted in September 1927, and Walt and his team of artists spent months creating an additional 25 cartoons featuring the black-and-white big-eared bunny.
But Disney didn't own the rights to Oswald. Instead, the brothers discovered that the distributor had them and was trying to poach their animators to crank out more Oswald cartoons — without Disney. Forced to pivot, Walt
