(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
I’m Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLEIN AMERICA. Every week we tell about a person who was important inthe history of the United States. Today, we tell about Walt Disneyand the movie company he created.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
That was the song “When You Wish Upon a Star.” It is from WaltDisney’s animated movie “Pinocchio.” For many people, it is the songmost often linked with Walt Disney and his work.
The song is about dreams … and making dreams come true. That iswhat the Walt Disney Company tries to do. It produces movies thatcapture the imagination of children and adults all over the world.
VOICE TWO:
Millions of people have seenDisney films and television programs. They have made friends withall the Disney heroes: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Snow White,Pinocchio, Peter Pan.
Millions more have visited the company’s major entertainmentparks. There is Disneyland in California. Disney World in Florida.Tokyo Disneyland in Japan. Euro-Disney in France. Probably no othercompany has pleased so many children. It is not surprising that ithas been called a dream factory.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois inNineteen-Oh-One. His family moved to the state of Missouri. He grewup on a farm there. At the age of sixteen, Disney began to study artin Chicago.
Four years later, he joined the Kansas City Film Ad Company. Hehelped make cartoon advertisements to be shown in movie theaters.Advertisements help sell products. In Nineteen-Twenty-Three, WaltDisney moved to Hollywood, California to join his brother Roy. Hewanted to be a movie producer or director. But he failed to find ajob. So he decided to make animated movies. In them, drawings aremade to move in a lifelike way. We call them cartoons. Disney theartist wanted to bring his pictures to life.
VOICE TWO:
A cartoon is a series of pictures on film. Each picture is alittle different from the one before. Each shows a tiny change inmovement.
When we see the movie, the pictures seem to be alive. The cartoonpeople and animals move. They speak with voices recorded by realactors. Disney opened his first movie company in the back of anoffice. For several years, he struggled to earn enough money to payhis expenses. He believed that cartoon movies could be as popular asmovies made with actors. To do this, he decided he needed a cartoonhero. Help for his idea came from an unexpected place.
VOICE ONE:
Disney worked with Ub Iwerks, another young artist. They oftensaw mice running in and out of the old building where they worked.So they drew a cartoon mouse. It was not exactly like a real mouse.For one thing, it stood on two legs like a human. It had big eyesand ears. And it wore white gloves on its hands.
The artists called him “Mickey.” Earlier filmmakers had foundthat animals were easier to use in cartoons than people. MickeyMouse was drawn with a series of circles. He was perfect foranimation. The public first saw Mickey Mouse in a movie called”Steamboat Willie.” Walt Disney himself provided the voice forMickey Mouse. The film was produced in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. It wasa huge success.
VOICE TWO:
Mickey Mouse appeared in hundreds of cartoons during the yearsthat followed. He became known all over the world. In Japan, he wascalled “Miki Kuchi.” In Italy, he was “Topolino.” In Latin America,he was “Raton Miquelito.”
Mickey soon was joined by several other cartoon creatures. Onewas thefemale mouse called “Minnie.” Another was the duck named”Donald,” with his sailor clothes and funny voice. And there was thedog called Pluto.
VOICE ONE:
Mickey Mouse cartoons were extremely popular. But Walt Disneywanted to make other kinds of animated movies, too.
In the middle Nineteen-Thirties, he was working on his first longmovie. It was about a lovely young girl, her cruel stepmother, andthe handsome prince who saves her. It was “Snow White and the SevenDwarfs.”
“Snow White” was completed inNineteen-Thirty-Seven after three years of work. It was the firstfull-length animated movie to be produced by a studio. It became oneof Hollywood’s most successful movies.
VOICE TWO:
Movie experts say Walt Disney was responsible for the developmentof the art of animation. Disney’s artists tried to put life intoevery drawing. That meant they had to feel all the emotions of thecartoon creatures. Happiness. Sadness. Anger. Fear.
The artists looked in a mirror and expressed each emotion. Asmile. Tears. A red face. Wide eyes. Then they drew that look on theface of each cartoon creature.
VOICE ONE:
Many movie experts say Disney’s art of animation reached itshighest point in Nineteen-Forty with the movie “Pinocchio.” Thestory is about a wooden toy that comes to life as a little boy.
Disney ‘s artists drew two-and-one-half-million pictures to make”Pinocchio.” The artists drew flat pictures. Yet they created a lookof space and solid objects.
“Pinocchio” was an imaginary world. Yet it looked very real.Disney made other extremely popular animated movies in theNineteen-Forties and Nineteen-Fifties. They include “Fantasia,””Dumbo,” “Bambi,” “Cinderella,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Peter Pan,””Lady and the Tramp,” and “Sleeping Beauty.” These movies are stillpopular today.
VOICE TWO:
In addition to cartoons, Walt Disney produced many movies andtelevision programs with real actors. He also produced movies aboutwild animals in their natural surroundings.
Real or imaginary, all his programs had similar ideas. In most ofthem, innocence, loyalty and family love were threatened by evilforces. Sad things sometimes happened. But there were always funnyincidents and creatures.
In the end, good always won over evil. Disney won thirty-twoAcademy Awards for his movies and for scientific and technicalinventions in filmmaking.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
In Nineteen-Fifty-Five, Walt Disney opened an entertainment parknot far from Hollywood, California. He called it “Disneyland.” Hewanted it to be the happiest place on Earth.
Disneyland recreated imaginary places from Disney movies. It alsorecreated real places…as Disney imagined them. For example, onearea looked like a nineteenth-century town in the American West.Another looked like the world of the future.
Disneyland also had exciting rides. Children could fly on anelephant. Or spin in a teacup. Or climb a mountain. Or float on ajungle river. And — best of all — children got to meet MickeyMouse himself. Actors dressed as Mickey and all the Disney cartooncreatures walked around the park shaking hands.
VOICE TWO:
Some critics said Disneyland was just a huge money machine. Theysaid it cost so much money that many families could not go. And theysaid it did not represent the best of American culture.
But most visitors loved it. They came from near and far to seeit. Presidents of the United States. Leaders of other countries. Andfamilies from around the world.
Disneyland was so successful that Disney developed plans for asecond entertainment and educational park to be built in Florida.The project, Walt Disney World, opened in Florida inNineteen-Seventy-One, after Disney’s death. The man who started itall, Walt Disney, died in Nineteen-Sixty-Six. But the company hebegan continues to help people escape the problems of life throughits movies and entertainment parks.
(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. I’mShirley Griffith. VOICE TWO: And I’m Ray Freeman. Join us again nextweek for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program in Special English on theVoice of America.