The Walt Disney Company

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"Disney" redirects here. For other uses, see Disney (disambiguation).
The Walt Disney Company
Type Public (NYSE: DIS)
Founded Los Angeles, California, USA[1]
(October 16, 1923)
Founder Walt and Roy Disney
Headquarters The Walt Disney Studios
Burbank, California, USA
Key people John E. Pepper, Jr. (Chairman)
Robert Iger (CEO) & (President)
Industry Media and Entertainment
Revenue ▲ US$ 35.51 Billion (2007)[2]
Operating income ▲ US$ 7.827 billion (2007)[3]
Net income ▲ US$ 3.832 billion (2007)[4]
Employees 137,000 (2008)
Divisions ABC, ABC Family, ABC Kids, Walt Disney Distribution, Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, Disney Channel, ESPN, Jetix, Walt Disney Studios, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Walt Disney Television Animation, Walt Disney Records, Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Miramax Films, ABC Studios, Playhouse Disney, Disney Consumer Products, Pixar, Soapnet, Disney Interactive Studios, Muppets Holding Company (now The Muppets Studio, LLC), Disney Store, Toon Disney and Club Penguin Entertainment Inc.
Website corporate.disney.go.com

The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) is one of the largest media and entertainment corporation in the world. Founded on October 16, 1923 by brothers Walt and Roy Disney as an animation studio, it has become one of the biggest Hollywood studios, and owner of eleven theme parks and several television networks, including ABC and ESPN. Disney's corporate headquarters and primary production facilities are located at The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.

One of the first characters created by Disney was Mickey Mouse.

The company is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Founding and early success (1922–1966)

  • 1923: Walt Disney signed a contract with M.J. Winkler to produce a series of Alice Comedies - October 16 - the date used as the start of the Disney company. Originally know as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, with brothers Walt and Roy Disney, as equal partners.[5]
  • 1924: First Alice comedy, "Alice's Day at Sea", released.
  • 1926: At Roy's suggestion, the company changed its name to the Walt Disney Studio shortly after moving into the new studio on Hyperion Avenue in the Silver Lake district.
  • 1927: The Alice series ends; first Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon.
  • 1928: Walt loses the Oswald series contract; first Mickey Mouse cartoon, "Plane Crazy"; "Steamboat Willie" released at the Colony Theatre in New York, the first cartoon with sound on November 18.
  • 1929: First Silly Symphony, "The Skeleton Dance". On December 16, the original partnership formed in 1923 is replaced by Walt Disney Productions, Ltd. Three other companies, Walt Disney Enterprises, Disney Film Recording Company, and Liled Realty and Investment Company, are also formed.
  • 1930: First appearance of Pluto.
  • 1932: First three-strip Technicolor short released: "Flowers and Trees"; first appearance of Goofy.
  • 1934: First appearance of Donald Duck.
  • 1937: Studio produces its first full-length feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
  • 1938: On September 29, Walt Disney Enterprises, Disney Film Recording Company, and Liled Realty and Investment Company are merged into Walt Disney Productions.
  • 1940: Studio moves to the Burbank, California buildings where it is located to this day. Release of animated features Pinocchio and Fantasia
  • 1941: A bitter animators' strike occurs; as the USA enters World War II, the studio begins making morale-boosting propaganda films for the government. Dumbo is released.
  • 1942: Saludos Amigos marks the beginning of a series of low-budget "package" animated films that would continue until 1950. Bambi was released, after a six-year production period.
  • 1943: Saludos Amigos is released in the United States.
  • 1944: The company is short on money; a theatrical re-release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs generates much-needed revenue and begins a reissue pattern for the animated feature films.
  • 1945: For the first time, the studio hires live actors for a feature film (Song of the South).
  • 1947: Sign First Independent Studio, The byrnest studio in Orlando that went bankrupt three years later.
  • 1949: The studio begins production on its first all-live action feature, Treasure Island; the popular True-Life Adventures series begins. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is released.
  • 1950: Cinderella is released, ending the series of "package" animated films and reviving Disney feature animation.
  • 1951: Alice in Wonderland was released.
  • 1952: Walt Disney forms WED Enterprises on December 16 to design his theme park.
  • 1953: Walt Disney forms Retlaw Enterprises on April 6 to control the rights to his name. It will later own and operate several attractions inside Disneyland, including the Monorail and the Disneyland Railroad. Peter Pan is released. The studio founds Buena Vista Distribution to distribute its feature films.
  • 1954: Beginning of the Disneyland TV program, which runs for decades under several different titles. Disney becomes one of the first American theatrical TV producers to show his recent films on television, although most of them are first shown in truncated versions to fit a one-hour time slot. Others are divided into two or more one-hour segments over several weeks, so that they can be shown on Disney's TV show.
  • 1955: Disneyland Resort opens in Anaheim, California. Lady and the Tramp, the first widescreen animated film, is released.
  • 1957: Walt Disney Productions went public on November 12.
  • 1959: Sleeping Beauty is released.
  • 1961: One Hundred and One Dalmatians is released, the first feature-length animated film to use Xerography.
  • 1963: The Sword in the Stone is released.
  • 1964: Mary Poppins is released.
  • 1966: Walt Disney dies of lung cancer.

[edit] After Walt's death (1967-1983)

[edit] Eisner era (1984–2005)

[edit] Iger era (2005–Present)

[edit] Consumer products

[edit] Disney parks

The Walt Disney Company owns and operates a series of resorts around the world including the the Walt Disney World Resort, the largest vacation resort in the world. These resorts are managed by the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts division. These are:

[edit] Senior Executive Management


[edit] Current board of directors

[edit] Current division heads

[edit] Chairmen of the Board

[edit] Vice Chairman of the Board

[edit] CEOs

[edit] COOs

The formal position of Chief Operating Officer was not created until Wells and Eisner came in with Eisner taking the titles of Chairman and CEO and Wells, President and COO.

[edit] Criticism

  • Disney has on several occasions prompted action from religious groups such as the Catholic League, due to purported insensitive broadcasting, and the release of films, which the league and others found very insulting to certain religions. Disney has in the past faced boycotts from Baptist groups, "Assemblies of God", and Catholic groups. (boycott 1;boycott 2;boycott 3)
  • The worldwide commercial success of the Disney brand is viewed by some as detrimental to cultural diversity (see Disneyfication).
  • Disney is one among several American companies lobbying for harsher enforcement of intellectual property around the world and continued copyright term extensions, posing a perceived threat to the existence of the public domain; see Copyright Term Extension Act.
  • Disney has been accused of human rights violations regarding the working conditions in factories that produce their merchandise.[9][10]
  • Disney has been criticized by animal welfare groups for its import, use and frequent deaths of wild animals at its Animal Kingdom theme park[11] as well as for using purebred dogs in movies such as 101 Dalmatians, which these groups claim leads to creating an artificial demand for these purebred dogs many of whom are later abandoned or surrendered to shelters or rescue groups.[12]
  • Disney has been criticized in the Abaco Islands for their role in a dredging operation on Great Guana Cay that is said to be responsible for a wide array of environmental problems, including widespread death of coral communities. [1]
  • Disney has been criticized by San Francisco residents and Presidio park preservationists for cutting a back-door deal to erect a museum paying homage to Walt Disney. [13]

[edit] Allegation of subliminal messages

In 1995, Anna Rouge brought the allegation of the letters S-E-X written in the dust within The Lion King to the attention of a conservative anti-abortion group known as the American Life League (ALL).[14][15] ALL spokesperson Tracey Casale weighed in on the issue and said "the message in The Lion King ... it is not fun."[15] ALL made these allegations public, which led to an article by the Associated Press. ALL eventually led a protest of The Walt Disney Company, demanding that the offending movies be recalled from store shelves, and the movies should then be fixed to exclude any messages that exist in them. ALL also demanded a formal and public apology from the Disney.[14] Eugene Emery of the Skeptical Enquirer, called this media attention the "subliminal silly season", lampooning the whole idea and stating:

"the subliminal message issue is not going away as long as reporters and editors don't do their homework and are willing to let their own and the public's primal fear of magical messages override good editorial judgment."[16]

This allegation, however, was later proved to be false. Tom Sito, a Disney animator and a writer for The Lion King, said that the letters written in the dust were actually "S.F.X", intended to be an easter egg signature from the animation department, and that the controversy that followed was entirely unintentional.[17]

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Walt Disney Company and Affiliated Companies - Company History
  2. ^ 2007 Annual Report.
  3. ^ 2007 Annual Report.
  4. ^ 2007 Annual Report.
  5. ^ The Walt Disney Company and Affiliated Companies - Company History
  6. ^ Animation Movies
  7. ^ Southern Baptists drop Disney boycott
  8. ^ New York Times Article regarding Stanford Litvack
  9. ^ http://www.somo.nl/monitoring/reports/hkcic01-02.htm
  10. ^ http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2001/06/18/sweatshops_010618.html source
  11. ^ Caution: Live Animals - TIME
  12. ^ CNN.com - 'Nemo' fans net fish warning - Jun. 30, 2003
  13. ^ http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/09/MNVA10QGPG.DTL&tsp=1
  14. ^ a b Ostman, Ronald E. (1996). "Disney and Its Conservative Critics: Images versus Realities". Journal of Popular Film and Television 24 (2): 82. 
  15. ^ a b Smith, Leef (September 1, 1995), “Disney's Loin King? Group Sees Dirt in the Dust”, Washington Post, <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/review96/flionking.htm> 
  16. ^ Emery, Jr., C. Eugene (March-April, 1996), “When the media miss real messages in subliminal stories”, Skeptical Inquirer, <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_n2_v20/ai_18158438> 
  17. ^ Pinsky, Mark (2004). The Gospel According to Disney: Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust, 247. 

[edit] Additional sources

[edit] See also

[edit] Books

  • Walt Disney: An American Original, Bob Thomas, 1976, revised 1994
  • The Story of Walt Disney, Diane Disney Miller & Pete Martin, 1957
  • Cult of the Mouse: Can We Stop Corporate Greed from Killing Innovation in America?, Henry M. Caroselli, 2004, Ten Speed Press, ISBN
  • The Disney Version: The Life, Times, Art and Commerce of Walt Disney, Richard Schickel, 1968, revised 1997, ISBN
  • The Man Behind the Magic; the Story of Walt Disney, Katherine & Richard Greene, 1991, revised 1998
  • Disney: The Mouse Betrayed, Peter Schweizer
  • Storming the Magic Kingdom: Wall Street, the raiders, and the battle for Disney, John Taylor, 1987, [2], [3], ISBN ISBN
  • Building a Company: Roy O. Disney and the Creation of an Entertainment Empire, Bob Thomas, 1998, ISBN
  • How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic ISBN 0-88477-023-0 (Anti-Disney Marxist Critique) Ariel Dorfman, Armand Mattelart, David Kunzle
  • Donald Duck Joins Up; the Walt Disney Studio During World War II, Richard Shale, 1982
  • The Keys to the Kingdom: How Michael Eisner Lost His Grip, Kim Masters, 20, ISBN
  • Building a Dream; The Art of Disney Architecture, Beth Dunlop, 1996
  • Disneyization of Society: Alan Bryman, 2004, ISBN
  • DisneyWar, James B. Stewart, 2005, ISBN, ISBN
  • Married to the Mouse, Richard E. Foglesorg, Yale University Press.
  • Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records, Tim Hollis and Greg Ehrbar, 2006, ISBN
  • Mouse Tales: A Behind-the-Ears Look at Disneyland, David Koenig, 1994, revised 2005, ISBN 0-9640605-4-X
  • Inside the Dream: The Personal Story of Walt Disney, Katherine Greene & Richard Greene, 2001, ISBN
  • Team Rodent, Carl Hiassen.
  • Disneyana: Walt Disney Collectibles, Cecil Munsey, 1974

[edit] External links

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The Walt Disney Company
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Susan Arnold  · John Bryson · John S. Chen · Judith Estrin · Robert Iger (President, CEO) · Steve Jobs · Fred Langhammer · Aylwin Lewis · Monica Lozano · Robert Matschullat · John E. Pepper, Jr. (Chairman) · Orin C. Smith
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¹ = Disney manages and operates this station owned by James Crystal Radio under an LMA.
² = Operated by Birach Broadcasting, controlled by Disney under an LMA.
Annual Revenue: ▲ US $30.8 billion (2004) · Employees: 129,000 · Stock Symbol: NYSE: DIS · Website: corporate.disney.go.com
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