It was 3:30 in the morning and 8-year-old Walt Disney was doing what he did at that time every morning- rolling hundreds of newspapers he would soon deliver in his neighborhood. It was hard work for a little kid who had to go to school, then deliver another round in the evening. But delivering papers beat picking apples for a living. That's what he'd been doing before, on his family's failing farms in Missouri. Walt Disney, born in December, 1901, never had time for a childhood. As a result, he spent all of his adult life attempting to invent one for himself. In the process - almost by accident - he created wonderful childhood memories for generation after generation of children worldwide. When the Disneys moved to Chicago, Walt signed up for cartooning classes, working three part-time jobs to pay for them. At 24, he created a cartoon character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which was a great success. Hethen shifted his attention to mice, or one particular mouse called Mickey.And Mickey Mouse became an overnight success. Success followed success, but Walt Disney pushed himself even harder. He produced Snow White and Seven Dwarfs, for which he won a special Oscar. After the Second World War, Walt came up with the idea of Disneyland. Everyone said it was too costly a dream, but he wouldn't listen. His great world of fantasy opened on July 17, 1955. In the next seven weeks, more than one million people walked into Disneyland. The man who had spent a painful childhood now watched other people enjoy the perfect childhood world that he had created. Which was Disney's first successful cartoon character?
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Mickey Mouse. Snow White. Donald Duck.