Walt Disney: An American Original

Walt Disney: An American Original is a 1976 biographical book of Walt Disney by Bob Thomas.[1][2] It was revised by Disney Editions in 1994.[3][4] Walt Disney is known as an American hero by changing American culture with his creation of Mickey Mouse.[5] He was a man who developed animated film into an art form and made a massive contribution to the traditional beliefs, customs, and stories of our world passed through the generations by word of mouth.[6] After years of research, Bob Thomas, a Hollywood biographer, produced a biography of the man behind the legend of Disney, with the inside help of the Disney family and the access to private papers and letters.[5] Walt Disney: An American Original is a biography of Walt Disney, complete with a rare collection of photographs and inside details about the creator himself.[6] It was also reprinted in 1994.[7]

First edition
(publ. Simon & Schuster)

Summary

The book shows the life of Walt Disney before he was born, during his life, and after his death.[8] The author starts the novel by describing how Walt had first established a business soon after he returned from France in World War One.[8] The company was called Laugh - O - Grams, and they produced mostly political cartoons with a few ads and comics.[8] As the company was unable to make long-term contracts and the cartoons that Walt drew were mostly forgotten and thrown away, the company was short lived.[8] Soon after, Disney met a man, Ub lwerks, who together they founded another cartoon business called lwerks Disney.[8] Within the company, Disney and lwerks developed Oswald the Rabbit and later the world-famous Mickey Mouse.[8] Although Disney and lwerks tried to make deals all over the country, the business ran poorly throughout all of its existence.[8] One occurrence when Disney returned from a trip, he found that lwerks had left the business.[8] The company soon created much debt by the loss of lwerks.[8] Then with the sale of a group of short cartoons, the company soon was slowly brought out of debt.[8]

Walt and his older brother, Roy Disney, then changed the name of the company to The Walt Disney Company and developed a new form of cartoons, full length animated color cartoon movies.[8] Their first well known movie was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.[8] Although this movie was a hit and the Disney Company was growing in world-wide fame, they were still not saved from their debt woes.[8] They continued their work, and after the success of several more full-length animated movies, the company gradually arose from debt.[8] As a new invention known as the television graced America, Walt wanted to plan a show.[8] Knowing this was not enough, he was also working on a plan to build an amusement theme park.[8] Soon later, the television movies were big hits and Disneyland was set up within a matter of a few years.[8] Within the ten years following the introductory of Disney World, Walt’s health steadily declined.[8] Walt planned another theme park in Florida but was never able to see his dream of Disney World completed.[8] Walt Disney died from a cancerous tumor brought on by his habit of smoking.[8]

Author

Robert Joseph Thomas was an American Hollywood film industry biographer and reporter.[9] He started working for the Associated Press in 1944.[9] He was born in San Diego on January 26, 1922 and grew up in Los Angeles where he then attended UCLA.[9] He soon married his wife Patricia and raised three daughters.[9] Bob Thomas wrote at least 30 books and had been writing about the movie business since the days when Hollywood was run by the men who founded it.[9] He then died on March 14, 2014 at the age of 92.[9]

Details

Language: English[10]

Release Date: November 1978[10]

Publisher: Touchstone[10]

Author: Bob Thomas[10]

Length: 379 Pages[10]

Weight: 1.65 lbs[10]

See also

References
  1. "Thomas, Bob". D23. Retrieved 2020-02-18.
  2. Thomas, Bob (1976). Walt Disney: an American original. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-22332-8. OCLC 2213147.
  3. Thomas, Bob (1994). Walt Disney: an American original. New York, N.Y.: Hyperion. ISBN 978-0-7868-6129-3. OCLC 29877603.
  4. Thomas, Bob (1994-04-15). WALT DISNEY: AN AMERICAN ORIGINAL. Disney Editions. ISBN 978-0-7868-6027-2.
  5. "Walt Disney". www.hoopladigital.com. Retrieved 2020-02-18.
  6. "Walt Disney: An American Original". www.amazon.com. Retrieved 2020-02-18.
  7. Disney books about Walt himself - The Ultimate Disney Books Network by Didier Ghez
  8. "PrincessLeia.com - An American Original : Walt Disney". princessleia.com. Retrieved 2020-02-18.
  9. "Bob Thomas". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 2020-02-18.
  10. ThriftBooks. "Walt Disney: An American Original book by Bob Thomas". ThriftBooks. Retrieved 2020-02-18.
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