Walt Disney: American Dreamer

Glenn Beck

I want to tell you about an American Original, a man who saw into the future and made it a reality.

·       an original: someone who is very imaginative and have new ideas

·       see into the future

·       make something a reality

He isn’t the only one to do this. There were American Originals before him – Benjamin Franklin, the Wright Brothers, John D. Rockefeller – and there are American Originals in our time, like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Elon Musk.

But in the middle of the twentieth century, there was no better example than Walt Disney.

·       there is no better example than

Fifty years after his death, his name still stands atop a global empire.

·       stand atop + …

Raised on a small family farm in Missouri, Walt Disney arrived in Hollywood in 1923 with little more than a suitcase and a pencil. But he had something else: an idea – an idea to explore humanity’s foibles through cartoon animals. Now, I know it sounds obvious now, but only because we live in the world that he helped create.

·        be raised on a farm

·       little more than …

·       foible: a strange habit or characteristic that is seen as not important and not harming anyone

·       we live in the world that he helped create

At first, Disney, like most entrepreneurs, did everything himself – he wrote, produced, directed, and animated. And animation is a painstaking, time-intensive task. In the early days, it would take hundreds, if not thousands, of separate drawings to create a moving cartoon. But hard work was really never a problem for Walt Disney. Living on baked beans, and renting a one-room office for $5 a month, he believed he was on to something – and nobody could convince him otherwise.

·       Painstaking：very careful and thorough

·       In the early days, it would take hundreds, if not thousands, of separate drawings to create a moving cartoon.

·       But hard work was really never a problem for Walt Disney

·       live on

·       rent a one-room office for $5 a month

·       he believed he was on to something

o   be on to something: To discover, realize, or be in the process of doing something of great importance, value, or insight.

·       nobody could convince him otherwise

And Disney would need every bit of that conviction. Now, though the barriers to entry in Hollywood in the 1920s were low, the competition was cut-throat. But a charming rodent and the coming of sound allowed him to break through.

·       Disney would need every bit of that conviction.

·       the competition was cut-throat

·       rodent: any of various small mammals with large, sharp front teeth, such as mice and rats

·       the coming of a sound

·       allow him to break through

Steamboat Willie, in 1928, starring an early version of a whistling Mickey Mouse, confirmed Disney’s belief that there was an audience – a very large audience – for what he wanted to produce.

·       star: If a film, play, etc. stars someone, or if someone stars in a film, play, etc., they are the main actor in it

·       something confirms someone that…

·       a very large audience

By 1933, Mickey was the biggest star in the world. And in that year alone, a cartoon mouse received 800,000 pieces of fan mail. Within a decade, Disney had transformed his one-person operation into a major studio employing a thousand animators.

·       transform A into B

But Disney was a restless personality; he was easily dissatisfied with his own success. And he wanted to make a full-length animated feature. It couldn’t be good. It had to be great. It couldn’t be in black and white. It had to be in color. And it couldn’t just be in color. It had to be art in motion.

·       a restless personality

o   personality: the type of person you are, shown by the way you behave, feel, and think

o   unwilling or unable to stay still or to be quiet and calm, because you are worried or bored

·       a full-length animated feature

o   feature: a film that is usually 90 or more minutes long

·       have to be

·       art in motion:

It would be very expensive – far beyond what he had ever spent on a single project. But money didn’t really interest him. It was only a means to an end. That end? Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

·       a means to an end: something done only to produce a desired result

·       white and the seven dwarfs

Three years in the making, it was finally released in 1937. And it was an instant and phenomenal success – worth every dime spent, every heartache he had endured.

·       in the making: in the process of developing or being made

·       phenomenal success

·       dime: an American or Canadian coin that has the value of ten cents

·       endure an heartache

Disney followed it with one artistic triumph after another: Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi.

·       follow something with …

·       one artistic triumph after another

But by the late forties, Disney’s creative restlessness kicked in again. This time he had a new vision. He wanted to create a new kind of entertainment experience. Not 2D, but a 3D world. He called it a “theme park.” And, typically for Walt, it would be very, very expensive.

·       kick in: to start to have an effect or to happen

·       a new kind of entertainment experience

·       be typically for …

But where was he going to get the money? Disney had a plan. He would trade his known quantity – his ability to engage an audience, for an unknown quantity – this crazy theme park idea. He approached the three television networks, NBC, CBS and ABC, with this proposal: He’d create a live-action TV show, in exchange, they would give him the money to build this theme park.

·       trade (for): to exchange something

·       engage an audience

·       approach

Well, CBS turned him down – it was too risky. And NBC couldn’t make up their own mind. But ABC, the youngest and the least successful of the three networks, desperately needed a hit. They said, “Yes, please.”

·       turn down

·       make up someone’s mind

So, with ABC’s money, Disney built his park. Disneyland soon became another iconic Disney creation, the fantasy destination of every child on Earth. And that’s as true today as it was when it opened in 1955.

Men like Disney are rare, but far less so in America.

Why?

Well, because traditionally, Americans, unlike other people in other countries, don’t rely on the government to get things done. And, ideally, the government stays out of their way. Americans instead rely on their own ingenuity. In America, the only limit to your ambition is your own imagination. And if we want more American originals like Walt Disney, let’s hope we keep it that way.

·       ingenuity: someone's ability to think of clever new ways of doing something

I’m Glenn Beck for Prager University.