Brad Aldridge author and owner of the JustDisney website mentions that Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5th, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois. He was one out of the five children of Elias Disney and Flora Call Disney (Aldridge, “Walt Disney Biography”). He spent most of his childhood in Marceline, Missouri, which according to Bosley Crowther author of Walt Disney.biography, “is said to have furnished the inspiration and model for the Main Street, U.S.A., of Disneyland” (Crowther, “Walt Disney”).
Brad Aldridge continues Walt Disney’s biography stating he developed an interest for art and design at a young age and soon that interest grew into a passion. He devoted himself to this passion and studied cartooning at the Kansas City Art Institute and School of Design (Aldridge, “Walt Disney Biography”). Bosley Crowther mentions in 1917, Disney moved back to Chicago and attended McKinley High School, where he also continued with the arts. Disney was hopeful to eventually end up making a career as a newspaper cartoonist. Walt Disney wanted to enlist into World War I but he was only sixteen so instead he got a job as an ambulance driver with the American Red Cross in Europe. In 1919 he returns back to Kansas City and finds a job in animation (Crowther, “Walt Disney”).
Walt Disney's Parents, Elias Disney and Flora Call Disney.