Mickey Mouse
Created as a replacement for a prior Disney character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Mickey first appeared in the short "Plane Crazy", debuting publicly in the short film "Steamboat Willie" (1928), one of the first sound cartoons. He went on to appear in over 130 films, including "The Band Concert" (1935), "Brave Little Tailor" (1938), and "Fantasia" (1940). Mickey appeared primarily in short films, but also occasionally in feature-length films. Ten of Mickey's cartoons were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, one of which, "Lend a Paw", won the award in 1942. In 1978, Mickey became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life
Walt Disney was born in Chicago on December 5, 1901 and lived in Marceline, Missouri from 1905 to 1910. When he was young, he had a talent for drawing and he earned money doing illustrations for newspapers and advertisements. He left home in 1919 and worked at a commercial art studio in Kansas City, after he was fired from the studio, he started his own shop in 1920. Soon, Walt worked at the Kansas City Film Ad Co. which was his first direct employment in animation. In 1922, he started Laugh-O-Gram Films until he went bankrupt. In 1923, he went to Hollywood and started a Los Angeles studio called Disney.
And on that train ride from Manhattan to Los Angeles, Mickey Mouse was born.