Roy Oliver Disney was an American businessman and motion-picture executive. He was the partner and co-founder, along with his younger brother Walt Disney, of Walt Disney Productions.
Background
Disney was born on June 24, 1893 in Chicago. His father, Elias Disney, who was at that time a building contractor, had received several lucrative commissions to build furniture for the Columbian Exposition that year, and wanted to name the baby Columbus. His mother, Flora Call, prevailed, however, and gave their third son the sensible name of Roy. In 1901, Roy Disney's younger brother, Walt, was born. In 1906, dismayed by the increased rowdiness of their Chicago neighborhood, the Disneys moved to a farm in Marceline, Missouri, where Roy attended high school. The farm failed, however, and in 1910 the family moved to Kansas City, Missouri. Elias had a circulation franchise there for the local newspapers; Roy and Walt delivered them, and Elias invested their pay. When Roy demanded his money and Elias said it was tied up, Roy went to live with his uncle Will Disney in Ellis, Kansas.
Education
Roy graduated from the Manual Training High School of Kansas City in 1912.
Career
In 1913 Disney began working as a clerk in a Kansas City bank for $19 per week. Four years later, he volunteered for the U. S. Navy and was sent to the Great Lakes Training Camp, north of Chicago. Disney served on a destroyer convoying merchant ships to Europe in the Atlantic Ocean until he was invalided out of the service in the fall of 1918. He returned to Kansas City to live with his brother Herbert in the old family home (Elias, Flora, and their youngest child, Ruth, were then living in Chicago). Walt Disney joined them upon returning from his own tour of World War I European duty. Walt was intent upon being an artist, and Roy believed in his talent. He subsidized Walt and helped him obtain a job drawing at a small ad agency. In 1920, Roy was diagnosed with tuberculosis and went to a veterans hospital in Tucson, Arizona, and then to Sawtelle Veterans Hospital in West Los Angeles. Out of his $85-per-month disability pension, he sent money to help Walt make his first films.
When Walt got a commission in 1923 for six "Alice Comedies" - combined live action/animated films - Roy left the Sawtelle hospital to produce the films. He put $250 into the new business, the Disney Brothers Studio. Walt put in $40, and their uncle Robert Disney, who lived in Los Angeles, put up $500. Roy ran the camera and kept the books while Walt designed. The studio moved to new offices on Hyperion Avenue, in Hollywood's Silver Lake District, and Walt renamed the company Walt Disney Studio. Roy remained in charge of finances and much of the business, since he was shrewder and less trusting than his brother.
In 1932, Walt Disney Studio moved its distribution business to United Artists and in May 1933 issued Three Little Pigs, its first great success. Soon Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and other characters became popular, and the studio started making money. Uncomfortable with the increasing size of the business, Roy entrusted the merchandising of Disney memorabilia to Kay Kamen, who made both Disney and himself millions of dollars. After Kamen's death in 1949, however, Roy realized that Disney would have done better to handle its own merchandising and keep all the profits, which the company then did. In the meantime, the Hyperion Avenue quarters were too cramped. Roy selected a site in Burbank and began construction on Buena Vista Street in 1938. Roy was the cautious Disney brother. While serving as president of the company, he forced Walt to think projects through completely before Roy would support them. Roy preferred to spend studio resources on proven money makers. Indeed, he was reluctant to change the successful Mickey Mouse short film format when Walt proposed a feature-length, $500, 000 film in 1934. That film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, eventually cost more than $1. 75 million but was a commercial success. Thereafter, Roy advised Walt to steer away from short cartoons indeed, to kill off Mickey Mouse; feature films made more money. This, of course, the sentimental Walt refused to do, and Mickey starred in The Sorcerer's Apprentice, later part of Fantasia (1940), a project Roy vehemently opposed on financial grounds.
Walt Disney Studio generally had a good track record, but in the late 1930's and early 1940's, it made three box-office flops - Bambi (1942), Pinocchio (1940), and Fantasia - and the outbreak of war in 1939 destroyed Roy's European distribution opportunities. At the same time, the loans for construction of the Burbank offices (occupied in late 1939) were coming due. Because of the debt load the studio carried (around $4. 5 million), Roy convinced Walt to take the company public. The April 1940 offering raised $8 million and still left Walt, Roy, and their wives with large blocks of stock. Partly to appear fiscally responsible to the new shareholders and partly in response to the financial scare he had had, Roy told employees that the studio was in financial straits and staff needed to be reduced. It was a miscalculation because the staff then unionized as part of the American Federation of Labor. Walt Disney refused to recognize the union, so they struck in 1941. Because of Walt Disney Studio's symbolic and economic importance, the federal government was instrumental in resolving the strike; Disney became a union studio in the end.
As time went on, the brothers argued more about money, but there was no serious rift until Walt wanted to build a theme park in Anaheim, California. Roy believed that Walt Disney Studios should stick with movies, and he refused to convince lenders and shareholders to back the enterprise. Indeed, he threatened to sue Walt if he used the Disney name to raise funds for the project. Walt raised much of the money for Disneyland by agreeing to produce a television series, "Zorro, " for the struggling ABC network. It turned out to be a profitable deal for both parties. Once ground was broken in 1954, Roy arranged for Walt Disney Productions (as the studio by now was known) to buy a majority share in Disneyland.
After Walt's death in 1966, Roy oversaw completion of Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida. He ignored Walt's plans for EPCOT, and that part of the complex was built only after Roy's death. In addition, Roy at the time of his death was a trustee of the California Institute of the Arts, which the Disneys had helped develop and where Disney artists trained.
Achievements
Roy Disney is best known as a co-founder of Walt Disney Productions, serving as the president (to 1966) and later chairman of Walt Disney Productions. Throughout his life, Roy rejected the publicity and fame that came with being Walt's brother.
One of the Walt Disney World Railroad locomotives was named after Roy. A statue of Roy Oliver Disney seated on a park bench beside Minnie Mouse is located in the Town Square section of Main Street, U. S. A. , at the Magic Kingdom theme park in Florida. A duplicate is located outside the Team Disney building at Disney's corporate headquarters in Burbank, California. There is a third statue at the Tokyo Disneyland theme park. The Roy O. Disney Suite is located on the top floor of the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel.
In 2014, Roy O. Disney was portrayed in the feature film Walt Before Mickey by Jon Heder.
Connections
Roy was married to Edna Francis from April 1925 until his death. Their son, Roy Edward Disney, was born on January 10, 1930.
Father:
Elias Disney
Mother:
Flora Call
Spouse:
Edna Francis
Brother:
Walt Disney
He was an American entrepreneur, animator, voice actor and film producer. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons.
