Before He Was 'Uncle Walt,' Disney Almost Went Broke Like FIVE Separate Times — Here's The Wild Story

He Got FIRED For 'Lacking Imagination' — Yes, Really, THAT Walt Disney

In 1919, a young Walt Disney was let go from a Kansas City newspaper job because his editor reportedly told him he lacked imagination and had no good ideas. It's the kind of rejection that sounds like a joke in hindsight, considering what he went on to build.

His FIRST Studio Went Bankrupt And He Was Basically Living In The Office

Walt founded Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Kansas City in 1921, but when a distributor went bankrupt before paying up, the loss of income crippled the company financially, forcing Disney to live in the office and bathe weekly at Union Station. By July 1923 the studio filed for bankruptcy and Disney left for Hollywood with basically nothing.

He Lost His FIRST Hit Character... And It Basically Created Mickey Mouse Out Of Spite

After Oswald the Lucky Rabbit became a hit for Universal in 1927, Disney discovered his distributor Charles Mintz had secretly signed away the character and poached most of his animators — Universal, not Disney, owned Oswald outright. Furious, Disney vowed never again to relinquish control of anything his studio created, and shortly after the Oswald deal collapsed, he came up with Mickey Mouse as his replacement.

Critics Called Snow White 'Disney's Folly' — And Genuinely Thought It Would Bankrupt Him

When Disney announced he was making a 90-minute animated feature in the 1930s, industry insiders and critics were convinced audiences would get bored and walk out, dubbing the unfinished film "Disney's Folly." Both Walt and his brother Roy mortgaged their houses and the studio took out multiple loans from Bank of America just to keep the project alive.

One Bank Loan — Approved After A Single Sentence — Saved The Entire Studio

Midway through production, Disney desperately needed a $250,000 loan just to finish the film, and when Bank of America's Joseph Rosenberg sat silently through a rough-cut screening, Walt feared the worst. Instead, Rosenberg turned to him and said, "Walt, that thing is going to make a hatful of money," approved the loan on the spot, and the film went on to gross around $8 million in its first year, saving Disney from bankruptcy for good.