![]() There is probably no artist's name as well known, as attached to so many works of art and that has inspired more people than Walt Disney. From creating Mickey Mouse to building Disneyland to creating arguably the largest entertainment company on planet Earth, he is a giant personality whose works will be felt for many years into the future. Any artist should study the life of this American genius because they will find mountains of inspiration from any chapter of his brilliant story. He grew up in a poor, yet hardworking farming family in the Midwest and at an early age discovered a love for drawing. He never finished high school, dropping out because he wanted to fight in the war but fortunate for us they turned him down because he was only 16. He found work in making advertisements which led him to discovering animation. He had no formal training whatsoever but was fascinated by the subject and found a book on it, read it, and soon after opened up an animation company. It gained some success but could not turn a profit and quickly failed. That's right, Walt Disney's first animation business went bankrupt and failed! He decided to move from Kansas City to Hollywood where the entertainment industry was. With the help of his brother Roy, they began creating new and exciting animation. Disney's company had success with a character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, although it was technically owned by Universal and through strong arm business tactics the character was not only taken from Disney's company but also every single one of his animators except for one. With such a huge loss of staff and resources he did not wallow or dive into self-pity, instead he flourished and prospered through the creation of one of the most globally recognizable characters in human history: Mickey Mouse. Disney had the idea to produce a cartoon in sound and with the production of "Steamboat Willie" in 1928, his company had a bonafide hit on their hands, with Walt Disney's own voice imbuing the new animated star with a lovable soul. Walt Disney would continue innovating in the field of animation with his most ambitious project yet. At the time, cartoons were short and shown before a movie played, but Disney had the idea to produce a feature length cartoon. This was unheard of and they called him crazy, constantly saying that no one would sit through a whole movie of a cartoon; it was ridiculous! Disney spent four years working on his feature length cartoon until he ran out of money and was forced to show early, unfinished material to bankers, and finally his film was released in 1937. You may have heard of it. It was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and it went on to earn Disney an Academy Award, was the most successful film of 1938, is listed in AFI's List of the 100 Greatest American Films (one of only two animated films to be on the list, the other is Disney's Fantasia) and Albert Einstein at the time said it was, "the greatest film ever made." Despite the success of Snow White and Mickey Mouse, The Walt Disney Company had not managed to reach viability as a company because of huge loan debts and large investments into expanding the Disney Studios and beginning production on more animated feature films. Just when the public wanted to see Disney films, the world was thrown into World War II and the company faced giant obstacles to stay afloat and somehow survive. Walt Disney did not let a global war stop him from creating art and when the dust settled he was in control of a company that knew no boundaries, produced more animated films, expanded into live action films, had it's own distribution company and an international merchandising empire. When Walt Disney wanted to create a place where parents could bring their kids that was beautiful, fun, and other worldly, they again called him crazy. His company would go into further debt and had to think creatively of how to raise more money for the idea of a theme park at a time when no one knew what a theme park was. He struck gold by working out a deal with ABC to air a TV show about his new theme park and it's construction and through an investment with ABC was able to get enough money to build his park and promote it on TV at the same time. Until Disneyland opened in 1951, the Walt Disney Company had spent its first 20 years in debt, but it could now go on to amass enormous revenue from the success of "the happiest place on Earth," which would evolve into more parks, including Disney World in 1971. The Walt Disney Company now owns the companies ABC, Miramax, Marvel and Pixar, to name a few. It has produced countless hours of television, motion pictures, and music. It has arguably created more memorable pieces of art and entertainment than any other company in history, and to think it all stemmed from a man from very humble beginnings that wanted to draw instead of farm. His genius lay not in the ability to amass fame and fortune, but in his ability to constantly create art and push the limits of what was possible in whatever artistic field he was involved. and the fame and fortune were inevitable. He ignored the naysayers and always looked to the future. If they call Times Square the "center of the universe" and refer to a "Disneyfication" of it, it only means we have arrived at a future world that Walt Disney helped create, decades ago, while drawing pictures and wanting them to move. Join my mailing list to receive new blog posts and updates.
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Millions of people have watched the movie "Rocky" but very few know the story of how it came to be created. It is one of the most inspiring stories of an artist making it that you've ever heard, even more inspiring than the movie itself that inspired millions. Sylvester Stallone was no stranger to overcoming the odds. As a baby he had to be pulled out with forceps and began life with physical limitations and a speech problem. There was only one real goal Stallone ever had in his life: to be an actor in movies. When he began acting no one wanted him because he didn't look like an actor and he spoke funny. Every agent in town turned him down but he kept showing up to their offices and eventually one decided to take him after he patiently waited an entire night for him to return the next morning. He got a few roles playing gangsters and tough guys but wanted a real career.
Stallone was extremely broke because the work wasn't enough to make ends meet. It got to the point where he didn't have enough money to pay to heat his apartment.. On a cold day he went to the public library because it was warm there. He was not a reader but someone had left a book of stories by Edgar Allen Poe and he picked it up. Stallone became so inspired by Poe's stories and the author's own story that he decided to try his hand at writing. He wrote with not much success but remained hopeful. His financial situation got worse and one day he realized he couldn't afford to feed his best friend in the whole world, his dog, and stood in front of a liquor store until he found someone that bought him for $25. It broke his heart to let him go but knew now he'd be fed. Two weeks later Stallone was watching TV and a boxing match was on. Muhammed Ali was fighting Chuck Wepner, an underdog fighter that somehow managed to hold his own with Ali and even knocked him down. He immediately became inspired and in about 20 hours worth of writing over 3 days he had the 90 page screenplay for "Rocky." He was confident in the story and one day mentioned that he was also a writer and they were willing to take a look at his script. He was dead broke and starving at the time but his luck was about to change. He was offered $125,000 for his script! He had only one condition: he had to play the role of Rocky. They told him he was crazy and to take the money and they'd find a big star to play Rocky. He said no. They came back to him with another offer of $250,000! Stars like Robert Redford, Ryan O'Neil or others could play the part. He said no! He was starving, broke and he'd never dreamed of so much money but he stuck to his guns and said he had to play Rocky. It got up to $330,000 but he still said no! They ended up paying him $35,000 but he got the part. "Rocky" was shot for one million dollars in 28 days and went on to be highest grossing movie of 1976, making $200 million dollars at the box office and won three oscars including Best Picture. Sylvester Stallone's story is one of complete determination and the very highest of ethics. He did not compromise his self-determinism or abandon is dreams, he kept fighting and putting his goal out front until he won. Stallone is a uniquely inspiring guy who went on to inspire countless millions of people across the planet with his tale of a boxer that goes the distance, but the true inspiration is from his own example. An interesting thing happened when he got his paycheck for $35,000. He didn't buy a car or throw a big party. He immediately went back to that same liquor store he had sold his dog at, every day until he found the guy that had him and offered him $100 for him. The guy said no! (He had grown attached to the dog in the one month that had passed). Stallone said I'll give you $1,000 dollars, just please let me have my dog back, he's my best friend in the whole world. He said no! Finally, he had to pay the guy $15,000 and a part in "Rocky" but he got his dog back. You may recognize him, he was in the movie too. He was Rocky's dog, Butkus. When you're feeling uninspired watch "Rocky" and the next time you do, think about the starving artist that didn't starve and his best friend that didn't either. It just might help you put things in perspective. You don't have to drink raw eggs like Rocky but you might want to get yourself a nice tall glass of integrity. Join my mailing list to receive new blog posts and updates. In the early 1900's a young boy named Philo Farnsworth and his family moved into a farm home in Idaho with built-in electricity. Philo was enthralled with how electricity was used and stumbled upon stacks of technology magazines in the attic of his new home, as well as a burned out electric motor he began tinkering with. After further studies into this newly emerging technology utilizing electricity, Philo began to imagine a device that could operate much in the same way a radio did, except in addition to transmitting sound, it would also transmit moving pictures.
At 14 years old, he walked into his school and showed his teacher a design for the first television by drawing it on the chalkboard. The teacher was amazed and recommended he seek out professionals in the field at a nearby university. Within a few years that same boy would be credited as the inventor of the electric television and won the patent rights in large part to his teacher who had luckily written down the boy's design that one day. The rest is history. He went on to create many more inventions and garnered an unprecedented deal with RCA,. Television has impacted the world in such a huge way that it becomes almost impossible to measure its true influence on the world. It has allowed for such a tremendous amount of knowledge and information to be shared across the entire planet. It has enabled us to view what transpires in any part of the globe as it happens without having to be there in person. It has allowed anyone to watch the World Series or a Presidential Inauguration or see their favorite singer. This invention has made its way into practically every living room in the world, changing our daily habits. It has also enabled computer technology,smart phones and countless other viewing devices. It is truly remarkable that a 14 year-old boy living on a farm in Idaho discovered some old magazines, saw the potential in an emerging technology and imagined an entirely revolutionary new idea for spreading and sharing everyone else's ideas. Television has become such a monumental milestone in human interaction and it is all because a young boy took interest enough in the world around him to imagine a better world filled with something new. I dare to imagine what our world of tomorrow would look like if the 14 year-old boys of today looked to their own attics and burned out motors, studied, dreamed and ventured to write something on their teacher's chalkboard. I'm sure he'd see something important in the drawings. I know the world would. Join my mailing list to receive new blog posts and updates. Ray Bradbury, author of "Fahrenheit 451" and countless writings on science fiction and the human spirit, "passed away" yesterday at the age of 91. He was certainly one of the greatest writers in the last 100 years and leaves the world still ablaze with the fires he started with his great works and the flames he fanned in our minds. If we learn anything from his lifetime spent amongst desks typing and scribbling away, it is that books are powerful igniters for all mankind to lift up and use.
From the time he was a boy he was captivated by books like Tarzan and Flash Gordon. By the time he was a teenager his own short stories made their way into magazines and his career only continued to climb. It was not an easy road for Bradbury, not in the slightest. He is a great example of hard work and persistence overcoming social and financial limitations. His family was on government assistance and attending college was not an option to him. He sold newspapers on the street corner and spent three days a week reading books at the public library for 10 years straight. When he needed to write, he had to rent a typewriter. It was on a rented typewriter in a library that Ray Bradbury wrote his masterpiece "Fahrenheit 451." Today's writers are very much spoiled, given laptop computers, printers and the internet, but in Bradbury's days, writing was much different. He pursued writing and books because he had a passion for it, not because every household had a computer and he happened to be good in English. He went about a career in literature through reading lots of books and then writing lots of books. Lucky for us that he chose the path he chose because the world is a much better one for it. His stories gave birth to entirely new imaginative and scientific creations that actually took shape and impacted the world. He predicted things like ATM machines, the death of newspapers, television screens taking up entire walls and people wearing earphones which would feed them a never ending supply of entertainment, all before these things happened. Ray Bradbury was a literary giant whose footprints will be noticed for many years because we will have to keep stepping into them. His stories are so enormous in significance and scope that hundreds of years from now people will read what this man wrote and marvel at his insights and brilliance. In an era where so much attention goes onto war, violence, drugs and sex, here stands a life spent trying to get our attention where it should be, onto peace, creativity, imagination, literature, science and art. We will always have his books and they will continue to shine a light for generations of men in the future who will not have lived when he did but will surely be bettered in their time as we have been in ours by this incredible being. Join my mailing list to receive new blog posts and updates. Can you imagine receiving $70 million dollars for something that took you 30 seconds? That's what happened to Merv Griffin in the early 1960's when he came up with a short lullaby for his son Tony. It was originally called "A Time for Tony" but was later changed to "Think!" and debuted as the theme music for the long-running TV game show "Jeopardy" in 1964. Merv Griffin was the show's creator, as well as the creator of the equally famous game show "Wheel of Fortune." He later sold both shows for $250 million dollars to Columbia Pictures in 1986 and at that time it was the largest acquisition of an entertainment production company in history.
Merv Griffin had a very eclectic background. In his early 20's he was a professional singer and had the number one song in America with 1950's "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts!" which sold 3 million copies. He was then signed to a contract to the big Hollywood studio Warner Brothers as an actor but after a few films he actually bought out the remainder of his contract to pursue what he felt was a brighter future in television. Oh, how right he was, eventually hitting it big as one of the biggest television hosts of all time with "The Merv Griffin Show" and of course his famous game shows. He was a hard working, creative force that earned more than Johnny Carson, and after the sale of his production company in 1986, was named "The Richest Performer in Hollywood History" by Forbes. It doesn't surprise one that such a giant entertainment figure became so wealthy and successful, but it does surprise someone when you consider the impact and worth of his 30 second piece of music "Think!" It is absolutely amazing that such a short tune with no lyrics has become such a part of popular culture. Think about how many times you've heard the music outside of the Jeopardy TV show. It plays in giant sports arenas during time outs while the audience is entertained with short trivia questions. It appears in TV commercials and movies. Perhaps the most interesting use of the music is amongst people in everyday conversations. When someone is waiting for an answer, instead of quietly waiting, they may start humming the Jeopardy theme. When someone tells me there is no opportunity for financial success being an artist because they don't have the time to invest creating art, I will now have the Jeopardy music playing in my head, thinking, "you don't have 30 seconds?" Your whole life can change in an instant if you're willing to look outside what people often give as barriers. Sure, Merv Griffin did thousands of other things leading up to his millions in earnings, but it starts with something. Next time you're humming a tune or find a spare few seconds, instead of spending it on your usual fixations, try to come up with some new idea for a song, a movie, a book, a TV show, or something the world has never heard of. You may just get the world singing your tune. Join my mailing list to receive new blog posts and updates. It's been 35 years since the original Star Wars film first hit theaters in 1977. It was rejected by Universal and George Lucas made it go right by finding investment for the film and got it made. People hadn't seen anything like it before and it became an overnight phenomenon. They lined up for blocks to see it over and over again. Lucas scored a huge hit and at the time no one, including him, could have predicted that it would go on to be a cultural milestone, now valued at over $30 billion dollars. What was the secret behind the wildly successful franchise? What made it so different from other films, shows, books and creations that it took on such a monstrous size? Three things.
1. ORIGINALITY - Science fiction stories had been around for decades and science fiction movies had been made before but it was new things like the opening title sequence, newly developed special effects, light sabers, Wookies, the Force and a ton of others all combining in a wholly unique, aesthetically stimulating experience that drove people crazy. It was something new! They hadn't seen ANYTHING close to this before. 2. MERCHANDISING - Although the Star Wars films have grossed a couple billion dollars world wide, the bigger numbers come from merchandise like Star Wars toys, t-shirts, board games, lunch boxes, backpacks, coloring books, legos, video games, legos inspired video games, phone apps, posters, comic books, novels and a TON of other stuff. From the very beginning George Lucas, a marketing genius, saw the potential of every kid wanting to be Luke Skywalker and later realized he would grow to be an adult wanting to be Luke Skywalker. 3. FANNING THE FAN BASE - When people become fans of something they're usually left to their own devices to express their admiration for it. There might be an occasional fan club one could join where you'd receive a one time package of a photo and a sticker, but Star Wars fans had more, MUCH more. George Lucas realized there was enormous potential in the Star Wars story continuing in the hands of fans across the world. Most entertainment companies go after people when they use their characters' images in fan made creations, but not Lucas. He encouraged it. The result? Countless numbers of fan made movies, songs, websites, you name it and it's probably been made by a Star Wars fan. It is the guy that spends a couple years making his home-made version of Episode IV and shows it to all his friends online that keeps the franchise filled with an ever-growing amount of new content. And these guys buy movie tickets and all the merchandise, brilliant! It all starts from an original idea, but then you need to make other products and create a vehicle for people to help you promote your creations. It's not enough to just make great art. You have to promote and sell it. You have to get others to help you, otherwise you'll be limited to how many people you can reach. Ideally, you want to create a world like George Lucas did, one others will want to explore and play in enough to help it grow and expand. One of the biggest challenges being an artist is being able to create outside of the confines of yourself, to get out there and create with others. I think George Lucas pulled it off and now, so can you. May the force be with you. Join my mailing list to receive new blog posts and updates. |
David CarusI'm David Carus. From overcoming one of the most dangerous cities in the country and graduating from one of the most prestigious colleges in America to leading an educational movement as a teacher and running for Congress at the age of 25, I decided the best hope our world has is through art. Archives
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