False Facts About Walt Disney You’ve Always Believed!

False Facts About Walt Disney You’ve Always Believed!

One of the most famous filmmakers of all time, Walt Disney’s story is larger than life … and that’s thanks to some major myth-building, both good and bad. Much of what we believe about Disney is just plain false, so let’s set the record straight.

Fans of Disney’s theme parks know that he modeled Main Street, USA after his beloved home town of Marceline, Missouri. He wasn’t born there, though. According to popular legend, Disney spent his early childhood in the perfectly small and idyllic small town of Robinson, Illinois. The story goes that, while trying to earn enough money to reach Chicago, Disney’s parents temporarily settled in Robinson, where Mr. Disney found a job with a man named George Walter, who also rented the couple a room. Soon thereafter, Walt Disney was born, named for his father’s generous boss.

It’s a wholesome origin story. But it’s also completely wrong: according to Snopes, the idea that he was born in Robinson came from a story published in the town’s paper, the Robinson Argus, in 1982 which was based on the unreliable memories of an elderly resident. In fact, Disney was actually born in the big city of Chicago and he wasn’t named after some guy who gave a job and an apartment to his dad.