Show Notes
The Walt Disney Company is the most successful enterprise ever created for monetizing human nostalgia. Today it’s the king of global entertainment, holding the intellectual property rights to the childhood memories of billions of people (including, likely, all of you) and is a reliable, predictable profitable business. But it didn’t start that way.
During Walt’s era, Disney operated like an unhinged moonshot factory, blowing its finances on one seemingly crazy project after another, like the very first feature-length animated film or a theme park inspired by Walt's fascination with model trains (spoiler: Disneyland). Walt’s relentless ambition to bet the company over and over again not only created some of the most monumental artistic achievements of the 20th century (Snow White, Fantasia, Disney Imagineering), but also resulted in the accidental invention of the modern “flywheel” business model. In this episode, we tell the story of the ultimate marriage of art, commerce, and engineering — The Walt Disney Company: Walt's Era.
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- The Acquired Disney Companion PDF
- OurDisney column in WSJ
- Theoriginal 1958WSJ “Flywheel” article"
- WaltDisney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler
- TheAnimated Man by Michael Barrier
- WaltDisney: An American Original by Bob Thomas
- Buildinga Company: Roy O. Disney and the Creation of an Entertainment Empires by Bob Thomas
- The Disney Version by Richard Schickel
- PBS American Experience: Walt Disney
- DisneylandHandcrafted
- Walt's 1966 EPCOT pitch video
- Worldly Partners' Multi-Decade Disney Study
- The Walt Disney Family Museum
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Start
Intro
Walt's Early Life & Artistic Calling (1901-1919)
12:22From Commercial Art to Laugh-o-grams (1919-1923)
23:05Hollywood, The Alice Comedies & Oswald's Loss (1923-1928)
43:27Mickey Mouse & The Synchronized Sound Breakthrough (1928)
01:01:21The IP Flywheel & Mickey Merch Explosion (1929-1933)
01:09:57Flywheel Terminology Unpacked
Snow White: Walt's $1.5M Folly (1934-1937)
01:52:01The Burbank Studio, Debt & Strike (1938-1941)
02:04:28The Animators' Strike & Walt's Disillusionment (1941)
02:15:43WWII, The Vault & Creative Slump (1941-1950)
02:24:27Post-War Slump to Cinderella's Comeback (1945-1950)
02:33:48Walt's Obsession: Model Trains to Disneyland (1950-1952)
02:38:44Financing Disneyland: ABC, SRI & Davy Crockett (1953-1955)
03:17:05Disneyland's Grand Opening & The Evolving Flywheel (1955-1958)
03:41:55The Florida Project & Walt's Last Dream (1961-1966)
Walt's Untimely Death & Roy's Legacy (1966-1971)
Roy Finishes Walt Disney World (1966-1971)
The Post-Walt Slump & Corporate Raiders (1970s-1984)
Analysis: Why No Other Disney Flywheels?
7 Powers
Quintessence
Carve-Outs + Outro
Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.