Disney Studios (American, est. 1923) was founded as the The Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in Hollywood, CA, in 1923 by Roy and Walt Disney in the back room of a Los Feliz real estate office. There, the brothers produced the Alice Comedies, featuring a live-action actress within an animated world, and accompanied by live music in theaters. The company was soon renamed Walt Disney Studio, and relocated to Hyperion Avenue in the Silverlake neighborhood. It was there that Walt began creating several of his groundbreaking animated shorts, including the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series, the Mickey Mouse series and Silly Symphonies. Steamboat Willie, the celebrated cartoon short, marked Mickey Mouse’s first on-screen appearance, as well the first use of fully synchronized sound in history.

In 1934, the Studio began working on its first animated feature, 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which went on to receive critical acclaim and worldwide success. This success enabled Walt to purchase 51 acres of land in Burbank, dedicated to making animated films.

During the 1940s and 1950s, a number of prominent animated features were produced, including Fantasia, Bambi, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan. Beginning in the late 1940s, Disney began producing live-action features and television programs. The studio lot was subsequently expanded during the 1950s, to include sound stages and production craft facilities.

Across the street from the studio, Walt planned to build a place called Mickey Mouse Park. There, he wanted to construct lifelike statues of Mickey and Donald, and guests could take pictures with their favorite characters and enjoy a train ride. However, Walt soon realized more space was needed, and acquired more than 200 acres of orange groves in Anaheim, California. Those orange groves became the site of Disneyland.

The Disney Company continued to experience success during the 1950s and 1960s. It produced critically acclaimed television shows such as The Mickey Mouse Club, Zorro, and Walt Disney Presents. Released in 1964, and widely considered to be one of Disney’s best live-action films, Mary Poppins won five Academy Awards, including a best actress Oscar for Julie Andrews.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the company produced few films that achieved the success of earlier endeavors, and it wasn’t until Roy Miller, Disney’s son-in-law, broadened the company’s product line and founded Touchstone Pictures that the company experienced a resurgence. Michael Eisner was then appointed as chairman of the board and company CEO in 1984, and began a further expansion of the Disney empire. The company added two more film subsidiaries with the establishment in 1989 of Hollywood Pictures, and the acquisition of Miramax Films in 1993, which it held until 2010.

The 1990s were a hugely successful decade for the Disney Company. The revival was heralded by the release of The Little Mermaid, which was followed by films such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Fantasia 2000. The company had experimented with computerized animation, and realized the technology’s potential with the enormously successful Toy Story series, which Disney developed and produced with Pixar Animation Studios, a partnership that continued into the 21st century.

Eisner was succeeded by former ABC chairman Robert Iger in 2005. Iger oversaw a dramatic expansion of the Disney brand, and orchestrated a string of high-profile acquisitions. In 2006, Disney purchased Pixar, and acquired Marvel Entertainment, a company best known as a comic book publisher. In 2012, Disney acquired Lucasfilm Ltd., and the company later announced the development of a seventh film in the Star Wars series.