Mark Lane<\/span> Facts about iconic American brand The Walt Disney Company<\/p>\n From 1923 to present, here are five surprising facts about iconic American brand The Walt Disney Company.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/media-video><\/div>\n This story is part of the Iconic Brands series, a USA TODAY network project showcasing the companies and brands that helped shape the nation’s identity, economy and culture. The series celebrates American ingenuity with a deeply reported examination of how brands intersect with history, community and everyday life in celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary. Find more at <\/em>https:\/\/usatoday.com\/usa250\/iconic-brands<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n In 1928, the cartoon short “Steamboat Willie”<\/a> hit theaters. It was a black-and-white, 7-minute cartoon that wowed audiences with sound \u2014 no talking, but whistles, squeaks and the song “Turkey in the Straw.” It starred a pair of mice, one with two buttons on the front of his pants and the other with a daisy flower atop her hat.<\/p>\n Nothing anyone would recognize as the beginnings of a global entertainment empire.<\/p>\n The cartoon short’s director, Walt Disney, had some significant commercial failures close behind him. His Laugh-O-Gram Studio went bankrupt, and he suffered the humiliating reversal of having one of his earlier creations, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, snatched out from under him. But this new cartoon and its elastic and slaphappy star, Mickey Mouse, represented a dramatic turnaround for the 5-year-old company.<\/p>\n After the unlucky rabbit incident, Walt Disney Co. would forever be fiercely protective about keeping close control of all its creations. It successfully lobbied Congress in 1998 to\u00a0increase the national copyright term to 95 years, up from 75 years, in defense of Mickey and “Steamboat Willie.”<\/p>\n Even so, “Steamboat Willie” fell into the public domain in 2024. When powerhouse Orlando attorney John Morgan<\/a> used a Willie-like character in a commercial, he sued in federal court to preempt a possible Disney lawsuit. Morgan later dropped the suit and said that Disney agreed to let him run the ads.<\/p>\n “Disney remains committed to guarding against unlawful copyright and trademark infringement to avoid consumer confusion caused by unauthorized uses of Mickey Mouse and our other iconic characters,” the company said in a statement. Mickey may be old enough to fall out of copyright, but trademark rights are different and forever.<\/p>\n Add to Mickey and Minnie Mouse a rich cartoon cast of fictional beings also under Disney’s protective legal arm \u2014Pluto, Goofy, Donald Duck and all his friends and relations. In recent years, Disney scooped up rights to characters created elsewhere, like Spider-Man<\/a> and the X-Men, when it acquired Marvel Comics for $4 billion in 2009. Like Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy, when it acquired rights to the Muppets<\/a> for $75 million in 2004. Like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, when it acquired Lucasfilm in 2012 for $4 billion.<\/p>\n Then there’s streaming service, Disney+ (which also includes Hulu), which was launched in 2019.<\/p>\n According to Senal News, as of late 2025, Disney+ totaled nearly 200 million subscribers. In the third quarter of 2025 alone, Disney+ added 3.8 million subscribers.<\/p>\n In 2024, the streaming service generated $10.4 billion in revenue, a 21.4% year over year increase, according to the Business of Apps website.<\/p>\n Quite the cultural juggernaut. (Not be confused with Juggernaut, the comic book villain, which Disney also owns the right to.)\u00a0\u00a0License Global listed Disney as\u00a0the No. 1\u00a0licensor of consumer products in the world in 2025.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s only part of the company’s economic and entertainment reach. Disney says it employed some 160,000 people in the U.S. and spent $2 billion on film and television last fiscal year.<\/p>\n And then there are the theme parks. A study released last year by\u00a0Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics company, estimated that in 2024,\u00a0Disney’s U.S.\u00a0theme parks had a $67 billion annual national economic\u00a0impact.<\/strong>\u00a0To put that number in context, the report noted, it’s a little less than the $71 billion consumers spent on the Halloween, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day holidays combined.<\/p>\n The parks began with an idea that had been percolating for Disney since the 1930s to create an amusement park near Disney studios. Not the typical tacky amusement park with cigarette-smoking carnies indifferently pulling the levers on rides battered from being hauled from place to place. No, something far bigger \u2012 more polished, immersive and under tight company control.<\/p>\n The result was Disneyland, which opened in 1955. A $17-million project built on former orange groves in Anaheim, California.<\/p>\n “To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land,” Disney proclaimed at the park’s dedication.<\/p>\n The new amusement park proved a happy place for the company. Like “Steamboat Willie,” it signaled a dramatic new phase of operations. It shifted from a mostly movie and television company to a broader family entertainment brand offering experiences.<\/p>\n Disneyland was an immediate success. After only 53 days, Disneyland welcomed its millionth visitor,\u00a04-year-old\u00a0Elsa Marquez. Even Soviet\u00a0Premier Nikita Khrushchev demanded to see this amazing place during his 1959 U.S. visit. (Permission was denied by the State Department. Security concerns were cited.)<\/p>\n But going into the theme park’s second decade of success \u2014 it welcomed its\u00a050,000,000th guest, Mary Adams, in 1965 \u2014 Disney nevertheless itched to create something on an even grander scale.<\/p>\n Disney was irked at the lack of expansion possibilities and especially at tacky tourist development popping up nearby. So from 1963 to 1964, Disney Co., operating with extreme secrecy and using five dummy corporations, bought a swath of rural Florida land a little less than twice the size of Manhattan.<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0|\u00a0 Special to The News-Journal<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"play\"](\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/appservices\/universal-web\/universal\/icons\/icon-play-alt-white.svg\"){kind=icon}
<\/div>\n<\/div>\nDisney cast grows from Steamboat Willie to Spider-Man, Miss Piggy, Luke Skywalker<\/h2>\n
Disney theme parks have $67 billion impact on U.S. economy<\/h2>\n
Disneyland opens in 1955, offering new ‘experiences’<\/h2>\n
Next on deck: Walt Disney World in Central Florida, then global theme parks<\/h2>\n