No other resident of Kansas City, past or present, has achieved the worldwide fame of Walt Disney. He created the animated Mickey Mouse and established a motion picture, TV, and theme park empire that has grown bigger and more lucrative in the 50 years since his death.

Robert W. Butler, longtime film critic for The Kansas City Star, former writer in the Library’s public affairs department, and co-author of Walt Disney’s Missouri, traces Disney’s improbable path to success.

He didn’t write, direct, or act, but Disney’s experiences in Marceline, Missouri, and Kansas City became a source of inspiration and a reservoir of ideas and emotions, fueling a creative genius whose imagination has profoundly affected generations.