23 Magical Pictures From The Golden Years Of Disney

A look back at the origins of the Walt Disney Company, presented by Getty Images.

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Walt Disney working alone at his drawing board on Jan. 1, 1930.

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A crowd of Londoners gather on a busy street to watch a Mickey Mouse cartoon on Feb. 26, 1931.

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Walt Disney kneels to sketch a pair of fawn, 1938.

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Walt Disney tries to coax a penguin into performing for the camera, for a Silly Symphony short film called "Peculiar Penguins," 1934.

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A group of musicians record the soundtrack for a Mickey Mouse cartoon in July, 1932.

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Walt Disney stands next to his wife, Lillian, as she holds one of Disney's Oscars at an Academy Awards reception in 1935.

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Walt Disney looks over sheet music with actor Eddy Nelson, circa 1940.

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At Walt Disney Studios in California, an unidentified animator (left) makes faces in a mirror, which he uses as raw material for his character's expressions, 1946. American singer and actor Cliff Edwards (right), with a bowler on his head and a cigar in his mouth, records the voice for the character of Timothy Mouse in the Walt Disney animated film Dumbo, 1946.

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Walt Disney smokes a cigarette in 1939 as he checks over the musical scores that will eventually be used in Fantasia.

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View of the crowd assembled under a theater marquee waiting to attend a screening of Fantasia in Rio de Janeiro, 1941.

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Walt Disney lies in the sand on Copacabana Beach as he holds an 8mm movie camera while on a trip to scout for locations in Rio de Janeiro, 1941.

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Disney artist and animator Mary Blair and her husband, fellow artist Lee Blair, sit outdoors and draw sketches of flora in South America while on a trip to scout for locations in Brazil, 1941.

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Walt Disney talks with a pair of animators about their work, circa 1950.

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Animators from Walt Disney Studios in Anaheim, California, watch as a man demonstrates a flying motion exercise with a fan, circa 1955.

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Walt Disney (far right) listens to an unidentified animator talk through the storyboards for the film Sleeping Beauty, circa 1955. Beside them, animator Les Clark plays a record.

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A man looks through a lens at an oversized paintbrush as a studio artist drips paint from a tube, circa 1955.

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Walt Disney poses before a scene with his signature creation, Mickey Mouse, circa 1955.

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A group of Disney musicians record sound effects with a bazooka, disembodied piano, and an assortment of strings, pipes, hinges, and chains in September 1953.

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Walt Disney holds up his Oscars for The Vanishing Prairie during the Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Mar. 30, 1955.

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Walt Disney stands by a plan and model of the proposed Disneyland and chats with some imagineers in Los Angeles, circa 1954.

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Having put his paw print on the dotted line, Bobby, a Skye terrier from the north of Scotland, is signed to a Hollywood contract by Walt Disney in 1960, one in a long line of animal actors Disney groomed for stardom.

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Walt Disney sits on a grassy lawn with his grandson at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, 1955.

See more incredible pictures from the early days of Disney at Getty Images.