9. Walt Disney and Spanish Flu
In September 1918, an adventurous 17-year-old Walt Disney expressed his desire to join the American forces heading to Europe. Accompanied by a friend who had been rejected for service in the US Navy, Disney enrolled in the Red Cross Ambulance Corps, hoping to be deployed to France. Sent to a training center in Chicago, Disney contracted the Spanish Flu then raging across America. At the time, Disney’s parents resided in Chicago, and the young man returned to his family’s home to recuperate. Ill for several weeks, he recovered, and after regaining his strength he resumed his training with the ambulance corps.
In November, following the armistice which ended the fighting in Europe, Disney finally shipped overseas. The ambulance service still had work to do, but for the most part, Disney was bored with the lack of activity. To alleviate the ennui, he began to decorate the sides of ambulances with cartoons. His creativity drew the attention of editors at Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper, and some of his cartoons and characters appeared in the paper in early 1919. In autumn of that year, Disney returned to the United States, settling first in Kansas City, Missouri, where his career as an animator began in earnest.