Walt’s Newspaper Route
Rare November 11, 1918 Edition of the Kansas City Star Newspaper
- Author’s Collection
One week later, Walt was informed he was shipping out to France
“When I was nine, my brother Roy and I were already businessmen. We had a newspaper route…delivering papers in a residence area every morning and evening of the year, rain, shine, or snow. We got up at 3:30 a.m., worked until the school bell rang and did the same thing again from four o’clock in the afternoon until supper time.”
- Walt Disney
From age 9 until he was 15, Walt and his brother, Roy, delivered newspapers for their father’s newspaper route. His day would begin at 3:30 a.m., when he would venture out into the cold darkness to pick up his heavy allotment of papers. Working through the dawn, he would struggle with the weight as he hustled along his route, making sure he was home in time to have some breakfast, grab a quick nap if he was lucky, and then head off to school, where he would oftentimes struggle to stay awake and pay attention. Leaving school early everyday, he would repeat the process with his afternoon deliveries before heading home. Winters were especially difficult, as Walt would struggle to deal with the snow, ice, wind, and freezing temperatures, which would sometimes drop down into the 20s. At times, he would seek refuge in the warm lit hallway of an apartment building, stopping to sit down, rest, and ward off the chill, telling himself it was just for a moment…
It was always pitch dark when I left home on winter mornings, and often bitter cold. Sometimes I plowed my way through several feet of freshly fallen snow, breaking a path in those early morning hours. And I was sleepy! Occasionally, when I reached the warm hall of an apartment house, I would lie down for a short snooze, awakening to find it was daylight.
You can learn more about Walt and his newspaper route, as well as see rare photos of his neighborhood and the kind of homes he delivered to in the book, Disney History - Rare & Unknown.
