The Walt Disney Company
Inducted in 1995

In a time when other companies spend millions crafting logos to project the right corporate image, Disney does it with a mouse.

Mickey is not just any mouse, of course. He is, in fact, one of the world's most recognizable figures, a logo that walks and talks and even signs autographs. He is the cornerstone for what has become a highly sophisticated and successful marketing operation.

Thousands of products and services support this effort. The company that started out making a handful of animated short subjects for movie audiences in the 1920's now entertains millions every year at its theme parks. Its Consumer Products division sold nearly $2m in merchandise in 1994; its Filmed Entertainment division approached $4.5 billion in revenues.

In the process, Disney has found its greatest success by returning to its roots. Recent feature-length animated films have become the catalysts for a surge of activity that brings now dimension to the word "synergy".

Whether it is Beauty and the Beast or Aladdin or The Lion King (and coming soon, Pocahontas), people don't just want to see it. Instead they want to read it, wear it, listen to it and play with it... and Disney makes those things happen.

Disney Consumer Products licenses books and apparel, recordings and toys-all sold in hundreds of Disney Stores on three continents. The Disney Channel promotes it. The theme parks create parades based on it. Original artwork from the film is auctioned at Sotheby's--and sold more than 20 million copies; The Lion King has passed 26 million, an industry record.

The company continues to broaden its scope. In California, the Disney-owned Mighty Ducks of Anaheim perform to capacity crowds-and in their first season sold more merchandise than any other team in National Hockey League history. In Florida, the now city of Celebration rises on 5,000 acres near Walt Disney World; it will one day be home to 20,000 people. In South Carolina, planning is under way for Disney Vacation Club condominiums at Hilton Head Island. They will join similar developments on both coasts.

Most of all, Disney means unsurpassed theme park entertainment, four-star hotels, top rated network television shows and the very best in live-action and animated films. It does business on six continents. Even so, as Walt Disney loved to remind us, 'It all started with a mouse."