According to Howard Green and Amy Boothe Greene’s book Remembering Walt from Disney Editions, Walt “told his wife Lilly, who usually accompanied him, not to bother coming to the event that year because he didn’t think he was going to win anything.” Walt went to the awards presentation with studio publicist Tom Jones, and Lilly stayed home.
Little did he know that he would take home four Oscars that night! The winning films were The Living Desert, Bear Country, The Alaskan Eskimo, and the cartoon short Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom. It was a big showing for the studio—it had only won four once before, in 1942. This photo of Walt was taken at the event.
According to Howard’s book, “When Tom drove Walt home, Lilly wouldn’t let him in the house because she was so mad that he told her to stay home. She was furious because it had been a big night, and she wasn’t with him. So Tom had to drive Walt back to the studio and he had to sleep in his office at the studio that night.” Perhaps this is the event that taught him to always “expect the unexpected!”
To this day, Walt, who was nominated for 64 Academy Awards, holds the record for the most won by an individual: 32.
As a company, Disney has won 87 Academy Awards in its 89-year history.
