You won’t believe who’s stepping up in walt disney company — and why this company be the most dangerous company in years.

You won’t believe who’s stepping up in walt disney company — and why this company be the most dangerous company in years.

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Walt Disney

The Hungarian Immigrant Who Funded Walt Disney

Published Dec 21, 2019 at 12:48 PM EST

Updated Dec 21, 2019 at 7:55 PM EST

By Daryl Austin

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With the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Disney once again has been the biggest player at the box office in 2019. The studio’s movies represented nearly a third of the total U.S. box office gross, according to Quartz, and with the November launch of streaming service Disney+, the company hopes to similarly dominate web TV going forward.

 

While Disney’s incredible rise and origins as an animation studio founded by Walt Disney are common knowledge, what is less known is that a once bankrupt young Walt achieved his big break in Hollywood thanks to one pivotal person–Margaret Winkler.

 

Margaret immigrated to America from Hungary in 1904 as a nine-year-old with her mother and father and three brothers. She made her name in the movie business as the personal secretary for Harry Warner of Warner Brothers and eventually started her own film distribution company. She managed “Felix the Cat,” “Koko the Clown,” and was the first female film distributor in a world dominated by men. She often concealed her gender by signing her name “M.J. Winkler.” She was also the first female member of the Motion Picture Producers Guild.

 

Even though she blazed the trail for countless women to come, her name and contributions are known by precious few. My initial Google search provided very little information outside her paltry 63-word L.A. Times obituary from when she died in 1990.