This just in from David Lesjak:

[And the award goes to . . . Walt Disney !

This year’s award’s season launched January 11, with the annual Golden Globe awards extravaganza. Founded in 1943, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, (comprised of journalists who cover the American film industry but are affiliated with foreign publications), has been handing out the prestigious award since it was initiated as a fundraiser in 1944.

Walt Disney personally won a total of five Golden Globes during his lifetime:

1948: Bambi – for “Furthering the Influence of the Screen.” Although this feature was released in the U.S. in 1942, Bambi’s international release was delayed until 1948. In this post’s accompanying photo, complete with a newspaper editor’s crop marks, Disney is seated beside actress Rosalind Russell. Standing behind the pair is the association’s president, Frederick Porges. The ceremony was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

1949: The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad – for “Best Use of Color in a Motion Picture.” Walt had been using color since 1932.

1953: the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for Continuous Achievement. Initiated in 1952 in honor of the famed Hollywood producer, the first award went to DeMille himself. Walt Disney was this special award’s second recipient. Other honorees have included Darryl F. Zanuck, Judy Garland, and Gregory Peck.

1955: Disneyland TV series – for “Best American Storytelling.”

1956: The Mickey Mouse Club – for “Best American Children’s Television Show.”]

I have been spending the last two weeks in a time machine thanks to the online archives of various European newspapers. The most interesting of them all when it comes to Walt, for some unknown reason, is the Spanish daily La Vanguardia. I will quote from it often over the next few weeks.

November 22, 1933: Dr. Henry Niese, right, Argentine Consul presented a diploma to Walt Disney, on behalf of the National Academy of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires, in recognition of Disney's film cartoons. Beside being signed by all the directors and professors of the Academy, the diploma contains the signatures of 1,000 graduates of the Institution, many of whom are famous artists throughout South America.

We also learn from La Vanguardia that this is the second such homage that Disney gets from a Latin American country. Earlier that year he received a similar diploma from the Academia Nacional de Artes y Ciencias de la Habana, Cuba.