Walt Disney

:For the company founded by Disney, see The Walt Disney Company. For other uses, see Walt Disney (disambiguation).

1920-1936: Early years in animation

Kansas City animation studios

Disney returned to the USA, moved to Kansas City and, with Ub Iwerks, formed a company called "Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists" in January 1920. The company faltered and Disney and Iwerks soon gained employment at the Kansas City Film Ad Corporation, working on primitive animated advertisements for local movie houses.

Related Topics:
USA - Kansas City - Ub Iwerks - January - 1920 - Advertisement - Movie houses

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1922, Disney started Laugh-O-Grams, Inc., which produced short cartoons based on popular fairy tales and children's stories. Among his employees were Iwerks, Hugh Harman, Rudolph Ising, Carmen Maxwell, and Friz Freleng. The shorts were popular in the local Kansas City area, but their costs exceeded their returns. After creating one last short, the live-action/animation Alice's Wonderland, the studio declared bankruptcy in July 1923. Disney's brother Roy invited him to move to Hollywood, California, and Disney earned enough money for a one-way train ticket to California, leaving his staff behind, but taking the finished reel of Alice's Wonderland with him.

Related Topics:
1922 - Fairy tale - Hugh Harman - Rudolph Ising - Carmen Maxwell - Friz Freleng - Alice's Wonderland - July - 1923 - Roy - Hollywood, California - Train - California

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Alice Comedies: Contract and new California studio

Disney set up shop with his brother Roy, started the Disney Brothers Studio in their Uncle Robert's garage, and got a distribution deal for the Alice Comedies with New York City states-rights distributors Margaret Winkler and her fiancée Charles Mintz. Virginia Davis, the live-action star of Alice's Wonderland, was sequestered from Kansas, as was Ub Iwerks. By 1926, the Disney Brothers Studio had been renamed as the Walt Disney Studio; the name Walt Disney Productions would be adopted in 1928. One of the studio's employees, Lillian Bounds, became Walt Disney's wife; they were married on July 13 1925.

Related Topics:
Garage - Alice Comedies - New York City - Margaret Winkler - Fiancée - Charles Mintz - Virginia Davis - 1926 - 1928 - Lillian Bounds - July 13 - 1925

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Alice Comedies were reasonably successful, and featured both Dawn O'Day and Margie Gay as Alice after Virginia Davis' parents pulled her out of the series because of a pay cut. Lois Hardwick also briefly assumed the role. By the time the series ended in 1927, the focus was more on the animated characters, in particular a cat named Julius who recalled Felix the Cat, rather than the live-action Alice.

Related Topics:
Dawn O'Day - 1927 - Cat - Felix the Cat

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

By 1927, Charles Mintz had married Margaret Winkler and assumed control of her business, and ordered a new all-animated series to be put into production for distribution through Universal Pictures. The new series, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, was an almost instant success, and the Oswald character became a popular property. The Disney studio expanded, and Walt hired Harman, Ising, Maxwell, and Freleng from Kansas City.

Related Topics:
Universal Pictures - Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In February 1928, Disney went to New York to negotiate a higher fee per short from Mintz, but was shocked when Mintz announced that not only did he want to reduce the fee he paid Disney per short, but that he had most of his main animators, including Harman, Ising, Maxwell, and Freleng, but notably excepting Ub Iwerks, under contract and would start his own studio if Disney did not accept the reduced production budgets. Universal, not Disney, owned the Oswald trademark, and could make the films without Disney. Disney declined, lost most of his animation staff, and he, Iwerks, and the few non-defecting animators secretly began work on a new mouse character to take Oswald's place. The defectors became the nucleus of the Winkler Studio, run by Mintz and his brother-in-law George Winkler. When that studio went under after Universal assigned production of the Oswald shorts to an in-house division run by Walter Lantz, Mintz focused his attentions on the studio making the Krazy Kat shorts, which later became Screen Gems, and Harman, Ising, Maxwell, and Freleng marketed an Oswald-like character named Bosko to Leon Schlesinger and Warner Bros., and began work on the first entries in the Looney Tunes series.

Related Topics:
February - 1928 - Winkler Studio - Walter Lantz - Krazy Kat - Screen Gems - Bosko - Leon Schlesinger - Warner Bros. - Looney Tunes

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The creation of Mickey Mouse

Christened by Lillian Disney, Mickey Mouse made his film debut in a short called Plane Crazy, which was, like all of Disney's previous works, a silent film. After failing to find distributor interest in Plane Crazy or its follow-up, The Gallopin' Gaucho, Disney created a Mickey cartoon with sound called Steamboat Willie. A businessman named Pat Powers provided Disney with both distribution and the Cinephone, a bootlegged sound-synchronization process. Steamboat Willie became a success, and Plane Crazy, The Galloping Gaucho, and all future Mickey cartoons were released with soundtracks. Disney himself provided the vocal effects for the earliest cartoons and performed as the voice of Mickey Mouse until 1947.

Related Topics:
Mickey Mouse - Plane Crazy - Silent film - The Gallopin' Gaucho - Sound - Steamboat Willie - Pat Powers - Cinephone - Bootlegged - Synchronization - Voice - 1947

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Joining the Mickey Mouse series in 1929 were a series of musical shorts called Silly Symphonies, which began with The Skeleton Dance. Although both series were successful, the Disney studio was not seeing its rightful share of profits from Pat Powers, and in 1930, Disney signed a new distribution deal with Columbia Pictures, leaving behind Powers and Ub Iwerks, who had been lured into an exclusive contract with Powers. After heading the only mildly successful Ub Iwerks Studio, Iwerks would return to Disney in 1940 and, in the studio's research and development department, pioneer a number of film processes and specialized animation technologies.

Related Topics:
1929 - Silly Symphonies - The Skeleton Dance - 1930 - Columbia Pictures - Ub Iwerks Studio - 1940

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

By 1932, Mickey Mouse became the most popular cartoon character on the screen, and many competing studios such as Van Beuren and Screen Gems created Mickey Mouse clones in hopes of cashing in on Disney's success. After moving from Columbia to United Artists in 1932, Walt began producing the Silly Symphonies in the new 3-strip Technicolor process, making them the first commercial films presented in a true-color process. The first color Symphony was Flowers and Trees, which won the first in 1932. The same year, Disney received a special Academy Award for the creation of Mickey Mouse, whose series was moved into color in 1935 and soon launched spin-off series for supporting characters such as Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto.

Related Topics:
1932 - Van Beuren - United Artists - Technicolor - Flowers and Trees - 1935 - Donald Duck - Goofy - Pluto

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Disney's daughters

As Mickey's co-creator and producer, Disney was almost as famous as his mouse cartoon character, but remained a largely private individual. His greatest hope was to give birth to a child—preferably a son—but he and Lillian tried with no luck. Lillian finally gave birth to a daughter, Diane Marie Disney, on December 18, 1933; and the couple would adopt a second, Sharon Mae Disney, who was born December 21, 1936.

Related Topics:
Diane Marie Disney - December 18 - 1933 - Sharon Mae Disney - December 21 - 1936

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~