1923 - All Started By...

"The Walt Disney Company: 100 Years in 100 Weeks, is the brainchild of Craig D. Barton, presenting weekly posts on the history of the Walt Disney Company. Each post will cover a specific year in Disney's history, featuring essays, shared articles, guest authors, and yearly timelines, all leading up to the company's 100th Anniversary on October 16, 2023.

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It’s a lovely phrase that’s been repeated often. And what Walt was relaying is completely understandable. Did the creation and popularity of Mickey Mouse allow for later success and development within the Walt Disney Company? Absolutely – and Mickey remains as popular today as he was when Mickey Mouse Clubs started popping up all across the world. Of course, there were twists and turns in the road that led up to Mickey’s success, and one can bring many “what about” questions into play.

Did it start with a mouse? A soured business deal over a rabbit? A series about a little girl named Alice? A creation of a company? A man named Walt? Of course, there are arguments to be made for all – hence the rhetoricity of the “Started by a Mouse” statement.

On October 16^th, 1923, Walter Elias Disney and Roy Oliver Disney founded the Disney Brothers Studio. Although Walt had been in the animation business for some time by this point (He had just left Kansas City after the bankruptcy of Laugh-O-Gram studios), the story of the Walt Disney Company and its history picked up in the summer of ’23, when Walt visited Roy, who was in the hospital being treated for tuberculosis.

According to Roy, “That was when Walt came to Hollywood. He came out here in June of ’23 (actually July). I was in the hospital at Sawtelle. By correspondence he sold somebody in New York on a series of pictures. One night he found his way to my bed, which was on a row of beds on a screened porch. It was eleven or twelve o’clock at night, and he shaked (sic) me awake and showed me a telegram of acceptance of his offers. He said, ‘What can I do now? Can you come out of here and help me to get this started?’ So I left the hospital the next day, and I’ve never been back since.”

As Disney historians and fans have come to know, that “New York correspondence” was with Margaret J. Winkler, and the series of pictures was the “Alice Comedies,” a mix of animation and live action, featuring the adventures of Alice (initially played by Virginia Davis) as she journeyed into a world of cartoon adventures. With an offer of $1500 per completed feature, the Disney Brothers borrowed from family members (as well as $200 scraped together by Roy himself) to establish their company and get to work. The studio moved, first from the garage of their Uncle Robert, to a real estate office, and in 1924, to a small store on Kingswell Avenue, rented for fifteen dollars a month. Walt persuaded the parents of Virginia Davis to move to Hollywood, and production on the Alice Comedies resumed (Walt had started his work on the Alice Comedies while still in Kansas City).

Walt and Roy Disney, Outside the Newly Founded Disney Bros. Studio, 1924. photo ©The Walt Disney Company

It’s hard to imagine a little storefront on a Los Angeles street becoming the global empire the Walt Disney Company is today. But it seems perhaps Walt did. As Roy said about Walt when he first arrived in California, “Tomorrow was always going to be the answer to all his problems… During the period before he got his (cartoon) contract, he was hangin’ around this town, and I kept saying to him, ‘Why don’t you get a job?’ And he could have got a job, I’m sure, but he didn’t want a job. He’d get into Universal, for example, on the strength of applying for a job. Then when he’d get out of the office, he’d just hang around the studio all day and go over on some sets and see what was going on. MGM was another favorite spot where he could work that gag… But he had a persistency, an optimism about him, all the time. A drive.”

Perhaps it was that drive that Roy saw in his brother that encouraged him to help Walt pursue his vision. Maybe it was because, as a person with tuberculosis, his own career prospects were limited, and he saw the cartoon business as a possible future for himself. More than likely, it was a combination of both, a drive to support a hard-working visionary and be a part of that dream.

A dream that inspired other hard workers and dreamers. A dream that created a mouse, animated and live action movies, captured the imagination of the world through the medium of television, defined the word “theme park,” inspired optimism for the future, brought us words like “Imagineer,” and still continues to inspire nearly 100 years later through classic and original stories presented in new and innovative ways.

And it all started with a vision. A dream. A studio. An amazingly supportive brother. A man named Walt.

1923

• “Alice’s Wonderland,” is released under the “Laugh-O-Gram” moniker.
• After the bankruptcy of Laugh-O-Gram studio, Walt Disney leaves Kansas City, MO for Hollywood.
• Walt signs multiple-film contract with M.J. Winkler to create Alice Comedies for distribution.
• At Walt's urging, Roy O. Disney leaves his hospital bed to join Walt.
• October 16, 1923 – Walt and Roy found the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in Hollywood.
• Disney Brothers Studio moves from Uncle Robert’s garage to the back of a real estate office.
• Virginia Davis joins Walt and Roy in Hollywood; production on the Alice Comedies begins.

1924>

*"The Walt Disney Company: 100 Years in 100 Weeks" is a project conceived by Craig D. Barton and presented by Communerdy. It is in no way affiliated with The Walt Disney Company, and any opinions presented within its content are that of the author(s). For more updates, follow us on https://www.instagram.com/disney100in100/ .