Jackson County (Mo.) Historical Society
Portals
to the Past by David W. Jackson
Disney’s
World of Hollywood Animation First Sketched in Kansas City
When Elias
Disney moved from Marceline to Kansas City, Mo., in 1911, who could have dreamed
his 9-year-old son would eventually put Kansas City on the map as the
birthplace of Mickey Mouse? Inventive Walt Disney was destined to make sure
his exhilarating childhood might be accessible, even through fantasy and make
believe, to children all over the world for generations to come. At age 14, Walt
attended classes at the Kansas City Art Institute. Disney’s inspiration for
the modern theme parks we enjoy today came from Kansas City’s own Electric
Park located between 45th and 47th, Paseo
to Woodland, which was near Disney’s childhood neighborhood around 42nd
and Troost Ave.) featuring shows, dining, roller
coasters, log flume rides, miniature trains, and other novelty entertainment.
Equally tantalizing and influential were Kansas City’s theaters booking
silent motion pictures and live, vaudeville acts. After serving
nine months in Europe with the Red Cross Ambulance Service during World War
I, Disney returned home and became an artist for the Pesman-Rubin
Advertising Agency, where he met Ubbe Iwwerks. In 1920, Disney and Iwwerks
joined A. V. Cauger’s Kansas City Slide Company
that created advertisements on glass slides for theaters to project on
screens between films and acts. Disney learned
the process of animating drawings and at age 20 incorporated Laugh-O-Gram
Films, Inc., on May 23,1922. Laugh-O-Gram artists,
operating on the second floor of the McConahy
Building on 31st and Forest, produced work comparable to New
York’s best animated films. Their first series of cartoons, several that
still exist, ran in theaters here and in Europe. Laugh-O-Gram
also created films featuring live-action actors interacting with cartoon
animals. With imaginary animal cartoons running through his mind, it is
fitting that Disney, who often slept in his studio at night, would befriend a
pet mouse. Mortimer took food from Disney’s hand, played on his drawing
board, and later became the inspiration for the world’s most-recognized
fictional character! Disney’s
last Kansas City film was Alice’s
Wonderland, featuring himself and four-year-old Virginia Davis, who meets
the owner of a struggling film studio trying to come up with a new idea for a
film series; she visits his studio and interacts with animated characters. Desiring
to be closer to family, Disney closed Laugh-O-Gram and moved to Los Angeles,
Ca. He boarded a train at Union Station with $40 and his one-reel Alice cartoon. Disney’s contract for
the Alice Comedies, October 16,
1923, marks the Walt Disney Company’s date of origin. The men who worked with
Disney in Kansas City joined him in California. All became pioneers of the
Hollywood animation industry. The success of
Disney’s first feature-length animated film in 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, allowed him to purchase land in
Burbank, Ca., that remains Walt Disney Company’s
headquarters. Disney’s achievements eventually won 32 Oscars . . . more than
anyone else in motion pictures. In 1955, Disney
opened Disneyland, the world’s first theme park. In 1965, he announced his
plans to build an even larger complex of amusement parks and a model city,
Epcot, in sunny Florida. Walt Disney died the next year, but his brother,
Roy, who had made a promise to his little brother, made sure Walt Disney
World opened in 1971; Roy died three months later. Kansas
City’s Laugh-O-Gram Films studio (the McConahy
Building) is being restored, but public support and a little Disney magic are
needed so the nonprofit, Thank you, Walt Disney, Inc., may one-day showcase
how Disney’s world of Hollywood animation was first sketched in Kansas City. The
Jackson County (Mo.) Historical Society is accepting donations of
photographs, documents, artifacts and memorabilia from the time when Disney
was in Kansas City to help commemorate the birthplace of Mickey Mouse. |
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