Yesterday, I took a pilgrimage of sorts while in Kansas City, Missouri.
I wanted to get a picture of this building, which housed Walt Disney's
very first animation studio. Right there, on the second floor, Walt and
his crew laboriously handmade their Laugh-O-Gram films. Walt would have
been 21 years old at the time. By then, he had already experienced a
lifetime of setbacks. He had been fired twice (once for "not being a
particularly good artist'), and his first business venture (a
commercial art studio) had ended quickly and in bankruptcy. Disney's
Laugh-O-Gram studio didn't fare much better. It declared bankruptcy in
1923, barely one year after its founding. A few weeks later, Walt left
Kansas City to go live with his brother Roy in California.
The lessons learned in this modest building reverberated throughout
Hollywood for decades to come. Disney's Laugh-O-Gram employees,
including the legendary Ub Iwerks (top left),
would go on to personally create or supervise the creation of the
world's most beloved characters--including Mickey Mouse and Donald
Duck, of course, but also Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Sylvester the Cat,
Yosemite Sam, and the Pink Panther.
This building was also the
site of a very fortuitous meeting. One night, while working late at 
the
studio, Walt encountered a mouse eating some crumbs by his wastebasket.
He put that little brown mouse in a cage on his desk and, over time,
taught the mouse tricks. He would draw circles on his drawing board and
the mouse would run inside them. He grew quite fond of that mouse on
his drawing board. Before leaving for California, Disney took that
mouse to his backyard and set him free.
Years later, that mouse would repay Disney with some much-needed inspiration.
Take a look at these Laugh-O-Gram films. They're fun, though not great. But that's why they're so interesting.
After all, had Walt Disney succeeded in Kansas City, there would never have been a Walt Disney.
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