II.

Walt Disney’s Early Life and Work

The American animator and producer Walt(er Elias) Disney (1901-1966) was raised in the American Midwest, and trained as a commercial artist. He moved into animation in Kansas City, where he set up his own company in 1920 with Ub Iwerks, called Laugh-O-Grams. After a first series of cartoons failed to make any money, Disney turned to the cheaper combination of live action and animation of the type pioneered by Max and Dave Fleischer. He recruited more animators, and his elder brother Roy, and moved his operation to Los Angeles in 1923 to produce the “Alice in Cartoonland” series. These were quite successful, but limiting to Disney’s ambition, and in 1927 he started a new series with full animation, starring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. When the rights to this character were taken from him, he and Iwerks designed a new character, Mickey Mouse, in 1927. The addition of sound to the third of the series, Steamboat Willie (1928), made it a great success.