The Laugh-O-Gram Studio (also called Laugh-O-Gram Studios) was an

animation studio An animation studio is a company producing animation, animated media. The broadest such companies conceive of products to produce, own the physical equipment for production, employ operators for that equipment, and hold a major stake in the sales ...

located on the second floor of the McConahay Building at 1127 East 31st in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

, that operated from June 28, 1921, to October 16, 1923. In the early years of animation, the studio was home to many of the pioneers of animation, brought there by

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...

. It was the site of inspiration for Disney and

Ub Iwerks Ubbe Ert "Ub" Iwerks ( ; March 24, 1901 – July 7, 1971), was an American animator, cartoonist, character designer, Invention, inventor, and special effects technician, known for his work with Walt Disney Animation Studios in general, and f ...

to create

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an American cartoon character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime icon and mascot of the Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red shorts, large shoes, and white ...

. Laugh-O-Gram is the subject of two feature films: ''As Dreamers Do'' and ''

Walt Before Mickey ''Walt Before Mickey'' is a 2015 American independent biographical drama film about the early years of Walt Disney based on the book ''Walt Before Mickey: Disney's Early Years, 1919–1928'' by Timothy S. Susanin, with a foreword written by Diane ...

''.

History

In 1921,

was contracted by Milton Feld to animate twelve cartoons, which he called Newman's Laugh-O-Grams. Source: Page 67. "Disney's World", by Leonard Mosley, 1985. On May 23, 1922, when Disney was 20 years old, Laugh-O-Gram Films (LOGF) was incorporated by him using the remaining assets of the defunct Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists from local investors. LOGF produced nine of the requested 12 films with little income.
Sources: * The Disney Studio Story, by Richard Holliss and Brian Sibley, 1988. * The Art of Walt Disney – From Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdoms, by Christopher Finch, 1973. * Disney's Art of Animation – From Mickey Mouse to Beauty and the Beast, by Bob Thomas, 1991. * Page 19. Walt Disney – Hollywood's Dark Prince, by Marc Eliot, 1993. * Page 67. "Disney's World", by Leonard Mosley, 1985. * Page 140. The International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers: Volume II – Directors/Filmmakers, by Christopher Lyon, 1984. * Page 62. Walt Disney – An American Original, by Bob Thomas, 1994. * Page 40. Walt in Wonderland – The Silent Films of Walt Disney, by Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman, 1993. * Page 41. Walt Disney, by Jim Fanning, 1994. * Page 9. Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse – His Life and Times, by Richard Holliss, 1986. * Page 41. Walt Disney – Pop Culture Legends, by Jim Fanning, 1994. * Page 42. Building a Company – Roy O. Disney and the Creation of an Entertainment Empire, by Bob Thomas, 1998. * Page 13. Disney – The First 100 Years, updated edition, by Dave Smith and Steven Clark, 2002. * Page 61. Walt Disney – The Triumph of the American Imagination, by Neal Gabler, 2006. Encouraged and inspired by his shorts' popularity at the theatre, Disney decided he wanted to make his own animated versions of fairy tales too, and invested six months on his first attempt at ''

Little Red Riding Hood "Little Red Riding Hood" () is a fairy tale by Charles Perrault about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. Its origins can be traced back to several pre-17th-century European Fable, folk tales. It was later retold in the 19th-century by the Broth ...

''. Among Disney's employees on the series were several pioneers of animation:

Hugh Harman Hugh Harman (August 31, 1903 – November 25, 1982) was an American animator. He was known for creating the Warner Bros. Cartoons and MGM Cartoons studios and his collaboration with Rudolf Ising during the Golden Age of American animation. ...

Friz Freleng Isadore "Friz" Freleng (; August 21, 1905May 26, 1995), credited as I. Freleng early in his career, was an American animator, cartoonist, Film director, director, Film producer, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons ...

, and

Carman Maxwell Carman Griffin Maxwell (December 27, 1902 – September 22, 1987) was an American animator and voice actor. Maxwell was born in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, and later moved to Kansas City, Missouri. He began his career with Walt Disney at the Laug ...

. The company had financial problems and by the end of 1922, Disney was living in the office and taking baths once a week at

Union Station A union station, union terminal, joint station, or joint-use station is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway company, railway companies, allowing passengers to connect conveniently bet ...

. During the studio's sales manager Leslie Mace's stay in New York, where he was looking for distributors, he ended up signing a contract for six animated shorts with Pictorial Clubs, Inc. of Tennessee on Sunday, September 16, 1922. Pictorial agreed to pay for the cartoons, which were supposed to be shown at schools and other non-theatrical places, but only paid $100 in advance. The rest of the payment would have to wait until January 1, 1924, when all the shorts had been delivered. When Pictorial went bankrupt only a few months later, the studio never received the rest of the payment, its financial problems became even more serious, and the staff ended up leaving. When the local Kansas City dentist Thomas B. McCrum, from the Deener Dental Institute, contacted Disney and offered him the job of producing a short subject about dental hygiene intended for the Missouri school system, he brought together some of his staff again and made ''Tommy Tucker's Tooth'', which earned the studio $500. Instead of paying off his creditors, the money was invested in the live-action/animation demonstration film ''

Alice's Wonderland ''Alice's Wonderland'' is a 1923 Walt Disney short silent film, produced in Kansas City, Missouri by Laugh-O-Gram Studio. The black-and-white short was the first in a series of Walt Disney's famous ''Alice Comedies'' and had a working title of ...

'', starring the youthful

Virginia Davis Virginia Davis (December 31, 1918 – August 15, 2009) was an American child actress in films. She is best known for working with Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks on the animated short series ''Alice Comedies'', in which she portrayed the protagonist ...

. Disney had noted how popular the ''

Out of the Inkwell ''Out of the Inkwell'' is an American animated film series of the silent era. It was produced by Max Fleischer from 1918 to 1929 and was called ''The Inkwell Imps'' at the end of that period. History The series was the result of three short ...

'' series from the

Fleischer Studios Fleischer Studios () was an American animation studio founded in 1929 by brothers Max and Dave Fleischer, who ran the pioneering company from its inception until its acquisition by Paramount Pictures in 1942, the parent company and the distri ...

was, which had animated characters interacting with the real world. By reversing this gimmick and using a real-life character in a cartoon universe instead, he hoped for a hit. Virginia Davis's contract with Laugh-O-Gram was signed by her parents on April 23, 1923, with terms giving her 5% of the ''Alice's Wonderland'' film's receipts. Source: page 49. Walt in Wonderland – The Silent Films of Walt Disney, by Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman, 1993. Looking for a distributor for ''Alice's Wonderland'' on May 14, Disney wrote to

Margaret Winkler Margaret J. Winkler Mintz (Winkler; April 22, 1895 – June 21, 1990) was a film studio executive, producer, distributor, and animator who was a major figure in silent animation history, having a crucial role in the histories of Max and Dave Fl ...

, a New York film distributor.
Sources: * Page 22. Walt Disney – Hollywood's Dark Prince, by Marc Eliot, 1993. * Page 52. Walt in Wonderland – The Silent Films of Walt Disney, by Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman, 1993. * Page 79. Walt Disney – The Triumph of the American Imagination, by Neal Gabler, 2006. After finishing the raw edits of ''Alice's Wonderland'',
Sources: 6 3 4 0.69 3.50/ref> the studio filed for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...

in July 1923.
Sources: 4.22 102.72(spring 0.71 (August 3.51 Disney finally made some money by shooting a film of a 6-month-old girl named Kathalee Viley and selling his

movie camera A movie camera (also known as a film camera and cine-camera) is a type of photographic camera that rapidly takes a sequence of photographs, either onto film stock or an image sensor, in order to produce a moving image to display on a screen. In c ...

, earning enough for a one-way train ticket, moving to

Hollywood, California Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles, neighborhood and district in the Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles County, California, within the city of Los Angeles. ...

; he brought along an unfinished reel of ''Alice's Wonderland''. The bankruptcy trustee was able to force LOGF's erstwhile distributor and debtor, Pictorial Films, Inc., to pay LOGF's agents the sum owed while agreeing that Pictorial could exercise its contractual distribution rights for LOGF works and to purchase several of LOGF's films: ''The Four Musicians of Bremen'', ''Jack the Giant Killer'', the ''Lafflets'' series, and ''Alice's Wonderland''. The studio building fell to ruin and efforts were made to restore it by a non-profit group called "Thank You, Walt Disney". The Disney family promised $450,000 in matching funds for the rights to other Disney memorabilia and to tell the history of Walt Disney's life in Kansas City, a movie house to exhibit original and restored Laugh-O-Grams, and an education center for animation workshops. On July 30, 2021, a black

Dodge Charger The Dodge Charger is a model of automobile marketed by Dodge in various forms over eight generations since 1966. The first Charger was a show car in 1964. A 1965 Charger II concept car resembled the 1966 production version. In the United Sta ...

struck the building and caused significant damage to the exterior. The incident occurred early in the morning, the driver fleeing the scene, though authorities subsequently found a woman's driving license and a margarita within the vehicle. Butch Rigby, who launched the campaign to save and restore the building, described the incident optimistically: "The bottom line, it's a bump in the road, but it could have been worse".

Inspiration for Mickey Mouse

Disney told interviewers that the inspiration to draw Mickey came from a tame mouse at his desk at Laugh-O-Gram Studio in

. In 1928 during a train trip to New York, he showed the drawing to his wife Lillian Marie Bounds and said he was going to call it "Mortimer Mouse". She replied that the name sounded "too pompous" and suggested

instead.

Filmography

Of the original seven Laugh-O-Grams fairy tales, four were long known to have survived, and have been restored for DVD: ''Newman Laugh-O-Grams'' (1921), ''

'' (1922), ''The Four Musicians of Bremen'' (1922), ''

Puss in Boots "Puss in Boots" (; ; ; ) is a European fairy tale about an anthropomorphic cat who uses trickery and deceit to gain power, wealth, and the hand in marriage of a princess for his penniless and low-born master. The oldest written telling version ...

'' (1922), and ''Cinderella'' (1922). These shorts later became available on

Blu-ray Disc Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of ...

as bonus features for Disney's ''

Beauty and the Beast "Beauty and the Beast" is a fairy tale written by the French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in (''The Young American and Marine Tales''). Villeneuve's lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and publish ...

''. '' Tommy Tucker's Tooth'' (1922) and ''

'' (1923) are also available on DVD, and ''Alice's Wonderland'' eventually became a bonus feature for the ''60th Anniversary Blu-ray Edition'' of ''

Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (also known as ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English Children's literature, children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics university don, don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a ...

''. The original piece of filming and animation known as ''Newman Laugh-O-Grams'' (originally released theatrically on March 20, 1921) is available on some DVDs too. In accordance with United States copyright law, all 11 shorts produced by the studio have entered into the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

as of 2019. The missing fairy tale cartoons were ''

Jack and the Beanstalk "Jack and the Beanstalk" is an English fairy tale with ancient origins. It appeared as "The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean" in 1734 4th edition :File:Round about our Coal Fire, or, Christmas Entertainments, 4th edn, 1734.pdf, On C ...

'', ''Jack the Giant Killer'', and ''

Goldie Locks and the Three Bears The Laugh-O-Gram Studio (also called Laugh-O-Gram Studios) was an animation studio located on the second floor of the McConahay Building at 1127 East 31st in Kansas City, Missouri, that operated from June 28, 1921, to October 16, 1923. In the e ...

'' (all 1922). In October 2010, copies of all three cartoons had been found according to animation historian David Gerstein. For many years the two ''Jack'' cartoons were believed to be one, until researcher John Kenworthy located old studio assets sheets confirming that they were separate shorts.

References

External links

*
Fairy Tale Flappers: Animated Adaptations of Little Red and Cinderella (1922–1925)
{{Animation industry in the United States American companies established in 1921 American companies disestablished in 1923 Mass media companies established in 1921 1921 establishments in Missouri 1923 disestablishments in Missouri Mass media companies disestablished in 1923 American animation studios Walt Disney History of animation History of The Walt Disney Company Defunct American film studios Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1923 History of Kansas City, Missouri Companies based in Kansas City, Missouri Buildings and structures in Kansas City, Missouri Walt Disney Animation Studios The Walt Disney Company Articles containing video clips

History

Inspiration for Mickey Mouse

Filmography

See also

References

External links