Disney by the Decade: The Roarin’ 20s and the Birth of Mickey Mouse
As The Walt Disney Company approaches its 100th birthday in October, we want to highlight all the stunning accomplishments throughout the years.
We’re starting with the origin story of the Disney brothers. Here’s how one studio executive’s greed led directly to the creation of Mickey Mouse!
Photo: Disney
Meet the Disney Brothers
Walter Elias Disney started young and never stopped. I don’t know how else to describe his odd career trajectory.
At the age of 16, Disney attempted to enlist in World War I. Obviously, he was too young and couldn’t join.
Photo: waltdisney.org
Instead, he became a part of the Red Cross and served abroad. In a weird historical twist, Ray Kroc of McDonald’s served in the same unit. But that’s a story for another day.
Teens like Disney and Kroc saw too much of the world at a young age and coveted something more.
Walt Disney in 1932
So, at the age of 18, Walt Disney started a new career. He worked as an advertising cartoonist and quickly recognized he had a knack for engaging others.
Meanwhile, Roy Disney took a different path. As the older brother by eight years, he was old enough to fight for his country in World War I.
Photo:waltdisney.org
A bout of tuberculosis forced his military discharge and return to the United States.
For a time, he worked with an unheralded Disney brother, Raymond Arnold Disney, at a bank.
Due to his health and general frustration with his life, Roy sought a change and any escape possible from his hospital bed.
Photo:waltdisney.org
Younger brother Walt joined Roy in California and offered a new plan. They could start a new company, create their own films, and make a killing in Hollywood.
I can assure you that this story won’t go the way that you think, though.
Photo:
Walt & Roy Disney ca. 1923 (Disney)
How the Disneys Became Business Owners
Roy and Walt Disney made a perfect team as business partners. Roy’s banking experience gave him a head for numbers, while Walt was a creative genius.
Before they worked together, Walt befriended another animator named Ub Iwerks. The two of them started a business together called Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists.
Photo Disney
I wouldn’t describe this entity as a success, as it collapsed after barely a month. However, Iwerks and Disney earned acclaim for their work.
A local Missouri business, Kansas City Slide Company, hired both men. They readily accepted the jobs as they’d both previously been laid off by a different company.
Photo: Disney
Alas, both men missed working for themselves and eventually started yet another company, Laugh-O-gram Films. It…went bankrupt in two years.
Still, Iwerks and Disney proved a dynamic duo and created a live-action short together.
Photo: TMDB.org
This project evolved into the first of the Alice Comedies. It turned heads because of the novel setting. A real person interacted with cartoon elements.
Yes, by 1923, Walt Disney had already cracked the formula for later stories like Mary Poppins. He was 22 years old.
Photo: Wikipedia
In Hollywood, Winkler Pictures sought the rights to a series of Alice-based short films because they’d recently lost Felix the Cat and needed a new product.
Walt Disney bought a one-way ticket to California, and the rest was…not history, at least not yet.
Photo: wikipedia
Like every great Hollywood success story, Walt Disney first had to get swindled by a movie studio in a licensing deal.
The Proto Mickey Mouse
While the live-action Alice in Wonderland premise worked well, it didn’t satisfy Walt Disney’s creative itch. He wanted to draw more.
Photo: Disney Wiki
Meanwhile, Charles Mintz, the distributor of the Alice Comedies, desired more products. He represented Universal Pictures at the time and needed content.
Mintz asked Walt Disney to spitball new ideas. Soon afterward, Walt Disney and his friend, Ub Iwerks, created what should have been their defining character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
Photo: Disney
In 1923, Walt Disney arrived in Hollywood as a complete unknown. By 1927, he was creating content for two studios and had developed multiple revenue-generating characters.
That blessing proved to be a curse.
PhotoL Disney
It’s Just Business
In October 1923, Walt and Roy Disney formed their business, the one we know as The Walt Disney Company.
Given the success of the Alice Comedies and the demand for new product, the Disney brothers expected a raise from Mintz after four years of excellent work.
Mintz evaluated the matter differently. The inexperienced Disney brothers hadn’t read their contracts carefully. They didn’t appreciate the significance of owning the rights to a character.
Universal Pictures possessed complete control of the instantly popular Oswald the Lucky Rabbit even though Walt Disney had created the character.
Photo: Disney
At the time, Mintz anticipated something that few people in Hollywood did. He believed that the economy was heading for a collapse, something that would happen in 1929.
The Hollywood executive did what all Hollywood executives do. He picked the money, not the person.
Money
Walt Disney entered a meeting with Mintz and asked for a raise. Mintz offered him a pay cut.
Mintz knew he had poached many of Walt Disney’s own animators to draw Oswald the Lucky Rabbit stories.
Image Credit: Disney Parks Blog
The disloyal former Disney employees worked cheaper than the Disney brothers. You can’t blame them, though.
From their perspective, they all got raises and jobs with Universal Pictures, which was already a powerful Hollywood studio in 1928.
Photo: Disney
For his part, Walt Disney never forgot this slight, and it colored all his future negotiations with his company’s animators.
Of course, all that happened later. In 1928, Walt Disney found himself without a job or access to the popular character he had created.
Universal Logo
The entrepreneur entered the meeting thinking he was about to earn a massive payday. He exited as someone vengeful and desperate for work.
The Mouse on the Train
We will never know how accurate the recounting of Mickey Mouse’s creation is.
Photo: Time
The conventional wisdom is that Walt Disney didn’t get mad; he got even.
During his train ride home from the ill-fated meeting at Universal Pictures, Walt Disney learned from his mistake.
Never again would the artist create a character that he didn’t own. In fact, he would invent another one, a better one, right then and there.
Photo: Los Angeles Magazine
Disney’s meeting with Universal took place in New York City, a three-day train ride from California at the time.
Before the desolate man boarded the train, he sent an optimistic message to his brother and business partner, as Walt didn’t want Roy to worry.
Photo: D23
The message stated, “Don’t worry. Everything okay. Will give details when I arrive.”
Everything about this statement was a lie in the moment, but it came from a good place.
Meanwhile, the message put Walt Disney on the clock. He had less than three days to invent a new character every bit as good as the popular Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
Image Credit: iknowthegoods
Somehow, Walt Disney did just that. He thought about a cute mouse he’d adopted as a pet during his Laugh-O-Gram days.
From there, Disney modified the drawing of a lucky rabbit and turned it into an adorable mouse.
In that moment, Walt Disney created his most iconic character….Mortimer Mouse.
Photo:Spokesman.com
Don’t worry. Lillian Disney corrected her husband on his terrible name, which she changed to Mickey Mouse. And the rest was history.
In Your Face, Universal!
When Walt Disney returned to California, he had a new character on which he and his brother could bank their future.
Also, one animator had refused Universal’s offer and remained loyal to the Disney brothers. His name was Ub Iwerks.
Photo: TMDB.org
The three of them collaborated on both the financial and creative aspects of their new character.
On November 18th, 1928, Steamboat Willie played at (ironically) Universal’s Colony Theater in New York City.
Photo: Disney
In the same year, Walt Disney left the Big Apple as a totally defeated man but then returned as a conquering hero.
The Disney brothers produced the film for $4,986, the equivalent of about $86,000 today. For their investment, they changed the course of cinema.
Image credit: D23.com
Along the way, they also established their company as a business that would last for longer than a month or two years, the length of Walt Disney’s previous companies.
Let’s just say that The Walt Disney Company has outlasted Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists and Laugh-O-gram Films by…just a bit.
Photo: Disney
To a larger point, Walt Disney was always quick to say, “I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing: that it was all started by a mouse.”
That’s only part of the story, though. It was also caused by a greedy Universal Pictures executive who stole Walt Disney’s lucky rabbit.
Thanks for visiting MickeyBlog.com! Want to go to Disney? For a FREE quote on your next Disney vacation, please fill out the form below and one of the agents from MickeyTravels, a Diamond level Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, will be in touch soon!
Photo: D23
