Disney History

Disney History

Disney arrived(əˈrīv) in California(-nēə,ˌkaləˈfôrnyə) in the summer of 1923 with a lot of hopes but little else. He had made a cartoon(kärˈto͞on) in Kansas(ˈkanzəs) City about a little girl in a cartoon world, called Alice’s Wonderland, and he decided that he could use it as his “pilot(ˈpīlət)” film to sell a series(ˈsi(ə)rēz) of these “Alice Comedies(ˈkämədē)” to a distributor(disˈtribyətər). Soon after arriving in California, he was successful. A distributor in New York, M. J. Winkler, contracted to distribute the “Alice Comedies” on October 16, 1923, and this date became the start of the Disney company. Originally(əˈrijənl-ē) known as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, with Walt Disney and his brother, Roy(roi), as equal(ˈēkwəl) partners, the company soon changed its name, at Roy’s suggestion, to the Walt Disney Studio.

Walt Disney made his Alice Comedies for four years, but in 1927, he decided to move instead to an all-cartoon series. To star in this new series, he created a character(ˈkariktər) named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit(ˈrabit). Within a year, Walt made 26 of these Oswald cartoons, but when he tried to get some additional money from his distributor for a second year of the cartoons, he found out that the distributor had gone behind his back and signed up almost all of his animators(ˈanəˌmātər), hoping to make the Oswald cartoons in his own studio for less money without Walt Disney. On rereading his contract, Walt realized that he did not own the rights to Oswald-the distributor did. It was a painful lesson(ˈlesən) for the young cartoon producer to learn. From then on, he saw to it that he owned everything that he made.

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