Responsible for bringing magic to different homes and inspiring different generations to believe in wish fulfillment, Disney studios have become a true empire by being present on the big and small screens and stages by releasing not only animations, but also live-action films, series, musicals , plays and games, as well as providing incredible experiences at resorts, cruises and theme parks, making the label the largest entertainment conglomerate in the world.
Still, do you know how the company that has existed for over 100 years was created? Thinking about answering the question, RECREIO gathered the main information about the foundation below.
A brief context
After returning to the United States after serving as a driver for the American Ambulance Corps for a year in France following the end of World War I in 1919, Walt Disney He got his first chance to work professionally with drawings when he was hired as a commercial illustrator for Pesmen-Rubin, earning US$50 a month, as revealed by The Walt Disney Museum.
In this company, Walt meet the cartoonist Ub Iwerks, with whom he opens Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists, which goes bankrupt within a month. Soon after, the two started working at the Kansas City Slide Company (future Kansas City Film Ad Company), where they discovered the art of animation.
While working at the Kansas City Slide Company in 1920, Disney founded the company Newman Laugh-O-grams, where he produced advertisements, shorts and comic books, and then incorporated it into Laugh-O-gram Films, a studio whose focus was adapting fairy tales and transforming them into modernized animations. The company declared bankruptcy in 1923 after a major default.
Emergence of Disney
Even though the first attempts at business Walt failed, he never stopped dreaming. In the same year, he moved to Hollywood, decided to become a film director and, to do so, had the support of his older brother, Royto found a new and promising studio: Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio.
The company’s first venture was the series ‘Alice Comedies’, which had its distributor in New York, Winkler Pictures, hired on October 16, 1923 — the date that marks the founding of Disney. In the episodes, which were created and distributed over four years, a real girl interacted with animated characters.
In addition to Royin 1924, Walt you can count on us again Ub Iwerkswho joined the company in the same year with a few other animators.
In the initial phase, the original Disney studio was located in the back of a real estate office on Kingswell Avenue, in Hollywood, as reported by the D23 portal, but it soon became an entire store and, in 1926, to a larger space: a studio built on Hyperion Avenue , in Hollywood, where the company came to be called as it is known today, that is, Walt Disney Studios.
In 1927, Disney decided to take a risk again, this time with the launch of a completely animated production, which emerged with the creation of Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit, the studio’s first official character.
He starred in 26 productions under the company’s banner for Universal Pictures. However, in 1928, Walt was betrayed by Charles Mintzfrom Winkler Pictures, which began negotiating with Universal Pictures to produce animations of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit without Walt.
As all the drawings were not signed by Walthe was unable to retain the rights to the character, thus losing the studio’s first official figure.
Used to rising from the ashes, it was a matter of time before the brilliant mind of Walt created a new great character: Mickey Mouse, who, in May 1928, showed his charisma for the first time through the animation ‘Plane Crazy’, making his official debut months later in ‘Steamboat Willie’ Willie), the studio’s first fully synchronized sound film.
The animation was a success, opening the door for the release of classic titles such as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, “Pinocchio”, “Fantasia” and “Dumbo”, as well as several expansions, with the appearance of the first live-action film. studio action, “Treasure Island” from 1950, and the label’s first park, Disneyland, opened in 1956 in California — and the rest is history!
Source: Recreio
