Laugh-O-Gram Studio

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Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Kansas City.

The Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Kansas City, Missouri was the a studio where Walt Disney first assembled many the pioneers of animation and is said to be where the concept of Mickey Mouse was born.

1 Pioneers in animation
2 Tommy Tucker's Tooth
3 Alice Comedies
4 Mortimer Mouse
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Pioneers in animation

In May 1922, Disney founded Laugh-O-Gram Films with $15,000 he sold to investors. He rented five rooms on the second floor of the McConahay Building at 1127 East 31st. They got an $11,000 contract to produce six cartoons for Pictorial Clubs, Inc., which went bankrupt. Among his employees were the pioneers of animation -- Ub Iwerks, Hugh Harman, Rudolph Ising, Carmen Maxwell, and Friz Freleng. However the group had problems making ends meet. At the end of 1922 he moved into the office to stay, taking baths once a week at Union Station (Kansas City).

[edit] Tommy Tucker's Tooth

Thomas McCrum, a Kansas City dentist saved him from total failure when he commissioned Disney for $500 for "Tommy Tucker's Tooth" showing the merits of brushing your teeth.^[1]

[edit] Alice Comedies

After creating one last short, the live-action/animation Alice Comedies, the studio declared bankruptcy in July 1923. Disney then moved to Hollywood, California. Disney sold his movie camera, earning enough money for a one-way train ticket taking with him an unfinished reel of Alice's Wonderland.

[edit] Mortimer Mouse

Disney told interviewers later that he was inspired to draw Mickey by a tame mouse at his desk at Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Kansas City, Missouri.

They used to fight for crumbs in my waste-basket when I worked alone late at night. I lifted them out and kept them in wire cages on my desk. I grew particularly fond of one brown house mouse. He was a timid little guy. By tapping him on the nose with my pencil, I train him to run inside a black circle I drew on my drawing board. When I left Kansas to try my luck at Hollywood, I hated to leave him behind. So I carefully carried him to a backyard, making sure it was a nice neighborhood, and the tame little fellow scampered to freedom.^[2]

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 sissified" and suggested Mickey Mouse instead.^[3]

The studio building has fallen to ruin and efforts are being made to restore it. The Disney family has promised $450,000 in matching funds for the restoration.

[edit] References

^ Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life by Pat Williams ISBN 0-7573-0231-9
^ Walt Disney: Conversations (Conversations With Comic Artists Series) by by Kathy Merlock Jackson with Walt Disney " ISBN 1-57806-713-8 page 120
^ Walt Disney: Conversations (Conversations With Comic Artists Series) by by Kathy Merlock Jackson with Walt Disney " ISBN 1-57806-713-8 page 120