Disney Moves to Hollywood

1. When Walt first moved to Hollywood, what was his ambition?

2. His brother, Roy, was already living there. What was his livelihood when he moved to Hollywood?

3. How did Roy feel about Walt's dreams of entering the movie industry? What was his advice to
Walt?

4. Margaret Winkler, a cartoon distributor, contacted Walt. Why?

5. What does a distributor do in the entertainment industry? (The answer is not in this video. Please
look for your own resources to find an answer.)

6. What offer did Margaret Winkler bring to Walt?

7. Why did Roy eventually agree to form an animation company with Walt?

8. Where did Roy and Walt get the money to begin their “two-man operation”?

9. Who was Ub Iwerks? Why did Walt bring him into the production company?

10. Whom did Walt marry? Where did they first meet each other?

11. Eventually, Walt decided to rename the company from “Disney Brothers Studio” to “Walt Disney
Studio.” What do you think of this decision?

12. At the time, who was the most popular cartoon character in American animation?
13. What was the name of the cartoon character that Walt created during this time?

14. Disney's staff was becoming unhappy and frustrated. Why?

15. At the end of the video, one of the historians talks about the “two sides of Disney.” What were
these two sides?

Look at the following vocabulary and at the sentences in which they are used, in the documentary.
Through context of the sentences, and (if necessary) by looking up the definitions of the words and
expressions, be sure to know their meanings. You don't have to write anything or submit anything
to me, but these expressions may appear on a future test.

admonish
“...he admonished his brother to find a similar job -- one that paid.”

pragmatist
“His brother [Roy] has no entertainment ambitions whatsoever. His brother is the pragmatist.”

naysayer
“Roy, as much as he was a naysayer, he loved the enthusiasm of Walt, and I think he thrived on it.”

“Roy got release, and Walt got protection.”

Explain this sentence in English.

discreet
“But -- how do I put this discreetly? Walt Disney wasn't the best artist in the world.”

tied the knot

“Three months after Roy and Edna's wedding, Walt and Lillian tied the knot.”

gold standard
“He was taking aim at the industry's gold standard, Sullivan's Felix the Cat.”
Transcript

Narrator: He packed his cardboard suitcase with two spare shirts and what was left of his drawing
supplies, then headed for Union Station, where he treated himself to a first-class ticket on the Santa
Fe California Limited -- straight through to Los Angeles.
Steven Watts, Historian: Hollywood in the 1920s is a beacon of the future. It's this golden city on the
west coast. Hollywood, Los Angeles -- that's where the action is at. And I think Disney senses that, and
that's where he wants to be.
Neal Gabler, Biographer: He's not thinking about animation now. He's already failed with animation.
So the next step is, "I'm going to go out here and I'm going to become a movie director. That's what
I'm going to do."
Narrator: The want-to-be movie man walked past Charlie Chaplin's studio along La Brea Avenue, rode
the trolley to Culver City to see the set used in Ben Hur, and talked his way onto the Universal lot --
where he wandered around late into the night. But after weeks of effort, Walt had not been able to
talk his way into a job.
His older brother Roy, who had moved to Los Angeles for health reasons, had little patience for Walt's
insistence on finding a place in the movie business. Roy hadn't been star-struck on arrival. He sold
vacuum cleaners door-to-door when he first got to town, and he admonished his brother to find a
similar job -- one that paid. Walt was considering this advice when a cartoon distributor from New
York got in touch. Margaret Winkler, the only woman in the business, had remembered Walt's Alice in
Cartoonland pitch, and wanted to see how the young animator's big idea had turned out. Soon after
Disney shipped his Alice reel to Winkler's office in New York, the distributor wired back an offer. She
wanted Walt to make 12 Alice shorts, and was willing to pay $1,500 per episode.
Neal Gabler, Biographer: When he gets that telegram, the first thing he does is, he goes to visit his
brother Roy. And Walt is waving this telegram, saying, "Look! We've got a chance here!" His brother is
not enthusiastic. His brother has no entertainment ambitions whatsoever. His brother is the
pragmatist. But Walt says, you know, "We can do this. I need you for this." Roy, as much as he was a
naysayer, he loved the enthusiasm of Walt, and I think he thrived on it. He got joy from participating in
the kind of wild schemes of his brother that he himself would never have concocted. Roy got release,
and Walt got protection.
Narrator: The two brothers scraped up a little cash from friends and relatives and set up a two-man
operation in the back of a real estate office. Walt was the artist and idea man; Roy was the fundraiser,
the bookkeeper, and the all-around utility man.
But Walt recognized that he needed the kind of help Roy could not provide. So he convinced an old
friend and collaborator, Ub Iwerks, to relocate from Kansas City to Los Angeles.
Don Hahn, Animator: Walt loves to draw, and he can draw, and he gets attention by drawing. But --
how do I put this discreetly? Walt Disney wasn't the best artist in the world. He grew up in an era of an
age of illustrators that was surrounded by great art. Um, he wasn't that. And I think he saw that pretty
early on.
Eric Smoodin, Film Historian: Iwerks is incredible and can work fast. So it's an early sign that Disney
always wants to work with the very best and isn't afraid of working with someone who's better than
he is at many things.
Narrator: Iwerks began re-styling the Alice's Wonderland shorts as soon as he arrived, creating films
with less emphasis on the girl and more on the cartoon characters. The Disneys' distributor loved the
new look. They wanted more, and faster, and were willing to pay good money to get them. Walt
recruited more of his old gang from Missouri, then hired some locals, and the number of employees at
the Disney studio swelled to a dozen.
Steven Watts, Historian: The difference between Laugh-O-grams and Disney Brothers is Roy. Roy was
in the latter and he was not in the former. And from the very beginning, I think Roy helped put
financial and business structure in place that grounded the enterprise.
Narrator: The brothers enjoyed their early success, and expected it to continue. Roy bought a stolid
new sedan; Walt a snazzy Moon Roadster. They purchased adjoining lots and built new houses next
door to each other.
In the spring of 1925, Roy married Edna Francis, his longtime sweetheart from Kansas City. Walt,
sporting a rakish pencil mustache, acted as best man while escorting his girlfriend Lillian Bounds. The
couple had met in the office, when Lillian was working as an inker at the Disney Brothers Studio. "He
just had no inhibitions," Lillian said of Walt. "He was completely natural. He was fun." Three months
after Roy and Edna's wedding, Walt and Lillian tied the knot.
The Disney Brothers Studio was churning out a new Alice short every 16 days at the beginning of 1926,
and Walt and Roy were ready to hang their shingle on a more spacious building in the Silver Lake
neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Steven Watts, Historian: When they moved from the Disney Brothers Studio to the Hyperion Avenue
facility, a very striking and a very revealing thing happens. Walt goes to Roy and he says, "I've made a
decision, and that decision is, from hence this will be called the Walt Disney Studio, not the Disney
Brothers Studio." Walt Disney believed that it was his vision of creativity and entertainment that was
the engine of this enterprise, and that's what was being sold.
Narrator: Disney was understandably obsessed with his rivals in the cartoon industry by the end of
1926. He could tell his Alice pictures were running out of steam and spent much of his free time in
darkened theaters, assessing the work of the top New York-based animators: the Fleischer Brothers
and Pat Sullivan. He was taking aim at the industry's gold standard, Sullivan's Felix the Cat.
Sarah Nilsen, Film Historian: If you look at animation at that period it's extremely crude, it's really
violent, it's really gag driven, and it's very urban. These are older men making kind of crude, hard
animation. And Disney steps in as this young guy and he's like, "Okay, well, I see what you're doing, I'll
try this out and then I'll figure out my own voice in my other influences around me to transform it."
Narrator: The key to challenging the supremacy of Felix the Cat, Walt believed, was creating his own
compelling and likeable character. Disney's distributor suggested he try a rabbit -- "too many cats on
the market." Iwerks took charge of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit's look, while Disney wrote the storylines
and the gags. The bosses at Universal Pictures were so taken with the first sketches of Oswald they
offered a contract for 26 episodes.
Walt Disney Studios seemed to be riding high, but by the time the team put the finishing touches on
the first order of Oswald shorts, the animators were increasingly frustrated with the boss. The old
Kansas City hands who had helped Disney get started in the business, and often without pay, were
working into the night and through the weekends, while Walt was taking much of the money and
most of the credit.
Steven Watts, Historian: I think the two sides of Disney emerge. You have on the one hand Walt the
Inspirer. The other side of Disney was Disney the Driver, who demanded work, who demanded
creativity, demanded productivity. And if people didn't meet his standards, he could come down on
you like a ton of bricks.