View source for Laugh-O-Gram Studio

{{Short description|Animation studio founded by Walt Disney}}
{{Infobox company
| logo = Laugh-O-Grams.jpg
| image = Laugh-o-gram 2010.JPG
| image_caption = McConahay Films Building in August 2010
| fate = Bankruptcy
| founder = [[Walt Disney]]
| predecessors = Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists
| successors = [[Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio]] (now [[The Walt Disney Company]])
| foundation = {{start date and age
|June 28, 1921}}
| defunct = {{start date and age|October 16, 1923}}
| location = {{Plainlist|
* [[Kansas City, Missouri]]
* {{coord|39.070362|-94.56994|region:US_type:city|format=dms|display=inline,title}}
}}
| industry = [[Film studio]]
| key_people = {{Plainlist|
* Walt Disney
* [[Ub Iwerks]]
* [[Hugh Harman]]
* [[Rudolf Ising]]
* [[Friz Freleng]]
* [[Carman Maxwell]]
}}
| owner = Walt Disney
}}
The '''Laugh-O-Gram Studio''' (also called '''Laugh-O-Gram Studios''') was an [[animation studio]] located on the second floor of the [[McConahay Building]] at 1127 East 31st in [[Kansas City, Missouri]], that operated from June 28, 1921, to October 16, 1923.

In [[Animation in the United States during the silent era|the early years of animation]], the studio was home to many of the pioneers of animation, brought there by [[Walt Disney]]. It was the site of inspiration for Disney and [[Ub Iwerks]] to create [[Mickey Mouse]]. Laugh-O-Gram is the subject of two feature films: ''As Dreamers Do'' and ''[[Walt Before Mickey]]''.

==History==
In 1921, [[Walt Disney]] was contracted by Milton Feld to animate twelve cartoons, which he called Newman's Laugh-O-Grams.<ref group="ChWDC">{{Cite web |title=1919–1924 |url=http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019094307/http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |archive-date=October 19, 2013 |access-date=December 3, 2013}} Source: Page 67. "Disney's World", by Leonard Mosley, 1985.</ref> On May 23, 1922, when Disney was 20 years old, Laugh-O-Gram Films (LOGF) was incorporated by him using the remaining assets of the defunct Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists from local investors. LOGF produced nine of the requested 12 films with little income.<ref group=ChWDC>{{Cite web |title=1919–1924 |url=http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019094307/http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |archive-date=October 19, 2013 |access-date=December 3, 2013}}<br>Sources:
* The Disney Studio Story, by Richard Holliss and Brian Sibley, 1988.
* The Art of Walt Disney – From Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdoms, by Christopher Finch, 1973.
* Disney's Art of Animation – From Mickey Mouse to Beauty and the Beast, by Bob Thomas, 1991.
* Page 19. Walt Disney – Hollywood's Dark Prince, by Marc Eliot, 1993.
* Page 67. "Disney's World", by Leonard Mosley, 1985.
* Page 140. The International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers: Volume II – Directors/Filmmakers, by Christopher Lyon, 1984.
* Page 62. Walt Disney – An American Original, by Bob Thomas, 1994.
* Page 40. Walt in Wonderland – The Silent Films of Walt Disney, by Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman, 1993.
* Page 41. Walt Disney, by Jim Fanning, 1994.
* Page 9. Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse – His Life and Times, by Richard Holliss, 1986.
* Page 41. Walt Disney – Pop Culture Legends, by Jim Fanning, 1994.
* Page 42. Building a Company – Roy O. Disney and the Creation of an Entertainment Empire, by Bob Thomas, 1998.
* Page 13. Disney – The First 100 Years, updated edition, by Dave Smith and Steven Clark, 2002.
* Page 61. Walt Disney – The Triumph of the American Imagination, by Neal Gabler, 2006.</ref> Encouraged and inspired by his shorts' popularity at the theatre, Disney decided he wanted to make his own animated versions of fairy tales too, and invested six months on his first attempt at ''[[Little Red Riding Hood (1922 film)|Little Red Riding Hood]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Merritt |first=Russell |last2=Kaufman |first2=J. B. |year=2011 |title=Walt Disney's Laugh-O-Grams, 1921–1923 |url=https://silentfilm.org/walt-disneys-laugh-o-grams-1921-1923/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200718220909/https://silentfilm.org/walt-disneys-laugh-o-grams-1921-1923/ |archive-date=2020-07-18 |access-date=2020-04-29 |website=Silent Film Festival}}</ref>

Among Disney's employees on the series were several pioneers of animation: [[Ub Iwerks]], [[Hugh Harman]], [[Friz Freleng]], and [[Carman Maxwell]]. The company had financial problems and by the end of 1922, Disney was living in the office and taking baths once a week at [[Union Station (Kansas City)|Union Station]].

During the studio's sales manager Leslie Mace's stay in New York, where he was looking for distributors, he ended up signing a contract for six animated shorts with Pictorial Clubs, Inc. of Tennessee on Sunday, September 16, 1922. Pictorial agreed to pay {{US$|11000|1922}} for the cartoons, which were supposed to be shown at schools and other non-theatrical places, but only paid $100 in advance. The rest of the payment would have to wait until January 1, 1924, when all the shorts had been delivered. When Pictorial went bankrupt only a few months later, the studio never received the rest of the payment, its financial problems became even more serious, and the staff ended up leaving. When the local Kansas City dentist Thomas B. McCrum, from the Deener Dental Institute, contacted Disney and offered him the job of producing a short subject about dental hygiene intended for the Missouri school system,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Pat |title=How to Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life |date=August 1, 2004 |publisher=Health Communications |isbn=0-7573-0231-9}}</ref> he brought together some of his staff again and made ''Tommy Tucker's Tooth'', which earned the studio $500. Instead of paying off his creditors, the money was invested in the live-action/animation demonstration film ''[[Alice's Wonderland]]'', starring the youthful [[Virginia Davis]]. Disney had noted how popular the ''[[Out of the Inkwell]]'' series from the [[Fleischer Studios]] was, which had animated characters interacting with the real world. By reversing this gimmick and using a real-life character in a cartoon universe instead, he hoped for a hit.
Virginia Davis's contract with Laugh-O-Gram was signed by her parents on April 23, 1923, with terms giving her 5% of the ''Alice's Wonderland'' film's receipts.<ref group="ChWDC">{{Cite web |title=1919–1924 |url=http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019094307/http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |archive-date=October 19, 2013 |access-date=December 3, 2013}} Source: page 49. Walt in Wonderland – The Silent Films of Walt Disney, by Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman, 1993.</ref> Looking for a distributor for ''Alice's Wonderland'' on May 14, Disney wrote to [[Margaret Winkler]], a New York film distributor.<ref group=ChWDC>{{Cite web |title=1919–1924 |url=http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019094307/http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |archive-date=October 19, 2013 |access-date=December 3, 2013}}<br>Sources:
* Page 22. Walt Disney – Hollywood's Dark Prince, by Marc Eliot, 1993.
* Page 52. Walt in Wonderland – The Silent Films of Walt Disney, by Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman, 1993.
* Page 79. Walt Disney – The Triumph of the American Imagination, by Neal Gabler, 2006.</ref>

After finishing the raw edits of ''Alice's Wonderland'',<ref group=ChWDC>{{Cite web |title=1919–1924 |url=http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019094307/http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |archive-date=October 19, 2013 |access-date=December 3, 2013}}<br>Sources:
[16] [23] [24] [40.69] [63.50]</ref> the studio filed for [[Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code|Chapter 11 bankruptcy]] in July 1923.<ref group=ChWDC>{{Cite web |title=1919–1924 |url=http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019094307/http://kpolsson.com/disnehis/index.htm |archive-date=October 19, 2013 |access-date=December 3, 2013}}<br>Sources:
[1] [34.22] [1102.72] (spring [40.71]) (August [63.51])</ref> Disney finally made some money by shooting a film of a 6-month-old girl named Kathalee Viley<ref>{{Cite web |last=Korkis |first=Jim |date=March 22, 2017 |title=The Laugh-O-Gram Story: Part One |url=https://www.mouseplanet.com/11723/The_LaughOgram_Story_Part_One |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417172444/https://www.mouseplanet.com/11723/The_LaughOgram_Story_Part_One |archive-date=2023-04-17 |access-date=2017-07-06 |website=Mouseplanet.com}}</ref> and selling his [[movie camera]], earning enough for a one-way train ticket, moving to [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood, California]]; he brought along an unfinished reel of ''Alice's Wonderland''.

The bankruptcy trustee was able to force LOGF's erstwhile distributor and debtor, Pictorial Films, Inc., to pay LOGF's agents the sum owed while agreeing that Pictorial could exercise its contractual distribution rights for LOGF works and to purchase several of LOGF's films: ''The Four Musicians of Bremen'', ''Jack the Giant Killer'', the ''Lafflets'' series, and ''Alice's Wonderland''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Susanin |first=Timothy S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9Z9t5hK5_BcC&q=M.%20J.%20Winkler%20Productions&pg=PA143 |title=Walt Before Mickey: Disney's Early Years, 1919–1928 |publisher=[[University Press of Mississippi]] |year=2011 |isbn=9781604739619 |page=254 |access-date=2017-07-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417172433/https://books.google.com/books?id=9Z9t5hK5_BcC&q=M.%20J.%20Winkler%20Productions&pg=PA143 |archive-date=2023-04-17 |url-status=live |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

The studio building fell to ruin and efforts were made to restore it by a non-profit group called "Thank You, Walt Disney". The Disney family promised $450,000 in matching funds for the rights to other Disney memorabilia and to tell the history of Walt Disney's life in Kansas City, a movie house to exhibit original and restored Laugh-O-Grams, and an education center for animation workshops.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Barnes |first=Austin |date=May 2, 2020 |title=First House of Mouse: Reanimating Walt Disney's KC Film Studio Closer to Reality Than Ever Before |work=[[Startland News]] |url=https://www.startlandnews.com/2020/05/thank-you-walt-disney/ |url-status=live |access-date=2021-09-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918221322/https://www.startlandnews.com/2020/05/thank-you-walt-disney/ |archive-date=2021-09-18}}</ref>

On July 30, 2021, a black [[Dodge Charger]] struck the building and caused significant damage to the exterior. The incident occurred early in the morning, the driver fleeing the scene, though authorities subsequently found a woman's driving license and a margarita within the vehicle. Butch Rigby, who launched the campaign to save and restore the building, described the incident optimistically: "The bottom line, it's a bump in the road, but it could have been worse".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Collison |first=Kevin |date=August 3, 2021 |title=No Joke, Car Punches Laugh-O-Gram Building |work=[[CityScene KC]] |url=https://cityscenekc.com/no-joke-car-punches-laugh-o-gram-building/ |url-status=live |access-date=2021-09-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918221315/https://cityscenekc.com/no-joke-car-punches-laugh-o-gram-building/ |archive-date=2021-09-18}}</ref>

==Inspiration for Mickey Mouse==
{{multiple image
|width=400px
|direction=vertical
|image1=Laugh-O-Gram Studio 2004.jpg
|caption1=McConahay Building in 2004
|image2=Left side of the Thank You Walt Disney exterior wall.jpg
|caption2=Left side of the Thank You Walt Disney mural
}}
Disney told interviewers that the inspiration to draw Mickey came from a tame mouse at his desk at Laugh-O-Gram Studio in [[Kansas City, Missouri]].

{{quote|They used to fight for little pieces of cheese 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 trained him to run inside a black circle I drew on my drawing board. When I left Kansas City 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.<ref name="conv">{{Cite book |last=Jackson |first=Kathy Merlock |title=Walt Disney: Conversations (Conversations with Comic Artists Series) |date=November 30, 2005 |publisher=[[University Press of Mississippi]] |isbn=1-57806-713-8 |page=120}}</ref>}}

In 1928 during a train trip to New York, he showed the drawing to his wife [[Lillian Disney|Lillian Marie Bounds]] and said he was going to call it "Mortimer Mouse". She replied that the name sounded "too pompous" and suggested [[Mickey Mouse]] instead.<ref name="conv" />

==Filmography==
Of the original seven Laugh-O-Grams fairy tales, four were long known to have survived, and have been restored for DVD: ''Newman Laugh-O-Grams'' (1921), ''[[Little Red Riding Hood (1922 film)|Little Red Riding Hood]]'' (1922), ''The Four Musicians of Bremen'' (1922), ''[[Puss in Boots (1922 film)|Puss in Boots]]'' (1922), and ''[[Cinderella (1922 film)|Cinderella]]'' (1922). These shorts later became available on [[Blu-ray Disc]] as bonus features for Disney's ''[[Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)|Beauty and the Beast]]''. ''[[Tommy Tucker's Tooth]]'' (1922) and ''[[Alice's Wonderland]]'' (1923) are also available on DVD, and ''Alice's Wonderland'' eventually became a bonus feature for the ''60th Anniversary Blu-ray Edition'' of ''[[Alice in Wonderland (1951 film)|Alice in Wonderland]]''. The original piece of filming and animation known as ''Newman Laugh-O-Grams'' (originally released theatrically on March 20, 1921)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Merritt |first=Russell |title=Walt in Wonderland: The Silent Films of Walt Disney |last2=Kaufman |first2=J. B. |date=March 10, 2000 |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |isbn=0801864291 |page=125}}</ref> is available on some DVDs too. In accordance with United States copyright law, all 11 shorts produced by the studio have entered into the [[public domain]] as of 2019.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Balfour |title=Public Domain Day 2019 {{!}} Duke University School of Law |url=https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2019/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230401012752/https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2019/ |archive-date=2023-04-01 |access-date=2023-04-01 |website=web.law.duke.edu |publisher=[[Duke University School of Law]] |language=en}}</ref>

The missing fairy tale cartoons were ''[[Jack and the Beanstalk (1922 film)|Jack and the Beanstalk]]'', ''Jack the Giant Killer'', and ''[[Goldie Locks and the Three Bears]]'' (all 1922). In October 2010, copies of all three cartoons had been found according to animation historian [[David Gerstein]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gerstein |first=David |date=October 14, 2010 |title=Lost Laugh-O-Grams Found—and Shown |url=http://ramapithblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/lost-laugh-o-grams-foundand-shown.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170801044832/http://ramapithblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/lost-laugh-o-grams-foundand-shown.html |archive-date=2017-08-01 |access-date=2017-07-06 |website=Ramapithblog.Blogspot.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Beck |first=Jerry |date=October 14, 2010 |title=Lost Disney "Laugh-O-Grams" at MoMA &#124; Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation |url=https://www.cartoonbrew.com/classic/lost-disney-laugh-o-grams-at-moma.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101020161626/http://www.cartoonbrew.com/classic/lost-disney-laugh-o-grams-at-moma.html |archive-date=2010-10-20 |access-date=2010-10-15 |website=[[Cartoon Brew]]}}</ref> For many years the two ''Jack'' cartoons were believed to be one, until researcher John Kenworthy located old studio assets sheets confirming that they were separate shorts.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kenworthy |first=John |title=The Hand Behind the Mouse: An Intimate Biography of Ub Iwerks |date=April 23, 2001 |publisher=[[Disney Publishing Worldwide]] |isbn=978-0-7868-5320-5 |page=18}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!#
!Year
!Film
!Notes
!The short
|-
|1
|1921
|''Newman Laugh-O-Grams''
| The pilot and only surviving piece of an old newsreel series that was only seen at Newman Theater.
|[[File:Newman Laugh-O-Gram (1921).webm|frameless]]
|-
|2
|1922
|''[[Little Red Riding Hood (1922 film)|Little Red Riding Hood]]''
|Walt Disney's first "real" cartoon. Briefly features [[Julius the Cat]], here unnamed. Later reissued with synchronized sound in 1929–1930 as a ''Whoopee Sketches'' (USA) and ''Peter the Puss'' (UK) cartoon, retitled ''Grandma Steps Out''.
|[[File:Little Red Riding Hood (1922).webm|frameless]]
|-
|3
|1922
|''The Four Musicians of Bremen''
|Featuring Julius the Cat, here unnamed. Later reissued with synchronized sound in 1929–1930 as a ''Whoopee Sketches'' (USA) and ''Peter the Puss'' (UK) cartoon, retitled ''The Four Jazz Boys''.
|[[File:The Four Musicians Of Bremen (1922).webm|frameless]]
|-
|4
|1922
|''[[Jack and the Beanstalk (1922 film)|Jack and the Beanstalk]]''
|Featuring Jack and Julius the Cat, here unnamed. Later reissued with synchronized sound in 1929–1930 as a ''Whoopee Sketches'' (USA) and ''Peter the Puss'' (UK) cartoon, retitled ''On the Up and Up''.
|
|-
|5
|1922
|''Jack the Giant Killer''
|Featuring Jack, Susie, and Julius the Cat, here unnamed. Later reissued with synchronized sound in 1929–1930 as a ''Whoopee Sketches'' (USA) and ''Peter the Puss'' (UK) cartoon, retitled ''The K-O Kid''.
|[[File:Jack the Giant Killer (1922).webm|frameless]]
|-
|6
|1922
|''[[Goldie Locks and the Three Bears]]''
|Featuring Julius the Cat, here unnamed. Later reissued with synchronized sound in 1929–1930 as a ''Whoopee Sketches'' (USA) and ''Peter the Puss'' (UK) cartoon, retitled ''The Peroxide Kid''.
|
|-
|7
|1922
|''[[Puss in Boots (1922 film)|Puss in Boots]]''
|Featuring Jack, Susie, and Julius the Cat, here unnamed. The king in the cartoon also made a cameo in the 1922 Laugh-O-Gram ''Cinderella''. Later reissued with synchronized sound in 1929–1930 as a ''Whoopee Sketches'' (USA) and ''Peter the Puss'' (UK) cartoon, retitled ''The Cat's Whiskers''.
|[[File:Puss In Boots (1922).webm|frameless]]
|-
|8
|1922
|''[[Cinderella (1922 film)|Cinderella]]''
|Featuring Susie (as Cinderella), Jack (as the Prince), and Julius the Cat, here unnamed. Later reissued with synchronized sound in 1929–1930 as a ''Whoopee Sketches'' (USA) and ''Peter the Puss'' (UK) cartoon, retitled ''The Slippery Kid''.
|[[File:Cinderella Laugh-O-Gram (1922).webm|frameless]]
|-
|9
|1922
|''[[Tommy Tucker's Tooth]]''
|Mostly live-action.
|[[File:Tommy Tucker's Tooth (1922).webm|frameless]]
|-
|10
|1923
|''[[Martha (1923 film)|Martha]]''
|Lost film.
|-
|11
|1923
|''[[Alice's Wonderland]]''
|Pilot film for ''[[Alice Comedies]]''.
|[[File:Alice's Wonderland (1923).webm|frameless]]
|}

==See also==
* [[List of points of interest in Kansas City, Missouri]]
* [[Walt Disney Hometown Museum]], located in his hometown of [[Marceline, Missouri]]
* [[List of Disney animated films based on fairy tales]]
* [[Studio system]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
* {{Cite web |last=Polsson |first=Ken |title=Chronology of the Walt Disney Company |url=http://kpolsson.com/}}
{{reflist|group="ChWDC"}}

==External links==
{{wikisource portal}}
* {{URL|https://www.thankyouwaltdisney.org|Thank You Walt Disney – Restoring Laugh-O-Gram Studios}}
* [https://governmentcheese.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12:fairy-tale-flappers-animated-adaptations-of-little-red-and-Cinderella-1922-1925&catid=11&Itemid=111 Fairy Tale Flappers: Animated Adaptations of Little Red and Cinderella (1922–1925)]

{{Kansas City, Missouri}}
{{Walt Disney Animation Studios}}
{{Animation industry in the United States}}

[[Category:American companies established in 1921]]
[[Category:American companies disestablished in 1923]]
[[Category:Laugh-O-Gram Studio| ]]
[[Category:Mass media companies established in 1921]]
[[Category:1921 establishments in Missouri]]
[[Category:1923 disestablishments in Missouri]]
[[Category:Mass media companies disestablished in 1923]]
[[Category:American animation studios]]
[[Category:Walt Disney]]
[[Category:History of animation]]
[[Category:History of The Walt Disney Company]]
[[Category:Defunct American film studios]]
[[Category:Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1923]]
[[Category:History of Kansas City, Missouri]]
[[Category:Companies based in Kansas City, Missouri]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Kansas City, Missouri]]
[[Category:Walt Disney Animation Studios]]
[[Category:The Walt Disney Company]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]