“It all started with a mouse”

Walt Disney and his ideas have impacted American history continually since the 1920s. From the beginning of Mickey Mouse through the modern day Disneyland, America’s film industry, economy, and generations of Americans have been enthralled with all things Disney. In the 20s and 30s, Walt Disney’s small cartoon mouse along with his other animal friends captured the kids of America by their heartstrings and glued them to the television set. Mickey Mouse was the beginning of Walt’s ride in the film industry. He continued his success by creating the first full-length feature cartoon film ever to exist, Snow White.

Why was Disney so successful in his style of animation and what made people love a talking mouse? How did America receive his new animation style and how did Walt follow up with his successful movie? Disney is a household name that everyone knows and loves today, but the impact the Walt Disney Company has had on America for almost a century is much bigger than the movies people know and love. Disney has been a part of American lives through the major events that have happened throughout our history from propaganda for wars to playing a major role in the economy. The company is now big enough to be an empire. The journey from Mickey Mouse to the “Disney Empire” has an important influence on American history.

The Road to Mickey

Walt Disney was not alone on his path to creating his dream. A close friend and business partner who stood by Disney through the ups and downs of show business was Ub Iwerks.  Walt Disney first met him when they worked together at an art studio in Missouri. They were both young and talented,  Ub was shy and Walt had a dream. Walt’s dream was to have his own company and Ub was satisfied with just having a job. Walt continually tried to start up his own animation studio in Missouri but failed multiple times. Disney left Missouri for California in 1923 to continue his dream while Iwerks stayed in Missouri for only a few more years before Disney called for Iwerks to come work with him. Walt did not trust anyone else with animation more than Ub.

 

The Alice Comedies

Walt Disney and his brother Roy started the Disney Brothers Studio while in California. One of the works Disney brought with him from Missouri was called the “Alice Comedies”. These were feature length shows that incorporated a live action girl into a cartoon world. This put the Disney Studios on the map as Walt signed a contract with M.J. Wrinkler for a series, creating work for the Disney brothers. They focused the series on a little girl named Alice in a cartoon world. Disney wanted to give the characters personality rather than solely implementing the typical gag jokes seen during the period.

As his studio grew and he had stable work because of the contract, Walt was able to save up money so he could focus on a character he had envisioned for awhile. He hoped to create a friendly animal that kids across America could connect with, similar to the popular Felix the Cat.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

Ub and Walt decided to move away from the Alice Comedies in order to pursue something that was not as costly or complicated as a live-action girl in an animated world. Walt Disney wanted to create a character that could do more than just make the audience laugh and he could do that best with an animal. He and Ub started creating drafts of unique cartoon animals, while at the very same time, Universal Pictures was coming out of their 20-year drought in cartoons. They were seeking out a new cartoon that was not the average cat seen across screens all over America at the time, which was Felix the Cat. Disney and Iwerks put together some drafts of a new cartoon, one named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

Walt’s former producer and director for the Alice Comedies, Charles Mintz, made a deal with Universal Pictures in 1927 and signed The Disney Company to create 26 shorts with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.  Oswald grew a fan base very quickly, he was a spunky character that could be a brave hero and a loveable bunny all at once. Not only was Oswald’s popularity growing but Walt’s team grew from 7 animators to 22. Walt had to hire more people to keep up with the animations and he was able to recruit more people as Disney made a name for himself in the industry.

The Unlucky Rabbit

The success of Oswald put Disney’s name on the map and gave his company room for growth but all the success was taken away when Charles Mintz sneakily recruited all of Walt’s animators and took the rights to Oswald away from him. Walt was unaware of the binding contract that listed all of Disney’s cartoons and empolyers under the wing of Mintz. This shocked Disney, especially to find that his animators took little convincing to be employed by Mintz. The only person who stood by Walt was long time friend, Ub Iwerks.

From that point on, Walt Disney made sure that all of his animations solely belonged to him and made strict contracts with all the animators he hired.

From Oswald to Mickey

Walt Disney worked with Ub Iwerks to develop a new character that was similar to Oswald in the sense that it would be a lovable animal that could connect with kids. Iwerks spent days trying to draw what Walt envisioned in his mind. They took Oswald’s characteristics but molded him into a different animal and ultimately came up with a mouse. The original name Walt wanted to call the character was Mortimer Mouse, but Walt’s wife insisted he change the name to something more friendly and she suggested Mickey. Who best to put a voice to the character other than Walt Disney himself. He did the voice of Mickey up until 1946, then again from 1955 to 1959.

Concept Art Mickey Mouse

Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse often go hand-in-hand, but Ub Iwerks’ name is hardly mentioned when people talk about Mickey. Ub Iwerks worked closely with Walt Disney to make sure Mickey Mouse would be unique and perfect to present to the world. Walt did not discredit Iwerks at all, he made sure people knew the talent Ub possessed and all the work he did for the company.

Steamboat Willie

The Disney Company introduced Mickey into a few cartoons but he wasn’t a big hit because people thought he looked too much like Oswald. It wasn’t until they changed up his style a bit in 1928 and put him in the short film Steamboat Willie. Walt Disney finally created a short film that audiences not only loved but went crazy over. Steamboat Willie is famous for being the first cartoon the started the craze over Mickey Mouse along with being the first film to include sound and dialogue the coincided with the movements of the animation. After watching it, people demanded more Mickey and more of the revolutionary animation technique.

Walt Disney would continually be making firsts in the movie industry. His style of animation pioneered the way for techniques in the American movie industry. His style would continue to grow and evolve into what we know today.

Mickey’s Fan Club

Mickey starred in hundreds of cartoons after Steamboat Willie, each one gaining more and more fans and it was only two years after Mickey’s debut that the Mickey Mouse Club was created. The little mouse took the country by storm as the club reached 1 million members by 1932. The response to Mickey Mouse was overwhelming, The Disney Company was putting out cartoons at a rate of one per month and introducing Mickey’s friends like Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Daisy, and Pluto.

January 4th, 1930 was the official first meeting held in the Fox Dome movie theater in California, pictured below.

 

Mickey During the Depression

The Mickey Mouse Fan Club was only one way for a kid (or adult) to declare their love of Mickey Mouse, the others included owning any one of the many objects that flooded the market inspired by the mouse. In the 1930s there were wristwatches, phones, stuffed animals, and an endless variety of toys that hit the market and people were buying stuff left and right. Sales on Mickey items were through the roof, even though the Great Depression was in full force. In 1934 the Mickey merchandise industry was generating $600,000 a year in the U.S. alone. Merchandise was sold in over 10 countries and kept multiple companies from going bankrupt by re-introducing their product into the market with a Mickey Mouse flare.

 

“The fresh cheering is for Mickey the Big Business Man, the world’s super-salesman. He finds work for jobless folk. He lifts corporations out of bank- ruptcy…”
– The New York Times, March 1935

The Evolution of Mickey Mouse

Snow White and the Seven Drawfs

One of Walt Disney’s dreams was to create a full-length animated film, which seemed nearly impossible for the time period. The cost, the labor, and the idea of a cartoon that lasted an hour and a half? It was all out of reach, but Disney was the poster boy for the saying “if there’s a will there’s a way”.  The first step toward making the film was introducing the idea to his animators. Walt Disney spent weeks preparing a presentation for the storyboard of his future film. He called all of his workers into a theater on the studio lot and began by explaining the storyline, which came from the Brothers Grimm original story published in 1812. From there he acted out every scene from the movie complete with voices for every character. He wowed every person in the auditorium. Those who were there for the presentation look back on it and talk about the spark they saw in Disney’s eyes and how his enthusiasm for the film transferred to every person.

The Walt Disney Company wasn’t making enough money from the Mickey Mouse cartoons to fund the film so Walt resorted to borrowing most of the money he needed. His total amount borrowed was $1.5 million, the total money spent on the film was $2 million dollars.  Disney ran a big risk with the amount of borrowed money he was putting into the film. Everyone around him was discouraging him from investing so much time and money into a project that did not have a high success rate. 

The movie premiered at Carthay Circle in Los Angeles on February 4th, 1938. Saying it was a huge success was an understatement. The owner of Carthay Circle said the tickets to the premiere sold faster than any other movie released there. The audience included many famous faces in Hollywood such as Shirley Temple, Cary Grant, and Ginger Rogers to name a few. Those who were not able to get tickets waited outside of the theater just to be a part of the night. It received a standing ovation and left people begging for more.

The full-length animated movie was the first of its kind and changed the film industry forever. Disney’s success was instant and in that moment people realized that Walt was not actually crazy, he was innovative. Walt Disney continued to turn old tales into modern cartoons throughout the 1900s.

Disney Does Propaganda

The Walt Disney Company gained the power to influence people old and young all across America through cartoons. The government worked with Walt Disney to promote messages through different times in history and one big part of Disney history is propaganda for WWII. Walt was extremely patriotic and worked really hard to make sure he did everything he could to feel that he was contributing to the war effort. Unsurprisingly, Walt put his heart into these cartoons to make them perfect because he knew the impact his art had on America.

 

“Eduction for Death” 1943