Walt Disney - 1924 - Alice's Day at Sea - Part 2

[goreesha]

As I noted in part one, all the drawing here was done by Walt himself. He didn't hire other artists until after this Alice cartoon.

[ProbradIII]

That's not entirely true.

If no one else, he always had Ub Iwerks with him in these early days. In fact, at this point in his career, I believe Walt and Ub shared an apartment together in rural hollywood. MJ Winkler was their distributer by now, and the series was just getting under way. Walt was probably struggling to hire staff and scavaging enough money to pay them, but Ub was always by his side in these early days.

[goreesha]

No, that's not true. This particular picture "Alice's Day at Sea" was made before he talked Ub into coming out to California, and you can tell by the quality of the art. Walt was not as good an artist as Ub. On this particular cartoon it was literally just Walt and two women he hired to ink and paint.

[ProbradIII]

Really? I'm not much of an artist myself so I struggle in recognizing the artists. I think I might have to re-watch Leslie Iwerks' documentary ;)

How'd you come across this information anyways?

[goreesha]

Read this information in the book "Building a Company," by Bob Thomas. Speaking of "Alice's Day at Sea" on page 47: "Walt added all the animation himself, working in a back room of a real estate office he had rented for $10 a month." Ub was enticed to come out later.

[ProbradIII]

I'll look that up. I never knew his early days had been documented very well.

I was under the impression that the first few Alices were made in Kansas City under the Laugh-O-Gram banner.

[goreesha]

Yes, the very first Alice (called Alice's Wonderland) was made in Kansas City in 1923, but he never found a distributor for it so Laugh-O-Gram went broke. So he took the unsold film with him out to California and finally got a distribution deal with Margaret Winkler. He then talked Virginia Davis's parents into relocating out to California, so she could make more Alice cartoons (the first new one being Alice's Day at Sea). And, of course, he then brought out Ub and other old KC artists, as well.

[americanromancatholi]

@ProbradIII If you watch the documentary and listen closely Ub Iwerks did not come over from Kansas City to Hollywood until late July 1924 therefore this cartoon all the way to 'Alice the Peacemaker' were done entirely by Walt himself. 'Alice Gets in Dutch' is the first one that has Ub's personal touch.