Abstract
Walt Disney officially incorporated Laugh-O-Gram Films on May 18, 1922. He was, at the time, working at Kansas City Film Ad Company where he had been hired two years earlier. Film Ad had brought him into the world of animation; his tremendous curiosity and interest led him to experiment on his own time and eventually to make his own films.
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Notes
- 1.
Newspaper cartoonist George McManus bet Winsor McCay that a dinosaur could not be brought to life. To win, McCay made Gertie, the world’s first animated dinosaur. Photo of Gertie: http://cinemamonstruoso.blogspot.com/2010/05/gertie-dinosaur-1914-gertie-on-tour.html.
- 2.
“The first attempt at giving to a screen image the effect of life was by means of a progressive series of drawings. When photographs came later, drawings were forgotten and only when the cinematographic art had reached its great development and universality, were drawings again brought into use to be synthesized on the screen. To describe how these drawings are made, their use and application to the making of animated cartoons, is the purpose of this book.”—E.G. Lutz. Animated Cartoons by E.G. Lutz, p. 15: http://openlibrary.org/books/OL6622808M/Animated_cartoons.
- 3.
Photo of Muybridge’s The Horse in Motion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eadweard_Muybridge.
- 4.
Walt became acquainted with the Newman Theatre chain while at the Kansas City Film Ad Company when he designed this cover for the theatre’s magazine. Photo of the Newman Laugh-O-Grams: http://mapage.noos.fr/dtpdossiers/biographie.htm.
- 5.
“Laugh-O-Grams” were based on traditional fairy tales and given a contemporary twist. Photo of Laugh-O-Grams: http://www.cartoonbrew.com/classic/lost-disney-laugh-o-grams-at-moma.html.
- 6.
Walt admired Paul Terry ’s Aesop’s Fables and wanted to emulate their success. Photo of Aesop’s Fables: http://www.bcdb.com/cartoons/Other_Studios/F/Fables_Studios/Aesop_s_Film_Fables/index.html.
- 7.
The cat shooting holes in donuts in Little Red Riding Hood , batting away cannon balls in The Four Musicians of Bremen, and strategizing with his master in Puss in Boots . Photos of Little Red Riding Hood , Puss in Boots , The Musicians of Bremen: http://www.disneyshorts.org.
- 8.
Gabler, Neal. Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, p. 67. Cinderella on YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = VLZagf7FfuA.
- 9.
Little Red Riding Hood —the first Laugh-O-Gram—was roughly drawn and consisted of many cycled and unrelated gags.
- 10.
Virginia Davis, a Mary Pickford, look alike and an audience pleaser, in Alice’s Wonderland . Photo of opening screen in Alice’s Wonderland : http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/3947-Alices_Wonderland.html. Photo of Virginia Davis: http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/682302.
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Lee, N., Madej, K. (2012). Early Animation: Gags and Situations. In: Disney Stories. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2101-6_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2101-6_3
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