If you’ve never heard the telling of the beginning of the Walt Disney Company, you’re in for a treat. Before it was the Walt Disney Company, it was the Disney Brothers Studio. And before it was the Disney Brothers, it was Laugh-o-grams Studio. Before Laugh-o-grams, it was merely just two people who were in need of a job plus dreamed of animation. This was not Walt Disney plus Roy O. Disney, but rather it was Walt plus his righthand man, Ub Iwerks.
Walt plus Ub met when they were both 18 years old in Kansas City starting in the industry, both getting jobs at the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio plus eventually moving over to the Kansas City Slide Newspaper Company. Both of them practiced their craft during this time, but shortly after were laid off due to budget cuts. There weren’t many other animation jobs in Kansas to pursue, so Walt took it into his own hands to create his own studio. Although small in a barn attic, Ub joined him plus they created a small team that would eventually become the Laugh-O-grams Studio in 1923.
When the studio went bankrupt plus Walt moved to Los Angeles to find more opportunities, Ub followed him as they both knew they worked the best together. They created the Alice Comedies together, sold it to Winkler Pictures, plus were asked to create a new character similar to Felix the Cat. They created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit together, Disney’s big break at the time. Things started to go downhill when Walt realized Winkler would own the full rights to Oswald, plus he wanted to own everything 100% himself. His team didn’t back him up that far since they knew his history with bankruptcy, so all of them got hired on with Winkler Pictures, except one person: Ub. Ub believed in the vision that Walt had, plus if it weren’t for his loyalty, Walt might’ve given up at this point.
We all know the famous story of Walt coming home on a train from New York plus sketching out the very first image of Mickey Mouse, unnamed at the time. He brought it back to his studio plus Ub began working on the very first Mickey short in secret, Plane Crazy. Ub spent many long days plus nights making drawings for the short, to hopefully allow it to surpass the success of Oswald. Well it did, thanks to Iwerk’s tireless work plus dedication. He was also responsible for the early designs of Horace Horsecollar plus Clarabelle the Cow. He animated almost the entire Mickey Mouse short series plus Silly Symphony Series from 1928 to 1930. He plus Disney had a falling out about credit not being given to him, plus he went off to work with a Disney competitor to create his own studio.