The Dream's Beginning
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Walt Disney ended up moving to Los Angles, California in 1923 and moved in with his uncle, paying a very small sum for food and boarding. While looking for a job in L.A., Walt once again took a chance and sent his “Alice” films to a New York film distributor. She liked them, ordered six Alice cartoon shots and paid $1500 for each one! With this newly-earned money Walt and Roy rented an office building for very cheap. This was the modest beginning of the Disney Brothers Studio. For once, he was earning a sizable profit. Most of the extra money he earned went to increasing the quality of his films, because he cared little for getting rich. In 1925, he hired a new secretary, Lillian Bounds. They immediately fell in love and were married in July when Walt was 24. Their relationship was a long and happy one. Lillian understood Walt’s love for his work more than anyone else and they got along very well. Walt was so proud of his company and what he had accomplished and showed it by renaming the company Walt Disney Studios. After making sixty Alice films, Disney grew tired of mixing live-action and animation. He started making all-cartoon shorts with a rabbit called Oswald, with Charles Mintz as the distributor. Oswald got popular very quickly and a lot of people wanted permission to use Oswald’s image on various commercial products. But Mintz and Universal Studios owned Oswald and all the rights to his rights to his character. Walt was not satisfied with the quality of the Oswald shorts so he asked for a raise. Not only did Mintz refuse to grant an increase but he took Oswald away. Mintz thought Disney would amount to little without Oswald, but he completely underestimated the young Walt. In response to Charles Mintz’ cruel act, Disney invented a cartoon mouse. Walt originally named him Mortimer Mouse but Lillian told him that he should be called Mickey. So Mickey Mouse it was. Christopher Finch describes Mickey like this: “Mickey’s dimension was quite new in cartoons. Certainly a character such a Felix the Cat was immediately recognizable, but he did not have a real personality. Mickey did have one, and an audience could identify with him in much the same way it would with a human performer.” The first Mickey Mouse short was called “Plane Crazy” and the second was “Gallopin’ Gaucho.” Warner Bros Studio released the first live-action movie with sound! Disney believed it was the future for all films, so he made “Steamboat Willie” with music and sound effects, using his own voice for Mickey’s. This was the first cartoon ever with sound! “Steamboat Willie” became popular with the public all over the world and was also a huge financial success. Disney’s risk had paid off. Many wanted to buy the rights to Mickey Mouse, but Disney refused. Mickey was his forever. Walt added sound to “Plane Crazy” and “Gallopin’ Gaucho”, and he had very special plans for the future. Like Disney himself said, “It was all started by a mouse.”