Laugh-O-Gram Studio: History and Key Facts

The Laugh-O-Gram Studio (also Laugh-O-Gram Films) was an American independent animation studio founded by Walt Disney on June 28, 1921 and closed on October 16, 1923. It was located on the second floor of the McConahay Building in Kansas City, Missouri, as a key early venture for Disney and his recruited pioneers of animation, including Ub Iwerks, Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising, and Friz Freleng.

The company was incorporated to produce a series of contracted animated shorts called Newman's Laugh-O-Grams. Disney was encouraged by their local popularity, and began producing his own series of modernized fairy tale cartoons, including Little Red Riding Hood. The studio secured a contract for six shorts with Pictorial Clubs, Inc., of Tennessee, but the distributor paid only a small advance before going bankrupt. The loss of income crippled Laugh-O-Gram financially, forcing Disney to live in the office and bathe weekly at Union Station. A final project, a dental hygiene film called Tommy Tucker's Tooth, funded Disney's production of Alice's Wonderland, which combines live-action and animation in a last resort to create a successful franchise.

The studio filed for bankruptcy in July 1923. Disney sold his camera and moved to Hollywood with an unfinished reel of Alice's Wonderland. The move proved successful, because he secured a distribution deal with Margaret Winkler, which led to the creation of the Alice Comedies series and the founding of the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, the predecessor to the Walt Disney Company.

Disney later recalled that the creation of Mickey Mouse was inspired at Laugh-o-Gram Studio, based on a tame mouse he kept at his desk there. The story of the studio has been depicted in two feature films, As Dreamers Do and Walt Before Mickey. The historic McConahay Building fell into disrepair, and a nonprofit organization, Thank You, Walt Disney, has been restoring it.

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