Walt Disney's Kansas City - Clio

Entries on This Tour

1. Walt Disney's Family Home

From 1914 to 1921, this house was home to the family of world famous film animator Walt Disney. It was here that Disney first developed a passion for entertaining and an interest in cartooning. Walt set up a makeshift art studio in the garage where he used a borrowed movie camera to experiment with different animation techniques, creating what became the first Laugh-O-gram shorts and the start of his success. Various members of the Disney family occupied the residence until November 1921, when Walt’s father sold the house. Today, it remains a private residence and is not open to the public. The house and garage were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

2. Laugh-O-gram Films Studio

Laugh-O-gram Films was Walt Disney’s first professional animation studio, incorporated on May 23, 1922. It operated out of a suite of offices on the second floor of the newly-finished McConahay Building. Walt Disney and his animation team created satirical fairy tale shorts using stop motion and live action, calling them Laugh-O-grams. However, the studio quickly began to struggle financially. For a brief time, Disney lived in the Laugh-O-gram studio and met a brave little mouse living in his desk that would later be the inspiration for Mickey Mouse. Laugh-O-gram Films filed for bankruptcy in July 1923 and Disney left for Hollywood with $40 and unfinished footage of “Alice’s Wonderland.” Several of Disney’s partners from Laugh-O-gram followed, becoming the pioneers of the Golden Age of Animation. Today, the McConahay Building is owned by the non-profit group Thank You, Walt Disney Inc. who saved the deteriorating building from demolition. They are working to restore the building, creating an interactive learning space and the first landmark in Kansas City honoring Walt Disney and the legacy he started here.

3. Walt Disney and the Isis Theatre

In 1922, the Isis Theatre was one of the local theaters showing Walt Disney’s animated cartoon reels produced by Laugh-O-gram Films Inc.. Disney also used the theatre to promote the Laugh-O-gram studio, with footage captured during a South Central Business Association parade. Notable music composer Carl Stalling was the theater's organist and became friends with Disney, which sparked a working relationship with Laugh-O-gram Films and Disney Brothers years later. When several months of backdated rent was due to the McConahay building, Disney packed up and moved the Laugh-O-gram studio into the Wirthman Building, where Isis Theatre operated from. He spent one month here before leaving for California.

4. KayCee Studio

In November 1921 while still employed at Kansas City Film Ad Company, Walt Disney opened KayCee Studio as a private cartooning studio on the second level of the building that once stood at this location. With his co-worker Fred Harman, Disney sought after teenage interns who were interested in learning cartooning and employed other men who they would stay in business with for years. Here they started their first full-story cartoon short, Little Red Riding Hood. The Studio changed locations several times before Walt quit the Film Ad Company in the spring, and closed KayCee Studio when he incorporated Laugh-O-gram Films that May. The building here was demolished by the city in the early 1990s.

5. Kansas City Film Ad Company (est. 1920)

In early 1920, the Kansas City Film Ad Company moved to this location shortly after changing names from Kansas City Slide Company. They started producing live-action and stop-motion advertisements during this time, which was a major advancement in the industry. Walt Disney had been employed with KC Film Ad for about a year when he produced his first Laugh-O-gram, a film short that was pitched to the Newman Theatre. It became successful and led Disney to create his own studio, Laugh-O-gram Films in 1922. KC Film Ad also employed several other men alongside Disney who would become the founders of the Golden Age of animation. The company changed their name once again to United Film Ad Service when they went national, but was eventually sold. This site is now a private surface parking lot.

6. Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio

The Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio was located inside the three-story brick commercial building that once stood at this location. Operated out of Gray Advertising, this studio was run by Louis Pesmen and Bill Rubin who produced artwork for some of Gray's clients. Walt Disney was hired by Pesmen-Rubin for his first job as an illustrator, in October 1919.

7. Iwerks-Disney Studio

Initially run out of a bathroom in the Mutual Building, this short-lived art studio was Walt Disney’s first private venture. Using money he had saved from his time with the Red Cross in France, he opened Iwerks-Disney Studio in January 1920 with his new friend Ub Iwerks. The studio was proving successful so they moved to an office in the Railway Exchange Building. However, by March Walt had taken a job at Kansas City Slide Company and the studio was struggling with Ub behind the helm. Ub joined Walt shortly after and the Iwerks-Disney studio dissolved.

8. Fine Arts Institute of Kansas City (1911-1927)

This site was once the location of the YWCA Building, constructed in 1911. The Fine Arts institute of Kansas City, now known as the Kansas City Art Institute operated out of this location in offices on the 6th floor for many years. It was here in 1915, that famed animator Walt Disney had his first formal art instruction while attending Saturday art classes. The building was razed for an urban renewal project and is now the site of a surface parking lot.

9. Newman Theatre (1919-1972)

Built in 1919 for local exhibitor Frank L. Newman, the Newman Theatre was known for its opulence and extravagant features. It was the biggest and most costly of any Kansas City theatre at the time, holding an audience of 2,000. Notably, in 1921 a series of short satirical cartoons called Newman Laugh-O-grams were screened, which were the first animated productions created solely by Walt Disney. The Newman became Paramount Theater in 1947 and operated for a short time as Towne Theater before eventually closing due to a decline in business. It was demolished in 1972 for an urban renewal project. Today the site is occupied by a skyscraper called the Lightwell Building.

10. Kirk Building Historical Marker; Kansas City Slide Company

Established by A. V. Cauger in 1910, the Kansas City Slide Company was located at this site from 1913 to 1920. It was one of many companies producing slide advertisements in the growing industry. In January 1920, Walt Disney responded to a help-wanted ad and was hired as an artist for “cartoon and wash drawings.” Shortly thereafter, the company changed its name to Kansas City Film Ad Company and moved locations, also advancing their techniques to produce stop-motion and live-action advertising. This building was constructed in 1908, expanded in 1925, and renovated in 1983 during a downtown revitalization project.

This Tour is a Thematic Tour or Heritage Trail.

Walt Disney's Kansas City

Created by Nichole Stahly on June 11th 2018, 10:03:22 pm.

Loading...

Get a QR Code for this tour

Description

This short, thematic driving tour explores notable locations related to Walt Disney's years in Kansas City and his early life as an animator. It includes his childhood home, his first job, Laugh-O-gram Films studio, and more! Originally born in Chicago, Walt Disney (1901-1966) moved to Marceline, Missouri with his family in 1906 when he was just 5 years old. In 1911, Walt’s father Elias sold the farm and moved their family to Kansas City. They first rented a home on E 31st Street, later purchasing a house on Bellefontaine Avenue. When an investment opportunity came about in the spring of 1917, Elias moved back to Chicago, taking Walt’s mother Flora and little sister Ruth; Walt followed in late summer. The following year, Walt joined the Red Cross and completed a 9 month tour in France at the end of WWI. Walt returned to Kansas City in October 1919, moved in with his older brothers who had been taking care of the Bellefontaine house, and got his first job in cartooning as an apprentice at Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio. After being laid off weeks later, Disney opened his first private studio called Iwerks-Disney in January 1920, and in February was hired at Kansas City Slide Company/ Film Ad Service. While employed there, he borrowed film equipment and started experimenting with animation in a makeshift garage behind his family home on Bellefontaine. This garage was the location of Disney’s first solely-created film shorts, which became known as Laugh-O-grams. In the fall of 1921, Elias sold the family home. Walt moved out and rented an office space where he operated another small, private studio called KayCee. He quit Film Ad the following spring and started his first major venture Laugh-O-gram Films, which was incorporated in May 1922. Largely due to failed contracts, Laugh-O-gram struggled and filed bankruptcy in July 1923. Walt boarded a train on the Santa Fe Railroad to California with $40 in his pocket and unfinished footage that would become Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio’s first completed production, “Alice’s Wonderland.”

Share