Museum Home
Main Collection
Special Exhibits
Children's Guide
Conference Center
Film Theater
Education
Dictionary
Gift Shop


Spotlight on:

Book Review

"It's amazing how many books are published about Walt's life and work," says writer/director Jean-Pierre Isbouts, "and how few are written for children." This was one reason why Isbouts, the father of three daughters and one son, set out to write an updated story about Walt's life -- written for "children of all ages." He had ample material to choose from, for Isbouts is also the co-writer and director of the film "Walt: The Man behind the Myth", which aired on ABC last September. His co-writers, Richard and Katherine Greene, also wrote a book based on the film, entitled "Inside the Dream".

Isbouts believes that a new children's book about Walt is timely. "Many kids think of Walt Disney as a large media company, and forget that there was a man who had these incredible ideas to begin with," he says. In the book, Isbouts emphasizes the many obstacles that Walt had to overcome. "Walt was always looking for something new on the horizon," Isbouts says, "and didn't hesitate to take big risks to make his ideas a reality. That example of realizing your dreams, no matter how difficult they may seem, is very important for kids today,"

Jean-Pierre Isbouts is a film maker and art historian who has produced documentaries on the Renaissance of Florence, the French Impressionists, the Cold War (with Sir David Frost), the Bible (with Charlton Heston), Shakespeare's "Hamlet" (featuring Kenneth Branagh and Kate Winslet) and most recently, a drama on the life of the artist Edouard Manet.

Following is an excerpt from his book, which is available in the Museum Gift Shop.

Discovering Walt

"Walt found a rooming house, and made up his mind to start his own animation company. He raised some $15,000 from investors, quit his job, and on May 23, 1922, founded Laugh-O-gram Films on the second floor of the McConahay Building. He was only 20 years old. Soon, Ub Iwerks and five other animators joined him.

Laugh-O-gram was a fun place to work. Walt and his team felt like they were at the forefront of a new form of entertainment. As his first project, he decided to make a series of cartoons based on classic fairy tales. He made a deal with a company called Pictorial Clubs, which promised to distribute the films to theaters. On weekends, Walt and his animator friends would go to the local park and, just for fun, pretend to shoot scenes for a major feature film. At the same time, Walt also became the Kansas City correspondent for Universal Films, and shot newsreel footage of any news events that took place in the area.

Unfortunately, Pictorial Clubs did not live up to its contract. It went out of business before it could pay Walt for the cartoons he had made, and Walt had nobody to distribute the cartoons he'd completed. Since Walt had used a lot of his own money to make the cartoons, he had nothing left to pay the rent. As he later recalled, "I moved into the studio. I slept on a bunch of old canvas and cushions off the chairs. And there was no bath there, so once a week I'd go to the Union Station and go in; for a dime, I could get a bath."

Young Walt

Fortunately, Roy hadn't forgotten about his little brother. Every now and then, Walt would receive a letter which said, "Kid, I haven't heard from you, but I just have a suspicion, you could use a little money. I am enclosing a check, fill it out in any amount up to $30." And so, Walt said, "I'd always write $30 on the check."
Walt used to have his meals at a neighborhood restaurant, run by two of his friends, Jerry and Louis, who kept a tab for him. But when his bill went up to $60, Louis told him they could no longer serve him meals on credit. One day, Walt was sitting on a crate in his studio, eating cold beans out of a can. And suddenly, as he recalled, "Jerry came up. I didn't know he was there. And I was sitting eating out of this can. So he looked, he said 'Oh, Walter.' He got tears in his eyes. He said 'I don't care what Louis says. You go down and get something to eat.'"


Walt didn't give up. He got a job making a film about dental hygiene for a local dentist, who gave him the grand sum of $500. Did Walt save the money? No. Did he move back into a real apartment or start to eat well? No. Instead, he decided to create a whole new kind of cartoon, that would cost him every penny he had.
His idea was to put a real live person in an animated world. He named the new cartoon "Alice's Wonderland," and asked a local four year old, Virginia Davis, to play the part. Walt filmed the little girl in her parents' home against a big white screen, and later he and his animators added the animated characters. But before Walt could finish the film, he totally ran out of money.

By July of 1923, Laugh-O-gram was out of business and Walt had sold his movie camera. All he had left was a cardboard suitcase, a change of clothes and an unfinished film reel of "Alice's Wonderland." But Walt refused to be depressed. He decided on a bold step. He would go where all the moviemakers go: Hollywood."

From: Jean-Pierre Isbouts, Discovering Walt; New York, Disney Editions, 2001.


 

Use of this site signifies your agreement to the terms of use.
© Disney. All rights reserved.