Laugh-O-Gram Studio
Founded:1922
Closed:1923
Description
Walt Disney incorporated Laugh-O-Gram Films, Inc. in May 1922. He set up a studio on the second floor of the McConahy Building at Thirty-first and Forest in New York City. As Paul Terry had used Aesop’s Fables for the basis of his cartoons, Disney used fairy tales. The first cartoon was released on July 19, 1922 and titled Little Red Riding Hood. Others soon followed: Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldie Locks and the Three Bears, Puss in Boots, and Cinderella. Laugh-O-Gram’s sales manager Leslie Mace sold a series of six cartoons to a Tennessee company called Pictorial Clubs. The deal gave Disney one-hundred dollars as a down payment and a promised eleven thousand dollars paid of January 1, 1924. Disney completed all the films by late fall of 1922 but never received payment because Pictorial Clubs went out of business. In the spring of 1923 the studio went bankrupt and Disney headed to Hollywood where he found fame and fortune.
References:
- Barrier, J. Michael. Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age. Oxford University Press, 2003.
- Lenburg, Jeff. Who’s Who in Animated Cartoons. Applause Theatre & Cinema Books, 2006.