Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/50583
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: A young Walt Disney hard at work on the drawing board. Walt signs an early rendition of the soon-to- be-iconic mouse. The Disneys and employees at the Kingswell studio, 1923. By 1932 Mickey Mouse was internationally famous. A dapper Walt poses with the revered rodent at a Breakfast Club meeting. The first purpose-built Disney studio at Griffith Park Blvd. and Hyperion Ave. Copyright Disney Company® Sharon.e contract for the first year called for one Alice Comedy a month, but this was soon amended to one every three weeks. In full production, the Kingswell locations became too limiting, so the Disneys began construction of their own studio on a large lot at the northeast corner of Griffith Park Boule- vard and Hyperion Avenue in 1925. ey moved into the new facility early in 1926. Fifty-six "Alice Comedies" were produced there until 1927 followed by the "Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit" series of 26 animated silent shorts from 1927 to 1928. Disney moved his family closer to the new Hyper- ion studio. He and his brother, Roy, built matching pre- fabricated ready cut English Tudor homes side-by-side on Lyric Avenue at St. George Avenue for $7,000 each. It was in their garage that the cels for Mickey Mouse were painted due to a labor dispute at the new Hyperion studio. Walt and Lillian lived there until 1933. e birth of Mickey Mouse took the world by storm when Disney produced the first cartoon to use synchronized sound, "Steamboat Willie" in 1928. e Disney studio at the Hyperion location was again in need of expansion. By 1933, the plant had grown from 1600 to 20,000 square feet of floor space. In 1929, Disney began produc- tion of a new series, "Silly Sym- phonies." is led to the first color cartoon, "Flowers and Trees" (1932), which was also the first ani- mated short to win an Oscar. eir next major success was "ree Little Pigs" (1933). Using the profits from his animation successes, Walt built his "dream house," a Tudor resi- dence characterized as an enlarged "Hansel and Gretel cottage" on Woking Way. He and Lillian resided at the house overlooking their Hyperion studio with their two daughters until 1949. WINTER 2011 / DISCOVER HOLLYWOOD 17