The History of Disney’s Alice Comedies

Walt Disney famously said, “I hope we never lose sight of one thing—that it was all started by a mouse,” but long before Mickey Mouse, Disney made his mark with the Alice Comedies. Over the course of three years, Walt Disney made 56 Alice films, which combined live action acting and animation. Here’s a brief look at the history of Disney’s innovative early work.

1. Laugh-O-Grams
Walt Disney began Laugh-O-Gram Films in 1922 (though a short series of newsreel films created by Walt Disney and titled Newman’s Laugh-O-Gram Films debuted in 1921). The studio was located in the McConaughey Building in Kansas City. They began by animating fairy tale short films beginning with Little Red Riding Hood in 1922. In 1923, they released the first of the Alice Comedies, ‘Alice’s Wonderland.’

2. Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks joined Laugh-O-Gram in 1922 as the company’s chief animator. He joined Disney in California in 1924 and worked as an animator for the Alice Comedies.

3. Virginia Davis
Born in 1918, Virginia Davis started dancing and drama lessons around the age of two. Walt Disney saw her in a commercial for Warneker’s Bread and decided that she would play the lead in his Alice films. Disney approached Davis’s mother about the series.

The family signed an agreement with Disney on April 13, 1923. Davis played the titular Alice in the first 13 Alice Comedies before disagreements regarding pay ended her relationship with Walt Disney in 1925.

4. Alice’s Wonderland
The first Alice comedy, Alice’s Wonderland, debuted in 1923. Filming took place at the Laugh-O-Gram Studio and at the Davis home. In the film, Davis (as Alice) visits a cartoon studio and is shown around by Walt Disney. That night she dreams about a journey into the animated Cartoonland.

Disney took the film to distributors in New York and Margaret Winkler agreed to distribute the series, paying $1500 per reel.

5. Bankruptcy
In July of 1923, Laugh-O-Gram FIlms declared bankruptcy and Walt Disney moved to California, forming the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio. Davis and family moved to California as well to continue the filming of the Alice Comedies.

6. A New Alice
After the contract disputes with Davis’s family, several actresses took the role of Alice over. Margie Gay, Dawn O’Day and Lois Hardwick all held the role at various points until the series ended in 1927.

7. Charles Mintz
Margaret Winkler married Charles Mintz in 1924 and he assumed control of her company, Winkler Pictures. Disney eventually grew tired of the Alice series and wanted to move on, creating Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. In 1928, Mintz hired away all of Disney’s animators except for Ub Iwerks, taking control of the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The loss of his animators and Oswald devastated Disney, but led him to create a new character: Mickey Mouse.