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Roy walked out of a hospital ward
The Alice contract
After the studios turned him down, Walt had one asset left: Alice's Wonderland, a short in which a live-action girl interacted with drawn cartoon characters, a new process that was also cheaper than full animation because only the characters had to be animated. Margaret Winkler, who distributed Felix the Cat in New York, liked it and commissioned 12 more Alice comedies at $1,500 to $1,800 each. The contract was dated October 16, 1923.
The ward
As the story goes, Walt ran into the hospital ward where his brother Roy was being treated for tuberculosis and showed him the contract, telling him they were in business. Roy talked it over with him, said to get right to work, and stood up and left the ward.
The new studio
The brothers founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio that October as a true partnership: Roy managed the business and the finance, and Walt managed the creative work. Walt wrote Iwerks and other Kansas City animators to come out to California, and the studio went on to produce 57 Alice comedies by 1927.
How was tuberculosis treated in the 1920s?
Before antibiotics, patients were treated with rest, fresh air, and good food in hospitals or sanatoriums. Streptomycin, the first effective antibiotic against the disease, arrived in the 1940s. Stays could run for months or years. Isolation also limited spread to other people.
How were Alice comedies filmed?
Live-action footage of a girl was shot against a plain background. Cartoon characters were then drawn to interact with her. The process built on earlier mixtures of live action and animation such as Max Fleischer's Out of the Inkwell. Only the cartoon characters had to be animated, which saved time and money.
Who was Margaret Winkler?
Winkler was one of the first women to run a film distribution company. She distributed Felix the Cat and Out of the Inkwell. She married Charles Mintz in 1923, and he took over the business. Her deal with Walt launched the Disney studio.
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