| In 1923, twenty-one-year-old Walt Disney arrived in | | | | own concerns.Once again, Walt used his makeshift |
| Los Angeles fresh from the disappointment of his | | | | press pass to sneak into Universal Studios. This was |
| first cartoon studio going bankrupt in Kansas City. He | | | | exciting filmmaking! Men dressed like cowboys |
| went to see his twenty-nine-year-old brother Roy in | | | | pretending to shoot at each other and falling over. |
| the Veteran's Hospital were he was recovering from | | | | And a castle. It reminded him of Paris where he had |
| tuberculosis. Roy, a former bank teller and navy man | | | | driven an ambulance for the Red Cross after World |
| was concerned about his brother's skinniness. "Hey | | | | War I. Curious, he walked over to question some |
| kid, haven't you been eating? I'm supposed to be the | | | | workmen about the structure. It turned out they |
| sick one. So now that you're in L.A. what are you are | | | | were building the Court Of Miracles set for The |
| going to do with yourself?" "I don't know. I've given | | | | Hunchback Of Notre Dame, starring Lon Chaney. |
| up on animation. But I've got to get into show | | | | Walt who remained star struck all his life, began |
| business somehow. I'll think I'll try and become a | | | | looking around for the famous actor who was known |
| director."Walt who had filmed some newsreel | | | | for playing characters who were deformed, |
| footage in Kansas City, printed a business card | | | | sometimes armless and legless with incredible body |
| stating he was a member of the press, which he | | | | contortions.Back in the twenties there was a saying, |
| used to finagle his way onto studio lots. He had a | | | | "If you see something unusual on the floor, don't |
| meeting with a secretary at Metro. "Yes, I had my | | | | step on it might be Lon Chaney." Suddenly Walt felt |
| own studio in Kansas City, I made cartoons and live | | | | a tap on his shoulder. Sitting on a horse behind him |
| action films perhaps you heard of me?" "No I can't | | | | was the famous Austrian director Eric Von Stroheim, |
| say that I have. And we really have a lot of people | | | | known as the man you love to hate. Completely bald |
| coming here looking for work and no jobs." Metro | | | | with a monocle, riding crop and thick boots, which |
| was in a state of chaos, Rudolph Valentino was | | | | early film directors working in the Hollywood hills |
| demanding more money and they had frozen his | | | | wore to protect from snakes, Von Stroheim made |
| salary. Because of the movie The Four Horseman Of | | | | an imposing figure. "What are you doing here". Walt |
| The Apocalypse (1921) Valentino was now an | | | | confessed he snuck in and asked if there was any |
| international star who was surviving by hunting | | | | work. But he was talking to a man who used to |
| rabbits in the Santa Monica Mountains. Walt, who | | | | twist the arms of his leading ladies when he wanted |
| would later know great fame combined with money | | | | them to cry in his films. "Get out now and never |
| trouble could have identified, but he had his own | | | | come back." Years later, when he had his own studio, |
| problems.Turned away at Metro Walt decided to go | | | | Walt went out of his way to give young people a |
| to Charlie Chaplin's studio in Hollywood and ask the | | | | chance to show what they could do.With no other |
| great star for work personally. Chaplin had been | | | | prospects Walt decided to get back into animation |
| Walt's hero, when Disney was thirteen he had won a | | | | but this time he would get some help. One night in |
| two dollar prize imitating the tramp on stage, not an | | | | 1923 he returned to the Veteran's Hospital where |
| easy trick. One time Charlie Chaplin had entered a | | | | Roy was feeling better. Excitedly Walt told his |
| similar contest and lost.Walt waited all day on the | | | | brother about his plans awakening other patients in |
| sidewalk for Chaplin to come out but he never did. | | | | the ward," But I can't do it alone. I don't have your |
| Disney didn't know that Chaplin buried himself in his | | | | head for numbers." "I don't know kid, cartoons that's |
| work, afraid to go home where his 16 year old | | | | risky. I was thinking about getting a safe job at a |
| pregnant wife Lita and her mother were filling his | | | | bank, getting married. I mean I think your talented |
| mansion with unwanted relatives, turning the Beverly | | | | but. . ." "Ah come on Roy, forget about a job. We'll |
| Hills estate into the 1923 version of the Jerry | | | | work for ourselves. This is better than a job, we can |
| Springer show. Or that the liberal Chaplin was | | | | do this thing." "I don't know. . ." "Ah please." Walt |
| infuriating his United Artist partner the conservative | | | | would not take no for an answer. Roy finally agreed |
| Mary Pickford by taking forever to finish his films, | | | | to the new venture when one of the soldiers in a |
| sometimes emerging from his editing room with a | | | | nearby bed sat up and said, "Roy will you go with |
| long beard looking like Robinson Crusoe. Walt had his | | | | him already so we can get some sleep! |