When Walt Disney Was Fired From Universal

How many people in the world can say they fired Walt Disney? Not many! But somehow my Uncle Carl Laemmle managed to be one. Before Mickey Mouse, Disney worked on Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and it’s because Universal fired him that he went on to make the most famous mouse on Earth.

Carl Laemmle started Universal Studios in 1912, and he’s responsible for giving a ton of people their start in Hollywood, including Irving Thalberg, William Wyler, John Ford, and Walt Disney himself.

Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks worked together at Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Kansas City.

Back in the 1920s, Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks were working at a place called Laugh-o-Gram Studio in Kansas City. They made a one-reel film called Alice’s Wonderland, but unfortunately, Laugh-o-Gram went bankrupt, and Alice’s Wonderland didn’t go anywhere. Using it as a pilot of sorts, Walt shopped it around, and it got picked up by a distributor named Margaret J. Winkler. She was just about to lose her two biggest clients - including Felix the Cat - and she was looking for something new. She signed Disney to a year long contract, and he turned Alice’s Wonderland into the Alice Comedies.

Walt moved from Kansas City to Los Angeles to live with his Uncle Robert and brother Roy. He made 57 episodes of the Alice Comedies, and along the way, distribution of the series transitioned from Margaret Winkler to her husband, Charles Mintz. By the end of 57 episodes, Disney was ready to make a move from the mixed-animation style of Alice to full animation.

Carl Laemmle wanted a cartoon for Universal, and Walt Disney got the job.

At the same time, Carl Laemmle was looking for a cartoon character to bring to Universal. Cats were already a little too popular, so for some reason he had a rabbit in mind. Charles Mintz brought the idea to Disney and Iwerks to create a character to sell to Universal, and they got to work bringing something to life. To pick the name of their lucky rabbit, a bunch of names were put into a hat, and someone just happened to pick Oswald. It’s so random, and reminds me of the story of Universal’s own naming - Carl was in a big meeting trying to come up with a name for the new studio, and a truck went by that said, “Universal Pipe Fittings,” and the rest is history!

The very first Oswald cartoon was called Poor Papa, and it didn’t go over so well on first viewings. I think Carl was hoping Oswald would be something like a Charlie Chaplin character, but instead Oswald came out sort of old and dumpy. Disney and Iwerks revamped the character to make him more young and spry, and on September 5, 1927, the first Oswald film Trolley Troubles was released. Critics loved it, and new Oswald cartoons started coming out every two weeks!

The first Oswald film, “Trolley Troubles” was a great success.

Oswald was pretty revolutionary, not just for being an early cartoon, but for being one of the first to develop a personality and distinct movements and mannerisms. I heard his personality was inspired by Douglas Fairbanks. Disney also added more dimension by experimenting with light and angles, almost treating Oswald as though he were a live action character. It’s easy to take for granted now that it was pretty miraculous to create an animated character that people could get emotionally invested in. Oswald became a big star.

There are some stories that Disney had it in his head that since he created Oswald, he had the rights to Oswald, but I think he had to have always known that Universal was the owner. I found ads for Oswald cartoons in my old Universal Weekly’s that say, “A Walt Disney Creation, made by Winkler Productions for Universal.”

When Walt Disney didn’t want to accept a lower rate for Oswald, Universal fired him.

But anyway, Carl Laemmle was always a frugal man. When contract negotiations came up in 1928, Disney was hoping to negotiate a higher rate, but when he met with Charles Mintz in New York, he was actually offered less. It sounds like Mintz was pretty shady about the whole ordeal - he had already signed on all the other Oswald artists except Ub Iwerks, an when Walt didn’t want to accept a lower rate, Universal fired him.

Though Walt created Oswald, he never owned the rabbit, so he had to leave it behind when he left. It must have been a gut-wrenching moment, and this is supposedly when he swore he’d never make a character he didn’t own again…but we also know Walt had the happiest of endings, so it’s really a great thing he was fired. One could argue Carl Laemmle did him a favor.

A message from Walt Disney to Carl Laemmle.

On the other side, karma came around for Charles Mintz too. Just as he watched while Disney was ousted from Oswald, Charles was ousted about. year later, when Carl decided to bring the production in-house, and hired Walter Lantz. I’ve heard rumors that Walter Lantz had driven Carl to poker games prior, and another that Walter won Oswald in a poker hand against Carl. I don’t have confirmation on any of this, but it sounds like schmoozing over poker with Carl got Walter in the door.

Oswald cartoons were made until the 1940s, and then he kind of got forgotten in history. What’s wild though, is in 2006, Bob Iger traded sportscaster Al Michaels in exchange for Oswald. That’s right … a real human in exchange for a cartoon rabbit. And now Oswald is back with his original creator.