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