Before there was Snow White, Mickey Mouse, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, or even the Alice comedies, Walt Disney was determined to get into the animation business, so he took a borrowed camera to the shed behind his house and created his first film. Soon, having raised $15,000 from family and friends, Walt hired a minimal staff and incorporated Laugh-O-gram Films.
It was on this day in 1921, that the first of six Laugh-O-grams films debuted in theaters. Although he sold his animated Laugh-O-grams to the Newman Theatre in Kansas City, in less than a year it was no laughing matter when the company declared bankruptcy when a distributor defaulted on his payments. An optimist, Walt later stated that there was a certain importance to failure, and believed it contributed to his later success.
