You may have thought it was two miles away ... but it was actually here, eighty-five years ago this month.
Above are the employees of Disney Bros. Studio (Walt third from left, Roy on right), in front of their first Los Angeles offices at 4647 Kingswell Ave.* in Los Feliz. They had moved from Kansas City and set up shop in back of the Holly-Vermont Realty offices:
Walt declared he could only pay $10 per month and the only place at that price was a room at the back of the real-estate office. The Walt Disney Company started in 1923 in the rear of a small office occupied by Holly-Vermont Realty ... It was there that Walt Disney, and his brother Roy, produced a series of short live-action/animated films collectively called the Alice Comedies. Within four months, the ever-growing staff moved next door to larger facilities, where the sign on the window read "Disney Bros. Studio." A year later, in 1925, the Disneys made a deposit on a Hyperion Avenue lot in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles.* The webpage at studioscentral.com says it was located at 4469 Kingswell, but the bulletin board at the Extra Copy shop at 4647 has an article by Dave Smith from the Disney Archives newsletter, confirming that this is where the Disneys started their West Coast operations.
Posts
6 comments:
I wonder if the current owners even know this?
pretty interesting.
R.
The first I knew of it was when I saw the Dave Smith article posted in the copy shop. So I assume they know.
Looks like there's something with Mickey's face on it in the window, so I'd guess they know.
Is the actual building the same? In the old photo, it looks like there is brickwork that is not in the top picture.
There's a little shrine inside. The current owners know, but seem a LITTLE annoyed when folks go in just to look at the shrine and not to make a copy. I felt bad enough to make a 25 cent copy of something!
Thanks for providing the link to the map!
It's interesting that today, just four blocks away, is a major ABC-TV studio that is now part of the Disney empire!
Wasn't Walt's first L.A. home somewhere in this area as well? The one with the famous garage where he and Roy initially were making cartoons out here??
Post a Comment