Wonderland Burlesque's
Down The Rabbit Hole:
The Alice Comedies
Part Three
Down The Rabbit Hole merely places a spotlight on something slightly unusual that's caught my interest. With the help of Wikipedia, YouTube, and other sites, I gather information and learn something new.
Today, we take a look at more Walt Disney's The Alice Comedies!
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The Alice Comedies are a series of live-action animated shorts created by Walt Disney in the 1920s, in which a live-action little girl named Alice (originally played by Virginia Davis) and an animated cat named Julius have adventures in an animated landscape. The shorts were the first work by what ultimately became The Walt Disney Company.
Disney, Ub Iwerks, and their staff at the failing Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Kansas City, Missouri, made the first Alice Comedy, a one-reel 1923 short subject titled Alice's Wonderland. After completing the film, the studio went bankrupt and was forced to shut down. After raising money by working as a freelance photographer, Disney bought a one-way train ticket to Los Angeles, California to live with his uncle Robert and his brother Roy.
In California, Disney continued to send out proposals for the Alice series, in hopes of obtaining a distribution agreement. A deal was finally arranged through Winkler Pictures, run by Margaret Winkler and her fiancé, Charles Mintz. Due to a recent falling out with Pat Sullivan, the studio needed a quick replacement for their centerpiece Felix the Cat animated series. Disney convinced Virginia Davis's family to bring her from Missouri to Los Angeles to star in the series.
Disney both directed and produced all 57 films in this series. Over the course of the series, four actresses played Alice: Virginia Davis (15), Margie Gay (31), Dawn O'Day (1) and Lois Hardwick (10). The film Alice in the Jungle contains only archival footage of Virginia Davis.
The shorts in this series are now all in the public domain in the United States.
Disney both directed and produced all 57 films in this series. Over the course of the series, four actresses played Alice: Virginia Davis (15), Margie Gay (31), Dawn O'Day (1) and Lois Hardwick (10). The film Alice in the Jungle contains only archival footage of Virginia Davis.
The shorts in this series are now all in the public domain in the United States.
About Virginia Davis:
Virginia Davis was an American child actress in films. She is best known for working with Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks on the animated short series Alice Comedies. Over the next 20 years, she went on to work at other Hollywood studios as a child actress and, later, as a supporting actress.
Recalling her work on the Alice Comedies, Davis said, "It was a great time – full of fun, adventure, and 'let's pretend.' I adored and idolized Walt, as any child would. He would direct me in a large manner with great sweeping gestures. One of my favorite pictures was Alice's Wild West Show. I was always the kid with the curls, but I was really a tomboy, and that picture allowed me to act tough. I took great joy in that."
About Ub Iwerks:
Ubbe Ert Iwerks, known as Ub Iwerks, was an American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, and special effects technician, known for his work with Walt Disney Animation Studios in general, and for having worked on the development of the design of the character of Mickey Mouse, among others. Disney and Iwerks ventured into animation together. Iwerks joined Disney as chief animator on the Laugh-O-Gram shorts series beginning in 1922. Iwerks would spend most of his career with Disney. The first few Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony cartoons were animated almost entirely by Iwerks,
Iwerks quickly felt he was not getting the credit he deserved for drawing all of Disney's successful cartoons. Eventually, Iwerks and Disney had a falling out; their friendship and working partnership were severed in January 1930. According to an unconfirmed account, a child approached Disney and Iwerks at a party and asked for a picture of Mickey to be drawn on a napkin, to which Disney handed the pen and paper to Iwerks and stated, "Draw it." Iwerks became furious and threw the pen and paper, storming out. Iwerks accepted a contract with Disney's former distributor, Pat Powers (with whom Disney also had a falling out) to leave Disney and start an animation studio under his own name. The Iwerks Studio was never a major commercial success and though he did help develop Chuck Jones as a talent. Iwerks eventually returned to Disney and contributed to the success of such classics as Sound Of The South (1946) and 101 Dalmatians (1961), as well as the design of some of the theme park attractions.
Outside of Disney, he is responsible for the birds in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963). He also contributed the animation sequences in Mary Poppins (1964).
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I'd never heard of these before. And, I must say, they strike me as a little strange. Some of the humor certainly suffers in these more empathetic days. But it is interesting to see where it all began. Here's the next five.
Alice The Piper - 1924
Alice Comedy #11
feat. Virginia Davis
Alice Cans The Cannibals - 1925
Alice Comedy #12
feat. Virginia Davis
Alice The Toreador - 1925
Alice Comedy #13
feat. Virginia Davis
Alice Gets Stung - 1925
Alice Comedy #14
feat. Virginia Davis
Alice Solves The Puzzle - 1925
Alice Comedy #15
feat. Margie Gay
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That's all for now.
Next week: five more great vintage Alice Comedies!
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