Posted By Dan Greenfield on Dec 5, 2025 | 2 comments

A BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE to the animation pioneer…

By PETER BOSCH

The genius was always there. Even before Walt Disney, the man, became synonymous as WALT DISNEY, the man AND his House of Mouse. Disney (born December 5, 1901) had his first great achievement in animation with his series of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons for Universal Pictures.

In the years of 1927-28, he and Ub Iwerks, and a talented team of animators, made 26 of the most enjoyable cartoons of the silent era of motion pictures.

Clockwise from top left, Trolley Troubles (1927), Africa Before Dark (1928), Rival Romeos (1928), and Poor Papa (1928).

Many times, when something is not successful, that’s the end of it… but when something is successful, that can turn film-producing hopefuls with stars in their eyes into near-mobsters with daggers in theirs.

Disney’s original deal with film distributor Margaret Winkler was for the selling of his cartoons, but when she married Charles Mintz in 1924 he became the person in charge of the business. In 1927, Margaret’s brother, George Winkler, was the one sent by Mintz to sign the contract with Universal for the production of 26 Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons.

In 1928, Winkler signed a new contract with Universal to create three more years of Oswald cartoons. At the same time, Mintz was secretly hiring away a number of Disney’s artists to come to work for him. Iwerks learned of it and let Disney know of the back-stabbing plot.

Disney traveled to New York to extend his deal with Mintz for the new series of Oswald cartoons, but Mintz told him that even though Universal owned the character, Mintz was in charge of all production matters… and that Disney was just an employee (familiar sounding, isn’t it?). Plus, Disney would have to take a budget cut on the new films if he wanted to stay on. Disney refused.

By the time he returned on the train to Los Angeles, he decided to come up with a new character. He and Iwerks developed one that would change everything… Mortimer Mouse. (Disney’s wife, however, suggested “Mickey” would be a better name.) And the rest, as they say, is history.

(A side note: Mintz and Winkler had taken Oswald away from Disney, but not long after – in a nice bit of justice, and a perfect example of what goes around comes around – Universal took Oswald away from them and produced the cartoons in-house, leaving them out in the cold.)

But, hey, what about those 26 Oswald cartoons that Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created?

In 2006, the Disney Studios acquired the Oswald rights and cartoons from Universal. (Regretfully, several of the cartoons no longer existed, except for fragments or a few storyboard drawings.) The following year, they released a special DVD featuring 13 Oswald cartoons: “Trolley Troubles” (which was the first one released, on September 5, 1927; however, it was not the first created), “Oh Teacher,” “The Mechanical Cow,” “Great Guns!,” “All Wet,” “The Ocean Hop,” “Rival Romeos,” “Bright Lights,” “Ozzie of the Mounted,” “Oh What a Knight,” “Sky Scrappers,” “The Fox Chase,” and “Tall Timber.”

Walt Disney Treasures: The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit DVD (2007).

They also added three other classic Oswald cartoons — “Africa Before Dark,” “Hungry Hobos,” and “Poor Papa” – as bonuses on various home media products over the following years.

The Oswald cartoons were always hilarious and extremely inventive. (“Africa After Dark” even has a Dumbo prototype.) To celebrate Disney’s birthday this year, here is a link to those 16 animated treasures. By the way, the 13th cartoon here, “Poor Papa” (released June 11, 1928), was actually the first one created, but it had originally been rejected by Universal. Enjoy!

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MORE

— FOUR COLOR RADIO Presents: 1940’s THE BLUE BEETLE. Click here.

— CLAYTON MOORE: His Career With and Without THE LONE RANGER’s Mask. Click here.

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13th Dimension contributor-at-large PETER BOSCH’s first book, American TV Comic Books: 1940s-1980s – From the Small Screen to the Printed Page, was published by TwoMorrows. (You can buy it here.) A sequel, American Movie Comic Books: 1930s-1970s — From the Silver Screen to the Printed Page, is out now. (Buy it here.) Peter has written articles and conducted celebrity interviews for various magazines and newspapers. He lives in Hollywood.