1923
Walt Disney extended Max Fleisher's technique of combining live action with cartoon characters in the film 'Alice's Wonderland' and helped him make a name for himself. It was completed in 1923, shortly before he moved to California, where his brother Roy was living. This film featured Virginia Davis in the role of Alice, a live-action girl who lives in an animated environment. Disney's scenario provided a variation on the Fleischer studio's "Out of the Inkwell" series, in which an animated character, KoKo the Clown, lives in the real world (ALICE'S WONDERLAND and subsequent "Alice Comedies" also varied in starring a female character, while virtually all other series centered on males). Disney produced ALICE'S WONDERLAND with the hope of securing representation by Winkler. Eventually, she agreed; Disney sent her a signed contract for a series of "Alice Comedies" on October 24, 1923. The structure of the "Alice Comedies" series (1924-1927) reflects what Winkler saw as a successful formula of the dayŃconstant gags with little emphasis on plot development. Apparently, a statement made in reference to the first film in the series, ALICE'S DAY AT SEA (1924), is typical of her attitude: "I would suggest you inject as much humor as you can. Humor is the first requisite of short subjects such as Felix,
"Alice's Day at Sea" was the first in the series completed on the West Coast. Unlike "Alice's Wonderland," which was animated with help of Kansas City staffers, this cartoon was animated entirely by Walt -- with some assistance from his brother Roy. It starred Virginia Davis, a cute little girl who had worked with him in Kansas City, and whom he lured to California to become a movie star. As Russell Merritt, a film historian and co-author with J. B. Kaufman of "Walt in Wonderland," writes "The Alices are in every way apprentice films, witty and frequently charming, providing Disney with a storehouse of gags, plot ideas, and secondary characters which he reintroduced and refined in his famous '30s shorts. In them, the young director stayed steadily within the confines of popular '20s cartoon and kid comedy formulas. The framing stories, for instance, were quickly refined to give Virginia a supporting cast of children patterned after the popular 'Our Gang' comedies of Hal Roach, the better to exploit Little Virginia's gifts as a comedian and dancer. In the animation sequences too, Disney soaked up the work of the best silent filmmakers of the time -- not only rival animators, but live-action directors as well." After about a year, Virginia Davis left (her mother insisted that Virginia be able to perform in other films, while Walt would accept only an exclusive contract with his star). She was replaced by Dawn O'Day for one film, and Walt then hired Margie Gay who appeared in some 31 Alice comedies through 1925 and 1926.
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DISNEY AND THE ALICE COMEDIES
Article by Maureen Furniss, Ph.D.
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