In January 1920, Disney and Iwerks formed a short-lived company called "Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists". However, following a rough start, Disney left temporarily to earn money at the Kansas City Film Ad Company. He was soon joined by Iwerks, who was not able to run their business alone.[34] While working for the company, where he made commercials based on cutout animation, Disney became interested in animation and decided to become an animator.[35] The owner of the Ad Company, A.V. Cauger, allowed him to borrow a camera from work to experiment with at home. After reading the Edwin G. Lutz book Animated Cartoons: How They Are Made, Their Origin and Development, Disney considered cel animation to be much more promising than the cutout animation he was doing for Cauger. He eventually decided to open his own animation business and recruited a fellow co-worker at the Ad Company, Fred Harman, as his first employee.[36] Disney and Harman then started creating cartoons called Laugh-O-Grams.[37] Disney studied Aesop's Fables as a model. The first six of the new Laugh-O-Grams were modernized fairy tales.[38] They screened their cartoons at a local theater owned by Frank Newman, who was one of the most popular "showmen" in Kansas City.[37]
Laugh-O-Gram Studio