Why Did Walt Disney Move to California?

Early Career and Ambitions in Kansas City (1919-1923)

Walt Disney's path to Hollywood began in the heartland. After volunteering as an ambulance driver in World War I, the 18-year-old Walt returned to Kansas City in 1919 determined to pursue a career in art and animation (100 Years Ago: Walt Goes West | The Walt Disney Family Museum). He found work at a commercial art studio and then at the Kansas City Film Ad Company, where he learned basic animation techniques. In 1921, the ambitious 20-year-old landed a contract to produce short cartoon reels known as "Newman's Laugh-O-Grams" for a local theater (Laugh-O-Gram Studio - Wikipedia). Buoyed by this opportunity, Walt established Laugh-O-Gram Films, Inc. on May 23, 1922, using small investments from local backers to set up a modest studio on the second floor of a building at 31st and Forest in Kansas City (Film History Laugh-O-Gram Studio | Visit KC). There, in a cramped office, he and a handful of young animators toiled to create animated fairy-tale shorts that mixed humor with innovative ideas.

Inside Walt Disney's Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Kansas City (circa 1922). Walt (far right) and a few employees, including fellow pioneers Ub Iwerks and Hugh Harman, worked long hours on modest cartoon projects. The studio's resources were meager, and Disney sometimes even slept in the office as money grew tight (Laugh-O-Gram Studio - Wikipedia) (Film History Laugh-O-Gram Studio | Visit KC).

Laugh-O-Gram Films became a training ground for future animation legends. Walt hired talented friends like Ub Iwerks, Hugh Harman, Rudolph Ising, and Friz Freleng – names that would later be attached to Mickey Mouse, Looney Tunes, and other classics (Laugh-O-Gram Studio - Wikipedia) (Film History Laugh-O-Gram Studio | Visit KC). In those early days, Walt experimented boldly. He spent six months animating his own version of Little Red Riding Hood (1922) and other fairy tales (Laugh-O-Gram Studio - Wikipedia), trying to prove that longer-form cartoons could succeed. The films earned local popularity and critical encouragement, but financially the venture was on shaky ground. By late 1922, income from the cartoons was so scant that Walt could not afford an apartment; he slept in his studio office and bathed once a week at Kansas City's Union Station (Laugh-O-Gram Studio - Wikipedia). He later recalled how he even befriended a tame mouse that scampered around his desk at night for bits of food – a small creature that kept him company during those lonely late hours (Walking in Walt's Footsteps: Kansas City Edition The DIS).

Despite the shoestring budget, Walt's optimism was hard to extinguish. "I was in Kansas City, and I was running my own studio, Laugh-O-Gram... It was a real adventure," he reflected years later. He had a drive to innovate, but also a lot to learn about business. In September 1922, Walt's sales agent secured what seemed like a lifesaving deal: a contract with Pictorial Clubs of Tennessee for a series of six animated fairy tales, worth $11,000 – a huge sum for the tiny studio (Laugh-O-Gram Studio - Wikipedia). Banking on this contract, Walt poured his energy and remaining funds into production. However, Pictorial Clubs paid only a $100 advance before going bankrupt a few months later, never honoring the rest of the payment (Laugh-O-Gram Studio - Wikipedia). The collapse of this deal was devastating. Walt's cash flow dried up, staff began drifting away to find paying jobs, and creditors came knocking.

Desperate to keep his dream alive, Walt grabbed at any opportunity. He accepted a commission from a local dentist to produce a short live-action/animation educational film Tommy Tucker's Tooth (1922) for $500 (Laugh-O-Gram Studio - Wikipedia). Instead of using that precious money to settle all his debts, Walt made a fateful gamble: he invested it into one last ambitious project. He conceived a live-action/animated short called "Alice's Wonderland," inspired by Lewis Carroll. In early 1923, Walt filmed a young girl named Virginia Davis interacting with cartoon characters – essentially a live actress in a drawn fantasy world (Laugh-O-Gram Studio - Wikipedia). This experimental "Alice Comedies" reel was to be his calling card to the broader film industry. By May 1923, Walt had a rudimentary cut of Alice's Wonderland and mailed it off to potential distributors in New York, hoping someone would finance a whole series (Laugh-O-Gram Studio - Wikipedia). It was a bold move born of necessity, as his Kansas City venture was on its last legs.

Financial Collapse and a Fateful Decision to Move West

By the summer of 1923, Walt Disney's situation in Kansas City had become dire. His beloved Laugh-O-Gram studio was bankrupt – forced to file for Chapter 11 in July 1923 – and he had "little prospects left" in Missouri (100 Years Ago: Walt Goes West | The Walt Disney Family Museum). Just 21 years old, Walt found himself nearly penniless and exhausted from failure. He later described watching trains steam out of Kansas City's Union Station, aching to follow them: "I used to go down and stand there with tears in my eyes and look at those trains out of Union Station. I was all alone. It was lonesome, you know" (100 Years Ago: Walt Goes West | The Walt Disney Family Museum). The young animator felt he had hit a dead end. If he stayed, he faced more creditors and no clear way forward. As he confided to a colleague, "Before I knew it I was back with my cartoons" – an admission that his grand plans had unraveled and he was essentially starting over (The Little Disney Garage Nobody Wanted). It was at this low point that Walt embraced a new idea: Hollywood.

"Go West, young man, go West and grow up with the country," Walt wrote to his remaining friend and partner Ub Iwerks, quoting the famous advice of Horace Greeley (100 Years Ago: Walt Goes West | The Walt Disney Family Museum). He had come to believe that his future lay in California, where the nascent film industry was booming. Walt's own elder brother Roy O. Disney was already out in Los Angeles, recovering from tuberculosis at a veterans' hospital, and encouraging Walt to make a fresh start there. With bankruptcy proceedings underway, Walt had nothing left to lose. He decided to pull up stakes and head west to join Roy, carrying only his dream, an unfinished film, and not much else in his suitcase (Walt Disney and Union Station - Clio).

Scraping together money for the journey was its own adventure. Walt did odd jobs around town – even going door-to-door offering to film local families with his movie camera for a small fee (100 Years Ago: Walt Goes West | The Walt Disney Family Museum). Once he'd earned a bit of cash, he sold that camera – his last valuable possession – to raise the price of a one-way train fare to California (Laugh-O-Gram Studio - Wikipedia). In the end, he managed to gather $40, just enough for a ticket on the Santa Fe Railroad's California Limited train (Disney's 100-year journey from garage studio to media empire | Reuters). Ever the optimist, Walt splurged on a first-class ticket with a Pullman sleeper berth (100 Years Ago: Walt Goes West | The Walt Disney Family Museum). Kind friends made sure he didn't leave hungry: Roy's sweetheart, Edna Francis, treated Walt to a farewell dinner and packed him a shoebox lunch for the long trip (100 Years Ago: Walt Goes West | The Walt Disney Family Museum). On a hot July morning in 1923, Walt Disney stepped onto a westbound train at Union Station. He was clad in a new pair of shoes, but otherwise wore threadbare clothes and carried a frayed cardboard suitcase holding what remained of his belongings (100 Years Ago: Walt Goes West | The Walt Disney Family Museum). Inside that suitcase was his prized film reel of Alice's Wonderland, representing all his hopes for a second chance.

As the train chugged away from Kansas City, Walt felt a weight lift off his shoulders. "I got on that Santa Fe... and came to Hollywood," he remembered. "I was just as free and happy, you know," he said of that moment (100 Years Ago: Walt Goes West | The Walt Disney Family Museum). For the first time in months, he allowed himself to feel optimistic. Yet the sting of defeat was still fresh. "But I'd failed," Walt added, thinking of the studio he had left behind. Rather than wallow in regret, he took it as a lesson: "I think it's important to have a good hard failure when you're young" (100 Years Ago: Walt Goes West | The Walt Disney Family Museum). With those hard-won insights, Walt Disney – out of money but not out of courage – headed for California to start anew. He was determined to make sure that the end of his Kansas City chapter would be the beginning of something greater.

Starting Over in Hollywood (1923-1924)

In August 1923, Walt Disney arrived in Los Angeles, California, a place he had never been before. He stepped off the train at La Grande Station with $40 (now spent on his ticket), a pocketful of pencils, and that precious reel of film. Los Angeles in the 1920s was a city of opportunity, drawing young dreamers like Walt with its booming movie industry (Take a Look Back at Disney in the Year 1923 - D23). Walt's first stop was to reunite with his brother. He found Roy at the VA hospital in the Sawtelle area of LA and enthusiastically convinced him to leave the sanitarium and join in a new venture (100 Years Ago: Walt Goes West | The Walt Disney Family Museum). The brothers had always been close, and Roy – a practical, older sibling with a head for business – agreed to become Walt's partner in whatever came next. With few other contacts in town, Walt leaned on family: Uncle Robert Disney and Aunt Charlotte welcomed him into their modest Craftsman bungalow at 4406 Kingswell Avenue in the Los Feliz/Silver Lake neighborhood (All-New Display Celebrates the Disney Bros. Story - D23). Walt was given a room in their home and, crucially, permission to use their one-car garage out back as an impromptu animation workspace (The Little Disney Garage Nobody Wanted). In this humble setting – a far cry from any professional studio – Walt set about trying to make his Hollywood dream a reality.

Walt Disney (right) and his brother Roy Disney (left) in late 1923, standing outside their first makeshift studio in the rear of a real estate office on Kingswell Avenue in Hollywood. Walt initially worked out of his Uncle Robert's garage nearby, animating scenes of his Alice Comedies with limited resources (The Little Disney Garage Nobody Wanted) (The Little Disney Garage Nobody Wanted). Within months of arriving in California, the brothers were able to move into this small office and officially open the "Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio."

At first, Walt's path in Los Angeles was anything but smooth. He came hoping to break into live-action filmmaking – the mainstream movie business – and reputedly even sneaked into movie studio lots trying to find work (The Little Disney Garage Nobody Wanted). But Hollywood had plenty of aspiring directors and actors; what it didn't have yet was a thriving animation scene. (In fact, at that time nearly all major cartoon studios, like the Fleischer Brothers, were based in New York (The Little Disney Garage Nobody Wanted).) Walt discovered that if he wanted to keep making cartoons, he would have to build that industry himself in California. Uncle Robert grew impatient with his nephew's lack of income, pressuring Walt to find steady work (The Little Disney Garage Nobody Wanted). For a moment, Walt doubted his move. He told Roy that maybe he was too late to compete with the established New York animators: "I should have started six years ago. I don't see how I can top those New York boys now," he admitted (The Little Disney Garage Nobody Wanted). But with Roy's encouragement – and no other job offers in sight – Walt reverted to what he knew best: cartoons. "I just couldn't get anywhere... Before I knew it I was back with my cartoons," he said of this turning point (The Little Disney Garage Nobody Wanted). In Uncle Robert's little garage, Walt pieced together a makeshift animation stand from packing crates and scrap wood (The Little Disney Garage Nobody Wanted). On this rickety setup, he continued work on Alice's Wonderland, drawing and photographing new animation frames by hand.

As summer turned to fall, a few hopeful signs emerged. Walt had sent his unfinished Alice film around to distributors, and at last, one replied with interest. In October 1923, Walt received a letter from Margaret J. Winkler, a prominent cartoon distributor in New York, who was charmed by the Alice concept (All-New Display Celebrates the Disney Bros. Story - D23). She offered Walt a contract to produce a whole series of "Alice Comedies" – one short film per month featuring the live-action little girl in a cartoon world (All-New Display Celebrates the Disney Bros. Story - D23). It was the break Walt desperately needed. Overjoyed, he and Roy immediately set up a tiny storefront office to serve as their studio, moving out of the garage on October 8, 1923 (The Little Disney Garage Nobody Wanted). The space they rented was in the back of a real estate office at 4651 Kingswell Avenue in Hollywood – barely large enough for two animators, a camera, and a drawing table, but it was official. On October 16, 1923, the brothers inked the deal with Winkler and celebrated the founding of their new enterprise, aptly named the "Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio." (All-New Display Celebrates the Disney Bros. Story - D23) Walt was so proud of partnering with his brother that he insisted their last name, Disney, be plural – a signal that this was a family venture built on teamwork. In a burst of youthful energy, Walt now had to deliver on an ambitious schedule: a new Alice comedy every month.

Producing the Alice Comedies in Hollywood was challenging but exhilarating. Walt wore many hats – he was director, animator, story writer, and even cameraman at times – while Roy managed the finances and correspondence. They hired a few helpers locally and also reached back to Kansas City for talent. Before long, Walt wrote to Ub Iwerks, his old friend and genius animator, urging him to come west and join the studio. (He even repeated the mantra "Go West, young man!" to convince Ub (100 Years Ago: Walt Goes West | The Walt Disney Family Museum).) By early 1924, Iwerks agreed and moved to Los Angeles, greatly strengthening the young studio's artistic muscle. Walt also sent for little Virginia Davis and her family, bringing the Alice actress from Kansas City to Hollywood so the series could continue with the same star. Month by month, the team turned out new Alice Comedies blending live action and cartoons – innovative little films that found success in theaters and put the Disney name on the map in the cartoon industry. The modest profits from the series were immediately reinvested into the studio. By 1925, Walt and Roy were able to hire more artists (including other Kansas City alums like Harman and Ising) and even upgraded their workspace. The operation moved from the rented room to a larger facility on Hyperion Avenue in 1926, evolving into what would soon be known as the Walt Disney Studio. Walt's gamble in Hollywood was beginning to pay off.

Yet new trials lay ahead. Walt discovered that success in California came with its own setbacks. In 1927, he created a cheerful character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit for Universal Pictures, and for a time Oswald's cartoons were a hit. But in the spring of 1928, Walt's distributor Charles Mintz abruptly told him that Universal – not Disney – owned the rights to Oswald, and Mintz had secretly hired away most of Walt's animators (Inspiring Walt Disney Quotes That Will Change Your Life - Ear To There Travel). It was a crushing blow: Walt suddenly lost his popular character and the bulk of his production staff. Facing this crisis, he remembered the resilience he had learned in Kansas City. Walt did not sulk or give up; instead, on the long train ride back to California from that ill-fated New York meeting, he brainstormed a new character to replace Oswald (Inspiring Walt Disney Quotes That Will Change Your Life - Ear To There Travel). By the time he arrived in Los Angeles, he had imagined a mischievous mouse inspired, in part, by the pet he once nurtured in his Laugh-O-Gram office. That character, soon named Mickey Mouse, would go on to become one of the most iconic figures in entertainment history. With Mickey's debut in Steamboat Willie (1928) – the first cartoon with synchronized sound – Walt Disney finally achieved the breakthrough he had dreamed of. In just five years, he had gone from an insolvent Kansas City animator to a rising star in Hollywood's burgeoning animation industry. Walt's move to California, fueled by equal parts desperation and optimism, proved to be the turning point that launched an entertainment empire.

Reflections on Kansas City and California - In Walt's Words

The View From 1923: Leaving Home and Embracing Hollywood

When Walt Disney boarded that train in 1923, he carried more than a suitcase – he bore the weight of failure and the flicker of hope. His impressions of Kansas City at the time of his move were colored by hardship. He was grateful for the opportunities the city had given him to learn his craft, but he also felt beaten down by misfortune. Standing in Union Station as a forlorn young man, he saw those departing trains as symbols of escape. "I was all alone. It was lonesome," he said of his final days in Kansas City (100 Years Ago: Walt Goes West | The Walt Disney Family Museum). Disney even had to bid goodbye to the little mouse that had kept him company in his empty studio. "When I left Kansas City to try my luck at Hollywood, I hated to leave him behind," Walt recalled. Before departing, he gently released his pet mouse in a safe spot "making sure it was a nice neighborhood," and watched as "the tame little fellow scampered to freedom" (Walking in Walt's Footsteps: Kansas City Edition The DIS). It was a poignant farewell to the city where Walt's dreams had been born and tested. In that moment, Kansas City represented for Walt a chapter that had closed – one of youthful enthusiasm clouded by painful lessons. As the train pulled away, he felt sadness, but also relief. "I was free and happy," he said of that ride west, describing how liberating it felt to leave failure behind and get a fresh start (100 Years Ago: Walt Goes West | The Walt Disney Family Museum). Walt's mind was already turning toward the promise of California. He gazed out the window as the prairie gave way to desert and mountains, thinking of the Hollywood hills on the horizon. Despite his recent troubles, hope swelled in him. He later admitted to feeling a surge of excitement as he headed to Los Angeles – the "land of opportunity" he had heard so much about (Take a Look Back at Disney in the Year 1923 - D23).

Arriving in California, Walt's first impressions of Hollywood were those of a wide-eyed Midwesterner stepping into a movie dreamland. Los Angeles was bursting with energy, automobiles, and movie marquees. In a 1923 letter to Ub Iwerks, Walt couldn't hide his enthusiasm about this new world, urging his friend to join him. He quoted, "Go West, young man, and grow up with the country," expressing his conviction that California was the place to be for their future (100 Years Ago: Walt Goes West | The Walt Disney Family Museum). At the same time, Walt quickly learned that Hollywood could be as unforgiving as Kansas City. Those first weeks, when he knocked on studio doors and was turned away, were a humbling reminder that he was starting at the bottom once more (The Little Disney Garage Nobody Wanted). Still, the sunny optimism of California seemed to bolster him. Roy Disney observed that even in 1923, after all the setbacks, Walt "had a persistency, an optimism about him, all the time. A drive." (Take a Look Back at Disney in the Year 1923 - D23). That drive kept Walt pushing forward in his garage workshop despite uncertainty. In California, Walt sensed he was in a place where big things could happen — and indeed, within a few months, they did. When the offer from New York came to produce the Alice series, it confirmed Walt's faith in his westward gamble. Hollywood had given him the chance that Kansas City couldn't, and Walt grabbed it with both hands.

Looking Back Years Later: Lessons From Kansas City and Love for California

Throughout his life, Walt Disney often reflected on the pivotal move from Kansas City to California and the way each place shaped him. In interviews and conversations, his remarks about Kansas City were filled with respect for the lessons learned rather than bitterness. He once acknowledged that all the obstacles he faced in those early years were ultimately valuable: "All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me," Walt said. "You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you" (Inspiring Walt Disney Quotes That Will Change Your Life - Ear To There Travel). Clearly, those crushing blows – like his Laugh-O-Gram bankruptcy – only fueled Walt's resolve. He remained proud that Kansas City had been the cradle of his career. After all, it was there that he discovered the magic of animation, formed a team of talented friends, and even found the inspiration for Mickey Mouse in a friendly brown house-mouse. The lore of the tame mouse in his wastebasket became a beloved part of Disney history, one that Walt himself recounted with a smile in later years (Walking in Walt's Footsteps: Kansas City Edition The DIS). It symbolized how a spark of creativity born in a small Midwest studio could lead to something far greater. Decades later, Walt still remembered Kansas City fondly. He spoke of the "down-to-earth beginnings" he had there – surviving on canned beans, sketching by lamp light, and dreaming big despite the odds. That period, he said, taught him the value of perseverance and innovation without money. Indeed, Walt would joke that he and his early Kansas City colleagues "started in a garage" long before it became a cliché in American entrepreneurship.

Conversely, Walt's reflections on California were testaments to how much the Golden State had given him. California was where Walt's ambitions blossomed into reality, and he never forgot that. In the decades after 1923, Walt built an animation studio, a movie empire, and even a theme park in California – achievements that far surpassed what the young man in Kansas City could have imagined. He often told the story of how he arrived in Hollywood with just $40 and a head full of ideas, using it to inspire others to take risks. When standing in front of audiences at Disneyland or at studio events, Walt would sometimes shrug off his own success as nearly accidental. With characteristic humility, he famously reminded people that "it was all started by a mouse" (Disney's 100-year journey from garage studio to media empire | Reuters). That simple phrase encapsulated his journey: from the literal mouse he left behind in Missouri to the cartoon mouse that sparked an entertainment revolution, small beginnings had led to extraordinary outcomes. Walt also grew to love California as his home. He became a quintessential Californian in many ways – embracing filmmaking in Hollywood, ranch living in the Los Angeles hills, and visionary projects like Disneyland in Anaheim. Yet, he injected his California creations with the nostalgia of his youth back in the Midwest. Disneyland's Main Street U.S.A., for example, owed much to Walt's boyhood memories of Marceline, Missouri and the vintage charm of early 20th-century Kansas City. In that sense, Walt carried the heart of Kansas City with him into his California endeavors.

In his later years, Walt Disney could look back and see the grand tapestry of his life – how one chapter led to the next. He remembered a lonely young man at a Kansas City train depot and marveled at how far that young man's journey had taken him. "I failed, and that was a good thing," he reflected, emphasizing how important those early missteps were to building his character (100 Years Ago: Walt Goes West | The Walt Disney Family Museum). Had Kansas City not kicked him in the teeth, he might never have summoned the courage to start over in Los Angeles. California, in turn, gave Walt the canvas to apply the hard lessons he learned back in Missouri. It's clear that Walt Disney carried profound appreciation for both places: Kansas City for giving him his start (and his first hard failure), and California for giving him the stage to achieve his dreams. He once said that his life was like a story with chapters of adventure, each one building on the last. The chapter in Kansas City, he noted, ended in disappointment, but it set the scene for the next. In the end, Walt Disney's move from Kansas City to California was more than a change of address – it was the defining transition that turned a struggling young cartoonist into a pioneering creative force. As Walt's own story attests, sometimes you have to let go of the familiar (be it a beloved pet mouse or a comfortable hometown) to discover a whole new world of possibility. And in Walt's case, that made all the difference: "I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse" (Disney's 100-year journey from garage studio to media empire | Reuters).

Sources: Walt Disney Family Museum (100 Years Ago: Walt Goes West | The Walt Disney Family Museum); Laugh-O-Gram Studio history (Laugh-O-Gram Studio - Wikipedia); Disney Archives/D23 records (All-New Display Celebrates the Disney Bros. Story - D23); MousePlanet (Disney history research) (The Little Disney Garage Nobody Wanted); Reuters news retrospective (Disney's 100-year journey from garage studio to media empire | Reuters); Kansas City historical accounts (Film History Laugh-O-Gram Studio | Visit KC); and interviews/quotes from Walt Disney (Walking in Walt's Footsteps: Kansas City Edition The DIS) (Inspiring Walt Disney Quotes That Will Change Your Life - Ear To There Travel).