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.This was besides, as Max Maxwell said, the period when Walt was very in-trigued with oª-color gags, such as cows with swinging udders and little char-acters running into outhouses. 69 Disney had grown up as a farm boy, afterall, and in the late 1920s his earthy sense of humor was as much a legacy of hisyears at Marceline as his nostalgia for small-town life would be in later years.Paul Smith remembered the story meetings during the Oswald period: We dall be called into Walt s office and hash over notes that he had made on thenext picture.What did we think of this gag, was it too risqué.he was al-ways putting in gags where a cow would get her udder caught in something. 70Around this time, if only briefly, Hugh Harman may have passed Disneyin his sensitivity to animation s possibilities.Harman described an occasionin 1926 when Disney spoke of wishing he had the money to get out of ani-mation and go into real estate.Harman responded by saying he wanted tostay in animation and eventually animate Shakespeare. He looked at me, Harman said, as if I had a hole in my head. 71Harman always spoke of his aspirations for his medium in such grandterms.Although he later produced many popular cartoons for Warner Broth-ers and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), most in partnership with Ising, heresented Disney s much greater success, and he invariably placed the least flat-tering gloss on Disney s words and actions.It is certainly true, though, thatin the 1920s Disney conceived his future in animation mainly in businessterms, so it is not at all unlikely that Harman s artistic goals were loftier then.Bright Lights, which Harman animated in 1927 with Rollin Hamilton, hasglimpses of an Oswald with an inner life, a character whose emotions aremirrored in his actions.It is much harder to find anything of the kind in thesurviving Oswald cartoons dominated by Ub Iwerks, whose mechanicalproficiency was reflected in his animation s smooth clockwork quality.In the52 a cute i dea late 1920s it was Iwerks s kind of animation, more than Harman s, that wasmost in tune with Disney s ambitions.Harman complained that Disney pressed his animators to turn out morefootage more animation and to simplify their drawings.Iwerks contrib-uted to such pressure, no doubt unintentionally, through his great facility.Paul Smith remembered an Iwerks who never sketched anything roughly inhis life.He would write his drawings out, with no preliminary sketches.That s why he didn t want to work with an assistant.He wanted to make allthe drawings himself.He d work clean, straight ahead. 72As diªerent as they were, Disney s animators felt a common itch to breakaway.In September 1926, when the studio was closed for two weeks of va-cation, Harman and Ising, joined by Iwerks and Rollin Hamilton, made an-other cartoon of their own, this time without Disney s knowledge.They wereagain unsuccessful in finding a release, but they did not give up.On Janu-ary 29, 1927, Ising wrote to his sister Adele in Kansas City: We have a secretshop all equipped and can start immediate production on our own picturesin event of obtaining a contract.I hope this will be soon as we shall not makea name and fortune for ourselves working for Walt. 73The Disney studio was not a happy place in 1927.Animators who knewDisney as very much one of the boys in Kansas City had come to resenthim in his new role, as what they saw as an overbearing boss.The studio sgrowth had given Disney no choice, however he had to become more of aboss.Each contract with Mintz had brought a significant increase in the num-ber of Alice Comedies he was obligated to produce, from twelve in 1924 toeighteen in 1925 to twenty-six in 1926.The Oswald contract covered twenty-six cartoons again, but for a more prominent and demanding national dis-tributor.Disney s staª had grown along with his output, until by 1927 heand Roy employed roughly two dozen people, most of whom had not knownhim in Kansas City.Delivery schedules could generate cash crises; that hap-pened in 1926, when Disney had to build up a backlog of Alice Comedies tomeet the heavier FBO schedule.He dueled continually with Charles Mintz,who despite occasional truces could never accept Disney s insistence on be-having like an independent businessman, rather than an employee.Disney was a successful filmmaker his profit on each cartoon had risento as much as a thousand dollars but his success came at a price, part ofwhich was estrangement from people who had been his friends, or might havebeen.On one occasion in 1927, Disney even reacted angrily to the carica-tures that the animators drew of one another and pinned up for their amuse-ment, a common pastime in cartoon studios. One of the few times I everthe s elf- taught fi lmmaker, 1 923 1 928 53 saw Walt angry was one day when he got tired of seeing us waste time overthose cartoons, Max Maxwell wrote in 1973. He stalked through the stu-dio and tore them all oª the walls. 74 Maxwell, another veteran of Laugh-O-gram, joined the Disney staª in May 1927, but he left after only ninemonths in this bruising new environment.Isadore Friz Freleng, who joined the staª on January 15, 1927, lasted lessthan eight months, leaving on September 1.At Kansas City Film Ad,Maxwell said, Freleng was this little red-headed Jewish guy, everybody pickedon him. 75 Freleng was a year younger than Harman and Ising, who wereboth born in August 1903, and three years younger than Disney; he had notknown Disney in Kansas City.Freleng himself told Joe Adamson: I d be-come very sensitive as a child, because I was much smaller than other kids,and I was always defending myself, because they d pick on me.Walt pickedthis up, and he used to rib me quite a bit, maybe size, or whatever it was, Idon t think he really meant any harm.[But] when he d make a remark, I dtake exception, and I d make a nasty remark back to him. 76One evening, Freleng called Disney at home, telling him I had somethingon my mind which bothered me.It took him just a few minutes to driveover to where I was living in a boarding house.He wouldn t let me say a worduntil he arrived at the studio and opened the door.He got behind his deskand took out a cigar.He asked me to sit opposite to him, and said, Nowstart talking. I told him how much he upset me emotionally, and remindedhim of his letters to me expressing his patience in my learning animation
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