Walt Disney and Ubbe Iwerks

Only people who have been living in a closet for the last eighty years won't know who Walt Disney is. On the other hand, couch potatoes everywhere will fail to recognize the gentleman on Walt's right and will probably think the name was from typing on an offset keyboard.

Ubbe Iwerks (or Ub as he preferred) was Walt's early partner and collaborator and was the chief animator for the first Mickey Mouse cartoons Plane Crazy and Steamboat Willie. Although the actual idea of Mickey seems to have been a collaborative effort, Ub came up with the final character. As far as the cartoons went, Walt himself did not draw a single frame (the inking, though, was by Walt's wife Lillian).

Ub began his career working with Walt and ended it working with Walt. However, there was a center slice in the 1930's where Ub split away and produced his own cartoons. Ub's company was not really a failure as you may hear. His cartoons - including the sometimes risque Flip the Frog - did make money. But they just weren't the hits that Walt was producing. Finally Ub gave up on his own and returned to Walt.

But Walt, who had the highest regard for Ub, knew better than to bring him back as a simple animator. Instead, Ub became the Disney expert for special effects. Ub's job was to find out what could be made better and make it better. Whether it was improving the quality of the live action nature films (by projecting the image onto 35 mm film while immersing the original in dry cleaning fluid) or figuring out how to have Leopold Stowkowski shake hands with Mickey Mouse, it was Ub who invented many effects that most viewers soon were taking for granted.

At heart, though, Ub and everyone else knew that Walt really was the driving force behind the Magic Kingdom. But it could still be irritating that everyone thought Walt, not Ub, was the sole creator of the most famous mouse in the world. Once at a party, the little daughter of the host asked Walt if he'd draw her a picture of Mickey Mouse and sign it. Walt, realzing Ub could draw a much better Mickey, asked Ub to draw the picture and he, Walt, would sign it.

Ub snorted. "Draw your own damn mouse," he said.

References

There's really no reason for people not to know about Ub. He's on the credits of the cartoons - particularly Plane Crazy and Steamboat Willie, and anyone who makes the effort to move from the couch to the library and actually read about the life and history of the Disney Empire will find Ub is given his due.

To read about Ub try:

The Hand Behind the Mouse, by Ubbe's granddaughter, film maker Leslie Iwerks and writer John Kenworthy (Hyperion Books, Boston, 2001). There's also a film of the same name by Leslie. As always, if you see the film read the book, too.

Of Mice And Magic: A History of AnimationLeonard Maltin, New American Library (1980) . Not only about Walt and Ub but other cartoon pioneers as well.

Walt in Wonderland The Silent Films of Walt Disney, Russell Merritt and J. B. Kaufman, Johns Hopkins Univesity Press, (2000). About the pre-Mickey Disney cartoons where Ub was Walt's full partner and collaborator.

At one time there was a great web site on the history and life of the Disney Empire, and it covered the details of his early work with Ub. But it seems to have disappeared,