When Walt arrived in Hollywood, his first job was as an extra, in a western film, but Walt was replaced by the studio when it rained the day the scene he was in was supposed to be filmed. Walt decided that the role he didn’t get to play was the first and last of his acting career. Walt decided to turn to his one skill, animation. Walt set up a small studio, in the garage of his Uncle Robert’s home. Walt wrote a letter to a film distributor (M.J. Winkler) and announced that he was starting a studio in Los Angeles, to produce a new series of cartoons. This new series was Walt’s half finished “Alice’s Wonderland” cartoon that he brought with him from Kansas City. M.J. Winkler bought a half a dozen of the Alice cartoons from Walt, for a price of $1,500 a piece. That got Walt off and running.
Knowing that he had a less than stellar track record when it came to the financial side of business, Walt convinced his brother Roy Disney to be his new partner, and move to California. That was, most likely, the best decision that Walt made in his whole career. Walt was now able to allow his imagination run wild, and Roy made sure to balance the books, so that they both had enough money to eat. The Disney Brothers Studio was launched in 1923. The brothers used two hundred dollars that Roy had saved, $2,500 that Flora and Elias contributed from mortgaging their home, and five hundred that they borrowed from Uncle Robert. With that money, the brothers bought a used camera and rented a small studio, in the back of a real estate office. The brothers also moved into a one room apartment together. They hired a couple of assistants, and began the process of building the Disney Company.
Walt fell in love, in his rise to international fame fell in love with a young woman that he had hired. Her name was Lillian Bounds. Walt would drive Lillian and another young lady home from work each night, and dropped the other young ladies off first, because he loved listening to Lillian’s stories about her life. Lillian was the youngest of ten children, and her father was a blacksmith. Lillian and Walt began to take long drives together, talking the whole while. Walt would not, however, accept any invitations to meet Lillian’s family, until he saved up enough money to buy a new suit. Walt fit in with Lillian’s family immediately. Roy and Walt were growing tired of each other as roommates, and in early 1924, Roy asked his long time girlfriend Edna to marry him. Shortly after, on June 13, 1925, Walt and Lillian were married.