Disney's Laugh-O-Gram Studios

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Disney's Laugh-O-Gram Studios

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New Body, New Job, New SOUL!!!!

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Disney's Laugh-O-Gram Studios

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Does anyone know how this project is coming along?  I haven't heard anything about this in a long time and am really interested in it.
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Re: Disney's Laugh-O-Gram Studios

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Anyone?
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Re: Disney's Laugh-O-Gram Studios

Post by ComandanteCero »

it doesn't look like it's doing too hot.  This is the website of the group that was trying to save it: http://www.laughograms.com/  according to it, it was supposed to be renovated/rehabilitated and have had a grand opening by Fall of 2003.................  Looks like this website has been dead for a while now.  I tried calling their contact number and no one picked up......  I'm going to try to get out there and see what the building looks like (i believe it's at the corner of 31st and Forest)......
KC Region is all part of the same animal regardless of state and county lines.
Think on the Regional scale.
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Re: Disney's Laugh-O-Gram Studios

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I sure hope they don't give up on this.  I really had my hopes set on this project.  It would really be nice to have a place that celebrates Walt Disney here in his hometown.  It is kind of sad.
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Re: Disney's Laugh-O-Gram Studios

Post by ComandanteCero »

went by there two days ago, looks like the building is pretty much gutted, with the only the walls barely remaining.
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Re: Disney's Laugh-O-Gram Studios

Post by shinatoo »

That building has looked like that for at least three years now. It is also on a list of building to be demolished.

I can't recall the website thtat has that list.
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Re: Disney's Laugh-O-Gram Studios

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^ Really?  I didn't know that.  Of course it is in such terrible shape as it is, I'm sure it would be hard to renovate.

Nice pics Comandante.  Thanks for doing that.
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Re: Disney's Laugh-O-Gram Studios

Post by shinatoo »

I just can't believe that Disney Corp can't scrape up a couple of mill to save that place.
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Re: Disney's Laugh-O-Gram Studios

Post by cdschofield »

Disney has been somewhat hostile to this project from the beginning. But I thought about a year or so ago some Disney family heirs were to donate some money for this project.
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Re: Disney's Laugh-O-Gram Studios

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cdschofield wrote: Disney has been somewhat hostile to this project from the beginning.
Really?  In what kind of way?
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Re: Disney's Laugh-O-Gram Studios

Post by cdschofield »

WoodDraw wrote: Really?  In what kind of way?
I just remember that when the Disney family announced they were pledging money to the project the Disney corporation was adamant that they would have nothing to do with it. Kind of passive aggressive if you ask me. Disney could probably find the $4 million to renovate the building under the executive offices sofa cushions. They are notorious for protecting their intellectual property rights so I suspect they don't like the idea of giving a non-profit they have little control over any implied blessings of intellectual property use.
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Re: Disney's Laugh-O-Gram Studios

Post by Marreekarr »

I reckon it's possible that Disney Corp. doesn't want to associate this building with Mickey Mouse's origin as Mortimer Mouse, the little critter that Walt used to feed while he worked here.  The Disney people are down right fanatical about protecting the images of their characters and may feel that backing this project would change the way people view their franchise icon.  The Mouse would seem to be just an ordinary rodent in a building.
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Re: Disney's Laugh-O-Gram Studios

Post by beautyfromashes »

I suppose this is a dead project?  It seems such a shame.  My newborn daughter received several Disney videos for Christmas and they gave the history of Laugh-O-Gram.  It made me proud of the city and ashamed of it at the same time.
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Re: Disney's Laugh-O-Gram Studios

Post by justin8216 »

It is too bad. There was allot of media hoopla around this. Somebody has to be paying the web-hoster to keep that site up.
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Disney building renovation - Didn't know they had the bucks

Post by knucklehead »

This surprised me. I didn't know they had raised around a million bucks to renovate the old Disney building on 31st street.

http://kansascity.bizjournals.com/kansa ... rround=lfn
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Re: Disney's Laugh-O-Gram Studios

Post by chrizow »

very cool.  i remember hearing about this on KCUR a while back.  nice to see it's going to happen. 

these little projects like this - where people scraper together cash, get community donations, etc. are more exciting to me than a lot of high-profile projects.  this is motivated out of history and love and not profits.
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Re: Disney building renovation - Didn't know they had the bucks

Post by advocrat »

knucklehead wrote: This surprised me. I didn't know they had raised around a million bucks to renovate the old Disney building on 31st street.

http://kansascity.bizjournals.com/kansa ... rround=lfn
There is hope.  I was at a meeting where the director of the project gave a briefing (early last month). He reported that their funding, enough to embark on the first phase of the project had been secured. The gutting was intentional, and structural improvement to the walls has been accomplished. They also have the private support of the Disney family, not the Corporation.

An interesting sidebar is that Disney and his company included some of the most talented animaters in the country in the early 20's.  The troupe formed the first generation of animaters in Hollywood. The future Laugh-O' Grams/Disney museum intends to incorporate this into vision. 
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Re: Disney's Laugh-O-Gram Studios

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Future of KC Disney studio could involve digital media
“Our primary purpose is to restore the building where Walt Disney began his career in filmmaking,” local attorney Dan Viets said. Viets represents a group trying to preserve the Laugh-O-Gram building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but was nearly demolished in the early 2000′s....

Green says in a best case scenario, the proposed digital storytelling center wouldn’t open for three years.
Viets also wants to see the Laugh-O-Gram building serve as a museum to Disney’s work here in Kansas City.
http://www.thankyouwaltdisney.org/
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Re: Disney's Laugh-O-Gram Studios

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Disney's former studios on Troost will be revived as museum
A Kansas City non-profit group, Thank You Walt Disney Inc., is looking to convert the historic building at 1127 E. 31st St. into an interactive museum and digital production studio. Butch Rigby, the chairman of Thank You Walt Disney, said the project has been a long time coming...

Rigby said the plan calls for converting the first floor of the building into a theater where historic cartoons produced by the Laugh-O-Gram team will be screened. One section of the building's second floor — where Disney and his fellow animators worked — will be restored as much as possible to original conditions. The other half of the second floor will be converted into a digital drafting studio. Knoll said the group is also looking at establishing a new center nearby that would serve as a classroom space for aspiring digital animators.
=D>
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