March 1, 1924 – The First Alice Comedy, Alice’s Day at Sea, is Released to Theaters
“It would be a big opportunity for her and would introduce her to the profession in a manner that few children could receive.” – Walt Disney’s letter to Virginia Davis’ mother
On March 1, 1924, after a long process of putting all the pieces of the company in place, the Disney Brothers Studio had their first release of the first of the series of Alice Comedies, entitled Alice’s Day at Sea.
The first six Alice Comedies began with a long live-action segment, then went into the cartoon. The seventh film had a change of format, when Disney scrapped the live-action introductions. In this first film, Alice goes to the seashore with her dog and falls asleep in a rowboat, and in her dreams, she battles marina wildlife and finds a shipwreck.
Disney's first star: Virginia Davis
Virginia Davis, the first actress to portray Alice in the Alice comedies, was still living in Kansas City, Missouri, when Walt made his way out to California to create his animation studio. Fortunately, Disney was able to convince her family to move out to California, with Virginia recalling, “Oh, what a salesman [Disney] was…my mother fell for it, but she liked him because she sensed a sincerity in his mind. She really liked him very much; she saw great things in Walt.” When they were ready to film Alice’s Day at Sea, Virginia recalled, “…that film, we came from Missouri, I had never seen the ocean, and all of a sudden there was that sand, and all the ocean…I loved it, I just loved it.”
Walt animated the films by himself, and was able to deliver the first film on December 26, 1923, ahead of schedule, and was able to collect on the offer from Margaret Winkler of $1500. However, Walt was not happy with how it had turned out, and Winkler agreed, telling him that it was only “satisfactory,” but she encouraged Walt by telling him to inject more humor into the shorts. Fortunately, Walt kept producing the shorts, and each one was better than the one preceding it.
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