Anita the Animata
Chapter 2
"Reunions"
It was a day like any other, but one certain individual was as happy as a bird in spring. Anita Imahin was walking into the Roy E. Disney Animation Building, where she started her internship just a day before. It was the day she would get her office. "I can't believe it, todays' the day. Anita Imahin gets her office at the Walt Disney Animation Studio." she said as her heart bubbled with excitement.
Don Hahn and Mr. Spencer were on hand to greet her. "Well, our newest member of the family. Nice to see you." Mr. Spencer said before shaking Anita's hand. "Ready to see the office we picked for you?" Don asked. "Oh, of course I am." Anita replied. They headed into the building and, after walking down several hallways, she found she had been given a cozy corner office. "This is where you'll be working on backgrounds, character sketches and anything else that's needed of you. You might even get to animate a character or two." Mr. Spencer explained.
"I think I'll get used to this." Anita said as she looked around the office. "Well, we'll leave you to get settled in." Don said before he and Mr. Spencer took their leave. Anita sat down in her chair and seemed quite happy that she had her own office at her dream job. "I can't wait till I start to work on a movie. Maybe it'll be a short. Either way, I'm going to greatly enjoy it." she said. Anita then closed her eyes and fell asleep, but as she slept, that light reappeared and created the same vortex of wind.
The whooshing woke up Anita, and as she stood up, her chair vanished along with her environment. "This again?" she said before she found herself back in the past. This time it was a seaport she appeared at. 'Why was I brought here?' she thought before she saw men disembarking from the ship. 'Those looks like soldiers.' she figured. Soon, one of the men spotted her. "Anita! Long time no see!" said the soldier, Anita knew there was only one person she knew from the past who knew her, it was Walt.
"Hey, Walt. What's with the uniform?" Anita asked. "Didn't I tell ya? I was overseas, fighting for my country. The Great War called and Walt Disney answered." Walt replied. Anita knew right then that Walt was referring to the first world war. "But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's head to the train station and talk." he added before they did so.
"Well, when I was 14 years old, I stayed with Herbert, my brother, and worked on the Missouri Pacific Railroad as a newsbutch, what I did was sell refreshments, magazines and newspapers to passengers aboard the trains from Marceline to Iowa, I think." he explained. "So, while you were working on the railroad all the lived long day, what was Roy up to?" Anita asked, getting a chuckle out of Walt for making a reference to that old song. "Well, my big brother was off serving his country in the Navy." Walt replied. "Wait, so Roy went to fight in the war?" Anita asked in surprise.
"That's right. During June of the year Roy shipped out, 1917, so about two years ago, I graduated from the seventh grade at Benton School. After I graduated, me and the rest of the family, save for Roy since he was out fighting for the country, moved back to Chicago where I enrolled in McKinley High. We moved back because of my dad's investments in the O-Zell company." Walt replied. "So, your dad owns a controlling stake in O-Zell Jelly?" Anita asked.
"Yes, he does. Though I doubt anyone can make their fortune selling jelly." Walt replied. "I would often stay with my brother Herbert for the summer and go back to working as a newsbutch. Once summer ended, I rejoined my family in Chicago. I mostly drew cartoons for the school paper and I had a girlfriend, but I missed Roy. By the time I turned 16, I felt that I should join my brother in the war, but that didn't come to be. I was two years too young and I was rejected." he continued.
"Gosh. Well, I don't have any brothers, but if I was the youngest in my family and one of my sisters was the oldest, I'm sure that I'd feel the same way if one of them went off to fight and defend my freedom." Anita replied. "Well, I eventually did join the war effort this year, but it wasn't on the front lines. It was with the American Red Cross, an ambulance corps. I felt I could manage that so, my mother signed me up and agreed that it was safer than fighting in the trenches." Walt said.
"Where'd you go in the war?" Anita asked. "I went to France. I felt it was my duty to help the people I was shipping to hospitals. I started smoking over there." Walt answered, which made Anita's stomach sink as she knew what that would lead to decades later. "But how'd you manage to join if you're under age?" Anita asked. "Well, trade secret. I kind of altered my birth year to 1900 instead of 1901." Walt whispered. "Well, if it was how you managed to help the world, I guess doing the wrong thing for the right reason is the best." Anita replied.
"Sure, the war ended the year before, but the Red Cross was still needed for the relief effort. I mostly made deliveries and chauffeured important officers while driving an ambulance for the Red Cross. I often painted the side of my ambulance and sent drawings to magazines back here, but they were all rejected." Walt continued. "We wrapped up our job just last month in September and I was discharged." he added.
"Well, you definitely did your country right." Anita said. "Anyway, I'm going back to Chicago and I'm gonna tell my folks I'll be moving to Kansas City to pursue my dreams of being an artist." Walt said. "Well, I know you'll do great." Anita replied before the train whistle blew. "Well, that's likely the train to Chicago, so I better get going." Walt said as he gathered his things. "So long, Walt." Anita said before shaking his hand. "So long, Anita. I'll be seeing ya." Walt replied before he headed to the train.
As Walt disappeared from sight, the vortex of wind picked up around Anita before it engulfed her and transported her to another time. This time it looked like the 20s. She found herself outside a building with the name Laugh-O-Gram on the window. She walked in and saw Walt and a bunch of other guys. "Well, I can't believe it. Anita! How are you?" Walt said as he walked up to her to shake her hand. "I'm fine, thanks, Walt. Who are these guys?" Anita asked. "These boys are my employees, Ub Iwerks, Hugh Harman, Friz Freleng and Carman Maxwell." Walt answered.
"Nice to meet you." Ub said. "Walt, how'd all this get started?" Anita asked. "Well, it started after I returned home to Chicago and my entire family and I moved back to Kansas City after I told my folks I wanted to become an artist, so we all moved in and lived together at our old house on Bellefontaine Street. Well, my brother had to go to a sanitarium in California to take care of an illness he picked up during the war, tuberculosis." Walt answered.
"Thanks to Roy, I got work at the Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio for $50 a month. I wanted to tell my aunt about it, but she ended up getting pneumonia and died from it. I met Ub while working there during my trial period, but I ended up losing my job at Pesmen-Rubin after six weeks because Pesmen lost a large tractor account and there was a lack in work. Ub got fired, too, so we formed a company on our own, we called it Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists." he continued..
"But we went bust after just a month. So we got work at the Kansas City Slide Company, which is where Walt discovered animation. But we used to work with cutout animation." Ub explained. "But that became a thing of the past when we discovered cell animation." Walt added. "Cell animation basically means making drawings on transparent sheets of celluloid. We showed our first animated short, or Laugh-O-Gram, since it's the name of our company, to the owner of the Newman Theater." Hugh explained.
"He bought it, 30 cents a foot, but we sold it for cost. But he did buy a dozen more, and we also got new investors which led us to getting this new space." Walt said with a smile. "We eventually got a bit more staff and we made a couple good animations we're proud of." Ub said before showing her around the studio.
"Say, Walt, what about the rest of your family?" Anita asked. "Well, my brother Herbert got a job in Portland Oregon, so my folks went with him and his family. So the only Disney here in Kansas is me." Walt replied. "I see. So, what are you working on?" Anita asked. "Well, we've done modernized retellings of fairy tales like Puss in Boots, but what we're working on now is supposed to be part live action, part animated. It's called Alice's Wonderland. We're bringing in a little girl named Virginia Davis to play Alice and we'll make the animations after we shoot the live action footage." Walt replied.
Anita was fascinated hearing Walt's big plans and such. "When you gonna start filming the scenes involving Virginia?" she asked. "Not too long." Walt replied. "Make that sooner than expected, here comes our star." Ub said as he looked out the window. Anita got the door and Walt welcomed Virginia and her mom inside the studio. "Ah, Virginia, Mrs. Davis. It's great to see you. Come on in." Walt said. "Thank you, Mr. Disney." Mrs. Davis said.
"You look pretty." Virginia said to Anita. "Why, thank you. You might just become a child star in the movies." Anita replied. The young girl stuck around and saw what would be the first scene being filmed with little Virginia, as Alice, sitting at Walt's desk and imagining she was looking at some cartoons coming to life. Afterwards, Ub told her that she would have to take her leave so that filming could continue.
Without any other questions, Anita bid Walt and Virginia farewell and left the studio. She soon saw the vortex form around her before it transported her back to her office in the present day. "So that was the start of Walt's business career. I guess he only went up from there." she said before she sat back down and did some doodling on her own personal drawing pad.