Humble Beginnings

Today, the Walt Disney Company is a multi-billion dollar international entertainment conglomerate, but things began much more simply. Dave Smith, the Disney Archivist, places the official start of the Company at October 16, 1923, the day Walt Disney signed a contract with Margaret Winkler for the distribution of his Alice Comedies. With contract in hand, Walt and Roy moved the newly-formed Disney Bros. Studio out of their uncle Robert's garage and into its first true home at 4651 Kingswell in Hollywood.

The location was modest, to say the least. It was a spare room in the back of the Holly-Vermont Realty office, which Walt rented for $10 a month. It wasn't long before a little money started to come in, and the Disney brothers moved next door to their own store front at 4649 Kingswell. Two years later, in January 1926, they expanded onto a lot at 2719 Hyperion Avenue, then finally moved to the campus in Burbank, custom-built in 1940 with the profits from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The Burbank Studio remains the headquarters for the Walt Disney Company to this day.

But at the Florida Studio - Disney's Hollywood Studios - there is a small tribute to those humble beginnings. On the Echo Lake side of the Keystone Clothiers building is a door, tucked just to the side of Peevy's Polar Pipeline. The door carries a logo for none other than Holly-Vermont Realty, and in the window above... an "Office Space For Rent" sign.