A building at 2449 Charlotte St. on Hospital Hill, former home of the
Kansas City Slide Co., where A. Vern Cauger hired Disney in 1920, was
bought last year by the University of Missouri-Kansas City, which plans to
demolish the site to make way for a life-sciences facility and parking lot.
Disney worked for more than two years at the Charlotte address, helping
produce slides and one-minute films shown as advertisements in movie
theaters. He worked alongside other Kansas City artists who, like him,
would later rise in the California animation industry including Friz
Freleng, who became an important animation director at Warner Bros., and Ub
Iwerks, who had a big hand in the early Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies
series. Disney remained at the Kansas City Slide Co. until May 1922.
University officials say the Kansas City Slide Co. building has less
historic value than other buildings in the area with Disney connections,
and UMKC is preparing to seek demolition bids. Although it is unclear when
the structure will fall, the building will soon follow Disney's first
studio in Los Angeles on Hyperion Avenue which made way for a grocery store
in the early 1960s.