Laugh-O-Gram Studio (McConahay Building)

The McConahay Building at 1127 East 31st Street is the birthplace of Walt Disney’s first animation company. From a second-floor suite, Walt Disney ran Laugh-O-Gram Films in 1922–23 — the venture whose bankruptcy sent him to Hollywood. The two-story tapestry-brick commercial block, designed by Nelle E. Peters, is listed on the National Register and is being restored by Thank You Walt Disney, Inc. with Multistudio as a museum and digital-media center.¹²³

The building

The McConahay Building is a two-story tapestry-brick commercial building at 1121–1131 East 31st Street, designed by pioneering Kansas City architect Nelle E. Peters and completed in May 1922.¹ The NRHP nomination describes exterior facades of brick interspersed with cut stone and terra cotta in geometric designs — “a fine local example of tapestry brick design architecture.”¹ National Register reference number 78001655; listed May 22, 1978.¹

Spelling: National Register and current records use “McConahay”; some older Kansas City sources (and occasional vault prose) use “McConahy.” This page treats McConahay as the canonical NRHP form.

Laugh-O-Gram Films (1922–1923)

Laugh-O-Gram Films occupied a five-room suite on the second floor at 1127 from the building’s completion in May 1922 into mid-1923.¹ The Pendergast Years dates the company opening to May 23, 1922, with Disney and four regularly paid staff.⁴ Its “Newman Laugh-O-Grams” — modernized fairy tales — screened at Kansas City’s Newman Theater.⁴

The studio took an $11,100 contract from Pictorial Clubs; when the client defaulted the company failed. Laugh-O-Gram went bankrupt in July 1923, a little over a year after opening.⁴ Before the collapse Disney completed Alice’s Wonderland, a live-action/animation hybrid he carried to Los Angeles to launch his California career.⁴

Wikipedia and Multistudio retellings place Disney’s later Mickey Mouse mouse-at-the-desk origin story at this studio; treat that as Disney’s own later telling and popular tradition, not as a contemporaneously documented 1922 fact.¹² First-floor Forest Inn Cafe is often mentioned in secondary accounts of Disney’s time in the building.¹

Multistudio notes Laugh-O-Gram was founded in 1921 as one of Disney’s earliest animation ventures — the corporate/legal start can predate the McConahay suite occupancy.²

Preservation

The nonprofit Thank You Walt Disney, Inc. acquired the building to save it from decline and is restoring it with architecture firm Multistudio as an immersive museum and center for innovation in digital media entrepreneurship and education.²³ Multistudio’s project page dates active design/redevelopment work into 2024 and frames the building as both Disney history and a Nelle Peters landmark.² TYWD’s site also points to a Clio driving tour and the film The Cradle of Midwest Animation.³

Sources

Wikipedia — “McConahay Building.” (accessed 2026-08-11). Confirms: address 1121–1131 E 31st St; tapestry brick; architect Nelle E. Peters; built 1922; Laugh-O-Gram five-room second-floor suite May 1922–June 1923; NRHP 78001655 listed May 22, 1978; Thank You Walt Disney, Inc. ownership/restoration; nomination PDF link at Missouri DNR. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷
Multistudio — “Laugh-O-Gram Studios.” (accessed 2026-08-11). Confirms: client Thank You Walt Disney, Inc.; immersive museum / digital-media education vision; NRHP 1978; Nelle Peters design credit; Mickey origin story framed as Disney interview tradition; project year 2024. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Thank You Walt Disney, Inc (accessed 2026-08-11). Confirms: nonprofit dedicated to the site; history/future-plans navigation; donation and tour links. ↩ ↩² ↩³
The Pendergast Years (Kansas City Public Library) — “Walt Disney.” (accessed 2026-08-11). Confirms: Laugh-O-Gram opened May 23, 1922 (Disney + four paid staff); Newman Theater screenings; $11,100 Pictorial Clubs contract; July 1923 bankruptcy; Alice’s Wonderland carried to Los Angeles. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴