Tag: Walt Disney

Disney preservationists launch $4M campaign, add key collaborators to save iconic animator’s KC studio

By Tommy Felts / October 26, 2024

The legacy of Walt Disney’s foundational time in Kansas City — and the structure the famed animator left behind on Troost Avenue — must be preserved frame by frame, said supporters of an ambitious redevelopment project at the former Laugh-O-gram Studios. A newly launched “Dreams Start Here” campaign aims to secure a future for the historic…

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Film to promote Walt Disney’s historic Kansas City animation studio gets $10K boost

By Tommy Felts / October 19, 2023

Efforts to restore the original Laugh-O-gram Studio building along Troost Avenue are getting a bump from a Missouri Humanities grant and a matching donation from a longtime local supporter of the arts in Kansas City. Thank You Walt Disney — a not-for-profit dedicated to the preservation and restoration of Walt Disney’s first animation studio, the…

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$2M in federal funds secured for Disney’s forgotten ‘cradle of Hollywood animation’ in KC

By Tommy Felts / February 28, 2023

A decades-long effort to redevelop Walt Disney’s original Laugh-O-gram animation studios at 31st and Forest, along the Troost corridor, will receive $2 million in federal funding, as officially announced last week by Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II. The influx of funding should generate “momentum” to raise the remaining money needed to complete the project, said Gary…

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Operation Breakthrough's future Ignition Lab

How Travis Kelce, Operation Breakthrough plan to turn this old muffler shop into a coworking space, lab for teens

By Tommy Felts / January 8, 2021

As organizers look to re-open the doors to Walt Disney’s historic Laugh-O-gram Studios, they’re introducing Kansas Citians to a new era along Troost — in-part ushered in by a Kansas City Chiefs star and one of the city’s highest impact non-profit organizations. Plans for Operation Breakthrough’s Ignition Lab were on full display Thursday night, as Thank…

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Walt Disney, 1922, Laugh-O-gram Studios in Kansas City

Historians, Mickey enthusiasts open the vault on plans for Walt Disney’s former KC studio

By Tommy Felts / December 4, 2020

A dream for local historians, restoration efforts at the Troost office building once occupied by Walt Disney are finally coming true, champions of the project teased Thursday. Within the walls of the formerly crumbling brick structure at 31st and Troost: neglected stories of Disney’s inspiration and impact — along with plans to reanimate the space with…

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