After Disney's Laugh-o-Grams studio in Kansas City went bankrupt, Disney bought a train ticket and headed out to Hollywood to stay with Uncle Robert and his brother Roy. There he met cartoon distributor Margaret Winkler and her fiance Charles B. Mintz, who had just had a falling out with Pat Sullivan, which cost her the contract for the popular Felix the Cat. Once Winkler agreed to a contract, Disney (then just 20 years old) acquired a building on Hyperion avenue, and moved all of his animators (including animation pioneers Ub Iwerks and Fritz Freleng) from Kansas City to Los Angeles to work on the Oswald Rabbit cartoons.
The contract was with Universal, which wanted to establish an animation shop to ensure a reliable source of cartoons to accompany their features. The name 'Oswald' was chosen by Universal execs, who essentially pulled the name out of a hat.
