Even after he found out that many of his animators had been scooped up from underneath him, he worked to make a separate deal with Universal, going around Mintz. Instead of offering Walt a raise, Mintz only offered the negative costs, about $1,000 less than the brothers were already making, and Walt scrambled to get his bearings, frantically telegraphing Roy but generally keeping positive. Unaware of the treachery (or perhaps willfully ignorant), Walt took a trip to New York to renegotiate his contract as Mintz was in the process of signing another deal with Universal for additional Oswald shorts. George Winkler, another producer on the shorts, began making arrangements with some of Walt’s artists to join the new venue (Iwerks wouldn’t budge). In early 1928, Mintz, tired of Walt’s demands and in disbelief of his actual talent, began negotiating for more Oswald shorts without Walt. But while this success was great for Walt, Roy and Ub, behind the scenes chaos was brewing. The success of the Oswald shorts was enough so that Walt and his brother and business partner Roy could hire more animators (their company swelled to 22 people) and buy plots of land on Lyric Avenue in Silver Lake. Almost immediately critics and audiences warmed to Oswald – they loved his offbeat design, with his long, expressive ears and how fitfully and artfully executed the shorts were (incredibly, there were nine Oswald shorts released in 1927 alone).
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