Disney Historian Discovers Ub Iwerks’ “Lost” Childhood Home

Portland, OR – July 23, 2024 – Disney Historian Mike Westby, author of the new book Disney History – Rare & Unknown, announces the discovery of Disney Legend Ub Iwerk’s “lost” childhood home in Kansas City, Missouri.

Ub Iwerks, known today as “The Hand Behind the Mouse”, is recognized as being the co-creator of Mickey Mouse, along with Walt Disney, helping to define the appearance and personality of what would become a beloved animated character and global phenomenon.   Ub Iwerks animated many of Mickey Mouse’s earliest cartoons, including Steamboat Willie, and would later go on to create many innovative technological advancements for the Walt Disney Company, including the first multiplane camera, leading to numerous awards for his work, including two Academy Awards.

Prior to finding their initial success in Los Angeles during the 1920s, Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney were friends in Kansas City, meeting as teens in 1919 when they both took a job at the Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio.  There, they realized they both shared a passion for the nascent world of animation, while living only a few miles apart.  This began a friendship that would, ultimately, last a lifetime.

Walt Disney lived in two homes while in Kansas City, MO., the history of which are well known in the Disney community.  However, Ub Iwerks’ childhood home, built in 1900, faded into obscurity, its whereabouts becoming unknown due to the city’s reassigning of address numbers many decades ago.

In his new book, Disney History – Rare & Unknown, Disney Historian Mike Westby explains how a simple 110 year-old postcard led to the quest to find Ub Iwerks’ childhood home, its whereabouts a stubborn mystery, since its address could not be found on any current maps.  Through extensive research, good fortune, and a small notation on a historic 100 year-old plat map, Mike Westby discovered that the small white home located today at 2340 Hardesty Ave. in Kansas City, MO was, for a short while after 1917, assigned two addresses, the other being 2336 Hardesty Ave., the address given by Ub’s father on a number of different documents as that of their family home. 

Today, Ub Iwerks’ childhood home at 2340 / 2336 Hardesty Ave. stands boarded up and in a state of disrepair while surrounded by pavement and gravel in the parking lot of a neighborhood restaurant.  Its interior is damaged by years of water leaking through the roof, and anything of value and utility, including lights, bathroom fixtures, and even the doors, have long been removed.  The book, Disney History – Rare & Unknown includes a photo of the home’s exterior, a description of its interior, and a schematic of its floor plan.

Mike Westby is the author of three Disney related books, including the new Disney History – Rare & Unknown, The Hidden Secrets & Stories of Disneyland, and The Hidden Secrets & Stories of Walt Disney World.

 To learn more, visit www.Disney-History.com