Carman Griffin “Max” Maxwell was one of the happy few who worked with Walt before Mickey.
Born on December 27, 1902, in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, Maxwell later moved to Kansas City, Missouri. He began his career in 1922 at Laugh-O-grams, then, after the company went bankrupt, was hired by the Disney Studio on May 23, 1927. Along with Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising, and Friz Freleng, Maxwell was part of the unit that eventually broke away from Disney to form the nucleus of what later became the Warner Bros. animation studio (under contract with Leon Schlesinger). […]