Fred Harmon started off his cartooning career doing animation for ads in the movie theaters in 1922 with a little company in Kansas City. There was him and a couple other artists on staff. One of the artists was named Walter Disney another Ub Iwerks. The company didn’t make it. Fred eventually went on to draw the comic strip Red Ryder that debuted on this day in 1937. No one ever heard any further of that Disney dude and whether Iwerks worked again. The Red Ryder was beautifully drawn and the cowboy rode through the West righting wrongs with his constant companion Little Beaver (no snide remarks, please). The strip spun off comic books, big little books and over 30 movies and serials. Plus there was the famous Red Ryder Carbine B.B. gun sold to thousands of little boys via ads found on the backs of comic books and made famous in the movie “A Christmas Story”.

1922. Fred Harmon is the artist on the far left and to his left
is Walter E. Disney and in the back is Ub Iwerks.