Pat Powers
Patrick A. Powers (
1869 -
July 30,
1948) was an
Irish-American businessman.
Born in
County Waterford,
Ireland, he is notable for his
Powers Motion Picture Company that merged with
Carl Laemmle's IMP film company and others in 1912 to create
Universal Pictures. Powers later became associated with
animation producers
Walt Disney and
Ub Iwerks.
In 1928, Powers sold Disney a
bootlegged
sound recording system called the
Cinephone so that Disney could make sound cartoons such as
Mickey Mouse's
Steamboat Willie. Unable to find a distributor, Disney began releasing his cartoons through Powers'
Celebrity Pictures company.
After two years of successful
Mickey Mouse and
Silly Symphonies cartoons, Disney confronted Powers in 1930 about monies he felt were due him. Powers responded by signing Disney's head animator
Ub Iwerks to an exclusive deal to create his own animation studio.
The
Ub Iwerks studio was only mildly successful, with cartoon series such as
Flip the Frog and
Willie Whopper, released through
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and the
Comicolor cartoons, released by Celebrity. The Iwerks studio closed after 1936.
Patrick Powers died in
New York City in 1948, aged 78 or 79.
