Margaret Winkler

Margaret J. Winkler, Mrs. Mintz (April 22, 1895 – June 21, 1990) was a key figure in silent animation history, having a crucial role to play in the histories of Max and Dave Fleischer, Pat Sullivan, Otto Messmer, and Walt Disney. She was the first woman to produce and distribute animated films.. Winkler was the subject of a feature film Walt Before Mickey.

Hungarian-born of German descent, Winkler began her career as personal secretary of Harry Warner, one of the founders of Warner Brothers. Through most of the silent era, Warner Brothers was strictly a film distributor, and Harry Warner was the man who made the deals. In 1917, Warner Brothers began distributing cartoons of Mutt and Jeff in New York and New Jersey. Warner was impressed with Winkler's talents, and when Max and Dave Fleischer, owners of Fleischer Studios, came to him with their series Out of the Inkwell, he gave it to Winkler and encouraged her to form her own distribution company, Winkler Productions, on a state's rights basis.

In 1922, she signed a contract with Pat Sullivan Productions to produce Felix the Cat cartoons. This established her reputation as the top distributor in the cartoon world. It was a good thing, because at the end of the same year the Fleischer brothers, flush with success as a result of Winkler's work, left her to form their own distribution company, Red Seal Pictures. However much Sullivan helped Winkler's business, he and Winkler were constantly fighting. In September 1923, the renewal of his contract came up, and his unrealistic demands meant Winkler Pictures might have to survive for a while without its biggest star. Winkler viewed a pilot reel, called "Alice's Wonderland", submitted by then neophyte animator Walt Disney, the first entry in the "Alice Comedies" series. Winkler was intrigued with the idea of a live-action girl in a cartoon world, and signed Disney to a year-long contract despite the fact that the studio that made the cartoon was now bankrupt.

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