On this date in 1901, Ubbe Ert Iwwerks was botn in Kansas City, Missouri. He graduated Grammar School in 1914. In 1919, he met Walt Disney when they both worked for Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio in Kansas City. Together, they started a commercial art business and found work with the Kansas City Film Ad Company. Soon, they started working in animation. He legally changed his name to "Ub Iwerks" in 1926. In 1922, Iwerks joined Disney as chief animator of his Laugh-O-Gram cartoon series, and in 1923 followed Disney to Los Angeles to work with Walt and his brother Roy on the Alice Comedies, shorts featuring a live-action little girl superimposed onto an animated world, produced through 1926. Disney asked Iwerks to design a new character for all-cartoon shorts, less expensive without live action. The new character became Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in 1927. The Oswald character and the cartoon series were owned by Winkler Productions, and when Disney ask for a budget increase, which was denied, he was stunned to learn that Winkler had poached most of Disney's animators. Disney vowed to never again work with a character he did not own. Disney asked Iwerks to create the next new character in secret, as the defecting animators had not yet left. Iwerks tried sketches of frogs, dogs, and cats, but none appealed to Disney. A defecting animator had drawn some sketches of mice around a photograph of Walt Disney years before. Inspired by the work Life magazine cartoonist Clifton Meek, who drew mouse characters since the 1910s, Iwerks and Disney sketched character that would be named Mickey Mouse. Iwerks drew the character, who resembled Oswald with round mouse ears instead of rabbit ears, and animated the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, Plane Crazy, by himself, mostly in secret behind a locked door until the other animators left for Winkler. Iwerks animated several more Mickey cartoons, including, Steamboat Willie, the first released in 1928. In 1929, Iwerks came to feel his contributions to the success of Mickey Mouse were under-appreciated. He resigned in 1930 and created his own studio with MGM that produced many cartoons through 1940, when he rejoined Disney and reconciled with Walt, becoming the head of the Special Processes and Camera department. He received an Academy Award for Technical Achievement in 1960. He continued to refine his visual effects processes for Mary Poppins, which earned him a second Oscar. He was also nominated for an Oscar for his work on Hitcock's The Birds. Iwerks and his wife Mildred Sarah Henderson had two sons, both who worked in the arts. His granddaughter is documentary film producer Leslie Iwerks. Iwerks died in 1971. His ashes are interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, which I have biked by several times. Credit: https://w.wiki/HYW6 Image: Public Domain https://w.wiki/KJEB I "joined a club ride" today, which is to say, I was glad to meet up with fond friends among the Santa Cruz club members at the start in Boulder Creek, and then at the first two regroups, briefly, because they had already waited for me long enough and started back up soon after I arrived. I am provably the slowest A rider in the club! I didn't mind riding the rest solo, since I mostly ride solo. It's just my nature. And the club organizes good rides, with well-researched routes! What a route today! I was nervous about riding the A route. I knew I could handle the distance and the climbing, but it'd be a big ride for me. And just what I needed, since I'm trying to work up to several supported centuries starting soon and running right into the fall. I rode this route at least once before, years ago. Big Basin is still recovering from the fire. I notice some of the "overlooks" on Skyline now overlook only trees that have grown up. So I didn't get to see Hangar One, which I visited yesterday. Most of today's climbing, 4,100 feet, was in the first 27 miles. That's a lot of work, 150 feet per mile. Today, by 25 miles, I started taking long breaks to stretch and eat. A Gu Gel and a Precision Fuel carb chew eventually resolved the lightheadness. That's when I realized I had forgotten to eat my second breakfast of overnight oats before starting the ride. Silly. The descent back to Boulder Creek was steep and challenging in places, but no close calls or careless drivers. I took over five hours, including stops. Comfortable temperatures until I got closed to the finish, hottest 84 degrees. I put my bike on the van's rack and drove to get my usual shrimp tacos from Taqueria Vallarta, this time in Felton. Now I feel fully recovered. I need to do more big rides like this more frequently.