Founded in 1919, United Artists had little motivation to invest in short subjects during the silent era. Primarily organized as a distributor of independent features, the company was content to allow its exhibitors to book supporting shorts from distributors like Pathé or Educational. But as those distributors began to be taken over by the major studios, UA opted to dip its feet into the short-subject waters, too. The company soon scored a major coup by poaching Walt Disney from Columbia in 1931. Disney’s contract with UA proved to be enormously profitable for both parties, especially with the early success of The Three Little Pigs (1933), which grossed a quarter million on a $22,000 budget. When Disney left for a better deal with RKO in 1936, UA opted to follow broader MGM’s lead in prioritizing informational shorts, first with one season of the unpopular World Windows travelogues (1938-1939) and then, beginning in 1942, with the John Grierson-produced World in Action series of wartime topicals.