The Walt Disney Company and starred in several Disney produced films. Ub Iwerks refined Disney's initial design of Mickey Mouse. Disney's first sound film "Steamboat Willie", a cartoon starring Mickey, was released on November 18, 1928 through Pat Powers' distribution company. It was the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon released, but the third to be created, behind "Plane Crazy" and "The Gallopin' Gaucho". "Steamboat Willie" was an immediate smash hit, and its initial success was attributed not just to Mickey's appeal as a character, but to the fact that it was the first cartoon to feature synchronized sound. Disney used Pat Powers' Cinephone system,
The Walt Disney Company Sword and the Rose" (1953), and "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1954). Disney ended its distribution contract with RKO in 1953, forming its own distribution arm, Buena Vista Distribution. In December 1950, Walt Disney Productions and the Coca-Cola Company teamed up for Disney's first venture into television, the NBC television network special "An Hour in Wonderland". In October 1954, the ABC network launched Disney's first regular television series. In 1954, Walt Disney used his "Disneyland" series to unveil what would become Disneyland, an idea conceived out of a desire for a place where parents and children could both have fun