MICKEY IS SEVEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 230, 28 September 1935, Page 5 (Supplement)

MICKEY IS SEVEN.

WORLD'S PLAYMATE.

AMAZING LIST Or TRIUMPHS,

At an age when most children are just beginning to see the width of the horizon, when they are getting their first hint of the fact that there's a big world outside their own, Mickey Mouse can look back to what amounts to a whole lifetime of achievement.

To-day this brain child of Walt Disney celebrates his seventh birthday. For all the things that have happened to Mickey he might well be 70. For all the wisdom lie has expressed he might be as old as Methuselah. At the age of seven Mickey Mouse puts to shame all the child prodigies that have ever warmed fond parents' hearts. Mickey Mouse lias had more honours nhowered upon him than many an international or historical hero. How many youngsters of seven, for example, can claim the distinction of space in the Encyclopaedia Britannica? How many children can claim recognition by the League of Nations ?

Ever since that day in 1928 when Mickey Mouse lirst came into this world in "Steamboat Willie" at the Colony Theatre in New York distinctions have been piling up on both him and his master. Diplomas, certificates, medals, cups, statuettes, testimonials —every conceivable type of recognition—have come to them in a steady stream.

The first symbol of this recognition came, strangely enough, in the form of a tailless cat, S'ent to Disney by the Lieutenant-Governor of the Isle of Man. The most recent manifestation, appropriately enough, was the gold medal presented to Disney by the League of Nations last July. Mickey Mouse is responsible for the award of a gold medal to Walt Disney by the American Art Dealers' Association, as ho is the cause of Disney's election to that select organisation of craftsmen, the British Art Workers' Guild. The National Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded a gold statuette to Disney on Mickey's account. The Poor Richard Achievement Medal, granted annually to an outstanding American for important deeds done, went to the creator of Mickey. He has been a subject for sculptors, painters and authors throughout the world.

There was that time when King George refused to attend a motion picture performance until he was assured that Mickey Mouse was on the programme. There was that occasion when Mickey Mouse, blown up to gigantic size, was utilised to welcome the Normandie after her maiden voyage across the Atlantic. And finally there is the miracle performed by Mickey Mouse. He was performing 011 the sound screen at the Manoir Richelieu Casino in Murray Bay Convalescent Home nearby. One patient, according to eye-witnesses, entered the Casino on crutches, navigating the aisles with considerable difficulty. During the Mickey Mouse showing he laid his crutches beneath the seats. For the next quarter of an hour lie forgot all about his affliction as he laughed at the antics of the famous star. When the show was over he got up and walked from the theatre, without even a liinp, leaving the crutches behind him. It is now Mickey the Miracle Mouse.