DISNEY IN LONDON

Evening Star, Issue 25956, 22 November 1946, Page 7

DISNEY IN LONDON

WANTS TO FIND LEPRECHAUN PRESSMEN SUSPECT LEG-PULL (N.24.P.A. Special Correspondent.! (Rec. 11 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 21. When Walt Disney, the famous creator of Mickey Mouse and Bambi, arrived in London this week and held a Press conference (at which he arrived 20 minutes late), he told a serious and expectant audience of reporters that he had come to find an Irish leprechaun and put him in a film. An audience of reporters is notoriously hard-boiled, and this one was left in considerable doubt as to whether it should take Disney seriously. One well-known reviewer went back to his office and wrote: “Stop it, Disney! A greater piece of hocus-pocus publicity has never been foisted upon a realistic world.” Leaving leprechauns for a few moments, Disney announced more

realistically that he intends to make films of those immortal English fairytale classics, ‘ The Wind in the Willows,’ ‘ Alice in Wonderland,’ and ‘ Peter Pan.’ He added, however, that he could not visualise Peter Pin, although he could very well imagine what a leprechaun would look like. He was recommended to spend an hour inspecting the statue olf Peter in the Kensington Gardens. David Low did Disney useful publicity service by drawing a cartoon about him in which he described a leprechaun as a “ fairy creature much chased about by mortals under the belief that he has a small crock of coal hidden somewhere.” The cartoon showed the Minister of Fuel and Power, Mr Shinwell, in the role of a leprechaun pursued by Low and Disney with butterfly nets. [ln Irish folklore leprechauns are small creatures generally appearing in the form of wrinkled old men. They are supposed to be of evil disposition, but by means of spells can be made to work for human beings or to discover hidden treasure.]