MICKEY MOUSE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 234, 15 September 1934, Page 10

MICKEY MOUSE

His Evolution —d Fame

WALT DISNEY’S CAREER

Douglas Fairbanks on his world tour endeared himself to cannibals and headhunters by showing them Mickey Mouse movies; tribes of kaffirs in South Africa

recently declined to accept any cakes of soap which did not bear the image of Mickey, just as formerly they declined coins which did not bear the

image of Queen Victoria, remarks Alva Johnston, of Mickey Mouse in the

” Woman's Homo Companion.” llis fifth birthday on September 28 last, occasioned column-long editorials in English newspapers. Tn Germany Hitler has denounced young norrlles ri,r wearing Miekey Mouse emblems instead of the Swastika. The animated cartoon is the life of the movie business in Japan where the feature picture is often cut to pieces because of the Oriental prejudice against scenes whore lovers are shown "frying in the deep fat of passion.” Mickey’s creator is Walter Disney, a small eager-faeed ehap of .32, a little bewildered but wholly unspoiled by bis sudden rise to fame. Disney began to draw almost as soon as he could walk. In 1917 he attended High Schoo] and studied cartooning at night. Then a pure accident started him on animated drawings. By answering an advertisement he secured a position with a company which made motion picture advertising cartoons. The animation was very jittery, so Walt induced his company to get away from the Mexican jumping bean effect by drawing a fresh cartoon for each photograph. This is the method used to-day, nearly 15,000 separate drawings being made for each Mickey Mouse film.

When Disney was 19, ho made bis first independent production, an animated weekly saga of the news events of Kansas City. Its success inspired him to attempt Little Red Hiding Hood, on which he worked for six months, using his father’s garage as a studio. Other children's tales followed and Walt, just 21, formed a co-operation, hired a staff of artists am] started on a large scale; but his distributing agency went bankrupt and failed to pay him for his film. This crash made him decide to go to Hollywood. There ho and his brother Koy, who furnished a capital of 250 dollars, set up a studio. Finally an Eastern distributor became interested and Walt started bis Alice in Cartoonland series—a flesh and blood heroine with a supporting company of pen and ink characters. After making 60 Alice films, Disney produced Oswald the Rabbit. Oswald was a great success and Disney asked a higher price for his work. The distributor's reply was to raid Disney’s staff and start bis own Oswalds.

After the Oswald raid Disney decided to make a new series and distribute it through some other company. It occurred to Walt that if he used a Mouse hero he had a made-to-order villain in the eat, with unlimited dramatic possibilities. Miekey made his debut in "Steamboat Willie” on September 28, 1928, and was an enormous success.

When making the first Mickey Mouse picture Disney threw in all the wild gags he could think of. Later Mickey began to assume a definite, matured personality and Disney would reject good comedy ideas, saying, "Mickey isn’t like that.” He is not permitted to be cruel or arrogant except with villains. If he is vainglorious one moment be is deflated the next. Extreme vigilance is exercised to keep him from becoming a smart Alee. Disney has, however, succeeded in introducing occasional heart throbs. Once for example, when Mickey Mouse was elk-hunting he shot his dog. which happened by a curious set of circumstances to be wearing antlers, but the artist did not dare to tamper with the feelings of his public. The tragic note was quickly silenced. The dog opened an eye to_ reassure the audience as Mickey rushed into a closeup and cried, "Is there a doctor in the house?”