It was 1926, a time when feline cartoons seem to be the trend in entertainment. Charles Mintz, the producer and distributer for Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks’ live action series Alice’s Wonderland, wanted something new. Mintz approached Walt with the possibility of working with Universal Pictures in developing a new animation series. With the prospect of working with an iconic name, Walt was determined to create a new cartoon character that would rival the ever popular Felix the Cat; but that character was not Mickey Mouse! Enter Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
Oswald was revolutionary in his own right. He was feisty with a personality, which was unheard of at the time. Walt described Oswald, “Hereafter we will aim to [make] Oswald a younger, peppy, alert, saucy and venturesome, keeping him also neat and trim.” Oswald personified humans through his movements, actions, and humor. Apparently during one cartoon, Oswald stopped what he was doing to smooch his girlfriend…scandalous!
After viewing sketches of Oswald, Mintz signed a deal with Universal for 26 animated shorts to be created by Walt, Iwerks, and their team. They endured some growing pains with the first cartoon, but came back with a major hit. Oswald was a huge success! Pins and chocolate bars began to be sold throughout the country. Walt’s small team doubled to 22, as the animators cranked out the 26 shorts in less than 10 months.
By the start of 1928, rumors circulated that Mintz wanted to push Walt out and form his own studio. Walt didn’t believe it and decided to take a trip, with his wife Lillian, to New York in order to negotiate with Mintz face to face. Mintz acted shifty and avoided conversations regarding any business. Walt then realized something was up. He telegraphed Roy and asked him to have the animators sign their contracts immediately. Roy quickly informed Walt that the animators refused. After weeks of unsuccessful negotiations between Walt, Universal, and Mintz…Walt lost the rights to Oswald and walked away empty handed.
Well, not entirely empty handed. Can we just take a moment to appreciate this stunning picture of the young couple?! Alright, back to our story. On the long train ride home, the usually upbeat Walt, understandably felt dejected and angry. His team, all but Ub Iwerks, up and left him. We aren’t quite sure what his thought process was, but on that ride home, a new creation was born…Mortimer Mouse! Wait, who? Yup, good ole Mortimer would be Walt’s next success…even bigger than Oswald! Thankfully, Lillian straight up told Walt she did not like that name, it was “too sissy” and suggested Mickey. You go Lillian! You know the rest of the story. Mickey was a huge success…even bigger than Oswald.
Once home, Walt and Ub got to work on an illustration. From Ub: “Pear-shaped body, ball on top, couple of thin legs. You gave it long ears and it was a rabbit. Short ears, it was a cat. Ears hanging down a dog…With an elongated nose, it became a mouse.” The team quickly created three silent shorts. The first, Plane Crazy, was screened in front of test audience with dismal reviews and shelved. Next up, The Gallopin’ Gaucho– yup, I had never heard of it either. Apparently, Mickey’s beer drinking and cigarette smoking made him too similar to Oswald (mind blown!) and that short was also shelved. This left them with ONE MORE short. So Walt came up with a revolutionary idea, sound! Okay, so sound had been used in cartoons before, but essentially just as background noise without any organic relationship between the characters and actions. This third short was the first to use synchronized sound with movements and effects. Hello, Steamboat Willie– I know you have heard of this one! Steamboat Willie was directed and written by Walt & Ub, while all of the character voices were voiced by Walt himself.
The short had a test screening in front of family and friends. When recalling the audience’s reaction, Walt said, “When the picture was half finished, we had a showing with sound. A couple of boys could read music and one of them, Wilfred Jackson, could play a mouth organ. We put them in a room where they could not see the screen and arranged to pipe their sound into the room where our wives and friends were going to see the picture. The boys worked from music and sound effects score. After several false starts, sound and action got off with the gun. The mouth organist played the tune; the rest of us in the sound department blamed tip pans and blew side whistles in the beat. The synchronism was pretty close. The effect on our little audience was nothing less than electric. They responded almost instinctively to this union of sound and motion. I thought they were kidding me. So they put me in the audience and ran the action again. It was terrible, but it was wonderful! And it was something new!”
The film was completed and officially released November 18, 1928 to acclaimed praise! After the undoubtable success of Steamboat Willie, Walt’s team went back and added synchronized sound to their first two shorts, releasing them soon after. During that time, our ole pal Mickey, was a mouse of different sorts. It is far more than his animation that has changed over the years, but alas, we will save that story for another day.
It wouldn’t be until sometime in the 70s that November 18th was declared Mickey’s Birthday. I think it is safe to say, we are thankful for that back stabbing Mitnz, excuse me…entrepreneur Mitnz. For if he hadn’t stole, I mean claimed, Oswald, it would be hard to imagine what the Disney Brand would be like today. Personally, I think the world is far better with Mickey in it. In the words of Walt himself, “I hope that we never lose sight of one thing-that it was all started by a mouse.” Happy Birthday, Mickey! ❤️Tara
