Mickey Mouse Story

The world renowned Walt Disney is the creator of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, as well as the founder of Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Mickey Mouse receives credit for launching Walt Disney’s career in 1928 and is the official greeter of Disneyland and Walt Disney World. As Walt Disney once said, “ I hope that we never lose sight of one thing: that it was all started by a Mouse.”

Walt Elias Disney was born in Chicago, IL in 1901. Disney’s early years were spent on a farm in Missouri. He began drawing at an early age and sold his first sketches to neighbors at the age of seven. In high school, his drawing and photography skills were used for the school paper. At night he attended the Chicago Institute of Art.

Disney began his career as an advertising cartoonist in Kansas City in 1920. Back then, cartoon making was in its infancy and films were jerky, and in black and white. Disney wanted to improve upon the methods, so he read books to learn how leading New York animators worked. Shortly afterwards, he quit his job, formed a company called Laugh-O-gram and started making his own animated cartoons. When Disney’s main client declared bankruptcy, Disney was unable to pay his employees or the rent. In fact, he barely had enough money to feed himself and was forced to also declare bankruptcy.

In 1923, Walt Disney arrived in Hollywood with $40 in his pocket and a sketchbook. Walt Disney convinced his brother, Roy Disney, to join him as a partner in his new business. Roy’s job was to manage the financial side of the business and Walt’s job was to provide the creative talent. The Disney Brothers Studio was launched with $200 Roy had saved, $500 borrowed from an uncle, and $2,500 contributed by their parents. Their parents even had to mortgage their house to come up with the funds!

A New York film distributor by the name of M.J. Winkler, bought Disney’s early cartoons, which were the original versions of “Alice in Wonderland”. When the demand waned for the Alice series, Walt created a new character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. As Oswald’s popularity grew, Walt decided to negotiate a higher price for the contract. Unbeknownst to Walt, Charlie Mintz (M.J. Winkler’s husband) had recruited most of Walt’s staff by offering them more money and creative freedom. Walt also did not know that Charlie Mintz and Universal Pictures owned the legal rights to Oswald. Mintz demanded that Walt Disney give up his business and go to work for him, but Walt refused.

It was on this train ride back to Los Angeles from New York City that Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse. He knew he had to come up with a new character and created a mouse. (It is interesting to note that this mouse looked quite similar to Oswald the Rabbit. The main differences being Mickey Mouse had short round ears instead of long bunny ears, a longer nose, a long skinny mouse tail instead of a bunny tail, and skinnier legs and arms. The face, eyes, mouth and hairline were very similar.) Walt wanted to name the mouse character “Mortimer”, but his wife, Lilly, didn’t like that name and suggested “Mickey Mouse”.

Mickey Mouse made his debut to the general public in a film named “Steamboat Willie” on November 19, 1928, at the Colony Theatre in New York. This film also featured the first appearance of Minnie Mouse, as well as the world’s first use of fully synchronized sound in cartoons. Mickey and Minnie were instant hits. In fact, Mickey Mouse was so popular that over a million children joined the original Mickey Mouse Club between 1929 and 1932. The “Mickey Mouse Club” later became a popular children’s television series that aired on ABC from 1955 to 1959. The show featured talented kids called Mouseketeers who sang, danced, performed skits, and introduced special guests and Disney cartoons.

Other interesting Mickey Mouse historical tidbits:

The original voice of Mickey Mouse was Walt Disney.

The first Mickey Mouse comic strips were drawn by Ub Iweks and published in 1930.

A special Academy Award was given to Walt Disney for the creation of Mickey Mouse in 1932.

The first Mickey Mouse cartoon in color was “The Band Concert” in 1935.

The League of Nations awarded Walt Disney a medal for the creation of Mickey Mouse in 1935.

The League of Nations presented Walt Disney with a special medal in 1935, in recognition of the fact that Mickey Mouse was “a symbol of universal goodwill.”

Mickey Mouse’s favorite sayings were “Oh boy!”, “That sure is swell!”, “Gosh!”, “Aw, gee”, and “See ya soon!”.

Some famous quotes of Walt Disney on Mickey Mouse:

"Mickey Mouse, to me, is a symbol of independence. He was the means to an end. He popped out of my mind onto a drawing pad 20 years ago on a train ride from Manhattan to Hollywood at a time when business fortunes of my brother Roy and myself were at a lowest ebb, and disaster seemed right around the corner. Born of necessity, the little fellow literally freed us of immediate worry. He provided the means for expanding our organization to its present dimensions and for extending the medium of cartoon animation toward new entertainment levels. He spelled production liberation for us.”

"All we ever intended for him, or expected of him, was that he should continue to make people everywhere chuckle with him and at him. We didn’t burden him with any social symbolism, we made him no mouth piece for frustrations or harsh satire. Mickey was simply a little personality assigned to the purposes of laughter.”

Mickey Mouse is now a symbol of laughter and joy throughout the world. He is also one of the most well known, well loved characters of all times. We are all thankful to Walt Disney, America’s folk hero of the 20th century, for Mickey Mouse and all that Mickey represents.