I want to tell you right now that this Mickey Mouse is a great little fellow. If some people have to be just mice, while others can be screen stars, Mickey is entitled to be the latter and ride in Scootmobiles, live in a penthouse, and have his own private golf course. Because, with all his great success, Mickey Mouse has remained kind and simple. Under his new vest — and Mickey has a taste for loud vests which reminds one of Ray Long and Roy Howard to say nothing of O.O. McIntyre — beats a heart of gold. Nobody I have ever interviewed has been more receptive to my ideas or more willing to do things just the way I wanted them done. Mickey mouse, you know, was not always rich and famous. He has known what it means to be right down to the last rind. He has actually lived in tenements where they did not have as much as a piece of bacon, even on Christmas. And believe me, this great public idol, this mouse whose name has been billed over almost every other star in the business, has not forgotten it. I had never met Mickey Mouse. That may seem strange to you, knowing that I live in Hollywood, where screen stars are so plentiful they often get in your hair and you can't get away from them even if you wanted to. But Mickey Mouse, like Al Jolson, is very retiring. I have never seen him at a Hollywood party, he does not attend openings, he has never spoken over the radio, although at times I have thought I heard him over mine. […]
