HOW do you do? My name is Mortimer Mouse – Mickey for short. When I was very young I shared a Chicago office with an equally young man named Walter Elias Disney. Walt – that’s what every body calls him – is my oldest friend. I used to keep his desk in order, and see to it that the other mice didn’t gorge themselves on cheese and crackers.
[img]That’s me in front of the trophy shelf. If I look casual, it’s because we’ve already won 22 Oscars.[/img]
[img]Walt and Pluto deserved a ride on the old-fashioned steam-powered train, after they finished scenes for the Disneyland show, A Story Of Dogs.[/img]
[img]There goes Donald, interrupting Walt again (that duck has no manners). He wants a plug for the television program about his career, The Story Of Donald Duck.[/img]
Those were good times for me, but they were bad times for Walt. He had just come back from the first World War where he had served in France as an ambulance driver. (The Army never did know he had lied about his age and was only 16 when he went over.) He was trying to make a living as a cartoonist, baby photographer, and just about anything else he could think of.
But Chicago wasn’t particularly interested in Walt’s talents – nor in mine for that matter – so he packed his bags and set up shop in Hollywood. The movie industry was so young then, it hadn’t even learned to talk. Walt and his brother Roy started turning out movies about Alice In Cartoonland (modeled after you-know-who) and Oswald The Rabbit (a rather silly character who was never particularly fond of mice). They weren’t doing too well, but Walt evidently thought it was well enough, because in 1925 he married the pretty girl who worked in our office, Lillian Bounds. And in a way it was Lillian who made me immortal.
[img]Bet that cute 3-day-old colt Walt is fondling gets a star part in Frontierland show in a year or two.[/img]
[img]Walt has no time for old-fashioned transportation. This busy guy rides a helicopter to work every day.[/img]
[img]Can you blame Disney for being proud of the Sleeping Beauty Castle which will be the Fantasyland entrance?[/img]
It all happened one day back in 1927. Walt, who was temporarily out of business because of an argument with his financial backer, was taking a train trip with Lillian. He was trying desperately to think of a new idea for a cartoon, but everything had been used before. Suddenly he remembered me. “Mortimer Mouse!” he exclaimed. “Not Mortimer,” said Lillian. “How about Mickey?” And there I was – on the threshold of becoming the most famous mouse in the world.
I came into movies just as they started to talk and when Steamboat Willie (in which I played the captain) was released, the critics went wild. When they saw me rescue Minnie from that ferocious cat, Pegleg Pete, they cheered and applauded and wanted to know where I had been all their lives.
All over the world the reaction was the same. The League Of Nations gave me their stamp of approval. Madame Tussaud immortalized me in wax. Even the Encyclopedia Britannica wrote an article about me. When Franklin Roosevelt was in the White House, I was a constant visitor. Mussolini ordered command performances. The only person who didn’t like me was Hitler – and with good reason. When the Allies invaded France in June, 1944, the code word for the entire operation was ‘Mickey Mouse.’
[img]Walt’s been dreaming about Disneyland for 20 years. Located on 160 acres in California’s Orange County it will also include Recreation Land for circuses, a World Of The Future with a Space Terminal and Small Town, U.S.A. of 1900.[/img]
BUT enough about me. What I really started to tell you about is my fabulous boss. In the years that followed Steamboat Willie, Walt had his ups and downs, but no matter how ‘down’ he was to start with, he always came out ‘up.’ He made full-length cartoons like the Three Little Pigs and Snow White. He made movies with live characters like Treasure Island and his latest, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, The Living Desert and The Vanishing Prairie that tell all about real animals. And now he’s even gone into television, bringing all his varied talents to an even wider audience. Of all his ventures, I think I enjoy the last one most because it goes hand-in-hand with the building of Disneyland.
Walt’s been dreaming about Disneyland for 20 years. It’s a 60-acre-park like a world’s fair or a city from The Arabian Nights – a wonderful place! You hop into an old-fashioned steam-powered train and you’re in a world of fantasy.
There’s Smalltown, U.S.A. – as it was at the turn of the century – with everything in it, from an old-fashioned emporium, to a rooming house (Room & Board – $2.50 a Week). There’s the World Of The Future with a Space Terminal, where you can board a passenger rocket and take a realistic, scientifically-exact round-trip flight to the moon. There’s Recreation Land for circuses, ice pageants, egg rolling at Easter and fireworks on the Fourth of July.
My favorite is Fantasyland, populated by all the Never-Never characters you’ve ever dreamed about. Then there’s Frontierland, the kind of place where Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett once roamed. And finally there’s Adventureland, where you can explore places like Tahiti or India and see the animals who live there.
Disneyland, as I said, is closely linked with Walt’s weekly ABC-TV shows. Most of the TV films are shot there. I’ve been in several of them, and so have all my old friends – Minnie, Pluto, and Donald Duck. TV critics loved us, and right from the start we’ve received one of the highest ratings any show has ever had – which is most important because it means the public likes us too. Walt’s been showered with verbal bouquets and was given a TV award on the basis of only one show. (Not that he needs any more awards – he already has 22 Oscars.)
As for the future – well, even though I consider myself Walt’s best friend, I don’t believe I could make any predictions about him. Let’s face it. He’s a genius. And who can tell what a genius will do next?
