Mickey Mouse on his Birthday
Disney’s politics in the era of the New Deal and FDR (from the NYTimes Book Review)
Mickey Mouse was introduced to the world on November 18, 1928, in “Steamboat Willie,” the first cartoon talkie. In 1978 the David McKay Company, noting that it was “Mickey’s first hardcover publisher,” reproduced from the color originals the first three books in which the mouse appeared. “Jumping Juniper,” Mickey would have said.
In some circles a Disney book may still be unwelcome. It has become routine to deride Disney Inc. This wasn’t true in the old days, in the days when Janet Flanner went to meet the master, when Jerome Kern would say that Disney “has made the 20th Century’s only contribution to music,” when Toscanini would ask to see him and Sergei Eisenstein would proclaim him an American genius. H. G. Wells used to brag that he introduced Chaplin to Disney.
Disney had a special affection for his own little tramp, the mouse with white gloves. For 20 years he supplied Mickey’s squeaky falsetto. And it was, no doubt, Disney who thought of merchandising Mickey to McKay.
