The Arrival of Mickey Mouse

After watching the video, think of questions regarding the following topics. As always, they can either be
questions whose answers you know or don't know.
Topics
 Walt loses Oswald the Rabbit and most of his staff
 Marceline, Missouri
 Creating Mickey Mouse
 The premiere of Steamboat Willie and its reception

Questions
Transcript

Narrator: Charles Mintz, Margaret Winkler's new husband and business partner, saw an opportunity --
emboldened by the knowledge that he owned the rights to Oswald, and the Disney brothers did not.
Neal Gabler, Biographer: Ub Iwerks comes to Walt Disney and says, "Walt, I've been approached by
Charles Mintz to essentially leave you and to go to work for Mintz. And I'm not the only one. All of the
animators have. But they haven't told you."
Steven Watts, Historian: Disney doesn't believe it. He just sort of pooh-poohs the whole thing and
doesn't really believe Ub Iwerks, who says, "No, there's a problem brewing here."
Narrator: Walt went to New York in February of 1928 with big hopes for a new contract from Mintz.
But it only took a few days for Disney to realize that Iwerks had been right -- Mintz had already
poached almost all of Disney's artists except for Ub, and the distributor told Walt he was going to go
on making the Oswald Cartoons without him.
Sarah Nilsen, Film Historian: Things are unfolding that most people would understand and Disney
comes into it shockingly naive. It was pretty clear that people were unhappy around him, that he was
pretty oblivious to that. He's very driven by his vision, and, when these kind of business failings occur,
he is completely caught off guard.
Narrator: When Disney boarded the train for the trip back to Los Angeles, he was despondent. Almost
all of his team had abandoned him. He had no distributor, no Oswald, and very little money in the
bank.
Don Hahn, Animator: Oswald the Rabbit gets taken away from him like a kid taking your lunch money.
They were looking the other direction and Oswald was gone.
Narrator: It was a long cross-country ride for Disney. The train made stops at most of the big cities
along the way and blew through countless other small towns on the line. One of them was Marceline,
Missouri. Disney had first seen Marceline at the age of four, when his father had fled the big city of
Chicago and moved him, his mother, his three older brothers, and his baby sister to a little farmstead
there. It was a place Disney never forgot.
Steven Watts, Historian: Walt was living in the country, on the edge of this town, and he was
surrounded by nature. He could romp through the woods and run through the fields. There were farm
animals around, and he loved animals -- had a pet dog, pigs, cows, horses.
Sarah Nilsen, Film Historian: Marceline represents really the one moment in his childhood where he
was a child, the place where he really was allowed to be free, where he wasn't being told what to do
by his dad.
Ron Suskind, Writer: Marceline was this seemingly idyllic place hitting Disney at a certain age. You
know, the rhythm and the beat of the place is just right for a kid. It's like the last breath of something
that seems to resemble a traditional childhood.
Narrator: The Disney family business was a tough go: the margins were always slim, and Elias wasn't
much of a farmer. Just five years after they arrived, Disney's father announced that the family was
pulling up stakes and heading back to the city.
Walt Disney (archival audio): My dad sold the farm, but then he had to auction all the stock and
things. And it was in the cold of the winter, and I remember Roy and myself going out and going all
around to the different little towns and places, tacking up these posters of the auction.
Neal Gabler, Biographer: Walt Disney once said that he'll never forget his days in Marceline and
almost everything important that happened to him happened in Marceline. But I think that has to
include also the losing of Marceline.
Narrator: When Walt and Lillian arrived at Union Station in Los Angeles in mid-March 1928, Ub Iwerks
detected none of his friend's trademark good cheer and enthusiasm. He looked like he'd just run into
a "stone wall," Ub would say.
Neal Gabler, Biographer: Coming from the Disney family, where his father had suffered so many
successive failures, I think you can only imagine the impact that had on Walt Disney. Failure was a big
thing in the Disney family.
Sarah Nilsen, Film Historian: Where his dad just continually gets more and more depressed, quits
basically, Walt steps up. Boom. You think Oswald was good? I can do much better than that. I'll show
you what I'm capable of doing.
Narrator: Disney held daily brainstorming sessions with Roy and Ub and a few other loyalists who had
not signed with Mintz. Intent on dreaming up a bankable new character -- and one they would own --
Disney's skeleton team scoured popular magazines for inspiration, bounced ideas off one another, and
drew figures on their sketchpads... until something began to emerge.
"Pear-shaped body, ball on top, a couple of thin legs," Iwerks later explained. "You gave it long ears,
and it was a rabbit. Short ears, it was a cat. With an elongated nose, it became a mouse." Walt
suggested they name him Mortimer. Lillian thought that was terrible and came up with Mickey. As
with Oswald, Ub took charge of the mouse's look. Walt gave him his personality.
Carmenita Higginbotham, Art Historian: He doesn't have the financial backing to support what it is
he's doing. He wants to be a bigger voice than he is. And it's a perfect metaphor him being this small
mouse, this seemingly insignificant figure or individual within this big industry that he wants to break
into.
Narrator: Disney was unable to find a distributor willing to take a chance on his first two Mickey
shorts, but Walt refused to give up on his mouse. At a meeting with Roy one day, as the tiny staff
worked up a third -- and still unsold -- Mickey Mouse cartoon, Walt suddenly blurted out, "We'll make
them over with sound!"
Sarah Nilsen, Film Historian: "How can I do something better with animation than what everybody
else is doing?" He's always the person looking for new technology. He's always the person trying to
find the newest invention to make animation better.
Eric Smoodin, Film Historian: At the time, producing a soundtrack in synch with and music that makes
sense with the action on screen is very difficult. This was a very precise and intricate process that
Disney had to think through. And also it's unclear that the money it costs to make a sound film can
possibly pay off with tickets sold.
Narrator: Disney saw no good option but to take the chance. He headed back to New York and signed
a quick deal with the licensor of one of the most advanced sound systems in town. Walt didn't have
enough money in the bank to pay for the recording sessions, so he wired Roy to do whatever he had
to, to get the cash. He told his brother to sell his beloved Moon Roadster if needed.
Stuck in New York to oversee the sound work, Walt trolled desperately for a distributor. He carried his
reels from one office to another for three long months -- and came up empty. He did manage to
secure a two-week run at the Colony Theater -- Broadway and 53rd. Steamboat Willie premiered on
November 18, 1928.
Mickey Mouse, Steamboat Willie (archival): [whistling along to music]
Narrator: The crowd at the Colony Theater was in thrall. People heard sound in pictures before, but
never like this. The music and sound effects were part of the gags. "It knocked me out of my seat," one
New York reporter wrote. A few audiences begged the projectionist to delay the start of the feature
and re-run Steamboat Willie.
Tom Sito, Writer: Steamboat Willie was such a huge hit, and it gave Disney Studio a really sort of a
preeminence, where suddenly this company is now like taking a step to the front ranks. This upstart
from the West Coast just erupts in the middle of everybody with this amazing character.
Mickey Mouse (archival): [singing]
Narrator: Mickey was a multi-talented charmer -- a dancer, a comedian, a singer, and within months,
never mind he was just a cartoon, Mickey Mouse was the newest Hollywood celebrity.
Mickey Mouse (archival): [finishes singing]
Narrator: While the country slid toward economic disaster in 1930, the fame of the Disney mouse just
kept growing, as did Mickey's standing as the archetype of the American can-do spirit.
Carmenita Higginbotham, Art Historian: Mickey Mouse is scrappy. Mickey Mouse is a survivor. Mickey
Mouse is somebody during the years of the Depression who takes a limited number of skills and a
limited number of resources and he always ends up on top.
Ron Suskind, Writer: Mickey's a little bit in your face.
Mickey Mouse (archival): Howdy-do!
Ron Suskind, Writer: Mickey's like, "Hey. I'm smart. I can do anything. I get into trouble but I get out of
it. I'm sort of rebellious." You know, "I live by my own rules." He's an adolescent dream is what he is --
rebelling and making it work. That's Mickey.
Steven Watts, Historian: Walt Disney was certainly not a social theorist. He certainly didn't think
through the problems of the Depression. But what Disney did do was to have a kind of instinctive,
impulsive feel for the problems and the hopes of ordinary people.
Sarah Nilsen, Film Historian: There's always mishap. There's always sort of the slapstick-y bit that
interferes with his success, and then he triumphs and he wins at the end. And he usually gets the girl,
too.