Tag: mickey mouse

Calendar: December 5

A Year: Day to Day Men: 5th of December

Amazon River Boat

The fifth of December in 1901 marks the birthdate of Walter Elias Disney. He was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur who was a pioneer of the American animation industry. Interested in drawing from an early age, Disney was employed as a commercial illustrator at the age of eighteen. In the early 1920s, he relocated to California and co-founded with his brother Roy the Disney Brothers Studio, now the Walt Disney Company. 

Disney developed, with the design work of American animator Ubbe Ert Iwerks, the character of Mickey Mouse in 1928. In the early years, he provided the voice for this highly popular character. As the studio grew, Disney introduced synchronized sound, full-color three-strip Technicolor, technical developments for cameras, and the introduction of full-length cartoons. The results of these additions can be seen in the Disney Studio’s many popular animated films. 

The first full-length traditionally animated feature film was the 1937 musical fantasy “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, which was based on the Brothers Grimm 1812 German fairy tale. “Pinocchio” and the animated musical anthology film “Fantasia” followed in 1940. “Dumbo”, released in 1941, was based on a storyline about a young elephant with big ears by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl. This film is one of the shortest animated features for the studio; it was also one of the few features to use wateroolor paint to render the backgrounds.

 In 1942, the Disney Studio released “Bambi”, based on the 1923 novel by Austrian author Felix Salten. Great lengths were taken to animate the deer more realistically; reference studies were made at the Los Angeles Zoo as well as in the Vermont and Maine forests. The film received three Academy Award nominations and was inducted into the National Film Registry. Following World War II, Disney produced both new animated and live-action films, among which were “Cinderella” and the 1964 “Mary Poppins”. 

In the 1950s, Walt Disney expanded into the amusement park industry and opened Disneyland in Anaheim, California in July of 1955. To fund the large project, he diversified into television with “The Mickey Mouse Club” and “Walt Disney’s Disneyland”. Disney was also involved in planning for the 1959 Moscow Fair, the 1960 Winter Olympics, and the 1964 New York World’s Fair. Another theme park, Disney World, started development in 1965; the center of the park was to be a new type of city, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, or EPCOT. 

A shy, self-depreciating man with an outgoing public image, Walt Disney died of lung cancer in December of 1966, five years before the opening of Disney World. 

The Glass Insulator

Blue Colored Hemingray CD257 “Mickey Mouse Ears” Glass Insulator

The Hemingray Glass Company operated between 1848-1972 and was the largest manufacturer of glass insulators in the world. This five inch high cable-style insulator by Hemingray was produced from 1910 to 1940. It was used in secondary power distribution and had a voltage rating of  6,600 volts. They were produced in two versions: a regular saddle groove (as shown) and a wide saddle groove for heavier gauge wire. It was patented on June 17, 1890.

Mickey Mouse Christmas

Walt Disney’s 1932 “Mickey’s Good Deed”

Early in his career, Mickey Mouse starred in the 1932 Christmas themed “Mickey’s Good Deed”, an animated black and white short film that was released during the Depression years. This film has resurfaced throughout the years and was re-issued to theaters in 1974. Released just prior to Christmas on the seventeenth of December in 1932, “Mickey’s Good Deed” was directed by Burt Gillett who had overseen many of Disney’s short subjects, including the 1933 “Three Little Pigs”. 

The voice of Mickey Mouse was provided by Walt Disney himself, a role he performed until 1947. The voice of Plute in this film was done by Pinto Colvig, known for being the original voice of Goofy. Although originally in black and white, it was eventually colorized for future showings. Released in home video compilations, it was also retitled for some releases as “Mickey Plays Santa” and “Mickey’s Lucky Break”. 

In addition to the warmth and humor in “Mickey’s Good Deed”, there are also scenes involving orphaned kittens in a dilapidated house and a scene in which Mickey is forced to sell Pluto to a family of pigs so he can care for the kittens. Of course there is a happy ending as Pluto runs from the pigs’ house carrying their turkey dinner, and later emerges through the snow to his Mickey. As they eat their turkey dinner, Mickey declares “Merry Christmas” to Pluto.