DVC Winter 2007 magazine:Layout 1 - Disney Vacation Club
DVC Winter 2007 magazine:Layout 1 - Disney Vacation Club
DVC Winter 2007 magazine:Layout 1 - Disney Vacation Club
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<strong>DVC</strong> <strong>Winter</strong> <strong>2007</strong> <strong>magazine</strong>:<strong>Layout</strong> 1 12/18/07 9:14 AM Page 20<br />
vault disney<br />
by <strong>Disney</strong>-history expert Jim Korkis<br />
s e v e n l u c k y s e c r e t s o f o s w a l d t h e l u c k y r a b b i t<br />
Despite what Walt said, it didn’t all begin with a mouse.<br />
The <strong>Disney</strong> Brothers Studio started in 1923 with a live-action<br />
character named Alice (portrayed by Virginia Davis) interacting<br />
with animated animals in a popular series of 56 cartoons. Looking<br />
for new challenges that would showcase the growing skills of<br />
his animation staff, Walt agreed, in 1927, to produce a new series<br />
of cartoons featuring a rabbit character for Charles Mintz at<br />
Universal Studios.<br />
Later, after a year of producing the successful Oswald the<br />
Lucky Rabbit cartoons, Walt traveled to New York to negotiate<br />
additional installments of the<br />
series, only to discover that the<br />
character and the cartoons<br />
were copyrighted by Mintz,<br />
who hired away Walt’s entire<br />
animation staff (except for Ub<br />
Iwerks) to produce another<br />
year of Oswald cartoons.<br />
Legend has it that, during<br />
that distraught train ride back<br />
to Hollywood, Walt came up<br />
with the idea of Mickey Mouse.<br />
The rest, as they say, is animation<br />
history.<br />
In 2006, The Walt <strong>Disney</strong><br />
Company regained the rights<br />
to Walt’s Oswald cartoons as<br />
part of a negotiation involving<br />
sportscaster Al Michael’s move<br />
from ABC/ESPN’s “Monday<br />
Night Football” to Universalowned<br />
NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.” Unfortunately, of the 26<br />
Oswald cartoons Walt produced, only about a dozen still exist<br />
today.<br />
Some of those cartoons will become available in a Walt<br />
<strong>Disney</strong> Treasures DVD on Dec. 11, so as a special treat for <strong>Disney</strong><br />
<strong>Vacation</strong> <strong>Club</strong> Members, I’ve dug up seven lucky Oswald secrets<br />
that you might not find among the DVDs’ bonus materials.<br />
1. Just as a magician pulls a rabbit from a hat, Oswald’s<br />
name was pulled from a hat.<br />
The name reportedly was selected by P.D. Cochrane, the<br />
head of Universal Studios’ Publicity Department. He gathered<br />
suggestions from office staffers, and drew a name out of a hat<br />
filled with submissions. Diane <strong>Disney</strong> Miller (Walt’s daughter)<br />
confirmed years later that the name was, indeed, pulled from a<br />
hat, which explains why Oswald the Lucky Rabbit didn’t follow<br />
Walt <strong>Disney</strong> followed up the studio-criticized “Poor Papa”<br />
with the warmly received “Trolley Troubles.”<br />
the animation and comic strip convention of using alliteration in<br />
a name (like Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck).<br />
2. Universal rejected the first Oswald cartoon Walt <strong>Disney</strong><br />
created.<br />
Executives criticized the first installment, “Poor Papa,”<br />
believing that the Oswald character wasn’t cute or likeable<br />
enough. The memo from Universal included the phrase: “With<br />
the exception of Chaplin, important movie comedians are neat<br />
and dapper chaps.”<br />
Undaunted, Walt and Ub<br />
Iwerks redesigned the character<br />
and made another called<br />
“Trolley Troubles,” inspired by<br />
Fontaine Fox’s “Toonerville<br />
Trolley,” a popular comic strip<br />
at the time. The cartoon includes<br />
a scene in which Oswald<br />
removes and rubs his foot for<br />
good luck. After all, he’s blessed<br />
with four lucky rabbit’s feet.<br />
The cartoon proved to be<br />
good luck for Walt, as Universal<br />
execs were impressed and<br />
gave the series the green light.<br />
(Mintz, incidentally, later released<br />
the once-criticized<br />
“Poor Papa” to theaters after<br />
Walt left the series.)<br />
3. The fiery temper and short<br />
stature of an animator on the early Oswald cartoons inspired<br />
the Warner Brothers animated character Yosemite Sam.<br />
Animation Legend Friz Freleng, who directed many Looney<br />
Tunes cartoons and was the inspiration for Yosemite Sam, animated<br />
the “Trolley Troubles” scene in which Oswald takes off his<br />
foot. In an interview I conducted with Freleng later in his career, he<br />
recalled thinking, “‘What do I show when his foot’s taken off? Do I<br />
show a bone in there or what?’ And Walt joked about it, and of<br />
course, he had never thought about it either. Nobody had thought<br />
of it.” (In the cartoon, the foot pops off and pops back on.)<br />
4. Oswald was the first <strong>Disney</strong> character to have<br />
merchandising.<br />
Universal marketed several Oswald items, including a five<br />
cent marshmallow-and-chocolate candy bar made by the Vogan<br />
Candy Corporation of Portland, Ore. The company produced<br />
page 19<br />
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