This is a brief item in today's local newspaper ...
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His first spoken words were "Hot dogs, hot dogs!" Mickey Mouse said them 85 years ago this week. Although Walt Disney's most famous character (and later the mascot of the whole Disney empire) was first seen the year before in his official debut, the 1928 short Steamboat Willie, for his first eight little films Mickey was heard only to whistle, laugh, cry, and make other non-verbal noises. It wasn't until 1929's The Karnival Kid that the world's most famous mouse was finally heard to speak - or rather squeak - his first lines.
It turns out Mickey wasn't actually Disney's first character to make it big: that honour goes to "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" who debuted a year before Mickey, in 1927. However, after a dispute with Universal Pictures, Disney decided to set up on his own, quickly came up with his excitable mouse, and the rest is (and we can genuinely say this) history. The story goes that the inspiration for making Mickey a mouse was a tame mouse that Disney had on his desk at the office of his first cartoon business back in Kansas City, Missouri.
And who, you might be wondering, was the voice actor charged with uttering Mickey's first words? Well it was Disney himself who squeaked "Hot dogs, hot dogs!" He remained the voice of his most famous creation until 1946.
Canvas magazine, The New Zealand Herald
Saturday, 31 May, 2014