Read Online The Book of Mouse: A Celebration of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse by Jim Korkis - Free Book Online

of Mickey Mouse. Entitled “Analysis of Mickey Mouse”, it was part of a series of lectures given by top Disney animators like Art Babbitt, Norm Ferguson, and Fred Spencer on the characters of Goofy, Pluto, and Donald Duck. From Moore’s lecture:
    Mickey seems to be the average young boy of no particular age; living in a small town, clean living, fun loving, bashful around girls, polite and clever as he must be for the particular story. In some pictures he has a touch of Fred Astaire; in others of Charlie Chaplin, and some of Douglas Fairbanks, but in all of these there should be some of the young boy.
    Moore went on to talk about the construction of the figure:
    The legs are better drawn tapering from the pant leg to the shoe, that is, larger at the shoe with the knee coming low on the leg. This also applies to the arms; the hands being fairly large.
    He also discussed handling Mickey in animation:
    The ears are better kept far back on the head and often act as a balance for the figure. However, do not shift them around on the head just to balance.
    The lecture included Moore’s commentary about Minnie Mouse:
    Minnie seems cuter with the skirts high on her body — showing a large expanse of her lace panties. This skirt should be starched and not hang limp.
    Unfortunately, Moore developed an alcohol problem that escalated in severity during the late 1940s. He was inducted as a Disney Legend in 1995.

Mickey Mouse Myaid="7K4G2">The 1935 League of Nations Medal
    For nearly eighty years, both the Disney Company and the world press believed as absolute fact that in June 1935 Mickey Mouse received a special gold medallion from the prestigious League of Nations as “an international symbol of Good Will”.
    That it would have been the only such special award ever given out by the organization during its entire existence should have aroused some suspicions.
    The story of the award was first reported in the June 18, 1935, edition of The Times of London. News organizations around the world picked up on the item and shared it as well. Roughly a week later, even Edna Disney, Walt’s sister-in-law, wrote in her personal diary: “Walt was presented with a League of Nations medal.”
    The award was proudly displayed at the Disney Studio for decades. Merchandising guru Kay Kamen used a photo of the medal front and center on the cover of the 1935 Mickey Mouse Merchandise Catalog along wh pictures of almost a dozen other awards won by Disney within the last twelve months.
    But as Disney historian Didier Ghez discovered while researching his book Disney’s Grand Tour (Theme Park Press 2013), it was all just a misunderstanding.
    Summarizing Ghez’s groundbreaking research, The League of Nations did not present a special award to Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse.
    The award was actually given by an organization called Comité International pour la Diffusion Artistique et Littéraire par le Cinématographe (C.I.D.A.L.C.), or in English, the International Committee for the Diffusion of Arts and Literature through the Cinema. At the gala event where the award was presented on the morning of June 25, 1935, attendees were shown eight Disney animated shorts and watched live-action performances by several French entertainers.
    Then, Walt was formally presented with a gold medal from Mlle. Hélène Vacaresco, President of C.I.D.A.L.C.
    Everything seemed to support the notion that C.I.D.A.L.C. was an official sub-committee of the League of Nations. Mlle. Vacaresco, its president, was the Romanian League of Nations delegate; M. Nicolas Pillat, Permanent General Secretary of C.I.D.A.L.C., was the Economic Counselor of the Romanian delegation. The members of the Executive Committee of the organization included Brazilian and Italian ambassadors, ministers, and famous writers. C.I.D.A.L.C. also claimed to act “in the spirit of the League of Nations”.
    Everyone, from Walt Disney and his family to the press, was convinced that C.I.D.A.L.C. was