Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008
Happy 80th Birthday, Mickey Mouse!
It was 80 years ago today - November 19th - according to the story, Walt was on a train doodling on the back on an envelope and sketched the mouse called Mickey.
Walt was originally was going to call him Mortimer, but Walt’s wife Lily suggested Mickey instead.
Walt had a character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit that he lost due to a poor contract with his distributor. Walt had to come up with a new idea - and quick - to keep the studio going.
While Walt may have sketched some ideas, the reality is that it was probably his artist, Ub Iwerks who came up with the new mouse creation.
One of Walt’s famous quotes, when he discussed the Disney empire was…
What signature product, service, feature, or character do YOU have in place that is sturdy enough to launch your empire?
Enjoy the Mickey Mouse history clip below…
Topic(s): uncommon knowledge
One reaction so far
It’s amazing how things begin and where they can go from there.
It may have started with a mouse but Walt was obviously was full of ideas and the foresight to take it further and create a mouse that a 3 year old in Japan recognises.
Bill Bowerman of Nike started with a waffle iron and a design idea and started playing around with sneakers.
People are amazing, they can start with nothing and build their own empires. If only …
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