Cinema: Aesop's Gag

When Actor-Author John P. Wade saw the Walt Disney cartoon, Mickey's Polo Team, he sued Disney for a share of the film's profits. Alleged plagiarism: that the gag of the horses riding the riders had been lifted from Author Wade's skit, The Trainer's Nightmare. In court, attorneys for Cartoonist Walt Disney identified the device as a variation on "the reversal gag," easily traced it to Aesop. Said Superior Court Judge Thomas C. Gould, dismissing the suit and plagiarizing Ecclesiastes: ". . . It appears there is nothing new under the sun."

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