Cinema: Regulated Rodent

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Cartoonist Walter Disney, 30, thin and dark, gives his collaborators no publicity. He is the originator and so far as the world knows the sole creator of Mickey Mouse's doings. Eleven years ago he was working on the Kansas City Star, drifted to Hollywood where he produced pictures combining people and cartoons. When the sound device was invented he originated his famed rodent, devising a method to make the Mickey Mouse musical scores synchronize perfectly with the action. It takes from 6,000 to 7,000 drawings to make one reel (650—750 ft.) of Mickey Mouse film. Walter Disney pro duces 26 films a year, 13 Mickey Mouse cartoons, 13 Silly Symphonies. Like Charlie Chaplin, Mickey Mouse is understood all over the world because he does not talk. The Germans call him Michael Maus, the French Michel Souris, the Spaniards Miguel Ratonocito and Miguel Pericote, the Japanese Miki Kuchi. Although his Christian name might be understood as an affront to Irish dignity, he has been respectfully reviewed in the Irish Statesman by Poet-Painter George ("AE") Russell. Great lover, soldier, sailor, singer, toreador, tycoon, jockey, prizefighter, automobile racer, aviator, farmer, scholar, Mickey Mouse lives in a world in which space, time and the laws of physics are null. He can reach inside a bull's mouth, pull out his teeth and use them for castanets. He can lead a band or play violin solos; his ingenuity is limitless; he never fails. Best of Mickey Mouse competitors is Koko the Clown, of Fleischer Bros.' Out-of-the-Inkwell Series. Others: Paul Terry's Aesop's Fables, Charles Mintz's Krazy Kat, War ner Bros.' Looney Tunes.

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