Published: August 29, 2008 12:30 pm         

‘My first watch just keeps on ticking’

ON SECOND THOUGHT

By Carol Ferguson



Our recent gasoline bill contained a surprise.

Actually there were two surprises, but we won’t get into a discussion about the price of gasoline.

Inside the envelope, along with the usual sales come-ons for jewelry, cameras, luggage and what-have-you, was a leaflet that brought back childhood memories: “Keep time in style with genuine Disney Mickey Mouse Watches for men, women and children.”

Clearly they’re still popular.

The first wristwatch I ever owned was the classic Mickey Mouse watch designed in the early 1930s. Mickey’s arms tracked the minutes and hours, but unlike the sweep second hand in this current version, mine had a small rotating dial inset in the watch’s face. On the dial were three little mice who chased each other in a circle, keeping track of the seconds.

I still have the watch but it no longer runs. A reliable watchmaker once told me it would require all new works — hand-made, since the Ingersoll Company was out of business and nothing current could be fit inside the case. He cautioned that the cost would be quite high, so I put the watch away and wore it only occasionally as a conversation piece, which invariably made people smile.

A few years ago a “1933 Tribute Watch” made its appearance in Disney stores around the country, and my daughter gave me one as a Christmas gift. Except for the fact that it is battery operated, it is exact in every detail, even to the “revolving mice” second hand and the distinctive metal band.

What amazes me is the enduring popularity of the Mickey Mouse character which can be found on shirts, Halloween costumes, birthday party supplies and dinnerware. Mickey is also the official greeter at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

Kids today may know Shrek and the Simpsons, but Mickey Mouse is the grandfather of all animated characters. He made his first appearance in a 1928 movie short titled “Plane Crazy,” followed by “The Gallopin’ Gaucho.” Walt Disney, Mickey’s creator along with animator Ub Iwerks (his actual name), couldn’t find a distributor for either one. The third short, “Steamboat Willie,” is considered to be Mickey’s debut because it was the first to be distributed. And when sound was added, Walt Disney himself provided the original voice of Mickey.

This wasn’t the first cartoon to feature a soundtrack connected to the action, but in earlier cartoons by other studios, the sound was not synchronized to the action. According to an Internet source, Disney had the sound in “Steamboat Willie” recorded with a “click track that kept the musicians on the beat.”

At first the character was to be known as Mortimer Mouse, but Disney’s wife thought this was a poor choice, and the name was changed to Mickey.

Readers surely remember the popular Mickey Mouse Club which ran on TV from 1955 to 1959 with such Mouseketeers as Annette Funicello and Bobby Burgess. It was revived in the 1970s and again in the 1990s. The latter shows were the starting point for such stars as Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake.

The original Mickey Mouse Clubs, however, began in 1929 and were tied in with movie theaters across the United States. By 1932 the clubs had one million members, and continued until 1935 when Disney began to phase them out due to administrative problems.

Disney received a special Academy Award in 1932 for the creation of Mickey Mouse. On Nov. 18, 1972, in honor of Mickey’s 50th anniversary, he became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard. Mickey Mouse was featured on a U.S. postage stamp in 2004, and on New Year’s Day 2005, he was the grand marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade.

Walt Disney died Dec. 15, 1966, a few years before the opening of Disney World.

Disney characterized Mickey Mouse in this way: “Mickey Mouse, to me, is a symbol of independence. He was the means to an end. He popped out of my mind onto a drawing pad on a train ride from Manhattan to Hollywood at a time when business fortunes of my brother Roy and myself were at a lowest ebb, and disaster seemed right around the corner. Born of necessity, the little fellow literally freed us of immediate worry.

“All we ever intended for him, or expected of him, was that he should continue to make people everywhere chuckle with him and at him. We didn’t burden him with any social symbolism; we made him no mouthpiece for frustrations or harsh satire. Mickey was simply a little personality assigned to the purposes of laughter.”

I think I’ll wear my watch tomorrow; it always makes me smile.



Ferguson is a feature writer for the Herald-Banner.