DVDizzy Forum

Posted: **Wed Feb 14, 2007 11:38 am**

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/myfox/page ... geId=3.2.1

CLEARWATER - Walt Disney sailed into fame and fortune with Steamboat Willie featuring Mickey Mouse.

Clearwater resident Steven Stein thinks he has Disney's original drawing of the famous character.

"Nobody else would have done anything this big of this character in the 1920's except Walt Disney," Stein claimed.

Stein says he paid a New York City thrift store $3 for the drawing in 1984, and he says he's spent many years and many dollars authenticating the artwork.

"I've had the ink test-dated. I've had the paper test-dated. The ink tests to the mid 1920's," he said.

That date would be after Disney created a character called Oswald the Rabbit, lost the rights to that creature, and came up with another one.

If the drawing Stein has does turn out to be Disney's first rendition of the Mickey character, his name was not yet Mickey; it was Mortimer. Disney's wife thought Mortimer Mouse was far too serious a name.

Stein claims the Disney Corporation has refused to even look at his drawing since he approached them in 1989.

"I've asked them many times to either see it, tell me why they don't think it is what it is, answer my evidence," he said.

Now Stein is taking Disney to court.

"I'm suing them for $50-million, the copyright on Mickey Mouse, and the right to tell the Walt Disney story," said Stein.

Stein believes somebody must have a copy of an old newsreel showing his drawing over the shoulder of a very young Walt Disney.

Perhaps his lawsuit will flush that film out, and prove he possesses one very valuable mouse.

Stein also claims there are markings on the back of his drawing in the handwriting of Walt Disney.

FOX 13 contacted the Walt Disney Corporation for comment on this story, but a spokesman has yet to issue a statement.

Anybody else remember the Simpsons episode "The Day the Violence Died"

I think this guy was sitting at home watching it and thought he would give it a shot.

Note the drawing is more like a 1950s Mickey Mouse than any early drawing.

Posted: **Wed Feb 14, 2007 11:42 am**

Mr. Toad wrote:Note the drawing is more like a 1950s Mickey Mouse than any early drawing.

Yeah, hard to believe that neither Fox nor this guy did enough research to figure that out.

Posted: **Wed Feb 14, 2007 11:49 am**

OK, he has a drawing... EVEN IF it was really done by Walt Disney, in that time frame, how does he figure he gets 50 million, and the copyright to Mickey???

Posted: **Wed Feb 14, 2007 11:49 am**

I'm a bit non-plussed by this report.

Even if it is genuine, what exactly is he trying to sue them for? The article reads as if he wants to sue Disney simply because they won't look at the drawing. But why should they? I don't see any obligation on Disney's part.

Posted: **Wed Feb 14, 2007 11:58 am**

Maybe he should contact History Detectives. Although given they have already done two far more interesting Mickey Mouse stories they may not bite.

1) Did a toy company in Pennsylvania create Mickey Mouse?
2) Did Ub Iwerks create Mickey Mouse?

Good shows.

Posted: **Wed Feb 14, 2007 11:59 am**

this guy is obviously nuts...and broke/money hungry

Posted: **Wed Feb 14, 2007 12:09 pm**

My first thought when I read the topic title was 'again?'...

Posted: **Wed Feb 14, 2007 12:23 pm**

It would be interesting if this guy indeed got the first drawing of Mickey Mouse. But $50 mill? And copyright? That's crazy.

Posted: **Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:11 pm**

I'm having trouble understanding what this guy wants. So he wants 50 million and the copyrights to Mickey the character or the drawing? I don't understand how having a drawng of Mickey Mouse gets him the copyrights of Mickey. What's the big deal of getting Disney to see the drawing?

Posted: **Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:42 pm**

I think that what he wants is for the Disney Company to authenticate this picture as the first ever original Mickey mouse so he can sell it for a fortune.

However, since Disney won't talk to him, and he's spent (so he says) serious cash in trying to authenticate it independently (without, it appears, any useful result), it looks like he's now got a grudge against Disney who he seems to think, in his own mad little way, are maliciously preventing him from becoming a millionaire.

Owning the picture gives him no claim over the rights to Mickey; I assume he's just asking for that to up the ante - and make his story more attractive to news services with a desperate need to fill time.

Quite what "the right to tell the Walt Disney story" actually means is anyone's guess. Presumably another grab for cash, hoping for royalties from anyone who writes a WD biography.

Posted: **Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:46 pm**

basically hes just trying to get more attention. that's all this is. I doubt he actually thinks he'll win this suit, but it should force disney into at least giving him the answer. which is all he really wants (from disney).
once the picture is confirmed to be what he thinks it is, he'll have the credibility to sell it for pretty penny.

Posted: **Wed Feb 14, 2007 2:00 pm**

Ah, then it does make more sense.

Posted: **Wed Feb 14, 2007 2:16 pm**

What I love about it is that he says the ink has been tested and dated to the mid 1920's. However, I'm pretty sure I learned in chemistry that after a certain amount of time, those tests are only about 50% accurate. It is also hard for him to say that it is Walt's handwriting because where would he have gotten access to enough hand written documents by Walt to have professionals analyze the writing? And as Mr. Toad pointed out, this isn't the way Mickey was being drawn in his early years, but looks closer to the Mickey of the 40's. More importantly, I do believe this exact drawing of Mickey used to be displayed in every hotel room in Walt Disney World on a folded card listing all of the important hotel numbers, such as room service, house keeping, and the front desk. Similar images were used on all soap and shampoo bottles in the bathrooms. Did anybody by any chance keep one of those cards or have a picture they could share? Here is a photo of the alleged drawing:

And here are two pictures of Disney World hotel soap and shampoo.

The drawing also looks to me like somebody could have drawn it with the intent of making it into pop art, the kind found on bubble gum wrappers.

Posted: **Wed Feb 14, 2007 2:16 pm**

I am sure that He won't win as Disney is a very powerful company.

Posted: **Wed Feb 14, 2007 2:27 pm**

How embarrassing!

Posted: **Wed Feb 14, 2007 9:18 pm**

Anyone who owns Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Black & White V1 or 2 knows that this style of drawing Mickey cannot be any earlier than 1931 or so (around the "Pioneer Days" timeframe).

Posted: **Wed Feb 14, 2007 9:25 pm**

I wonder what a telephone expert would say about the style of reciever he is holding...

Posted: **Wed Feb 14, 2007 9:46 pm**

I could be wrong, but that doesn't even really look like Walt Disney's style of Mickey Mouse. His drawings and paintings from that era have a very different quality about them, which makes me seriously question the painting.

Posted: **Thu Feb 15, 2007 1:02 am**

Actually, the other very amusing thing about this is that, whilst it's claimed that this is one of the original drawings of Mickey (drawn by Walt Disney, presumably before the first films went into production), the guy also thinks there should be newsreel footage of Walt drawing it.

(a) I think it's fairly well accepted that Walt had ceased drawing at all by 1928, and the original model sheets and design proposals for Mickey would have been drawn by Ub Iwerks.

(b) Would someone, trying out their designs for a future untested cartoon character, really have the initial drawing design session filmed? And by a newsreel service, yet? Particularly since the character was being designed and animated in secret so that Harman & Ising and the rest of the Mintz defectors wouldn't find out?

Posted: **Thu Feb 15, 2007 3:42 am**

Two reasons why that can't possibly be the original drawing of Mickey Mouse.

1) When Mickey was first created he didn't have gloves, had had normal black hands.

2) The 'pie eyes' didn't emerge until later either.

Anyone with even minor knowledge of the character would know that.

And anyway, even if it is legit (which it isn't), so what? Just because he has a drawing how does he get the opinion it gives him the copyright?

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