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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Welcome to This Day in History Class, where

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Speaker 1: we bring you a new tidbit from history every day.

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Speaker 1: Today is May fifteen. The day was May fifteen, ninety

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Speaker 1: Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse made their public

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Speaker 1: debut in the test Screaming of the Silent cartoon Playing Crazy.

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Speaker 1: The animated short could not find a distributor, but it

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Speaker 1: would not take long before Mickey Mouse would capture the

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Speaker 1: attention of thousands of children and adults alike. In Walt

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Speaker 1: Disney began his first series of fully animated films. Disney

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Speaker 1: and animator of I Works had been working on the

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Speaker 1: Alice Comedies, a series of animated cartoons that feature a

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Speaker 1: live action girl named Alice and an animated cat named Julius.

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Speaker 1: But these cartoons were expensive and had a lot of

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Speaker 1: technical limitations, so Disney's distributor, Charles Mintz, told Disney and

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Speaker 1: Eye Works to create a character for Universal Studios, which

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Speaker 1: was looking to return to the animation business. Soon, a

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Speaker 1: deal was struck with Universal for twenty six animated shorts.

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Speaker 1: These shorts would feature Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, designed by

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Speaker 1: Disney and animator of Iye Works. The series of Oswald

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Speaker 1: the Lucky Rabbit shorts performed well, but in nine when

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Speaker 1: Mint said he was going to cut Disney's budget, Disney

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Speaker 1: refused to agree to the cuts. A lot of Disney's

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Speaker 1: animators left to go to work with Mints, but of

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Speaker 1: Iye Works, Les Clark and a few other animators stayed

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Speaker 1: with Disney. Since Mint's retained the rights to Oswald, Disney

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Speaker 1: and I Work set to work on creating a new

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Speaker 1: cartoon character to replace the Rabbit that they would have

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Speaker 1: the rights to. The character that they came up with

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Speaker 1: was Mickey Mouse, though his original name was Mortimer Mouse.

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Speaker 1: Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse first appeared in the silent

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Speaker 1: short Plane Crazy and Playing Crazy. Mickey Mouse tries to

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Speaker 1: fly an airplane to imitate aviator Charles Lindbergh. Mickey convinces

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Speaker 1: Minnie Mouse to join him in a flight, during which

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Speaker 1: time Mickey makes several attempts to kiss many many rejects

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Speaker 1: his advances, and she eventually parachutes out of the plane

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Speaker 1: using her bloomers. The short was made for about one thousand,

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Speaker 1: seven hundred and seventy two dollars and animated by eye works,

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Speaker 1: and on May fifteenth, the six minutes silent short Plane

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Speaker 1: Crazy was shown at a test Screaming in Hollywood, but

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Speaker 1: the cartoon was not received well by audiences and no

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Speaker 1: distributors wanted it. The next Mickey short that was produced,

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Speaker 1: The Gallop and Gaucho, had the same fate, but the

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Speaker 1: next film, Steamboat Willie, was a success and the almost

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Speaker 1: eight minutes short Mickey pretends to pilot a steamboat when

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Speaker 1: the real captain of the boat confronts him, leading to

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Speaker 1: antis involving Minie Mouse, a parrot, and a musical number.

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Speaker 1: It was the first Mickey Mouse film to be released,

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Speaker 1: and it was one of the first cartoons that used

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Speaker 1: synchronized music in sound effects. Steamboat Willie premiered at the

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Speaker 1: Colony Theater in New York on November. Audiences loved the

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Speaker 1: characters and were impressed by the synchronized sound, and two

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Speaker 1: weeks after Steamboat Willie premiered, it was rereleased at the

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Speaker 1: Roxy Theater in New York City. After Steamboat Willie and

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Speaker 1: Mickey's sound cartoons proved successful, Playing Crazy was released with

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Speaker 1: sound in nineteen nine. So even though Playing Crazy was

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Speaker 1: the first Mickey Mouse cartoon produced, it was the fourth

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Speaker 1: to be released. Mickey Mouse went on to start in

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Speaker 1: several other films, and Disney ramped up promotion and merchandise

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Speaker 1: for the cartoon. Mickey Mouse Clubs, fan clubs for the

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Speaker 1: popular animated character in cartoons, sprung up around the United States.

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Speaker 1: An article in the October issue of the Los Angeles

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Speaker 1: Times set the following Mickey Mouse is one of the

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Speaker 1: very few cartoon stars to have his name featured by

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Speaker 1: theaters on almost an equal basis with the feature screen attraction.

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Speaker 1: Even though the Hollywood test screaming of Playing Crazy was

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Speaker 1: technically Mickey's first public appearance, November eighteen is considered Mickey's

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Speaker 1: official birthday. I'm eas Jeffcote and hopefully you know a

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Speaker 1: little more about history today than you did yesterday. Get

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Speaker 1: more Notes from History on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at

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Speaker 1: t d i h C podcast Come back tomorrow for

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Speaker 1: another tiket from History. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,

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Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.