Worth More Than a Fourth-Round Pick
Mickey Mouse turns 98 next Wednesday. He only exists because Walt Disney didn't own his first hit, and Disney got that one back by trading a sportscaster.
Mickey Mouse turns 98 next Wednesday. Steamboat Willie opened on November 18, 1928, and Disney still keeps that date as his birthday. Before there was a mouse, though, there was a rabbit.
In 1927 Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks made Oswald the Lucky Rabbit for Universal. Trolley Troubles, released that September, was Universal's biggest cartoon hit to date. The posters said "Universal presents" in big letters on top and "by Walt Disney" in small ones at the bottom, and that was the order that counted: Universal owned the rabbit. The Disney brothers got $500 a short.
In February 1928 he went to New York to ask his producer, Charles Mintz, for a better deal. Mintz offered less. He had also been quietly hiring away Walt's animators, and most of them went with him. Walt walked out without his staff and without Oswald. On the train back to Los Angeles he came up with a new character, and this time he was going to own it.
He and Iwerks made the mouse in secret. The first two shorts couldn't find a distributor. The third one got synchronized sound. Steamboat Willie premiered at the Colony Theater on Broadway. The Colony belonged to Universal. Earlier that year it had premiered an Oswald cartoon.
Walt took the lesson about owning things seriously, and so did the company after him. The copyright on Steamboat Willie was filed three days after the premiere. It could have run out in 1955, 1986, 2003 or 2023, and each time it got extended; critics nicknamed the 1998 extension the Mickey Mouse Protection Act. It finally ran out on January 1, 2024.
Oswald stayed away for 78 years. Then in 2006 ESPN, owned by Disney, had Al Michaels under contract, and Michaels wanted to go to NBC to call Sunday Night Football. Bob Iger let him go. In exchange, NBC Universal handed over Oswald and the 27 shorts Walt had made with him. Michaels, to ESPN: "Oswald is definitely worth more than a fourth-round draft choice. I'm going to be a trivia answer someday."
Now he has his own gas-station gift shop at Disney California Adventure, selling Oswald ears, and the Disney Store has a 20-inch Oswald for $29.99. Michaels was right about the trivia.