Happy 80th Birthday Donald! “Born” June 9, 1934

http://youtu.be/A5dowCyaP7I?t=1m58s
At the link is Donald Duck’s debut! His first ever screen appearance came on the date of this ‘Silly Symphony’ cartoon called ‘The Little Wise Hen’ from Walt Disney Studios. It’s cued to his entrance.

The Donald Duck character was created by Walt Disney when he heard Clarence Nash doing his “duck” voice while reciting ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’. Disney wanted a character that was more negative than Mickey Mouse, so the bad-tempered Duck was born. Nash voiced the character from 1934 to 1983, training Tony Anselmo to take over and Tony has been playing the voice of Donald since then. By the way, his full name is Donald Fauntleroy Duck!

A special microphone, The Neumann TLM-170, was used to record Donald’s voice. Preferred for its warmth, this microphone also rounds out the high tones and smoothes the “splat” in Donald’s voice.

The renowned early illustrators of Donald Duck were Al Taliaferro, Carl Barks, and Don Rosa. Donald Duck first appeared as a drawing in a May 1934 issue of “Good Housekeeping” magazine promoting the June film release of ‘The Wise Little Hen’.

Did you know Donald won an Oscar? It was for the 1943 animated short ‘Der Feuhrer’s Face’, which was originally titled ‘Donald Duck in NutziLand’. The anti-Nazi cartoon begins with music from Wagner’s comic opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and also features Groucho Marx’s singing. Happy Birthday Donald! Oh Boy!

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