The filmgoers' annual (1932)

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94 The Filmgoers' Annual THE MIRACLE OF MICKEY MOUSE A "BUNCH" OF BOYS "IRONED" THINGS OUT, AND HAD SOMETHING! THE making of animated cartoons is one of the most difficult, most complicated, and most highly skilled operations in the whole ot motion picture production. When a film actor has learned the speed at which he should move before a motion picture camera, his work becomes easy. It is simple for such an actor, for example, to lift a hand above his head while walking across a floor. There is, however, no known method of making a pen and ink drawing lift a hand or walk across a floor. The illusion of such an action must be created by the photography of a series of individual drawings, and the perfection of the illusion, of course, depends on the progression of the drawings themselves and the speed at which they are photographed. For the making of each Mickey Mouse cartoon, as a rule, about 5,000 different drawings have to be made, which means that, generally, an individual picture is not seen for more than one-fourth of a second. Then, infinite care is taken to ensure that the action of the Mickey cartoon flows with the musical setting. Filmgoers, who had the good fortune to attend cinemas at which talented organists, in silent film days, prepared special accompaniments to silent film comedies, will recall how such accompaniments were appreciated. The Mickey cartoons reach this point of entertainment, not by adding music to pictures, but by adding pictures to music. A Mickey Mouse scenario is written on sheets of music to synchronise precisely with the musical score which is one of the many secrets of the perfect rhythm of Mickey Mouse. The creator of Mickey Mouse is Walt Disney, whose first ambition in life was to be a newspaper cartoonist. He went to school in Chicago until he was seventeen and he specially studied drawing with a view to getting a job with " The Chicago Tribune." Walt thought he was good, but Chicago, or a hard-hearted editor, thought otherwise. Walt went to Kansas and got work with " The Kansas City Star." There he met with such success that he decided to try his luck in Hollywood. He thought he might become a motion picture director. Kansas let him go without regret. Hollywood did not even admit he had arrived. He began the weary round of the film studios, doing everything and anything that came to hand. Work was hard, and hard to find ! But Walt Disney was learning, and when the talking pictures arrived, he was ready to begin (Please turn to page ninety-six) £» <;'»' C D,. •>, <:.,.,• B-iij, ■■■