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Mickey Mouse at90 MICKEY MOUSE AT 90 AT MOUSE MICKEY LIFE Celebrates an American Icon DISPLAY UNTIL 11/16/18 Walt Disney in his studio, 1955. TIME INC. SPECIALS WALT DISNEY AND MICKEY MOUSE greet visitors to the Magic Kingdom in front of Cinderella Castle, Disney World. Mickey Mouse at 90 ORJAN F. ELLINGVAG/DAGBLADET/CORBIS/GETTY ORJAN F. Mickey Mouse at 90 EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Kostya Kennedy WRITER Steve Rushin DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Christina Lieberman CREATIVE DIRECTOR Gary Stewart COPY CHIEF Parlan McGaw COPY EDITOR Joel Van Liew PICTURE EDITOR Rachel Hatch WRITER Ryan Hatch WRITER-REPORTER Daniel S. Levy PHOTO ASSISTANT Alessandra Bianco PRODUCTION Richard Shaffer TIME INC. BOOKS, A DIVISION OF MEREDITH CORPORATION SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, FINANCE Anthony Palumbo VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING Jeremy Biloon EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MARKETING SERVICES Carol Pittard DIRECTOR, BRAND MARKETING Jean Kennedy SALES DIRECTOR Christi Crowley ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, BRAND MARKETING Bryan Christian ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, FINANCE Jill Earyes ASSISTANT GENERAL COUNSEL Andrew Goldberg ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, PRODUCTION Susan Chodakiewicz SENIOR MANAGER, FINANCE Ashley Petrasovic SENIOR BRAND MANAGER Katherine Barnet PREPRESS MANAGER Alex Voznesenskiy ASSOCIATE PROJECT AND PRODUCTION MANAGER Anna Riego Muñiz EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Kostya Kennedy CREATIVE DIRECTOR Gary Stewart DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Christina Lieberman EDITORIAL OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Jamie Roth Major MANAGER, EDITORIAL OPERATIONS Gina Scauzillo SPECIAL THANKS Brad Beatson, Brett Finkelstein, Melissa Frankenberry, Kristina Jutzi, Simon Keeble, Seniqua Koger, Kate Roncinske Copyright © 2018 Time Inc. Books, a division of Meredith Corporation Published by LIFE BOOKS, an imprint of Time Inc. Books • 225 Liberty Street • New York, NY 10281 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, CONTENTS who may quote brief passages in a review. Vol. 18, No. 16 • August 17, 2018 © BOARD OF TRUSTEES, NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON OF ART, GALLERY NATIONAL © BOARD OF TRUSTEES, 4 “LIFE” is a trademark of Time Inc., registered in Mickey’s Universe the U.S. and other countries. We welcome your comments and suggestions 8 A Mouse Is Born about LIFE Books. Please write to us at: LIFE Books, Attention: Book Editors 26 A Mouse Takes Off P.O. Box 62310, Tampa, FL 33662-2310 54 MICKEY & THE PRESIDENTS 58 The House That Mouse Built THIS PAGE: Look Mickey, a 1961 oil painting by Roy Lichtenstein. 74 MICKEY & SPORTS FRONT COVER: Mickey Mouse in 2008. 78 KEVIN WINTER/GETTY Thoroughly Modern Mickey BACK COVER: HULTON/ARCHIVE/GETTY 92 MICKEY & ART PAGES 92–93: Claes Oldenburg, Geometric Mouse– Scale C, 1971, anodized aluminum, 20 x 20 inches, Courtesy of Donna Leatherman LLC. 2 LIFE MICKEY MOUSE AT 90 3 MICKEY’S UNIVERSE With his galactic success (yes, he has been to outer space) the Mouse has touched the brightest stars. Elvis, Queen Elizabeth, FDR, even, well, kind of, Shakespeare n the evening of April 1, 1975, in the showroom of the Las Vegas Hilton, Elvis Presley closed the pre-encore portion of his set with a song as familiar as any of his prodigious hits. “M-I-C, K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E,” sang the King of Rock ’n’ Roll. “Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse, forever let us hold our banner high.” As adoring fans of two icons joined in, Elvis said, “I figured you’d know it.” Who doesn’t know the “Mickey Mouse March”? Who doesn’t know Mickey Mouse? And so Elvis sang on, now in unison with a sellout crowd: “M-I-C . See you real soon! K-E-Y . Why? Because we like you! M-O-U-S-E.” And in this way, the two most famous American entertainers of the 20th century were conjoined on stage:O Elvis and Mickey, Graceland and Disneyland, blue suede shoes and bright yellow brogans —if that indeed is what Mickey is wearing along with his red shorts with two white buttons to match his white gloves. Who among us cannot conjure this image instantly? SOLOLOS/ISTOCKPHOTO/GETTY (2). BACKGROUND: LIBRARY/GETTY MARS: SCIEPRO/SCIENCE PHOTO MERCURY, EARTH: JANRYSAVY/GETTY. 4 LIFE MICKEY MOUSE AT 90 Known around the world, Mickey Mouse has crossed signed the Disneyland guest book in 1976, and, to paraphrase Every U.S. President since Harry Truman has met Mickey fourth (at best) behind animated films, amusement parks, paths with nearly every other celebrated figure of the 20th Olivier’s Hamlet, of the Mouse who proffered him the pen Mouse, with the exception of Lyndon Johnson, who though and metric tons of merchandise, most notably wristwatches century, and he has been everything they have and much that day: We shall not look upon his like again. he never made it to Disneyland did present Walt Disney with and alarm clocks. they have not—orchestra conductor, train conductor, air- Gene Kelly would have danced with Mickey in 1945’s the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. When Elvis Presley met Led Zeppelin, the story goes, the plane captain, steamboat captain, castaway, cowboy, Arabian Anchors Aweigh had Walt Disney not denied MGM permis- In 1965, at the Pepsi-Cola Pavilion at the New York King traded his expensive wristwatch for the cheap Mickey adventurer, football star, film star, rock star, immortal. He will sion to use his likeness. And so Kelly did a number instead World’s Fair, John Kennedy Jr., son of the slain President, Mouse watch worn by Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. And live forever, though he hasn’t forever (or, technically, ever) with Jerry, of animated cartoon series Tom and Jerry, for shook the mouse’s hand: Both wore smiles that appeared so Elvis and Mickey, America’s foremost entertainers, were been alive. It’s hard to imagine now, but Mickey Mouse didn’t MGM had felt compelled to have its own mischief-making permanent. Mickey’s influence has long extended far beyond joined at the wrist. The face on the wristwatch hasn’t a wrin- always exist. Someone—two people, actually—had to invent animated mouse, forever escaping the clutches of his cat the nation of his birth. As a young princess, Queen Elizabeth kle on it. The mouse on the timepiece is timeless, after all. him, which they did exactly 90 years ago. nemesis but never escaping the long shadow of Mickey. II—the monarch of the United Kingdom, and Mickey’s con- An oversize Mickey Mouse watch hangs on Andy’s bedroom “I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing,” said Mickey Mouse, of course, has never had feline pursu- temporary, born two years before him—played with Mickey wall in Toy Story, upraised arms forever frozen at five min- one of those creators, Walt Disney, on The Disneyland Show, ers to concern himself with. He was never a mouse at all, and Minnie dolls made for her utes past 12 noon. which aired in October 1954, nine months before Disneyland but a man in mouse form. “When people laugh at Mickey by Dean’s Rag Book Company, Mickey has outlived count- opened to the public. “That it was all started by a mouse.” Mouse,” Disney said, “it’s because he’s so human.” When British maker of teddy bears and less contemporaries and admir- The Disney empire, someone observed that dolls. Like President Richard ers, from President Franklin even then, traversed Mickey was imbued with Nixon, Mickey went to China, Delano Roosevelt (described as continents, and is still Disney’s own personal- as the centerpiece of Shanghai one of his “devotees” in a 1936 fan personified—is still ity, he corrected him: “No, Disneyland. A delegation of letter from Eleanor Roosevelt) rodentified—by its uni- it’s the Mouse that has the children from Orange County, to U.S. congressman Stewart versally renowned mas- personality.” California, presented the pope McKinney of Connecticut (who cot. The leader of the Along with such pop with a Mickey Mouse cap on kept a Mickey Mouse telephone band. Mickey’s head, com- icons as Marilyn Monroe World Youth Day in 2008, when on his desk, one reporter noted, prising three circles, is as and Michael Jackson Mickey turned 80, and those as “the appropriate instrument recognizable in silhouette and the Campbell’s ears bore the stitched inscrip- to receive calls from the govern- as any movie star, mon- soup can, Andy Warhol tion of his name, Benedict XVI, ment in Washington”). arch, or religious leader painted Mickey Mouse. a mouse-eared version of the The Mouse turns 90 this year, has ever been in the full BEN BUCHANAN/BRIDGEMAN IMAGES The British press gave pope’s zucchetto, his ecclesias- so the majority of humankind light of day. Mahatma Gandhi a nick- tical skullcap. In Italy, Mickey has never known a world with- No creature living or name: Mickey Mouse, for Mouse is called Topolino. out him, never known a time dead or never actually the way his ears stuck out. You could say Mickey has before the name Mickey Mouse born has been woven When singer Eartha Kitt been a cradle to grave obses- became the most popular write- into the fabric of public met Albert Einstein in sion: Consider that the Japanese in vote in American elections; life quite the way Mickey his home, the foremost emperor Hirohito is said to have before Mickey Mouse was, in Mouse has, even as he’s genius of the 20th cen- been buried in 1989 with the one poll, deemed more recog- literally woven into the tury was wearing a T-shirt Mickey Mouse watch he received nizable than Santa Claus; before Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, 1985.