The Birth of Mickey
As legend has it, in the spring of 1928 Walt Disney and his wife LIllian were returning to Los Angeles from New York by train after a thoroughly dispiriting meeting with Disney's distributor. Not only had the distributor appropriated most of Disney's staff, but his quite successful, main animated character , Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, as well. Determined to continue independently and inspired by the whistle of the train (which to Disney sounded like maowww-a-mouse), Disney arrived at the idea for a new character--"Mortimer Mouse." Named after a pet mouse Disney had adopted while working in Kansas City on Laugh-O-Grams, Lillian found the moniker substandard, and suggested the snappier name of "Mickey." As soon as the Disneys arrived in Los Angeles, the full development of Mickey's character began.