FROM: Squeak of the Week Published Fridays

What is the Straight Skinny on Minnie?

Mickey Mouse, mostly, has become mundane, the main milestones of his past no longer mysterious and mulled to a nattering nub by the media. But what of Minnie? From whence did she waltz into Walt Disney's world? Here's the skinny on Minnie.

- John Stanley Donaldson, April 29, 2011

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One thing I have noticed, in Walt Disney history, is those who have been placed on periphery, the suburbs of sub blurbs, if you will, who have seen themselves into something more central.

To get a somewhat fit to the lit, they make use of a jigsaw to hack at the facts; then pound their piece into place.

Such has been so of a family called Cowles; an ancestor, an investor, in the failed Laugh-O-Gram. Having, by chance, a "Minnie" among them, they pressed that puzzle-piece, claim to the name.

Even though "Minnie Mouse" wasn't such until eight Mickey episodes in.

Six years after Walt Disney had left Kansas City.

Now, would you so name a new character, when in deep as a past debtor?

Uh, no.

click an image to expand:

1910 Stalling Family Census: Note the entries at the bottom for Carl and Minnie

Minnie's Yoo Hoo

Sheet Music for 'Minnie's Yoo Hoo'

Walt Meets Carl Stalling

Let's try and pry that lame game piece, toss old Cowles on the coals, and make a proper patch. Located one block from Laugh-O-Gram, was the Isis, a theater with which Walt Disney would have some association. There, Carl Stalling was installed as the music conductor, overseeing both tone and drone of orchestra and organ.

By marking a grease pencil along a roll of running motion picture film, Stalling would show Disney a method he had invented to match an animated image to a musical instrument; easy, kitchen-sink synchronization.

So, when sound came around, and gained ground, it can be seen why Walt sought Carl to compose the Mickey Mouse shorts; the man who would also do Silly Symphonies, and later, Looney Tunes, knew how to meet the beat and score the right laugh in the staff.

Carl's Sister Hernesta

Carl had a kid sister, who was born with a mess of Hernesta, being a bad first name. This was easily cured, when she made herself a Miriam, which extended for a time to its variant.

"Minnie."

Good thing it did.

When Mickey was deemed in need of a theme, and by that, his dame a good name, there was no stalling from Stalling; quickly penning a kisser to his sister, the sappy and snappy, "Minnie's Yoo Hoo."

So, that is the straight skinny on Minnie.

But whatever happened to her?

Well, she had a nice but nondescript life, married to a man who set the sites and sights of San Francisco to a series of self-published guidebooks, and living in said city, on periphery of the Presidio.

Within walking distance of where we now find the Walt Disney Family Museum.

If anyone truly deserves to be central.

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