On the evening of November 18th 1928, a showbiz legend was born – Mickey Mouse flashed across the screen of the Colony Theater in NYC and danced and sung his way through Steamboat Willie. The actual singing of a character (at that point in animation or live-action) was still revolutionary, after the initial success of Warner Brothers’ The Jazz Singer the previous year, which actually married a synchronized soundtrack to the film itself. It’s an oft-told story that, after Walt Disney had lost the right to continue producing his Oswald The Lucky Rabbit series for Universal, he vowed never to work for anyone else ever again. He and legendary animator Ub Iwerks came up with the idea for Plane Crazy, a then-silent short that would introduce their new character. Ub drew the film in secret (while the Oswald animators finished up their contracts at the Studio) and totally by himself, churning out a record 700 drawings a day! After a second mute cartoon, the arrival of locked, recorded sound meant Disney had found the gimmick he needed to launch his mouse, and Willie was an instant sensation. Plane Crazy and The Gallopin’ Gaucho (the second cartoon) were given new soundtracks (by later Warners composer Carl Stalling), and the rest, as they say, is history! Walt himself was always proud to announce: “It all started with a mouse!”