Deep in Maine's Katahdin forests, Disney's men found the fawn that became Bambi and brought him, with his background, to the drawing boards in Hollywood
Walt Disney's Bambi had its first public showing in Portland, Maine. It was fitting that Maine should see it first, because in a real sense its origin was in Maine.
The original Bambi was an Austrian deer. What should Disney's Bambi be? Nearer home, of course. He fixed on a mule deer from Arrowhead, California. But a Maine man, Jake Day of Damariscotta, objected. Day was with the Disney artist force but he was also a good Maine wilderness man. He said flatly that California's mule deer was not Austria's white-flagged deer of Felix Salten's great story. To get the right deer, and no less to get the right background for the deer, Disney would have to go to Maine. […]
