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FLETCHER: Walt, you're a man who's famous for many things not the least of which is building a better mouse. And the world has been beating a path to your door for thirty-five years. I'm dating the beginning of that path, of course, from 1928 and the release of Steamboat Willie, the picture that introduced sound to the cartoon and Mickey Mouse to the world. Was this actually the first cartoon in which Mickey appeared?

WALT: Well, yes, in which Mickey appeared, yes, but I was making cartoons long before that. In fact, I think I've been in this business as long as anybody living today. I started, actually, to make my first animated cartoons in 1920. Of course, they were very crude things then and I used ... oh sort of little puppet things. We didn't draw them like we today. I used to make little cut-away things and joints were pinned and we'd put them under the camera and we'd maneuver them and we'd make him do things.

FLETCHER: This was before you came to Hollywood?

WALT: Oh yes. This started back in Kansas City, Missouri, where I was making little advertisements for theaters. It's equivalent to what you see in TV commercials today. You know, "Put your winter coal in early." "Get your Fedora blocked for the winter" and all those kind of things. [Fletcher laughs and Walt continues.]
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