That excellent copies of Steamboat Willie still exist are ow mostly to Disney’s own efforts to keep their materials under control and lock down for nearly a century. Steamboat’s fellow members of the Class of 1928 will not, ultimately, be so lucky. Each successive year of items releas into the public domain will have a few “stars” to make the news and receive the artistic references that Mickey is getting this month – but hundrs, the same year may never again see the light of day.
So, let us celebrate this temporary oasis Maybe thousands
Truly barren landscape, and work, through special database and protection for libraries and archives, to ensure each year is a more exquisitely complete and maintain ecosystem.
This year we are welcoming many works from 1928 into the U.S. public domain (books, movies, images, etc.), as well as record sound from 1923.
Some of the big events from 1928 include the first machine slic and wrapp loaf of bread being sold, the fatal Okeechobee hurricane, the failure of the St. Francis Dam in Los Angeles, the discovery of a moldy petri dish that would lead to the creation of penicillin, Amelia Earheart flying across the Atlantic, and a certain mouse making his public debut.
MoviesEverybody’s talking about Mickey
On November 18th, 1928 Steamboat Willie was publish, the third Mickey Mouse film by Walt Disney and the first one to be publish with sound. The prior two Mickey Mouse films, including Plane Crazy, had not been pick up for distribution so this is an important document for was the public’s first introduction to the mouse. Steamboat Willie may have been nam after another popular movie that came out in 1928, Buster Keaton’s Steamboat Bill, Jr., or perhaps the Vaudeville song, “Steamboat Bill” (populariz in 1910) which china leads includ in the soundtrack (along with the 19th century song “Turkey in the Straw”).