The Rabbit Disney Lost and the Mouse It Kept
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The Rabbit Disney Lost and the Mouse It Kept
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A child tries on two round black ears in a theme park shop. No name, no logo, and almost everyone knows who they belong to. Those ears exist because another pair once belonged to someone else.
The next time you see Mickey Mouse ears, you'll notice the shape of a decision made after Disney lost the rights to its first cartoon star.
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IN THIS EPISODE
— How Walt Disney created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit without owning him
— Why controlling distribution and intellectual property can matter more than creating the character
— How Mickey Mouse changed Disney's future, and why a television sportscaster helped bring Oswald home decades later
THE NUMBER
78 years — from Disney's loss of Oswald in 1928 to the character's return in 2006. The Walt Disney Company, 2006.
SOURCES
The Walt Disney Company — Happy 85th Anniversary, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit! (2012)
The Walt Disney Company — Walt Disney's 1927 Animated Star Oswald The Lucky Rabbit Returns To Disney (2006)
Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain — Public Domain Day 2024 (2024)
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Narration in this episode is AI-assisted.
Research, writing and editorial judgment are human.
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