With the release of a sound cartoon titled "Steamboat Willie" at the Colony Theater in New York way back in 1928, a whistling Mickey Mouse was introduced to theater going audiences.
Technically a cartoon called "Plane Crazy" introduced the mouse months earlier, but due to it's soundtrack, "Steamboat Willie" is considered the first true Mickey Mouse cartoon.Mickey wasn't Walt's first cartoon creation.
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit starred in many different animated cartoons before Walt lost the rights to the rabbit in 1927.
Walt learned a very valuable lesson and went back to the drawing board. "Mortimer the Mouse" had developed on paper, but at the suggestion of Walt's wife, Mickey Mouse became the character's final moniker.And the rest, as they say, is animated history. I'm sure Mickey and the Gang will still be entertaining audiences in one form or another for many more years.
