Bad Wolf Shamrock/Hound Story

[Rob Klein]

Regarding Barry's inquiry over the Big Bad Wolf vs. Orange Irish Hound Dog:

WDC & S Nr. 186 does not contain that story.  Its story has Bad Wolf
bringing a hound home for his son, and then using the hound in an attempt
to track down the 3 little pigs by giving the hound the scent of pork
chops.  I checked all the stories near that period 1954 - 1956, and it was
none of those.  I remember having read the story in question faintly, but I
cannot remember in which book.   I suspect it is a Danish production.  I
don't remember it being a Dutch production.  I think such a reference to
the Northern (Protestant Irish) vs. the Irish Republic (Eire) - (Catholic
Irish) is indicative of their political and religious struggle, and
therefore too political, religious and controversial to be brought up in a
story plot in a USA production.  This problem would be made even more
objectionable by the Hound's violence towards Bad Wolf due to the latter's
insult of mistaking the Hound for a Republican rather than the Northerner
(Protestant) that he was.  I really doubt that Western Publishing would
have allowed a story with such references (especially with the Hound's
violence related to the "wearing of the Green" vs "wearing of the Orange"
and the associated pride of the 2 sects or communities involved).  Disney
USA would never have allowed that.  They had 100% access to see what
Western printed.  Western was thus, very careful not to irritate Disney.
 
In a similar situation, I remeber reading a mid 1960s WDC Donald Duck story
(drawn by Tony Strobl) which showed Donald and the Boys arriving in the
port of Haifa.  The general location was refered to as "The Middle East"
"Middle Eastern port of Haifa" - rather than the location in "Israel" or
"Palestine".  

The situation in Europe is very different.  In our Dutch production there
is far more leeway regarding USA Disney's wishes, as they "inspect" only a
very small percentage of Dutch production.  Thom Roep told me many years
ago,  that under the Oberon/Disney franchise agreement, the Los Angeles
Disney publications office was to receive copies of at least 10% of the
Dutch production.  He told me that that figure had NEVER been approached in
all the years of the franchise, and the Disney office never complained. 
The only problem that would ever come to their attention would have to be a
VERY VERY flagrant breach of their rules or wishes.

It seems to me that I remember a high official of Editing at Gutenberghus
(now Egmont) - (Nancy Dejgaard) telling me a similar story (only a very
small percentage of Denmark's production was officially "checked" by the
Los Angeles Disney office).  Perhaps David Gerstein can shed more light on
their current policy -  and more to the point - can tell us if the story in
question was a Danish production. Hej Ole, you should remember such a
story, if it were, indeed, printed in Danmark, not so? 

Begorra,  Rob Klein