Huey, Dewey, Louie

[timo ronkainen]

> >So there's indeed some mix-up here, but I tend to give the cartoon >first
> >credit. I'd be interested in any new information on this matter, too.

On an English edition of Italian collection of Barks' H,D&L stories (one of 
those huge IO books) Barks tells in his foreword about the creation of the 
nephews. I wonder why this reference is so seldomly used or mentioned.
Here are some excerpts:
"The three star-destined ducklings were born in 1937 in a cluttered 
apartment house behind Walt Disney's old Hyperion Avenue studio in 
Hollywood. Several midwives were present during the hatching, and each aided 
in special way to usher the noisy little quackers into flickery world of 
make-believe. I was one of those midwives, and, if memory serves me right, I 
was the only one who greeted the newborn with less enthusiasm. "Put them 
back in the egg" was my comment. "They will never be anything but animators' 
nightmares and storymen's headaches." How many, many times in the years 
since have I eaten those ill-chosen words, feathers and all.
It was a suggestion, I recall, by someone (I believe his name was Joe Sabo) 
in the animation department that prompted the creation of the trio. The 
suggestion was, in effect, since Mickey Mouse had three nephews, why not let 
Donald have three? [...] Harry Reeves, Roy Williams and Homer Brightman were 
among those who covered stacks of Walt's most expensive bond paper with 
imaginative doodles. A gagman - I'm told he was Dana Coty, late of such 
Roaring Twenties humor factories as Life and Judge - contributed the names 
Huey, Dewey and Louie. Chuck Couch, Ted Sears and many others fed fuel into 
incubator, and very shortly the "Duck Unit" composed of Harry Reeves and 
myself, had the beginnings of a scenario pinned up on the Celotex walls of 
our room. The three nephews were born...."

He might remeber some things incorrectly (like Mickey's *three* nephews), 
but I guess it's mainly correct.

Timo

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