Some friendly comments

[Sigvald Grøsfjeld jr.]

Hi all!

I hope that you all have a fine time in DCML these days. At least most
unserious disputs seems to be gone by now!

Anyway, again I have found it necessary to take a short jump out of
lurk-modus. This time to give some friendly comments to information recently
presented here in DCML:

Comment 1:
----------
In a recent mail Olaf Solstrand has told us about a map in I-1791. (on panel
2 on page 239 in DD-Pocket #117 "Strandhogg") in where Duckburg IMO is
wrongly placed in Florida on the US Eastern Coast. As this map obviously is
drawn before Don Rosa's map in Lo$ part 10, I can se the possibility that
someone could use it in order to discredit the value of DR's map. So to
prevent any unnecessary turbulence here on DCML caused by this Italian map I
can tell you that Don Rosa's map is based upon a map drawn by Carl Barks
himself in 1952 in panel 1 on page 8 of WDC 155 "Some Heir over the Rainbow"
– a source that predates I-1791 with almost 40 years.

Comment 2:
----------
In a recent mail Michael Schartau mentions a Dutch story (H8328) in where
Donald is (in the end) posing as a wax dummy - the most famous duck in the
world with a sign saying "Born 1934, starring in hundreds of films. Lots of
books have been written about him and he has his own weekly magazine."

This shows how confused many people are about Donald's birth – even Dutch
creators. So here is the AFAIK correct Donaldistic facts about the birth and
origin of Donald Duck:

1)
The Donald Duck who appear as an adult in Barks-stories from 1943 on was
BORN – most probably in Duckburg – around 1920 as one of a pair of twins.
The other twin being his twin-sister Della Duck whom he likely used to
nick-name "Dumbella" in their young years. No exact date has ever been given
for their birth. 9th of June has been mentioned as has a Friday the 13th.
Some sources mentions a middle name "Fountleroy" for Donald while the name
"Thelma" has once been used for Della*

2)
The Donald Duck character was first CREATED in the early 1930s in Walt
Disbney's studios (this is what our friend Rich Bellacera) once has told me.

3)
Donald Duck's FIRST APPEARANCE in a movie was in "The wise little hen" which
had its premiere on June 9th 1934 – a date later *defined* as Donald's
birthday.

4)
Don Rosa's "The Duck who never was" has to be regarded as one of DRs fiction
stories – as it shows Scrooge celebrating Donald's 60th birthday while Don
Rosa other places has shown that Scrooge died while Donald was at most 47
years old (1967-1920 = 47).

* Have anyone ever considered if the names "Fountleroy" and "Thelma" was for
some reason used as the kids names for a period after the family left
Scrooge in 1930? For instance if the kids was left in a foreign home while
their parents (Hortense and Quackmore) was looking for new work – a
difficult task in the early 1930s.

OK – Back to lurking again!

Sigvald