Scrooge's Silk Hat

[Ole Reichstein Nielsen]

Without having yet seen Caterina Mognato's story which was referred to by
Sigvald,
it is my guess that her research of the factoid about Scrooge's hat has been
more
thorough  than she is credited for. In all likelihood her frame of reference
is, instead
of the Barks/Rosa canon, the equally famous Italian story cycle of the
beheaded totem.

Please refer to the Donald Pocket "Fantonald i full sving!" (no. 40 in
Norway and Denmark,
38 in Sweden and 75 in Germany) and the story coded I-907-A "Den hodel°se
totem".
On page 99-100 we see that the hat was manufactured by Thomas Spencer,
Gold-town,
California. This is the original Italian text, probably changed in Norway as
it was in Denmark.

Perhaps someone can verify that this is the source ms. Mognato refers to, so
that she can be
cleared of the accusation of ignorance and neglect. Rubber and glue, you
might even say.

Basing her reference on a 'fact' made up by the Italian writer Guido
Martina, grandfather of
Italian Disney writers and active for more than 40 years, is not something
which I find needs
to be justified. Barks is Barks, but to the Italian readers, he is far from
the ONLY source of
canonical writings about the ducks.

Timo's suggestion that the (Egmont) editor/translator should have
"corrected" the text to follow
Barksist doctrine is one which I hope all of us (including Timo, on second
thought) will object to.


-- Ole