Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

In late 1927, Walt's cartoon character was "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit". It was distributed by Universal and a man named Charles Mintz. In February 1928, Walt headed to NYC by train to negotiate a new contract for the character. He had no idea that Mintz had hired out all but one of Disney's animators and basically stole the character from Walt. On the train ride home, instead of wallowing in self-pity and bitterness, Walt came up with another character.....and made sure he owned his rights this time.

Fast forward to 2006. Universal still owns the rights to Oswald, although he died out in animation shortly after Mintz stole him from Walt. NBC has earned the right to show an NFL football game on Sunday nights, and they want John Madden and Al Michaels to do the game since ESPN is now doing Monday night football. ABC, owned by Disney, negotiates with NBC for Al's rights to do play by play in the game. The new CEO of Disney asks NBC (which owns Universal) to give Oswald back to the company he belongs to. So, we have Al Michaels to thank for Disney getting Oswald back....almost 80 years later.

Just another lesson in things happening for a reason. I have a hard time seeing Oswald doing what Mickey Mouse did to the American culture. It's also a lesson that what goes around, comes around. Welcome back, Oswald!