Gideon Goat: An old, obscure character

Gerstein, David DK - ECN DGE at ECN.egmont.com
Sat Aug 30 00:46:58 CEST 2003


	Hey Rich,

>Here are two scans from the story J 2012 showing The Capronis and a 
>picture of Giddy Goat.
>http://users.cwnet.com/xephyr/ART/Gideon1.jpg
>http://users.cwnet.com/xephyr/ART/Gideon2.jpg
>http://users.cwnet.com/xephyr/ART/GiddyGoat.gif
>
>David or someone familiar with the story and/or Giddy Goat, could you 
>possibly share what you know concerning this character?

	Giddy's history isn't very lengthy. He first appears as a
nondescript band member in such cartoons as THE BARN DANCE and THE BARNYARD
CONCERT. He's the sheriff who busts Mickey in FISHIN' AROUND. And he'd have
been lost to obscurity were it not for Gottfredson's use of him- or, more
specifically, an inconsistently-named goat farmer with his appearance- in a
small number of Sunday pages in the mid-1930s.
	Kay Kamen, or someone at Disney's merchandising arm around 1934, hit
on the fact that this goat farmer was regularly reappearing. Under the
consistent name of Gideon Goat, the character now became a regular part of
Mickey's gang in Disney storybooks, coloring books, MICKEY MOUSE MAGAZINE,
and MICKEY MOUSE MAGAZINE's overseas equivalents.
	Giddy wasn't the only minor character to experience a merchandising
rush at this time. MICKEY MOUSE MAGAZINE writers took it on themselves to
revive Squeaky, the squirrel from Gottfredson's "Mr. Slicker and the Egg
Robbers", and refine his tail to make him a skunk. Humanized and going by
the new name of Sammy Skunk, he too became a regular in Disney printed
matter for a few years.
	1937 saw SNOW WHITE's release, and the introduction of numerous new
marketable characters to the Disney pantheon. Counting the years forward
from there, one sees merchandisers start to drop characters who had fallen
out of regular use. Patricia Pigg, Gideon, and Sammy were more or less the
first to go. After World War II, lesser Silly Symphony characters like Elmer
Elephant went next.
	Today, I imagine that those who use Gideon invoke him as some sort
of homage to Gottfredson. That's definitely the Gideon *model* in the
Topolino story you've shown us, though I'm too unfamiliar with the story to
judge whether it's really intended as the same character.

	David


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