Works by Disney, Before He Started Mousing Around, Are for Sale - New York Times (blog)

Long-lost works by Walt Disney are suddenly sprouting like the bits of a chopped-up broom brought magically to life.

An early cartoon drawing by Disney, dating from the early 1920s before Mickey Mouse was a gleam in his eye, will be among the items for sale at a two-day auction in Reno, Nev., The Associated Press reported. The drawing, titled "Fill Up My Can," depicts a cigar-smoking man in a derby hat and bears the prophetic if not rib-tickling caption, "Develop your sense of humor and it will develop you." (Fans will also notice that Disney's autograph hasn't quite developed its signature flourish.) The drawing was previously owned by Disney's sister, Ruth, and is expected to sell for between $35,000 and $50,000 at an auction that starts Tuesday at the Atlantic Casino Resort.

On the other side of the Atlantic, an independent British film library says it has found one of the earliest animated shorts to feature Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a Mickey-like prototype created by Disney and Ub Iwerks before the more famous mouse came to prominence. Reuters reported that an Oswald cartoon called "Hungry Hobos" was found in the collection of the Huntley Film Archives, which is in the process of cataloging 80,000 items in its inventory. It is expected to sell for between $30,000 and $40,000 at a Bonham's auction on Dec. 14.

Robert Dewar, the commercial director of the archives, said "Hungry Hobos" was originally shown on May 14, 1928, one day before Mickey Mouse was given his first trial screening. Disney, who was working for Universal, wanted more money but the studio said no, so he and Iwerks went their own way. The rest, as they say, is ink-stained history.