Steamboat willie or how Mickey mouse turns a billy goat's tail into the crank of a barrel organ

Lutèce Creations ( www.automates-... and www.ma-boite-a... ), the European specialist of music boxes and automatons, offers through its Parisian store and its websites, various antique automatons (from the end of the XIXth century until the first world war), vintage automatons (from the 50's until the 70's) and mechanical music instruments.
Today we present you a cartoon Steamboat Willie, made in 1928 by Disney studios and starring Mickey Mouse. We were particularly interested in this short film because it is linked to the field of mechanical music instruments and above all barrel organs.
Mickey Mouse is piloting a side-wheeler paddle steamer, cheerfully whistling "Steamboat Bill" and sounding the boat's three whistles. Soon, the captain, Pete, appears and orders Mickey off the bridge. Mickey blows a raspberry at Pete. Pete attempts to kick him, but Mickey rushes away in time and Pete accidentally kicks himself in the rear. Mickey falls down the stairs, slips on a bar of soap on the boat's deck, and lands in a bucket of water. A parrot laughs at him and Mickey throws the bucket on its head.
Pete, who has been watching the occurrence, pilots the steamboat himself. He bites off some chewing tobacco and spits into the wind. The spit flies backward and rings the boat's bell. Amused, Pete spits again, but this time the spit hits him in the face, to his dismay.
The steamboat makes a stop at "Podunk Landing" to pick up a cargo of various livestock. Mickey has trouble getting one of the slimmer cows with a FOB tag onto the boat attached to a harness. To solve this, Mickey fills the cow's stomach up with hay to fatten the slim cow into the harness. Just as they set off again, Minnie Mouse appears, running to catch the boat before it leaves. Mickey does not see her in time, but she runs after the boat along the shore calling out Mickey's name. Mickey hears Minnie's calls and he takes her on board by hooking the cargo crane to her bloomers.
Landing on deck, Minnie accidentally drops a ukulele and sheet music for the song "Turkey in the Straw", which are eaten by a goat. After a brief tug of war with the goat over the eaten ukulele, Mickey accidentally lets go of it. The goat goes dizzy over the use of force, and the two mice begin using the billy goat's body as a barrel organ, which they play by turning its tail like a crank. This makes the two mice laugh. Mickey uses various objects on the boat as percussion accompaniment and "plays" the animals like musical instruments. This includes pulling the tail of a cat, stretching a goose's throat, tugging on the tails of baby pigs, playing with the teats of their nursing mother pig, and using a cow's teeth and tongue to play the song as a xylophone.
Captain Pete is unamused by the musical act and puts Mickey to work peeling potatoes as a punishment. Out of spite, Mickey uses a knife to peel the potatoes wastefully, discarding most of the potato along with the skin. In the potato bin, the same parrot that laughed at him earlier appears in the porthole and laughs at him again. Fed up with the bird's heckling, Mickey throws a half-peeled potato at it, knocking it back into the river below. Mickey then laughs as he sits next to the potatoes and hears the parrot squawking.
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Lutèce Créations - 103, rue de Sèvres - Galerie le Sévrien - 75006 Paris France
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Keywords: Steamboat Willie / Mickey / mouse / cartoon / barrel organ / mechanical music instruments / music boxes / music boxes / musical instruments / Disney studios.
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