Here's another opportunity to prove you're smarter than I am.
Lucille La Verne's voice has been making children tremble since the 1937 release of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. She allegedly was widowed three times.
Can you find the names of any or all of her husbands?
An investigation has turned up no evidence that a Canadian census taker was instructed to make up names if she found no one at home.
The controversy began in February when enumerator Sharon Newton of Chilliwack, B.C., told a broadcast outlet she was asked to make up names in order to get the head count done.
"At the end, they just said, 'We really don't care. As long as you can find out if there (are) three people that live in that house, put down Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck on it," Newton said at the time. "We don't care about a name." [Link]
For the next few days you can bid on Walt Disney's last passport on eBay.
This United States passport is dated August 19, 1965, and was issued to the legendary animator shortly after the giant success of Mary Poppins (1964) and 16 months before his death (December 15, 1966). Disney signed the passport twice in blue ink (as "Walter E. Disney"), including once along the edge of his smiling photo. It bears only one set of visa stamps, for a trip to and from London. [Link, via Boing Boing]
A story made the rounds in Scotland that some dim-witted couple named their baby "Pocahontas" after seeing the 1995 Disney movie. Joel Conn of the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research has established that this is a myth.
Using the Freedom of Information Act, he confirmed that no-one named Pocahontas has been recorded by the General Register Office for Scotland since at least 1974. The Office for National Statistics also revealed no record of anyone with the Native American name in England or Wales since at least 1944.Conn's next job: disproving the existence of the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research.
Mr Conn, a 31-year-old Glasgow-based solicitor, said: "I am not ashamed to say that I believed it was possible at first. [Link]
A couple in Britain wanted to put Winnie the Pooh on their child's gravestone, but The Walt Disney Co. turned down the request.
Disney had warned that a stonemason would be in breach of copyright if he included the bear's image along with "bear of very little brain," on the gravestone, The Telegraph reported. The parents had sought approval from Disney, but were rejected. [Link]The company later reversed its decision.
Somehow, Mickey Mouse's family tree found its way into an LDS database. (Here are his birth and marriage to Minnie in the IGI.)
While conducting an investigation into the extensive genealogical database operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, researcher Helen Radkey discovered records detailing the mouse’s family tree—complete with clearance for temple ordinances.
Fortunately, church authorities found a way to maintain some control—according to Radkey, after she made her discovery, they banned her Monday from the library. [Link](It should be noted, and wasn't in the cited article, that Radkey has had run-ins with the Church before.)
