My pal Earl Kress (who's at Disneyland so often, he oughta be registered to vote there) read this earlier item about the old guy who played Mickey Mouse at the Magic Kingdom and sent me this…
That gravelly voiced, old Mickey Mouse worked at the park for many, many years. I was told by an ex-character that he had been hired by Walt and therefore was untouchable — so much so, that he was the only costume character, besides the "face" characters (those not wearing giant heads like Alice in Wonderland or Peter Pan), that was ever allowed to talk. Even though he sounded nothing like Mickey, he would greet people with his gravelly voice, saying, "Hiya, kids! Hiya! Hiya!" I'm not sure how parents ever explained that voice. Mickey Mouse hits puberty?
I wonder if the Disney folks ever experimented with or considered hiring folks who could do a decent Mickey impression to wear the costume. It's not a difficult voice to do. Maybe they figured that since they wouldn't be able to have all the walkaround characters talk, it was better not to have any do so. And why didn't they consider switching the gravelly-voiced guy into the Grumpy suit or something?
I think about this kind of thing. And it worries me that I do.