Oswald: The undying buzz of discussion

So, we animation historians learned last week that it was Disney who purchased Hungry Hobos for over $30,000. This was a good thing: it showed that a huge corporation was willing to spend some of its lunch money on a very early facet of its intellectual property. This also means we will probably get to see the film in some form. Such is not oft the case for items purchased by private collectors (yours truly excluded!)

I still think having paid such a high price has set a bad precedent for early animated films and art or memorabilia related to those films. Thankfully, auction houses seem to be siding with those of us who feel this way about the Oswald sale. The firms are turning away films and other items being touted by hopeful profiteer collectors/dealers. Good on them.

Discussion on this situation continues to surface on the internet...friend and fellow early animation historian Valentin Moretto of France has now posted about Hungry Hobos on his blog (in French, no less!). Thanks for the mention and link back, Valentin!

Further Exploits of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

Close friend and animation historian colleague David Gerstein has once again updated his Ramapith Blog with some fine material. His latest post, as of this writing, concerns Oswald the Lucky Rabbit; a character David has no doubt played a key role in helping to revive.

As readers might know from a previous post here, Oswald has been quite exploited as of late in the form of entertainment memorabilia auctions. David's latest post outlines the most recent problem being apparent forged poster sketches offered to auction houses. Since a 16mm print of the Oswald cartoon Hungry Hoboes recently fetched unreasonably high bids, there has been a great influx of either forged or worthless Oswald material making the rounds. Thankfully these auction houses are now wise enough to consult David on the items' authenticity. I urge readers to check out David's post here.