ABC TV GOOD MORNING AMERICA,December 25,1995
"Don’t ask me how this came about. I recall it began quite casually with a phone call from ABC TV. Then, sometime in the late autumn of 1995, a camera crew descended on Mouse Heaven, where they spent an entire day filming. The resulting video lasted for about three minutes. And it was aired on Good Morning America, the following Christmas Morning, very early. I would think kids everywhere would be far too busy unwrapping presents to watch the likes of me.
The highlight of the piece, comes in the final seconds. Don’t blink or you will miss it, a fleeting glimpse of my best buddy Peewee, standing on the spiral staircase, greeting Minnie." ~ Mel Birnkrant
"MICKY" DETECTIVES, 2005
"The mystery this time was a small wooden mouse toy, made by the Performo toy company, of Middletown Pa. It happened to be a toy that I know well. On his chest there is a decal that reads, “MICKY,” without an “E,” and on his foot, anther decal proclaims that he was patented in 1926. He had been presented to the show as possibly the true origin of Disney’s Mickey Mouse, who was officially introduced in 1928.
Wes and his camera crew arrived, and to my surprise, they had just one camera with them. I was fascinated to discover that each scene had to be repeated twice, so it could be edited to look like just one conversation, alternating from two points of view, the speaker’s and the listener’s. And I was somewhat scandalized to learn that the whole thing had been completely scripted, ahead of time. The writers had predetermined, with awkward touches of misinformation, everything that I was supposed to say, based on our previous phone conversations. Naturally, I balked at this situation, and refused to cooperate. This threw them for a loop, but we worked around it, and in the end, I said what I wanted to, and spoke the truth." ~ Mel Birnkrant
