Tribute To Our Fallen Brothers

[drakew]

"Yes, Lennman, that was true, he had a bit more to do with that. Actually, it was during his Hollywood years, when the Golden Hoofer was on the Newport Beach at a clambake, when a young USC football player named Marion Morrisson sailed in on the riptide Newport Beach was so famous for. The young man, a huge physical specimen, was hurt as he was body surfing, so the Good Doctor tended to his wounds, and sent him on his way, with a phone number to make a follow up appointment, which he never did.

Seems that the wounds were so extensive, that he couldn't play football for the Trojans anymore, so they dropped the young man's scholarship and kicked him out of school. Morrisson then remembered the Good Doctor, and went to see him at the movie lot where he was consulting at the time with his good friend John Ford.

He sized up the rough and tumble Iowan, and said "We can get you a job working props, and as Westerns are all the coming rage, a few choice bit parts are there to be had, we must change your name. Marion Mitchell Morrisson sounds too much like and English country garden sissy, we need a tough name, two first names, Like JOHN, as in my friend John Ford, and like Wayne, in Wayne Buchinsky the fighter. That's good, like JOHN WAYNE. Now," said the Golden Hoofer, "we need some way to make you stand out in the crowd. Pretend I didn't do such a good job on your leg, limp just a bit on that side, hitch your thumbs in your belt, try that." The young man seemed a bit awkward at first, but soon smoothed it out. "Just like that" amused the Golden Hoofer, "just a little hitch in your get-along!" The Hoofer took him to meet John Ford, and history was made that day, as John Wayne was soon to be a star to eclipse even the Golden Hoofer's notoriety"

[LennG]

 

I remembered it also, but I forgot some of the more intricate details. Glad you reminded me.



did the Golden Hoofer ever tell you the story about what he did while his new buddy, 'The Duke' was busy making his first movie.

You see, the good Doctor was sitting around with not much to do. As he had his sketch pad with him at all times,  he started drawing characters he would like to see in children's stories. The Hoofer always loved children and was always doing all he could to help entertain them. anyway, he saw this little mouse running on the floor of the room, so he decided to make a sketch of a mouse, but tried to make him more human. He gave him big ears and some shorts to wear.
 While he was sketching, a young man started looking over his shoulder, and liked what he saw. He said, "Gee, I never thought about making a mouse character, but let me borrow your sketch and let me see what i can do with it. That young man's name was Walt Disney. The Golden Hoofer was thrilled that Walt liked his mouse, and told him he had other animals that he had drawn also, like a Duck, a Dog, some birds, a flying elephant. He told Walt he had other great ideas also, but others thought they were just too far fetched, like a beautiful maiden who goes to live with a group of little dwarfs, and another story of a poor sister who gets to go to a ball because of a bunch of mice and a fairy godmother. The Golden Hoofer was also a romantic, and he told Walt about his daydream of a beautiful princess who was put to sleep by an evil witch, only to be woken by a handsome prince.
Walt was fascinated and asked the Hoofer if he would come to work for him, and help design an amusement park he was thinking of building. Of course the Hoofer wanted to help, but told Walt, it would have to wait until after the coming war, as he would be away overseas, spearheading the European war effort. .

To this day, the Golden Hoofer's little mouse has become the symbol of Walt Disney and an endearing image to children of all ages.