The Walt Disney Company
In 1928, to recover from the loss of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Disney came up with the idea of a mouse character named Mortimer while on a train headed to California, drawing up a few simple drawings. The mouse was later renamed Mickey Mouse (Disney's wife, Lillian, disliked the sound of 'Mortimer Mouse') and starred in several Disney produced films. Ub Iwerks refined Disney's initial design of Mickey Mouse. Disney's first sound film "Steamboat Willie", a cartoon starring Mickey, was released on November 18, 1928 through Pat Powers' distribution company. It was the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon released, but the third to be created, behind "Plane Crazy" and "The Gallopin' Gaucho". "Steamboat Willie" was an immediate smash hit, and its initial success was attributed not just to Mickey's appeal as a character, but to the fact that it was the first cartoon to feature synchronized sound. Disney used Pat Powers' Cinephone system, created by Powers using Lee de Forest's Phonofilm system. "Steamboat Willie" premiered at B. S. Moss's Colony Theater in New York City, now The Broadway Theatre. Disney's "Plane Crazy" and "The Gallopin' Gaucho" were then retrofitted with synchronized sound tracks and re-released successfully in 1929.
Mickey Mouse
Composer Carl W. Stalling was the very first person to provide lines for Mickey in the 1929 short "The Karnival Kid". Clarence Nash voiced Mickey in the 1934 short "The Dognapper" since Walt was traveling in Europe at the time and was unavailable to record his lines for Mickey for that short. Along with Disney, J. Donald Wilson and Joe Twerp provided the voice in 1938 broadcasts of "The Mickey Mouse Theater of the Air". Stan Freberg voiced Mickey in the Freberg-produced record "Mickey Mouse's Birthday Party". Alan Young voiced Mickey in the Disneyland record album "An Adaptation of Dickens' Christmas Carol, Performed by The Walt Disney Players" in 1974, which would be the first and only time that Alan Young voiced him.