This picture was taken in 1931. The idea for Mickey Mouse had been conceived three years earlier by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. Disney got the inspiration for Mickey Mouse from a tame mouse that would visit him at his desk at Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Kansas City, Missouri.

In 1925, Hugh Harman drew mice around a photograph of Walt Disney. These inspired Ub Iwerks to create a new mouse character for Disney.

“Mortimer Mouse” was Disney’s original name for the character, but his wife, Lillian, convinced him to change it, and ultimately Mickey Mouse came to be. At the opening of Disneyland, Walt Disney said,

“I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.” — Walt Disney, Disneyland; October 27, 1954