1935 Walt Disney Signed Letter to Zez Confrey

Auction: June 2005

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1935 Walt Disney Signed Letter to Zez Confrey

Fascinating letter sent by Walt Disney, on the now rare illustrated "Mickey Mouse" letterhead of the then young Disney Studio to pianist and bandleader Zez Confrey, who had asked to do work for the studio. In the letter, dated Dec. 20, 1935, Disney gently lets down Confrey, whose career had stalled since his '20s heyday when he recorded "Kitten on the Keys," among other hit tunes. "While our Music Staff seems quite complete right now," he writes, "there is a possibility of our requiring additional talent later on." Disney asks him to get back with a specific position he'd like, but apparently the matter ended there. Disney signed the letter in black pen with a big, bouncy dot above the "i", the signature EX with the bottom of the "y" light on ink flow. Letterhead has a delighftul orange/black image of the famous rodent between "Mickey Mouse" and "Sound Cartoons" and the bottom center is imprinted "Silly Symphony Sound Cartoons" in orange. Letter NRMT with 2 light folds. Comes with original envelope with the same image of the letterhead. Don't feel bad for Confrey; the next year he signed with Vitaphone and appeared with Babe Ruth in a one-reeler called "Home Run on the Keys." Included here is Confrey's unsigned Vitaphone contract mentioning Babe Ruth, studio session ID card, a letter to him from ASCAP, his 1935 signed ASCAP agreement and a newspaper story of him playing golf with Ruth. Great "inside showbiz" minutiae all around.