Donald Duck turns 80

Happy birthday to the most famous duck in town!! Donald is the world's most popular and most recognizable duck and is celebrating his 80th birthday today!! Mickey Mouse's short-tempered, feathered friend Donald Duck made his Disney debut in 1934.  Donald Duck was created, giving a creative balance to the cool, calm and collected -- and overall cheery -- personality of Mickey Mouse. Donald made his debut in a Silly Symphony cartoon titled "The Wise Little Hen," with the famous duck's signature voice originally coming from Clarence Nash, who was hired by Walt Disney to do animal sounds. 

After 50 years of bringing a voice to Disney's iconic feathered friend, Nash was succeeded by Disney artist Tony Anselmo, who still voices the famous web-footed character today. So many people love to imitate his squeaky voice! In 1984, for Donald's 50th birthday, the Walt Disney Company celebrated with a yearlong celebration, including a television special hosted by Dick Van Dyke and a cross-country tour by Nash. The yearlong celebration even included a duckling march on both coasts -- at Disneyland Park in California and Walt Disney World in Florida. I started working for Walk Disney World a few years later. I would’ve loved to have seen the marching ducklings.

While Donald is less cheery and more easily agitated than the rest of the Disney gang, he is loved by millions of fans worldwide. We have all grown up watching and laughing at Donald Duck. To this day I still get a kick out of watching Donald Duck with my grandkids on the Disney Channel and in the movies that he has been in. Some of his movies go back to 1938 in Donald’s Nephews where he went to visit Huey, Dewey, and Louie. The movie was a whole 8 minutes long!! These days’ movies are running almost 2 hours! It’s amazing how times have changed!