The Mickey Mouse of 1937 in Bloomington was not a cartoon mouse, but a mouse found in a factory who simply could not stop singing.
The workers at the Vose Cooler Manufacturing Co. on East Euclid, just outside Bloomington, could hear a trilling sound all through the night. They became curious about this trilling, uncertain whether it was a cricket or some other insect. Usually it was safe within the walls of the factory, but one night it was on the warehouse floor. They built a trap of tin all around a pallet of drinking cases, determined to find out just what sort of animal or insect was singing. After building the fence around the pallet, they began moving the beverage cases out of the trap, one by one.
The singer was a little grey mouse! They carefully caught him and built a tiny home for him out of tin and a screen. He was given a half a tack box for his bed and a strand of solder for his exercise apparatus. On observation, they learned that Mickey sang all through his waking hours. Only sleep stopped his singing. He even sang while eating or drinking. When frightened or excited, his singing became louder. His song was described as being like that of a canary!
Mickey was not the only singing mouse in Illinois. Another singing mouse had been captured by the inmates of the Girls Industrial Home of Woodstock, Illinois. They called her Minnie Mouse. Later in January yet another singing mouse was trapped, in Mansfield, IL. An elderly lady suggested that if someone wanted another singing mouse, they could come catch the one that was annoying her.
Mickey was a valued mouse, each night he went home with one of his owners, W. F. Vose and Jack Karstens. They had dreams of a career in radio for Mickey Mouse. His first public appearance could have been the Bloomington High Carnival on January 8, 1937, when he was the first billed attraction, along with profile artists, tap dancing and a shooting gallery. Vote and Karstens hired Gilbert Brown of the Irvin Theater as the manager of Mickey just days later, but after a week at the Irvin, Mickey made a break for freedom. The janitor, Howard Brent, responsible (he was mending the cage) sat up for two nights, trying to tempt Mackey back into his cage. during his vigil he caught two pretenders, but on learning they couldn't sing, Brent released the talentless mice and waited for Mickey. Mickey was finally recaptured and continued his career as a famous mouse after Vose and Karstens sold Mickey to Gilbert Brown for an undisclosed sum.
On April 11, 1937 Mickey got just that chance. He was entered in a contest on NBC radio from WCFL in Chicago by his new owner, Gilbert Brown. In the studio were 6 other mice and 9 others from distant radio studios in Seattle, Memphis, Boston and New York City. The Chicago studio was mayhem when the mouse from Indiana escaped and had to be hunted down for 45 minutes. His disappointed owner was not surprised when the traumatized mouse would not sing. But Mickey from Bloomington out sang them all and was declared the best singing mouse in the United States of America. The next challenge? Competing with a British mouse in London!
Mickey performed brilliantly against mice from the U.S., Canada and Britain on May 3, 1937 on a program sponsored by the National Broadcasting , the Canadian Broadcasting and the British Broadcasting Companies. His winning voice was described as a fruity contralto that reached to the rear of the gallery and "so ended the most frivolous Sunday (BBC) broadcast on record."
Mickey Mouse died October 6, 1937 at the home of Jules J. Rubens, the Vice President of the Great States Theaters (owners of the Irvin Theater). The latter part of his life was one of comfort and luxury we can be assured, safe from cats in a bird cage hung high about the floor.