February 6, 1937 – Release of the Mickey Mouse Short Film Magician Mickey 
“Aw, why don’t you go home? Phooey!”
On February 6, 1937, audiences were treated to a cartoon magic show called Magician Mickey, starring Mickey Mouse. Unfortunately for Mickey, Donald Duck decides to attend the show, heckling Mickey from beginning to end with a growing degree of cartoon violence, but Donald learns that Mickey will always get the best of him in the end. The short was directed by David Hand, and stars Walt Disney as Mickey Mouse, Clarence Nash as Donald Duck, and Pinto Colvig as Goofy. As with many of the shorts of this period, this one relies on the use of pantomime, as Mickey and Goofy only have one line each. The short has the added bonus of Donald throwing ten fits, including the ones where he is a kangaroo, a seal, and a monkey—it is a magic show—and with every fit, he spits out cards ending with the ace of hearts sticking out of his mouth.
The short opens in a theater, and we see Goofy up in the rafters, setting up the ropes and lights for the show. We then hear applause as Mickey struts onto the stage. His first trick is making his table appear from his hat. He then turns his cloak into a crow, and as the crow flies away, Mickey is startled by hearing loud laughter. As he turns, he sees Donald Duck in a balcony seat, beginning his heckling as Mickey’s personal skeptic, crying, “Aw, phooey.”
Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse's personal heckler
Mickey’s next trick is to release a balloon from his hand, after showing that there was nothing up his sleeve. He releases another one, which suddenly pops over Mickey’s head, drenching him. He glares over at Donald, who spies the other balloon floating over and shoots it with a slingshot. Unfortunately, the balloon turns into a lobster, and begins to fight with Donald. As Donald throws it back at Mickey, Mickey catches it and turns it back into a balloon, which he pops with his magic wand.
Mickey then begins a card trick, but Donald, ever up to mischief, pulls out a bellows and shoots the air in Mickey’s direction, causing the cards to fly all over the place. Mickey amazes the audience by turning the cards into flock of birds, which he then sends into a cage he makes appear out of thin air. He then makes the cage disappear, replacing it with a new deck of cards. Donald proclaims that anyone can do that trick, and as Mickey makes the cards disappear, they reappear shooting out of Donald’s mouth as he throws a fit. Humiliated, he throws his empty soda bottle at Mickey. Unfazed, Mickey makes the bottle float in midair and fill with water, which shoots back at Donald, causing another card-spitting fit.
Mickey makes the cards reappear through Donald's fits, a humiliation not even Donald expected
As Mickey bows to the audience, Donald jumps onto the stage and steals the magic wand, trying to use it on Mickey. The wand does give Donald a giant ice cream cone, which spits raspberry ice cream into the duck’s face, causing a third card-spitting fit. As he leaps at Mickey, Mickey catches him and makes him disappear in his hands, turning him into a set of Donald Duck paper dolls, and then into a twisted bullet, which Mickey places into a starter’s pistol. Mickey shoots Donald at an egg on the side table, and by the light of a candle, the audience sees Donald inside the egg, throwing another fit. Mickey grabs the egg and throws it into his hat, and makes Donald reappear by emptying the yolk from the hat.
Magician Mickey and his amazing Donald Duck paper dolls
Angered again, Donald steals the wand again, breaks it in half and throws it on the ground before having another tantrum; this tantrum, however, distracts him from seeing the wand pieces turning into a cactus equipped with boxing gloves. The cactus then begins to punch Donald, with one knockout punch sending him flying offstage. Having enough of the humiliation, but not knowing when to give up, Donald lunges onto the stage, sailing through a hoop Mickey holds up, turning into an assortment of animals as he goes through the hoop over and over. After getting himself back to normal, and seeing Mickey take another bow before the enthralled audience, he spies the pistol in Mickey’s back pocket rips it away and points it at Mickey, who becomes alarmed. “Look out! It’s loaded!” Mickey cries. Donald doesn’t care, but at least he provides the show with an explosive ending.
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