| Michael Widger to Walt Disney
Dear Mr Disney, I hope you remmber [sic] me. I sat beside you on a bus in Los Angeles in 1928 [March]. I told you I was visiting my brother Willie in Santa Monica. You had [illegible] some paper and you were drawing a fat lady in the seat across from us. She kept scratching herself. You asked me a lot of questions about where I was from. You said your [illegible] name was Walt Disney and that you had your own film factory over in Hollywood. Well I was thinking of you again last Thursday night when I saw one of your "Mickey Mouse" films down at the Coliseum, our picturehouse. It was the one where Mickey gets his hair cut. I remembered how you stared at me that [illegible] day on the bus and said my ears were very unusual. You also asked me what happened to my hands. My wife Josie said I should write to you and ask you outright if you got the idea for "Mickey Mouse" after seeing me because then it would be only fair if you paid me some money by way of compinsation [sic]. After all, you will probably make several [illegible] thousand pounds from these films yourself. Josie and me would be very happy with just £240 to help us in the years ahead. Josie wants me to tell my story to our local newspapers but I said [illegible] no, wait and see what Mr Disney says. I am sure he is a fair man. So I am looking forward to hearing from you very soon, sir.
P.S. Enclosed please find a recent picture of me taken by my cousin Jimmy.
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