Voice of Minnie Mouse
By Lori Tighe
leaves legacy of art
Star-BulletinRick Ralston remembers hearing his mom say in a high falsetto voice, "Hiya Mickey!"
Marjorie Elizabeth Ralston of Honolulu was the first voice of Minnie Mouse.
She died July 22 in Queen's Hospital from osteoporosis complications at age 86.
"She was always very shy about it," said Rick Ralston, recalling his mother's Minnie Mouse beginnings.
Her love of art inspired Ralston to begin painting shirts, which evolved into Crazy Shirts Inc., one of the most successful T-shirt companies in Hawaii.
Fresh out of high school in Los Angeles, Marjorie Ralston took a portfolio of her sketches to unknown animator Walt Disney in 1928 and became hired as his 13th employee. Called an inker, she colored in the illustrator's shapes in an old Los Angeles garage that served as the first Disney studio.
"I'm not sure we ever thought of it as an art form back there in the garage on Hyperion Boulevard," Marjorie Ralston said in a 1971 interview with the Star-Bulletin.
"We were the beginning. The animators, the artists, an office girl and Walt Disney. The rest of us idolized him."
As Disney walked around her desk one day talking like Mickey Mouse, she answered back like Minnie and became recruited to speak for the demure mouse. She only did one cartoon as Minnie and then begged out of it because of her shyness, Rick Ralston said. But she stayed on as an inker for almost 13 years before retiring to raise her two sons in L.A.
People continued to ask her to talk like Minnie Mouse, but she bashfully declined saying, "I get stage fright."
But now and then she would talk like Minnie for her sons.
Rick Ralston remembers growing up surrounded by Pinocchio cartoon cells on the walls of his bedroom.
They were castaways from his mother's job.
"We used to laugh when we realized many years later, Mom could have brought home boxes of those Disney cartoon cells. Little did anyone know they'd be worth $1,000 each. We could have been set for life," Ralston said.
Times for the Ralstons weren't all cartoons. Marjorie and Bradford Ralston divorced when Rick and his brother, Bob, were boys. Their mother struggled to raise them herself, working then as a licensed practical nurse. Stretched too thinly, Marjorie Ralston had a breakdown, Rick Ralston recalled. Neighbors contacted the Salvation Army to send food baskets to their house.
Ralston came to Hawaii in 1962 and began painting T-shirts. He began Crazy Shirts in 1964, and his mother came to Hawaii in 1968. Bob Ralston, Rick's brother, played with the Lawrence Welk band and enjoyed success as a musician.
In honor of his mother's roots, Ralston added Minnie, Mickey and Donald Duck's original 1933 versions to his shirt designs in 1973. He presented the first Minnie Mouse shirt off the assembly line to his mom.
In Hawaii, Marjorie Ralston spoke out on various issues through the years in letters to the editor of Honolulu newspapers.
She supported the old Waikiki historic landmarks and opposed unchecked development in the name of tourism.
Services were private. She is also survived by son Bob; and grandchildren Randy, Diane, Tyler and Paige.
Frances C. Abreu, 86, of Honolulu died Friday in Convalescent Center of Honolulu. She was born in Eleele, Kauai. She is survived by daughters Margaret Smith, Catherine Okazaki, Edna Estrella and Rosemarie Souza; brother Lawrence Cambra; sisters Mary Reis, Emily Mendonca and Adeline Christian; 12 grandchildren, 30 great-grandchildren and six great-great-grandchildren. Mass: 11 a.m. Friday at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa. Call from 9 a.m. to noon. Graveside services: 10 a.m. next Tuesday at Holy Cross Church in Kalaheo, Kauai. Casual attire. No flowers.
