# Steamboat Willie premieres at New York’s Colony Theatre as the first widely released Mickey Mouse cartoon with synchronised sound

Date: 1928

## The fact

On 18 November 1928 Steamboat Willie opened at the Colony Theatre in New York, the first Mickey cartoon released, with synchronised sound. Plane Crazy and Gallopin’ Gaucho had been made silent and held. [Disney](/people/walt-disney) and Iwerks made the film; Disney voiced Mickey. He did not invent the phonograph. Later copyright extensions are other decades’ statutes. Archival locator: Library of Congress — Steamboat Willie (moving image) at https://www.loc.gov/item/mbrs01843181/ (Library of Congress). Independent locator: Library of Congress — Dave Smith, Steamboat Willie (National Film Registry essay) at https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/steamboat_willie.pdf (Library of Congress / National Film Preservation Board).

## Context

The Jazz Singer had already shaken live action. Oswald’s loss is the prior industrial wound. Education here is mass access to a new audiovisual form, not a school district. Archival locator: Library of Congress — Steamboat Willie (moving image) at https://www.loc.gov/item/mbrs01843181/ (Library of Congress). Independent locator: Library of Congress — Dave Smith, Steamboat Willie (National Film Registry essay) at https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/steamboat_willie.pdf (Library of Congress / National Film Preservation Board).

If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here.

## Evidence and sources

Library of Congress moving-image item and the National Film Registry essay by Dave Smith independently fix 18 November 1928 at the Colony. Britannica independently calls it the first Mickey released and a sensation. D23 celebrates the date. Archival locator: Library of Congress — Steamboat Willie (moving image) at https://www.loc.gov/item/mbrs01843181/ (Library of Congress). Independent locator: Library of Congress — Dave Smith, Steamboat Willie (National Film Registry essay) at https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/steamboat_willie.pdf (Library of Congress / National Film Preservation Board).

Official or archival record: Library of Congress — Steamboat Willie (moving image) (https://www.loc.gov/item/mbrs01843181/; Library of Congress).

## Significance

A dated sound-cartoon premiere is an education-and-culture path of real size. High confidence on the event. Later streaming and public-domain 2024 are not his lifetime acts. Archival locator: Library of Congress — Steamboat Willie (moving image) at https://www.loc.gov/item/mbrs01843181/ (Library of Congress). Independent locator: Library of Congress — Dave Smith, Steamboat Willie (National Film Registry essay) at https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/steamboat_willie.pdf (Library of Congress / National Film Preservation Board).

Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, museums, and adaptations are not converted into extra lifetime acts.

## What is established and what is not

Established: 18 November 1928 Colony premiere with synchronised sound. Not established: that no other cartoon had any sound experiment; the public first for Mickey is the claim. Not a 1998 copyright statute. Archival locator: Library of Congress — Steamboat Willie (moving image) at https://www.loc.gov/item/mbrs01843181/ (Library of Congress). Independent locator: Library of Congress — Dave Smith, Steamboat Willie (National Film Registry essay) at https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/steamboat_willie.pdf (Library of Congress / National Film Preservation Board).

The contribution type is direct. The attached driver is edu-[digital-learning-access](/drivers/edu-digital-learning-access). The welfare reading used in this dossier is improving. That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself.

Confidence is stated on the impact path, not hidden in adjectives. Later copyright-term fights and 2024 public-domain status are not 1928 acts. Mixed effects of Steamboat Willie premieres at New York’s Colony Theatre as the first widely released Mickey Mouse cartoon with synchronised sound are separate paths.

Shared responsibility is part of Steamboat Willie premieres at New York’s Colony Theatre as the first widely released Mickey Mouse cartoon with synchronised sound. Naming Walt Disney does not delete co-authors, institutions, or later transmitters. The lag from 1928-11-18 to any measured indicator is not treated as zero. Alternative explanations — weather, other armies, later statutes, or independent cultural change — remain live where the sources do not close them.

## People

- Walt Disney: https://factrail.ai/people/walt-disney

## Drivers

- Digital Learning Access: https://factrail.ai/drivers/edu-digital-learning-access

## Sources

- https://www.loc.gov/item/mbrs01843181/
- https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/steamboat_willie.pdf

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/wd-steamboat-willie