Donald Duck - Cornuto!

Speaking of Donald Duck & cultural difference, this 1939 letter in Time Magazine describes how Disney dodged a bullet in a Donald Duck cartoon. Alas, the online version (kudos for the find, Mathew!) does not include the original sketch:

Saved from Embarrassment

Sirs:

You may be glad to know that a recent article in TIME proved timely indeed to the Walt Disney Studio and saved us from considerable embarrassment.

The article (TIME, Dec. 12) described a Brooklyn divorce trial where the most important testimony concerned a gesture made by raising the hands to the forehead, extending the fingers like horns, and making an ugly face.

I was horrified to learn that this gesture, called cornuto, is a well-known symbol for cuckoldry in Latin countries—horrified because I had in my ignorance and innocence used the identical gesture as a gag in a forthcoming Donald Duck picture, The Hockey Champ.

I planned a scene where Donald emerges from a snowbank with icicles sticking on his head like horns. His three little nephews mock his appearance by making the "horns" gesture at him.

This gag got by every one in the Studio, who apparently knew as little about cornuto as I did, and would have appeared in our finished picture but for your illuminating article. Needless to say, if this had happened, the film would have got loud, unwanted laughs in Mexico, South America and Italy and would have aroused the censors. We passed the information along to the Hays office, incidentally, and they were very glad to have it.

I enclose a sketch of Donald's nephews as they very nearly appeared on the screen.

HARRY REEVES Story Department Walt Disney Productions, Ltd. Hollywood, Calif.