Clarabelle Cow
GENUS PEDIGREE: | Anthropomorphized cow | ||
KNOWN ALIASES: | Carolyn (or Caroline) Cow | ||
KNOWN RELATIVES: | Sarabelle Cow (sister); Durham Cow (grandfather); Miss Bovina (aunt); Itsy-Betsy (niece); Bertie, Boniface (cousins). | ||
KNOWN PETS: | Cat named Kitty. | ||
CITIZENSHIP: | Mouseton, USA | ||
KNOWN CONFIDANTS: | Mickey Mouse; Minnie Mouse; Daisy Duck; Clara Cluck; Horace Horsecollar; Goofy; Dora Duck; Penny, Patty, T.J., Heather & Lilly (from "Minnie 'n Me"). | ||
KNOWN RIVALS: | Bad Pete; Sylvester Shyster; Donald Duck. | ||
PARAPHERNALIA: | Cow bell | ||
1st PRINT APPEARANCE: | "Mickey Mouse" daily in "Mickey Mouse in Death Valley" (Apr. 1, 1930). | ||
1st FILM APPEARANCE: | "Alice on the Farm" (1926 -unnamed cow); "Plane Crazy" (1928 -named Carolyn); "The Shindig" (1930 -named Clarabelle). | ||
VOICE ACTOR: | unknown (early shorts); Elvia Allman ("Prince and the Pauper" -Nov. 16, 1990). | ||
SIGNATURE: | Incessant gossiping | ||
BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS: | In her youth Clarabelle was one of Minnie Mouse's constant companions. See also the picture of Minnie and her friends from Minnie 'n Me. A cow with all the hallmarks of Clarabelle, including her enormous multi-studded utter, appeared in a pre-Mickey Mouse Disney film called "Alice on the Farm" (from Disney's "Alice Comedies" series) was perhaps Clarabelle's earliest appearance in film. Her role involved an early Ub Iwerks gag where Julius the Cat tries to get milk. A gag that would be repeated in several times in Clarabelle's earliest Mickey Mouse cartoons, when she was known as Carolyn Cow. Both Clarabelle and Horace Horsecollar had an uncanny ability to change from somewhat normal farmyard animals into anthropomorphized beings as necessary. Apparently Clarabelle was given a skirt originally to give a modicum of modestly to the rubbery bovine, serving to hide her enormous appendage. Clarabelle and Horace have been engaged since 1931. Clarabelle also has a young cousin, Bertie the Jinx, a niece, Itsy-Betsy, and a socialite aunt named Miss Bovina, who have appeared in several issues of "Walt Disney's Comics and Stories." For a brief time, during the late 1960s, Clarabelle began dating Goofy, perhaps in an attempt to give Goofy a girlfriend. During this time Horace's whereabouts are unknown. Toward the end of this time Clarabelle's status with Goofy was challenged by another gal named Glory-Bee, and Clarabelle seems to have returned to her former paramour, Horace. | ||
HISTORICAL FACTS: |
Thanks to the efforts of comic book writer David Gerstein the following is a fairly exhaustive list of Clarabelle's film appearances: 2004 THE THREE MUSKETEERS (Pete's lieutenant) | ||
LITTLE KNOWN SECRETS: | unknown | ||
WORKING THEORIES: | none |