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Melody (& Millie) , "Minnie's Niece(s)"

GENUS PEDIGREE: Mouseears
KNOWN ALIASES: Molly or Maisie or Pammy & Tammy
KNOWN RELATIVES: Minnie Mouse (aunt); Manfred (cousin).
KNOWN PETS: unknown
CITIZENSHIP: Mouseton, USA.
KNOWN CONFIDANTS: Minnie Mouse; Mickey Mouse; Morty & Ferdie Fieldmouse.
KNOWN RIVALS: unknown
PARAPHERNALIA: unknown
1st PRINT APPEARANCE: "Mickey Mouse" #88 in "Mickey's Close Call" (as "Pammy & Tammy") in July 1963, and later that same year in "Mickey Mouse Album" #1 (Gold Key 01-518-210, Sept. 1963) in "The Late Show" (as "Millie & Melody" later reprinted in "Walt Disney Comics Digest" #35, June 1972), though they may have appeared in earlier stories by Paul Murry (I know of no other source), but they do recur occassionally in non-USA Disney Comics.
1st FILM APPEARANCE: "Mickey's Christmas Carol" (Dec. 16, 1983 - Melody as Cratchit's daughter?).  Both nieces, Melody & Millie, finally made their television premiere on "Minnie's Bow Toons" (a featurette spin-off of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) episode "Trouble Times Two" (Nov. 15, 2011).
VOICE ACTOR: N/A
SIGNATURE: unknown
BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS: Minnie Mouse has had an inconsistent list of nieces. In Europe and Brazil, most often a single niece is depicted, even consistently named Melody. She is a Disney Studio creation by Jim Fletcher in the mid-sixties whose primary "task" seems to be to drive Morty & Ferdie crazy. However, in at least one other Italian or Brazilian tale Minnie did have another niece named Zizi (whether this was the name of Melody's twin or just another name for Melody is unknown). However, in America, Minnie has had a couple sets of twin nieces as portrayed by Paul Murry, named both Melody & Millie and Pammy & Tammy (these could very easily be the same twins, but Paul Murry forgot he had already named them in a previous tale). It is reported that another name is attributed in American comics giving Minnie's single niece the name of Molly. Another set of nieces appear in an early Mickey Mouse book from the 1940s as triplets calling themselves "Dolly, Polly & Molly," while a lone niece attributed to Mickey appears in the cartoon "Gulliver Mickey" (1934) named "Maisie" (listed in "Mickey Mouse: His Life and Times" (1986 - Harper & Row). The only known possible film appearance of any niece is in 1983's "Mickey's Christmas Carol," where Mickey Mouse, as Bob Crachit, has a daughter. In this film Morty & Ferdie are said to have played Cratchit's two sons (including one as Tiny Tim), and since Melody seems to be the most consistent name used for any niece attributed to Minnie, it is quite probably that it was Melody who played the role of Bob Crachit's daughter.
HISTORICAL FACTS: However, in USA comics the naming is not nearly consistent enough to form a concrete character profile. The only fact that is really stable is that Minnie definitely has twin nieces.
LITTLE KNOWN SECRETS: unknown
WORKING THEORIES: Perhaps the first actual appearance of either Melody or any other niece of Minnie's is from "Walt Disney's Comics & Stories" #87 where a much younger niece appears.
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