Before Donald and Mickey -- even before the memorable Steamboat Willie -- legendary cartoonist Walt Disney created a now forgotten strip: "Lydia's Newt."
This early work by the soon-to-be-famous animator promised to chronicle the daily ups and downs of Russian prima ballerina Lydia Lopokova as she attempted to teach her pet salamander, Kiril Kirilovitch, some simple ballet technique using the Vaganova method. Blunt-snouted, short-limbed Kiril, however, much preferred studying essays outlining the macroeconomic theories of Lydia's husband, famed economist John Maynard Keynes. Conflict was bound to ensue.
Disney completed only three half-page, six-panel color newspaper spreads before abandoning the project in favor of the experiments in film animation which would ultimately lead to his success.
Only a single manuscript of "Lydia's Newt" -- that of what would have been its final installment -- appears to have survived.
