Editing Pete (Disney) (section)

==Theatrical cartoons==
===''Alice Comedies''===
[[File:Alice Solves the Puzzle scene.jpg|thumb|left|Pete's first appearance in ''[[Alice Solves the Puzzle]]'']]
Pete first appeared in the [[Walt Disney]]-produced 1920s ''[[Alice Comedies]]'' short subject series.

He first appeared in ''[[Alice Solves the Puzzle]]'' (February 15, 1925) as Bootleg Pete.<ref name=Gersteinv2>{{cite book |last1=Gerstein |first1=David |title=Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse |volume=2: Trapped on Treasure Island |date=2011 |publisher=Fantagraphics Books |location=Seattle, Washington |isbn=9781606994955|page=248}}</ref> His nickname was a reference to his career of [[rum-running|bootlegging]] alcoholic beverages during [[Prohibition in the United States]] (1920-1933). In the cartoon, Pete's activities bring him to a beach in time to see Alice working on a [[crossword puzzle]]. Pete happens to be a collector of crossword puzzles, and identifies Alice's puzzle being a rare one missing from his collection. The rest of the short focuses on his antagonizing Alice and her drunken cat [[Julius the Cat|Julius]] to steal it.

In various later ''Alice Comedies'', the character again battled and competed with Alice and Julius, often under the aliases Putrid Pete and Pegleg Pete.<ref name=Gersteinv2 />

===Oswald the Lucky Rabbit===
[[File:Peg Leg Pete.png|thumb|Peg Leg Pete in ''[[The Ocean Hop]]'']]
Disney needed a villain to place against his new star [[Oswald the Lucky Rabbit]], and Pete was introduced to his new adversary in the sixth Oswald short ''[[The Ocean Hop]]'' (September 8, 1927). Apparently inspired by [[Charles Lindbergh]], the two enter an aeroplane race across the Atlantic Ocean.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.disneyshorts.org/shorts.aspx?shortID=73|title=1927: The Ocean Hop|publisher=Disney Shorts|access-date=2012-05-28|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120330020217/http://www.disneyshorts.org/shorts.aspx?shortID=73|archive-date=2012-03-30}}</ref> By the time producer [[Charles Mintz]] moved production of the Oswald series to his own studio, Pete had been established as the most consistently appearing supporting character to Oswald, and the character continued to appear in that role in the Oswald films directed and produced by [[Walter Lantz]] until 1937, making him essentially the only cartoon character at the time to frequently appear in shorts produced by two rival animation studios. His most notable non-Disney appearance was as a captain in ''Permanent Wave'' (September 29, 1929).

===Mickey Mouse and friends===
[[File:Earlypete.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Pete as he appeared in ''Steamboat Willie'']]
After leaving the Oswald series, Disney and his team created a cat villain for their new protagonist [[Mickey Mouse]]. Originally unnamed in the cartoons and called "Terrible Tom" in a January 1930 comic strip, the villain was called Pegleg Pete by April 1930, formalizing him as a new incarnation of the pre-Mickey bad guy.<ref>{{cite book|author=Bossert, David|year=2017|title=Oswald The Lucky Rabbit: The Search For The Disney Cartoons|publisher=Disney Books|page=62|isbn=978-1-4847-8037-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Gerstein |first1=David |last2=Kaufman |first2=J. B. |year=2018|title=Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History|publisher=Taschen|page=28|isbn=978-3836552844}}</ref> Animator [[Norm Ferguson (animator)|Norm Ferguson]], known for developing [[Pluto (Disney)|Pluto]], also developed Pete's character in several shorts and he was made to resemble actor [[Wallace Beery]].<ref name="danim" /><ref>Steve Watts, ''The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life'', University of Missouri Press, pp. 33, 132</ref>Pete appeared as Mickey's enemy beginning with the 1928 cartoons ''[[The Gallopin' Gaucho]]'' and ''[[Steamboat Willie]]''. While he was seen with two legs in those films, he first appeared with a peg-leg in 1930's ''[[The Cactus Kid (1930 film)|The Cactus Kid]]'' and would speak for the first time. He would first appear in color in ''[[Moving Day (1936 film)|Moving Day]]'' (1936), which would drop the peg-leg.<ref name="movies">{{cite book |last1=Grob |first1=Gijs |title=Mickey's Movies: The Theatrical Films of Mickey Mouse |date=2018 |publisher=Theme Park Press |pages=40, 148|isbn=978-1683901235}}</ref> In the cartoons of the 1930s, Pete would be Mickey Mouse's nemesis, but would vary in professions, from an all-out outlaw (''Gallopin' Gaucho'', ''The Cactus Kid'', ''Two-Gun Mickey'') to a brutal law-enforcer (''Moving Day'', where Pete is a [[sheriff]] who serves Mickey and Donald Duck with an [[eviction]] notice).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rovin |first1=Jeff |title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Cartoon Animals |date=1991 |publisher=Prentice Hall Press |isbn=0-13-275561-0 |access-date=8 April 2020 |url=https://archive.org/details/illustratedencyc00rovi/page/202/mode/2up/ |pages=202–203}}</ref> In the 1942 cartoon ''[[Symphony Hour]]'', Pete is a sympathetic [[impresario]] who sponsors Mickey's orchestra in a concert, which goes terribly wrong but is a great success. As Mickey's popularity declined, Pete would serve as an antagonist for [[Donald Duck]] and to a lesser extent [[Goofy]] and [[Chip 'n' Dale]]. In the 1940s, Pete would play the role of Donald's drill sergeant in several war-themed shorts (eg. ''[[Donald Gets Drafted]]'', ''[[The Old Army Game]]'')