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The Nazi's banned the book "Bambi." It was translated into English by Whittaker Chambers (who 20 years later was a chief accuser in Nixon's part of the McCarthy hearings.) The book was ultimately brought to Walt Disney's attention by novelist Thomas Mann.

Disney's movie took five years to make. It contained just 900 spoken words, and the American Rifleman Association objected to the way hunters were depicted. By this time the book's author, Felix Salten, had already sold his rights, and made almost nothing from the film. (His book also has a sequel called "Bambi's Children", and in addition he wrote the book that Disney's "The Shaggy Dog" was based on. )

Meanwhile, the child star who provided the voice of Bambi never worked on another movie. Donnie Duggan joined the marines, taking bullets in his head, stomach, lung, and leg, much of it during the Tet offensive. The Disney studio didn't hear from him for decades, and assumed that he was dead.

It wasn't until last year that he turned up in Texas.

63 years after Bambi, he'd lost much of his life savings in the Enron debacle...


The name "Bambi" comes from the Italian word for baby. ("Bambino")


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