Carl Barks drew several thousand talking
animal characters in his duck universe, and most of them had hair
on their heads. Not too surprising or out of place when it comes
to already furry mammals like dogs and bears, but even the many
different species of feathered birds would sometimes have hairdos!
That is, of course, allowed in funny animal stories, and Barks
would often go to great lengths to dream up fanciful and unusual
hair styles for both genders.
It is, in fact, quite surprising that almost all of the primary
characters have hair - or what certainly appears to be hair. Just
think of the fowls: Scrooge with his whiskers, Grandma with her
beehive hairdo, Magica with her unruly locks, Gladstone with his
wavy hair, and Gyro with his powder-puff hairstyle. Usually the
characters' hair was not a dominant theme in the stories, but in
a few hair and hairdo played an important role in the plots. Here
are some of them in the original chronological order...
NB.: The term Hair basically refers to all strands
of hair (cylindrical and keratinized filaments) growing on the
body of a mammal, but in this page the examples are confined to
only mention human hairs as seen on these characters' as well as
on some of the primary characters' heads.
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WDCS039
Salesman Donald - 1943 Synopsis:
The nephews are not successful sellers of
eggbeaters so Donald decides to help. A hermit
proves to be a hard case...
Comments:
The plot calls for a man with hair - and
lots of it, because that is the only way that
Donald can 'persuade' the hermit to buy an
eggbeater; he simply threatens him with the
utensil that can really mess up the hermit's
facial hair...
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WDCS111
'Love Letters' - 1949 Synopsis:
Donald hides his love letters to Daisy but
Gladstone gets hold of them by accident. Now
Donald has to get them back in a hurry...
Comments:
We have seen Donald in disguise many times
throughout the stories, but it is fairly rarely
that we witness him wearing wigs and other pieces
of facial hair. In this story this is even
carried to the extremes as Donald disguises
himself as three different persons; first he uses
an unruly wig, then he wears some powerful
eyebrows, and finally he hides behind a big,
ungroomed beard!
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WDCS112
'The Long Slumber' - 1950 Synopsis:
The nephews want to skate but Donald makes
them go down south with him. There they pull a
trick on their uncle making him believe that he
has been sleeping for 40 years!
Comments:
Donald wakes up with a long beard which has
effectively been glued tight, so Donald must
think it is genuine. To complete the illusion of
a long slumber the nephews remember to disguise
themselves behind convincing hairpieces making
them look 40 years older!
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WDCS148
'Free Dinner' - 1953 Synopsis:
After Donald is done paying his Christmas
bills he discovers that he has no money left for
a turkey. He then tries to lure Scrooge into
paying for a meal...
Comments:
For that purpose Donald disguises himself as
an oil tycoon by using merely a wig and a
moustache. Despite of this transparent transition
Scrooge does not recognize Donald (not even when
Donald accidentally happens to eat the moustache)!
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WDCS230
Black Wednesday - 1959 Synopsis:
Scrooge tells Donald that there is a
curse on Duckburg because of some bad hair tonic
he sold to the Chillyboot Indians. Donald tries
to get the Indians to lift the curse.
Comments:
Scrooge once sold hair tonic to the Indians
in the North. Since then Duckburg has experienced
bad luck on a certain day of the year, and the
ducks travel north to have the spell lifted. A
spell that causes both humans and animals to lose
all their hair! They bring a new tonic that can
grow hair on hard-shelled turtles and Indians.
Lots of hair...
It is plausible that Barks got the initial plot
idea about everyone losing their hair from -
himself! At least, this was what happened in CG
Donald Duck's Atom Bomb from 1947 -
which carried a much more hair-raising storyline.
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FC1073
Touché Toupeé - 1960 Synopsis:
The animals at Grandma Duck's farm are
acting strangely and the nephews decide to find
out why. The trail leads to a neighbour...
Comments:
Neighbour Bumpkin's chicken are not laying
any eggs, because they are frightened of his new,
broad-brimmed hat. As soon as he takes it off egg
laying is continued. This causes Bumpkin to also
lose his toupeé - that way the chicken will lay
even more eggs...
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WDCS272
Spare That Hair - 1963 Synopsis:
Donald is a very successful barber who can
cope with any request. But how about a gorilla?
Comments:
Having Donald work as a barber should ensure
gags that could last for several stories, but
Barks only made one story containing this
profession. But then he made Donald not just an
ordinary barber, but the best in the business
with new and inventive ideas. The story is filled
with surprising examples of his marvellous skills
and his ability to help all his customers get the
exact kind of special hairdo they desire.
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U$52
The Great Wig Mystery - 1964 Synopsis:
Wigs are 'in' in Duckburg and Scrooge lands
with a consignment at the airport. A crook claims
to have been hurt in connection with the landing
and sues...
Comments:
Barks takes a satirical view at one of that
time's big fads - the wearing of wigs. Big wigs!
Especially the female Duckburgians are following
the trend closely and the wigs cannot possibly be
big enough...
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WDCS308
The Beauty Business - 1966 Synopsis:
Donald has started a beauty salon which
enjoys enormous success. Daisy also has to try it
out but the nieces are meddlesome...
Comments:
Donald is Duckburg's best beautician. He
even makes the town's ugliest woman stunningly
beautiful. Apart from this hairy feat he
beautifies all the ladies' hair, and they are
eagerly commenting on each other's hairdos.
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| http://www.cbarks.dk/THEHAIRSTORIES.htm |
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Date 2007-09-12 |
