Talk:Jay Gosling

Article dates

Old article seen at Sassafras

I found this terrific Gosport article (see photo) on a shelf at Sassafras gifts while doing some last minute Christmas shopping. However, something's not right. The article is dated October 4, 1946 and talks about the 15th birthday of Jay Gosling, but then says the character "has learned to fly the wrong way with almost every NAS cadet since October 4, 1941." That's five years, not fifteen. So was it a typo (i.e. October 3, 1931) or is it wrong about the 15-year anniversary? (Or, alternately, is the publication date wrong — perhaps 1956?) I tend to think the former for the following reasons:

• The 15-year anniversary is the focus of the whole article and is mentioned several times. It seems a less likely error than a single numerical typo.
• In the photo, Collins looks like he's maybe in his mid- to late-30s. It says he's been a ham radio operator since 1915, which seems to rule out a 1956 publication date. If he was born between 1905-1910, he would have been in his early-20s in 1931.
• A book called Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida, 1940-2000: An Illustrated History (found via Google) has a letter excerpt from an aviation cadet to Disney asking for advice on the new station's insignia. It was written on March 7, 1941 and mentioned the "J. Gosling" character used at Pensacola NAS. Assuming this date is correct, this seems to rule out definitively a creation date of 7 months later.

Any thoughts or insights? Now that I know the name of the cartoon, I'll be on the lookout for more info. --Admin 07:49, 5 January 2008 (CST)