President Theodore McDuck

Did you know …

That the popular children’s television program Ducktales (1987-1990) was loosely based on the life of President Roosevelt? It’s true!

The Roosevelt in question is, of course, Theodore (although some critics believe that Fenton Crackshell was supposed to be Franklin Roosevelt, because both FDR and Crackshell made extensive use of mechanical aids for transportation, and because of the shared “blathering blatherskite!” catchphrase). Scrooge McDuck’s adventures parallel Roosevelt’s with uncanny accuracy, and Roosevelt himself himself had triplet nephews who accompanied him on multiple expeditions. In real life, however, all of the nephews died on safari; two were lost to lions, while the third died from either electrocution by lightning strike, a snakebite, choking on ham, or a 150-foot fall off a cliff (all four occurred in the last few moments of his life).

Ducks were chosen as Teddy and Co.’s anthropomorphic stand-ins because of the President’s personal fascination with the birds. A famous photograph of Roosevelt shows him in the midst of a taxidermy project, wrist deep in a mallard’s torso, supposedly exclaiming, “Why, it’s as if there’s another world entirely in here!”