Heirs/successors of Scrooge McDuck

character identification, ducks, mice, etc.

Postby Egg » Mon Apr 17, 2006 10:26 pm

CARL BARKS - HEIRS/SUCCESSORS OF SCROOGE McDUCK

last updated: 24-08-2005

preliminary investigation
be cautious of typos

comics
- Race to the South Seas (1948, December 15) MOC 41
- heirs at end of rainbow (1952, December 24) WDC 155
- wind businesses (1955, April 28) WDC 187
- Bongo on the Congo (1960, September 12) US 33
- Delivery Dilemma (1964, May 25) WDC 291 (art & rewrite)
- The Queen of the Wild Dog Pack (1965, May 12) US 62

paintings
- The Wadfather (1972)


COMICS

Race to the South Seas (1948, December 15) MOC 41

22.7
Scrooge: "I'll leave my fortune to DONALD DUCK, who was kind enough to keep his long-nosed face out of my sight! Now GIT!


heirs at end of rainbow (1952, December 24) WDC 155

1.5
box: "At this moment Donald's uncle, Scrooge McDuck, owner of three cubic acres of money, goes for a walk!"
Scrooge: "Ah, me! It's time I'm picking an heir to enherit my vast fortune!"

1.6
Scrooge: "But I must be CAREFUL in my choice! I must find SOME way to TEST my heir to see how he would handle such a mountain of mazuma!"

1.7
Scrooge: "My only relatives are my nephew, Donald, and his nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and my distant nephew, Gladstone Gander!... What a collection!"

2.3
Scrooge: "Aha! That's it!... I'll plant pots of gold at the end of the rainbow and let my heirs find them!"

2.7
Scrooge: "Presto! Soon I shall know WHICH heir is the RIGHT heir!"

5.8
Scrooge: "Ah! Now EACH of my future heirs has found a thousand-dollar "pot of gold"! I'll soon know WHICH is WORTHY to enherit my nine fantasticatillion, four billion-jillion, centrifugalillion dollars, and sixteen cents!"

9.1
Scrooge: "Donald! What did you do with the thousand dollars you found in your pot of gold?"

9.5
Scrooge: "You not only SPENT your thousand, you got yourself another thousand in debt!... Your name goes off the list!"

9.6
Scrooge: "Gladstone, what did you do with YOUR thousand?"

9.7
Scrooge: "You didn't INCREASE the money! But you still have it! Well, I'll leave your name on!"

10.1
Scrooge: "And YOU, boys?"
nephews: "We loaned ours to an old guy to hunt BURIED TREASURE!"

10.2
Scrooge: "BURIED TREASURE! The oldest sucker gag in the world, and you FELL for it!"

10.3
Scrooge: "Such STUPIDITY! Such CHILDISH gullibility! My fortune would dissolve like WATER in your hands!"

10.4
Scrooge: "I guess my heir will HAVE TO be Gladstone Gander!.... What an AWFUL injustice to the world!"

10.5
old guy, to nephews: "Ahoy, mates! I *FOUND* it!"

10.6
old guy, to nephews: "And this is YOUR share! Yours because you had FAITH in an old man and his hopes!"

10.7
box: "And so -"
Donald: "There's another rainbow in the sky, kids! I wonder if it's possible there'd be a SECOND pot of gold there?"
nephews: "YOU go look!"

10.8
nephews: "WE don't NEED to - not since Unca Scrooge named us SOLE HEIRS to his nine fantasticatillion, four billion-jillion, centrifugalillion dollars and sixteen cents!"


wind businesses (1955, April 28) WDC 187

3.1
Scrooge: "I'm old and feeble! It's time I chose a successor to manage my many businesses!"

3.2
Scrooge: "My nearest of kin are Donald and that no-good Gladstone! If one of those two had any BUSINESS ABILITY, I'd give him the job!"

10.3
Scrooge, to Donald: "Well, that's the way it goes! I'd hoped to find WHICH of you boys had the most between the ears! But the wind made a mess of my plans!"


Bongo on the Congo (1960, September 12) US 33

1.1
nephew 1: "There goes Unca Scrooge trying to catch Unca Donald again!"
nephew 2: "He's determined he's going to make Unca Donald the next tycoon of the vast McDuck empire!"

1.2
Scrooge: "You've got to let me teach you the business, Donald! You're the only heir I've got!"

10.6
Scrooge: "You'll find there's really no WORK to being a tycoon! The duties are FUN all the time!"

10.7
Scrooge: "Donald, do you hear me?"
nephew 1: "There goes Unca Scrooge chasing Unca Donald again!"

10.8
nephew 1: "He's determined he's going to make him the next tycoon of the vast McDuck empire!"
nephew 2: "Poor Unca Donald!"


Delivery Dilemma (1964, May 25) WDC 291 (art & rewrite)

[update 22-08-2005]

Scrooge to Donald: "Never mind what YOU want! As my nearest of kin, it's your DUTY to carry on for good old McDuck unlimited!" (2.3)

(Though Barks' records indicate that he did not originate this story, a full "shooting script" in his holograph survives, showing that he reworked the original idea so much as to make it his own.)


The Queen of the Wild Dog Pack (1965, May 12) US 62

3.4
nephew 1: "Did you send for us because of these red ink reports?"
nephew 2: "We don't know where half the countries are that you're in trouble in!"

3.5
Scrooge: "Then it's time you LEARNED!

3.6
Scrooge: "You kith and kin are going to INHERIT my hard-earned fortune someday! You should be learning WHERE and HOW I make that stuff in there!"

3.7
box: "So Donald and Dewey and Huey and Louie are loaded into a plane with Uncle Scrooge to learn the ups and downs of tycoonsmanship! The first stop will be Australia where there's a little wild dog problem to be cleared up!"


PAINTINGS

The Wadfather (1972) painting

Image

This painting shows heirs of Scrooge, or at least the ones Barks has mentioned: Donald Duck, Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Gladstone Gander.
The title reminds of Mario Puzo's novel 'The Godfather' (1969), or of Francis Ford Coppola's film (1972) with the same title.


SOURCES:
- comics quotes taken from publications in 'The Carl Barks Library'
- background information on 'Delivery Dilemma' is taken from page 8C-615


Additions, corrections, etc.? Let us know!
Egg
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Postby Robb_K » Wed Apr 19, 2006 9:17 am

Speaking of heirs..... I've always liked Barks' detailed explanation of Gladstones "familial relationship" (actually NON-relationship) to Scrooge McDuck in his 1949 story (NOT 1948) "Race To The South Seas". What was their connection (per Barks, in THAT story)?
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Postby Robb_K » Thu Apr 20, 2006 8:36 am

No Barks scholars on this thread, eh? Now I won't get a chance to uncover my favourite Barks quote!
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Postby Egg » Thu Apr 20, 2006 1:32 pm

Robb_K wrote:No Barks scholars on this thread, eh? Now I won't get a chance to uncover my favourite Barks quote!

Not everything at the same time, Robb! There's some maintainance work on McDuck, of which this English forum is only one result. This topic is just a beginning. You'll get your quote.
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Postby WB » Mon May 01, 2006 10:34 am

For me, the definitive answer has always been "Some Heir Over The Rainbow". I think that Scrooge's primary task with Donald is getting him to learn and manage some responsibility (a task that he's failed miserably at each and every time, only added to the humor of the situation) and with Gladstone its more of a case where his luck is just so darned annoyingly powerful that in a pinch its his only choice should he have no other choice (Emphasis on this).

The nephews are his only stable, common-sense outlet and they've proven themselves more capable and level-headed than both Scrooge and Donald in many situations time and time again.
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Postby Egg » Mon May 01, 2006 10:53 am

WB wrote:The nephews are his only stable, common-sense outlet and they've proven themselves more capable and level-headed than both Scrooge and Donald in many situations time and time again.

There are more stories with Donald or Gladstone being the heir, than the one with the nephews. I guess it would be Donald, thinking of the two stories in which he's chased by a determined Scrooge.

Possible reasons might be: Donald is an adult, while the nephews are kids. And Donald is a closer family-member to Scrooge.

Reasons why the nephews leave doubt: They may have just been lucky in the rainbow-story. The old man could have been a real crook. And they might give all the money away to charity.
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Postby WB » Mon May 01, 2006 11:08 am

Egg wrote:Reasons why the nephews leave doubt: They may have just been lucky in the rainbow-story. The old man could have been a real crook. And they might give all the money away to charity.

true - and I think thats part of why Scrooge continues to hammer it into Donald and Donald continues to run away. For someone who is responsible enough to take on the burden of raising three children, he's not much in the job department. :)

So until the kids do get older and more mature, he has to keep pressuring Donald just in case which is of course futile. After all, the prospect of Gladstone Gander getting all of Scrooge's money is IMO more frightening than Donald could ever be. ^^
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Postby Egg » Mon May 01, 2006 11:12 am

WB wrote:After all, the prospect of Gladstone Gander getting all of Scrooge's money is IMO more frightening than Donald could ever be. ^^

Why would Gladstone be frightening as heir?
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Postby WB » Mon May 01, 2006 11:21 am

Egg wrote:
WB wrote:After all, the prospect of Gladstone Gander getting all of Scrooge's money is IMO more frightening than Donald could ever be. ^^

Why would Gladstone be frightening as heir?

Very simple answer -

Gladstone loathes work. His "number one dime" is the anti-thesis to Scrooge's. Scrooge was proud of the work he did to earn his dime, Gladstone balks at it and hides it away shameful of what he's done as if doing work is almost something to be jailworthy.

Can you imagine what horrors Gladstone could do if he got all of Scrooge's money and found he had to work to maintain all of it? It would be useless to him and against everything he stands for. Sure he could use it to buy a soda, but that means he'd have to walk to the store - and walking is work. Sure he could clean the money - but cleaning is work. Sure he could make more money - but making money is work. It would throw him into a hairy conniption. So his only recourse of course would be to either A) give it away or B) if he's feeling particulary vindictive and mean, flaunt it over Donald (which he has been known to do with his luck on many other things). And should that happen with the McDuck fortune in his grasp the results would be disastrous.
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Postby Egg » Mon May 01, 2006 11:29 am

With Gladstone's luck he could get more money in than he could ever spend. Why would Gladstone worry about its purpose? I guess he just let's people work for him, like Scrooge.

Scrooge's stories about working hard may be greatly exaggerated, as can be seen in 'Looney Lunar Gold Rush'. Scrooge is known as a dull banker. He benefits from other people's efforts, even from his family. That way, there's little difference with Gladstone.

Scrooge is a parasite in a lot of ways. That's part of the fun for me.
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Postby Egg » Mon May 01, 2006 11:30 am

Egg wrote:With Gladstone's luck he could get more money in than he could ever spend.

A confusing sentence. He = Gladstone.
With his luck, Gladstone could get more money in than he could ever spend.
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Postby WB » Mon May 01, 2006 11:38 am

Egg wrote:With Gladstone's luck he could get more money in than he could ever spend.

Yeah, but thats also totally against what the McDuck fortune is supposed to stand for - which is working and earning and being proud of what you've attained in life. At least thats how I have always seen it.

Why would Gladstone worry about its purpose? I guess he just let's people work for him, like Scrooge.

Look at Gladstone's track record and ask yourself how long that would last once the red tape of hiring people and setting things up (paychecks, interviews, people to do interviews, etc etc etc). Then theres the Beagle Boys, Magica DeSpell, Flintheart Glomgold, and every other two bit crook on the planet. Sure Gladstone would never lift a finger to do anything leaving it all on his luck, but again - you can see the waves of disaster just looming over the horizon eventually. Point blank: Gladstone is lazy. This isn't speculation, its proven fact. And lets say his luck does intervene at this juncture: Whats to say his luck wont backfire like it has been known to do in rare occasions presenting him with an opportunity more pleasing to him and leaving the remains of the fortune in the hands of who knows what. Again - IMO Gladstone would be more apt to simply give it away than ever let it get that far.

Scrooge's stories about working hard may be greatly exaggerated, as can be seen in 'Looney Lunar Gold Rush'. Scrooge is known as a dull banker. He benefits from other people's efforts, even from his family. That way, there's little difference with Gladstone.

True. Scrooge can be mean, petty, and vindictive when he wants to be. :)

Scrooge is a parasite in a lot of ways. That's part of the fun for me.

Hahahaha! I wouldnt flat out call him a parasite (thats just mean ^__^) but I do see and understand what you are saying.
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Postby Ridder ter Geit » Mon May 01, 2006 1:37 pm

Scrooge and Donald have more in common then Scrooge wants to admit. And Donald is some sort of son for him, I think. That's why he's so though on him. Indeed the nephews are more good-moral nature-fellows then bankers...
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Postby Robb_K » Thu May 04, 2006 1:51 am

Well! No one has Daned attempt to answer my quiz question-so here is the answer. The only time Barks referred to the exact non-familial relationship of Gladstone to Scrooge, in his stories was the following quote from "Race To The South Seas:

"Uncle Scrooge is my mother's brother's brother-in-law!" Therefore, Barks reveals to us that Gladstone is NOT related to Uncle Scrooge by blood, - and therefore, he should NOT be in line for the latter's fortune, as Donald should be by Dutch, U.S., British, French, Italian or any of the Scandinavian nations' laws. Calisota is in U.S.A. (proven in "The Gilded Man"). Therefore, there should be no controversy about Gladstone being a danger to inherit Scrooge's money. Apparantly, Gladstone's incredible luck has changed the birth records, to show a blood relationship. And, Scrooge's sparing his expensive memory pills has forgotten that Gladstone is NOT his blood relative. Furthermore, Gladstone is so sure his luck will bail him out, he EVEN TELLS Donald his non-familial relationship, unafraid that Donald will use that information to inform the authorities!!!
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Postby Rockerduck » Thu May 04, 2006 5:59 pm

Egg wrote:Scrooge's stories about working hard may be greatly exaggerated, as can be seen in 'Looney Lunar Gold Rush'. Scrooge is known as a dull banker. He benefits from other people's efforts, even from his family. That way, there's little difference with Gladstone.

Scrooge is a parasite in a lot of ways. That's part of the fun for me.

In 'Only a poor old man', Scrooge explains to his nephews why he loves his money so much: he earned every nickle himself by honest, hard work. It's a very serious scene. I see no reason why he should've made that up.
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