Over 500 porn stars named ‘Steamboat Willie’ have emerged since copyright expiry

In the week following the copyright expiry of the earliest form of Mickey Mouse, over 500 porn stars named ‘Steamboat Willie’ have emerged.

On the major pornography streaming sites last year, a search for ‘Steamboat Willie’ would have yielded, at most, one or two results (although, we wouldn’t know about that. We just heard it from a friend), and now such a search yields over 500 results (probably. Too be honest, we don’t even know the names of these sites).

Jack Largeballs has worked within the industry for seven years. He now goes by the name Steamboat Willie.

“It seemed like an opportunity. A new thing. So, I’m now Steamboat Willie. I stand there with a big Stovepipe hat on, whistling a jaunty tune and with my bits and pieces out and then I perform a variety of acts. Gay or straight, hard or soft. I’m adaptable, I just need to keep the stovepipe hat on and the jaunty tune going while I’m doing the acts. It’s a branding thing, you know.”

The explosion in adult performers going by the name ‘Steamboat Willie’ wasn’t unexpected. In recent years, out-of-copyright characters have proved an inspiration to the industry. Various performers named ‘Robin Hood’ promote safe sex, and since Winnie the Pooh went out-of-copyright, there has been an increase in performers using that name, although their films are a bit too extreme for most people.