MEDFORD, Ore. — Frank Willeke was born in 1894 in Pendleton, Oregon.
At 14-years-old, he worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad in downtown Medford. The building now houses Porter’s restaurant.
“In 1906, he’s a crossing guard, this is before there were any automatic crossing signals for the railroad in Medford,” said Ben Truwe, a Southern Oregon Historical Society volunteer. He says not a whole lot is known about Willeke.
However, what he is the basis for is a beloved cartoon character many of us know very well… Goofy!
Vance Colvig came up with the iconic character.
“He did this character [the Oregon Appleknocker] for Disney and that became the basis and model for Goofy,” said Truwe.
He says before Colvig, known as Pinto, created Goofy, he became friends with Willeke, “Vance Colvig moves to town from Jacksonville, Vance who was covered with freckles and his friends called him ‘Pinto’ – he was also 14, and naturally drawn to the depot and drawn to this kid whose working this very important job as a crossing guard.”
Truwe says Pinto’s fascination with Willeke, the train crossing guard, stuck around.
“Pinto loved hanging around the depot and some years later developed a vaudeville character he called the ‘Oregon Appleknocker’ who was apparently just your standard hick character, modeled after Frank Willeke with a kind of a shambling gait, a happy-go-lucky nature,” said Truwe.
In 1930, Pinto was hired to work as an illustrator for Walt Disney at the Walt Disney Studios in Hollywood.
Truwe says from there, ‘the Oregon Appleknocker’ evolved and became the model and basis for the iconic character, who Pinto went on to voice.
Goofy’s laugh was Pinto’s imitation of Willeke.
“He [Pinto Colvig] admired Frank’s simplicity. Apparently, Frank was what in those days was called simple-minded. He’d been dropped on his head when he was 5 years old, so he was impaired to some degree but we really don’t know how,” said Truwe.
Years later, Pinto was let-go from Walt Disney Studios and then re-hired to do other sound effects for the company before his death in 1967.
As for Willeke, Truwe says not much more is known about him or his life, since records in the early days of Medford were not well kept.
“Later on he graduated from being the flagman to working as a baggage handler at the freight depot in Medford, of course, we don’t know how long that lasted, and the next time we hear from him in the newspapers is his obituary.”
Truwe says Willeke died up north in Marion County, near Salem, in what was then called an insane asylum.
Sadly, Willeke never knew that a popular cartoon character was created in his image.
“Frank wouldn’t have known because he died in 1930, which is about the time Goofy was a glimmer in Pinto and Walt’s eyes,” Truwe said.
He says Pinto Colvig was buried in an unmarked grave in southern California.
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