Barks developed the wrecking ball story from a description I'd written in a letter telling him about watching the destruction of the Chicken Plantation, a restaurant in the Frontierland section of Disneyland, which was being demolished to make room for a new ride. In a letter to me dated January 26, 1962, Barks writes: "I'm finishing the last 8 pages of Uncle Scrooge #39. Will spend the weekend seeing what I can brew storywise for a 10-page Donald. Your expert wrecker idea provides a funny prop. (The swinging ball.) Sometimes I can build stories around such props, and sometimes I can't. Will know more after I've worked on it awhile. Dig that cat, Donald, starting to wreck the wrong building. He bangs the ball against the wall of the room containing shelves of objects de art - such as old Etruscan commodes and Dresden figurines. He thumps the wall of a bathroom inside which the mayor of Duckburg is taking a bath. Like, man, he ends up with the ball and chain on him."(Barks' "jive talk" was a bit of fun-poking at me. I was 20 at the time, and the Beatnik lingo of the day was prominent in my vocabulary.)
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