In 1938, the Disney short cartoon "Don Donald" comes out, and introduces us to a hotblooded, mercurial and passionate Duck Señorita, Donna Duck. She is Donald's girlfriend and speaks with the inimitable voice of Clarence Nash. In a later cartoon, "Mr. Duck Steps Out", from 1940, a similar girlfriend of Donald appears, called Daisy, but she isn't dressed as Donna. Daisy will appear in a lot of other cartoons, and will become a famous character, member of the "Sensationnal Six" (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, and herself) while Donna won't.

    The official explanation of the Disney Studios is that Donna is Daisy's former name, or that Donna is a role she played as an actor, but in both cases, she is considered as being the same character...
 

In "The Waltz King", (W WDC 84-02), from 1947, by Carl Barks, in which it is question of a disguised ball, Daisy Duck is dressed as a Mexican lady, and so, looks much like... Donna !!!

 

Scandal! In Al Taliaferro's strips from August 7 to August 18, 1951, Donna appears as Donald's sidekick ! ! ! It's not said whether her last name is Duck or another last name (even her mailbox has only "Señorita Donna"). She even meets Daisy, so it's the first time it's explicitly told that the two characters are definitely different characters. In the last strip Donald is introduced by Donna to her fiancé, Mr Gonzales (Taliaferro's "inside" joke making a caricature of the creator Manuel Gonzales)! That'd be a way to explain why Donald doesn't date Donna anymore...

    In Barks' story "Flip Decision" (WDC 149-01), from 1953, Daisy's triplet nieces April, May and June Duck appear, and they are said to be Daisy's sister's daughters. As Donna has the same name as Daisy's, she could be this unnamed sister of Daisy, and the mother of these three girls... The creator Don Rosa, although he doesn't consider non-Barksian characters (excepted for Jose Carioca and Panchito Pistoles), as existing in his universe, once told it was a good idea. We could continue reasoning this way, and say that they're Mr Gonzales' daughters (illegitimate daughters, as they still carry the last name "Duck")...
All this could be fine, but...
 

... in "Paperino e il segreto della 313" ("Donald and the Secret of the 313", I TL 2071-1), from 1995, by Massimo De Vita and Fabio Michelini, it's said that Daisy and Donald played as actors, years ago, in a movie which took place in Mexico. It's obvious that this movie was "Don Donald"... Daisy is dressed as Donna and Donald as Don Donald... So in this story, Daisy and Donna are the same character?!...

 

Finally, I wanted to include this drawing of Daisy, which I saw in several places such as stickers, coloring books, (this one is from a puzzle offered in a "Minnie Mag"...

Gilles MAURICE
goofy313g@free.fr
icq #162434490
http://goofy313g.free.fr/calisota_online/