Francis the Talking Mule was a mule character who gained popularity during the 1950s as the star of seven popular Universal-International film comedies. The character originated in the 1946 novel Francis by former U.S. Army Captain David Stern III (1909–2003), son of newspaper publisher J. David Stern. After another studio turned down the novel, Universal bought the rights for a film series, with Stern adapting his own script for the first entry simply titled Francis. The beginning From the Francis book jacket: Stern wrote several short stories for Esquire under the name of Peter Stern about an Army 2nd lieutenant fighting the Japanese in the jungles of Burma. Following the war, he connected the stories "I Meet Francis", "Francis and the Golden", and "Francis Unmasked" into the 1946 novel Francis. In 1948, Stern published the sequel Francis Goes to Washington, with the former lieutenant (now named Peter Sterling) running for Congress with the help of Francis. Stern gave up fiction writing to become editor of the New Orleans Item, a newspaper that he purchased in 1949 and ran until 1958. Mickey Rooney was originally considered for a United Artists Francis feature film before Universal-International acquired the rights. Rooney took the lead after Donald O'Connor left for the final film in the series Francis in the Haunted House. Themes The book and film series focused on the exploits of Francis, an experienced Army mule, and Peter Stirling (played by Donald O'Connor), the young soldier whom he befriends (and stays with through civilian life and then back into the military). In the original 1950 film, the mule identifies himself to the commanding general as "Francis...123rd Mule Detachment...[serial number] M52519". With a plot device like the later series Mister Ed, Francis would usually talk only to Peter, thus causing problems for his nominal "master". The first six films were directed by Universal comedy veteran Arthur Lubin, previously known for helming Abbott and Costello vehicles, who would go on to produce and direct Mister Ed for television. As the titles indicated, each film had a different setting or gimmick, exposing the world-wise mule and the naive GI to race track excitement, the world of journalism, and many branches of the military, from West Point to the WACs to the Navy. The basic plots were fairly similar, however. Stirling, with the sage but sardonic advice of Francis (gleaned from overhearing generals plan strategy or from