Disney Memorabilia

The Shelby Cycle Company is well known for creating some of the most desirable collector bicycles.  Shelby’s main retail customers were the large chain stores such as Montgomery Ward, Spiegel, Gambles stores, Firestone and Goodyear. [Read more →]

Disney’s famous movie Fantasia is generally regarded as one of the all-time classics of animation. Touted as a landmark achievement in film animation, the movie is made up of several short pieces set to a classical composition performed by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. [Read more →]

Of the thousands of Disney character books that have been released since the early 1900’s, no variety is rarer than the original Disney Pop-Up books.  The first series of these novelty books appeared in 1933 with “The Pop-Up Mickey Mouse”.  Published by Blue Ribbon Press, the man behind the idea was premium marketer Sam Gold. 

Sam defined his career as a marketer by developing such widely used concepts as cereal prizes, direct mail leads, and point-of-sale advertising.  Mr. Gold is credited his success to appealing his ideas to children in a time when only their marketing influence was widely ignored.

In 1933, Sam approached arranged a licensing deal with Disney to use Mickey Mouse and other characters in a series of pop-up books.  He worked with original Disney artists and Disney guru Kay Kaman to create a quality product that appealed to both children and Disney executives.  Blue Ribbon Press experience incredible success with the new pop-up book line, and Sam later secured deals to license other popular cartoon characters.

Of the entire Disney pop-up book line released under Blue Ribbon Press, the original works draw the most attention and highest valuation.  Some examples are listed below.

1933 The Pop-Up Mickey Mouse - $600
1933 Mickey Mouse in King Arthur’s Court (dustjacket) - $1500
1933 The Pop-Up Minnie Mouse - $600
1934 The Pop-Up Mickey Mouse in Ye Golden Days - $800

With the heightened popularity of Disney Pins, I thought I would take a moment to look back at the beginnings of this particular niche of memorabilia.  The first Disney pins were produced in the early 1930’s and were primarily used to promote the series of Mickey movies that were running at the time.  These pins were manufactured with traditional button-making design – a lithograph image wrapped around a coin-sized metal and mechanically pressed.

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One of the most surprising success stories in the history of Disney productions was the Davy Crockett television series.  Five one-hour adventures were produced between 1954 and 1956 and all five were immediate classics.  Even the theme song (“The Ballad of Davy Crockett”) reached the #1 in the music charts during 1954.  Davy also made it to the big screen in 1955 with an edited string of storylines from the first three television shows. [Read more →]

The retail success of comic books in the mid-1900’s spawned a couple of new variations to the traditional stapled comic book.  One of the most successful new formats was the advent of the Disney-themed Dell Giant Comics.  The square-bound books averaged over 100 pages and surprisingly contained no advertisements.  At 25 cents a copy, these oversized comics were considered a bargain in their time.   [Read more →]

It never ceases to amaze me the odd items that show up at eBay auctions.  Currently up for sale is a check written to the IRS by Walter E. Disney himself.  The legibility is very clear, and it appears to be personal check.  The memo indicates that this was one of Mr. Disney’s quarterly estimated tax payments for 1964.  The auction was at $890 when I viewed it, with over three days remaining.  This will be a wonderful conversation piece for someone’s collection.

1964 Disney Signed Check