If you believe an elephant can fly, a mouse can talk, and a cricket can croon
"When You Wish Upon a Star," you're obviously a Walt Disney fan and a prime
candidate to become a collector of memorabilia from the Magic Kingdom.
Areas of interest inspired by Walt Disney and his famous
Hollywood studio are almost limitless. Just a partial list of collecting
categories would have to include toys, dolls, movie posters, paper dolls, comic
strips, board games, wrist watches, and premiums of every kind.
But by far, the most collected Disney treasures are the
books - books in every shape, color and size, books for every purpose, books
almost without end. And, as with most Disney ephemera, the outpouring of books
for the children of this nation and the world continues without any end in sight
- which is one reason they remain within the means of the average collector.
|
"Little
Golden Book," Walt Disney's Mother Goose (copyrighted 1952, but a 1980s
printing). It was a retelling of several classic nursery rhymes.
|
Books were among the earliest Disney collectibles -
going back many, many decades. The first Disney title, Mickey Mouse Book (Bibo &
Lang), was released in 1930. Unlike most of the books that followed, which were
usually based on a cartoon short or movie, this first foray into literature was
an original story. No one had yet realized how vast and long-lasting Mickey's
appeal would be and few were printed, so this book is extremely rare today.
The Philadelphia firm of David McKay Publications became
the first to publish a whole line of books under Walt's authorization. The
Disney company had just started signing contracts with a large number of firms
for the merchandising of its characters as consumer goods or aids in
advertising. This was in 1931, and the people at Disney were beginning to
realize the potential earning power of their characters and trademarks, which
eventually turned a small animation studio into a worldwide empire.
|
Published by Random House in
1972, this was a novelty item.
|
McKay's titles that year were The Adventure of Mickey
Mouse - Book I, Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse Movie stories and Mickey Mouse story
Book. More titles carne off the presses the following year, including: Mickey
Mouse In Giantland Book and The Adventures of Mickey Mouse - Book II. The McKay
Company continued to produce books with Disney themes and characters, most of
them with 32 to 60 pages, until the late 1930s.
Early books almost exclusively featured the sunny,
ever-cheerful Mickey Mouse as their hero. But by 1935, the first book featuring
his fine-feathered, terrible-tempered pal, Donald Duck, came along. It was
called, simply, Donald Duck, a title that apparently said it all, because
another book with the same title came out the following year. They were the
first of many to star the irascible Donald, who was often accompanied by his
mischievous little nephews, Huey, Louis and Dewey, and his sweetheart, Daisy
Duck.
About the same time, other firms, notably Whitman of
Racine, Wisconsin, entered the picture. In 1936, for instance, they released
Mickey Mouse Activity Book; in 1937, Mickey Mouse Has a Busy Day Storybook.
Through the 1940s, Whitman produced a large percentage of all Disney
publications.
|
One of many softbound books by Scholastic Book. Services sold to school children in the 1960s and 1970s.
Monkeys Go Home was a 1967 edition.
|
The most memorable category of Whitman's heritage to
collectors was their Big Little Book series, which included many Disney
subjects. Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck stories were plentiful, and in time books
about Snow White, Pinocchio, Cinderella and other popular characters from the
feature-length films entered the marketplace. All of them carried the credit
line, "Based on the Walt Disney Motion Picture."
Of all the many sellers of Disney books, the firm of
Western Publishing Company, Whitman's successor, became the most important.
Their series of Little Golden Books, Big Golden Books, Tiny Golden Books, and
Golden Story Books were printed in great variety and in tremendous volume.
Nearly everyone who grew up in the decades following the
enc of World War II fondly remembers the pleasures of reading and enjoying the
slim, child-size volumes. Although Disney characters were but one of their many
subjects, the Golden Books library included many lively, wonderfully illustrated
stories about Mickey, Chip In' Dale, Snow White, Dumbo, Donald Duck, Pinocchio
and the other lovable inhabitants of Walt Disney's seemingly endless parade of
cartoon shorts and feature-length animated movies.
|
Part of Fisher-price's
"Classic Tape and Book" set of Disney titles, softbound, 1970. |
Variations included soft-cover books, some of them
shaped or die-cut, rather than in the classic square format, to intrigue
youngsters. For the littlest readers, there were linen books printed on fabric
rather than paper, so they could stand up to rough handling by young tender
hands; some of themes .featured Mickey and the rest of the gang as subjects.
Other firms also had their special volumes, like
Disney's Wonderful World of Reading, a series published by Random House in the
1970s that included riddle, magic and how-to books. But the parade of novelties
began long before. The first pop-up books started with a 1939 series by Blue
Ribbon Books, Inc., of New York City. These volumes offered stories of Mickey
Mouse, Minnie Mouse and their pals. Later that year, Blue Ribbon began marketing
Mickey Mouse Waddle Book, a punch-out with the national distribution, in 1938,
of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," to motion picture theaters, came a story
book which retold the tale youngsters had loved in the movie. It was the first
of many storybooks based on Disney films. They often used illustrations taken
directly from the cels (drawings on celluloid) that had been used to create the
film's animation. Another variation was Simon and Schuster's Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs Stamp Book, in which stamps were provided for kids to color and
paste onto matching pictures on the pages. A stamp book was also part of
Whitman's Mickey Mouse Club Fun Box in 1957.
Books published in the 1930s and '40s, and certain
titles from the 1905s, carry the heftiest price tags. The greatest demand is
still for those about Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and the earliest full-length,
animated features, such as "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and "Pinocchio."
Prices for most of these fall in the $50 to $100 range. Mickey Mouse Pop-Up
(Blue Ribbon Books, 1933), for instance, has sold for $150 on one occasion and
$300 on another.
Editions since 1950 are usually much more affordable,
generally from $5 or $10 to $25, or more. But many, many books about Disney
characters and movies can s4ill be found for nickels, dimes and quarters at yard
and garage sales, and flea markets.
Whatever your passion, collecting Disney books will
bring back nostalgic, heartwarming memories of childhood. They are a way to
relive the happy days when some of our best friends lived just next door - in
the Magic Kingdom.
