Mickey Mouse Magazine
In January, 1933, Kay Kamen created the Mickey Mouse Magazine. He
convinced Walt Disney that merchandising licensing could open up whole
new vistas for the company. For the next 17 years, until he died in a
plane crash, Kamen handled the licensing of Disney Merchandise.
Insisting on quality control, Kamen set the standard for character
licensing that would later be copied by many others.
The Mickey Mouse Magazine
was a small publication containing short stories, articles, gags, games
and poems. There were 9 monthly issues of the magazine distributed
through movie houses and department stores around the country.
In November 1933, a second version of the
magazine, in the same format but distributed through dairies, debuted
and continued until October 1935. The dairies would print their name on
the cover of the magazine above the title. This dairy magazine was
superseded by a third, and much more elaborate, magazine, which began
publication with a large issue in the summer of 1935. In October 1935,
it turned into a monthly magazine.
Mickey Mouse Magazine Dairy Issues
November 1933 - October 1935
Over the years, several different sizes
were experimented with, until finally in 1940 the magazine reached the
size we know today as the standard comic book size. The last issue of
the Mickey Mouse Magazine was the one for September 1940. In October
1940 Walt Disney's Comics and Stories took over, and that comic book
series has continued to present day.
And the magazine did
just that - over a total of 9 issues that lasted through September. As
you can imagine, issues of this magazine are extremely rare collectibles
- and they feature a certain word that's almost as difficult to
pronounce as the magazines are to find.
Each issue contained a certain word that's almost as difficult to find a
the magazines were. The word is a special password that was announced in
the magazine and used consistently throughout. It was, in its plainest
form, "Spingle Bell -- Chicko," but when something extraordinary
happened; the doing of a good deed, for example, or the release of a
new, noteworthy product, all you'd have to do was add a "K" to the end
of the password to signify it. One terrific example of this is in an ad
featured on the back cover of one of the magazines. The wool sweaters
featured in the ad clearly have Minnie's seal of approval, as she gives
them a "Spingle Bell -- Chicko - K."
To
promote the password, copies of the Mickey Mouse magazine and a very
rare pinback were issued as free giveaways at various clothing stores
and movie theatres.
This pinback is extremely difficult to find today - as it was only
produced for two months - January and February of 1933.
Here are three
advertisements from the 1st edition of the 1933 Mickey Mouse Magazine.
First Mickey Mouse Magazines Ever Made
Published Jan 1933 though Dec 1933.
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The remaining Mickey Mouse Magazines printed were
60 ( as far as our
research showed ) beginning with the first issue on Jun - Aug. 1935
through Sept. 1940.
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