Look Out Disney We Have Boxed Pin Sets

Boxed Pin Collections

Over the years when the Sponsor, my mother, was alive, we use to go though the Disney Catalog and look for pin sets.  Initially we just purchased the 1928 Walt Disney original Steamboat Willie. My Mom liked the fact that she and Mickey mouse were born in the same year, within a month actually.  This started off a collection that included many of the original Disney Cartoons.  Many of the first cartoon offerings that Disney produced were black and white. Then Silly Symphony cartoons were filmed in color.

On November 18, 1928 Steamboat Willie premiered at the Colony Theatre in New York City.  It was a debut for both Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse.  Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie was able to synchronize the picture with the soundtrack.  This was revolutionary.  The audiences loved this little film.  It helped propel onto the world stage the Disney Film Company.  The film included a menacing cat Captain Pete.  Also, there was a musical number that included farm animals to a rendition of Turkey in the Straw.

The idea for Plane Crazy was thought up by Walt and Lillian Disney on a train trip from New York to Hollywood in 1928. It was inspired by aviator Charles Lindbergh.  It was originally a silent cartoon and contained 'crash!' 'bang!' and 'ha ha!'.  It was animated entirely by Ub Iwerks.  He drew 700 drawings per day.  The drawings were inked and painted onto celluloid by Walt's wife Lillian, brother Roy, and his wife Edna, and his sister-in-law Hazel Sewell.  In 1929 a sound track was added.

Mickey Mouse is escaping a storm and he takes shelter in an empty run-down but not unoccupied house.  There are many spine tingling skeletons. Mickey is commanded by a hooded figure to "play!" an old pipe organ.  
Mickey answers, "Y-yes. ma'am."
The music stirs all the ghouls and Mickey makes his escape.  The Haunted House's doors creaked open on December 2, 1929. Walt Disney directed this cartoon and supplied the voice of every body's hero Mickey Mouse.

Mickey and Minnie are the longest sweethearts in show business.  There are many people who wonder why this might be the case.  They seem so drawn to each other.  The reason may have been clearly answered with the release of Mickey's Nightmare on August 13, 1932.  In this film Mickey says his prayers and goes asleep.  He dreams that he marries the lovely Minnie.  You should see the rock he gave her.  So as the song goes in My Blue Heaven, "and baby makes three," the storks soon arrive bring babies by the bucketful.  They take over Mickey's home. They are a force beyond nature.  No room is left alone.  Even Mickey and Pluto are swarmed over by the hoard of mouselings.  Fortunately, Mickey wakes up and he has been a bachelor ever since.

On September 2, 1933, Puppy Love brought Mickey Mouse and Minnie together on another date. Mickey with Pluto in tow brings Minne flowers and a heart shaped box of chocolates.  While Mickey and Minnie were at the piano singing their new song, Puppy Love, Pluto is being led on by Minnie's dog, Fifi.  Pluto, to impress Fifi, sneaks the chocolates and gives them to her.  He replaces the missing sweets with a bone.  When Minnie opens the box, the battle of the sexes ensues.  Everyone gets into the act Mickey and Minnie, Pluto and Fifi, even the birds and squirrels in the trees.  They all swear off the opposite sex until Fifi brings Minnie the last few candies.  Soon everything is back to normal.

As time marched on Mickey cartoons also changed with the times. This included the use of Technicolor in the Mickey Mouse Clock Cleaners that was released on October15, 1937.  This was just two months before Disney's first feature length feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  Also Mickey was aided by his two friends Goofy and Donald Duck.  On a extremely tall community tower, the trio battle the inner workings of the clock and its clockwork bell ringers, Father Time and Miss Liberty.  Each hero has his own challenge.  Mickey battles an obstinate stork.  Donald is absorbed in a perky mainspring.  Goofy is tortured by mice.  
Collecting these boxed pin sets was something my Mom and I did together.  We weren't just collecting pins, we were collecting memories.  Memories from her childhood when a child could go to a movie house for a ten cent matinee.  We bridged the generation gap with this reminiscing.  I may trade the pins but I would never trade the memories.  Nor would I trade the quality time I got to spend with my Mom.  Take the time to find out what cartoons your Mom or Dad enjoyed in the theater or on television.
Next time we visit the Disney boxed pin sets, we will look at Walt Disney's Silly Symphony cartoons.