British Bright Lights

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I was on a bit of a role recently with press photos on eBay. (See last week’s Felix-y post here.) I had to barter over this one a bit but it seemed to fit nicely within my purview of photo interests. This came to me via a dealer in Livingston, Texas.

On the back it is identified as a photo by Underwood and Underwood a stock photo company located at 242 West 55th Street here in New York City. On a scrap of paper glued to the back, NOVEL ELECTRIC SIGNS FEATURED AT BRITISH SEASIDE RESORT. LONDON. –PHOTO SHOWS: “Mickey Mouse” and the “Dancing Kittens” in electric lights at Blackpool. There was something below it that was neatly ripped off.

The candy shown here with Felix was sometimes referred to as **Blackpool Rock**. *Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.*

Blackpool beach resort has been the locale of numerous Pictorama posts as a rather specific Felix wooden cut out was available for photos and even one errant donkey. (A mere sampling of posts can be found here, here and here.) Blackpool as a seaside resort goes back to the 18th century. There is what they refer to as the Blackpool Tower and Pleasure Beach which appears to be an amusement pier, probably not unlike the small one in Long Branch, NJ I grew up with but maybe larger since it was referred to as the Golden Mile as well. It reached its zenith of popularity around the time of this photo and although tourism has fallen off still exists largely intact today.

*Posing with Felix in Blackpool. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.*

I’m not sure who the brain child was behind this off-model Mickey and tow dancing kitties in what appear to be lederhosen and bow ties. The cats have luxurious tails that curl around and are clad in black boots. Mickey, on the other hand, while sporting an outsized bow tie had oddly small feet in some sort of white shoes.

Unfortunately the tops of Mickey’s ears are lost to the black sky behind him – Kim suggested a bit of white paint to rectify that. I am a bit surprised it wasn’t painted on for publication. I do wonder about publicizing what was so clearly a homemade Mickey in newspapers. Did the long arm of Walt reach them?

*Another Blackpool Felix photo. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.*

All three are decorated in round white bulbs. They drift in front of something made to look like a fence. I thought it was a real fence at first but it is dotted with lights too. Oddly enough the cat’s booted feet do not seem to have bulbs.

There is a tiny sign affixed to the bottom which says, DANGER Do not touch. I can only imagine that now it would have to be much, much bigger. There are shadows along the back fence that look strangely like black cats to me. The bulbs in the white areas of the cats and Mickey’s face look lit up under careful examination – but the lights on their pants and bows do not appear to be. Perhaps they blinked – maybe half are on and half off?

Of course my imagination goes wild with the idea of a day and an evening at Blackpool – getting my photo taken with Felix on the beach first and then seeing this at night! I am probably delightedly eating cotton candy and other junk food in the interim. A perfect day at the British seashore resort.

You Should Have Seen That Cat

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today’s treat is a clear example of the curios you will come across if you consistently spend time down a given rabbit hole of collecting as I tend to. Definitely in the more interesting than good, this old press photo caught my eye recently and was on its way to me lickety split. It had found its way from the East coast to Los Angeles, but it is back home in the tri-state area again.

Its eBay listing,1936 Disney Mickey Mouse Costume Atlantic City Steel Pier Midgets Felix the Cat, was designed to catch my attention a few different ways. And really, put that way, who could resist it?

Deconstructing that amazing sentence a bit – Felix? Um, I hate to be a critic but I think they were very safe from copyright infringement on that one. It is somewhat more illuminated by the press information stored on the back. Glued to the back, in a very old fashioned type, is the following breaking news:

YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THAT CAT – That is about what Mickey Mouse was telling pretty Miss Betty Van Auken, New York visitor sunbathing on the Atlantic City Steel Pier. And Mickey’s girl friend Minnie Mouse listened, a little careful of Mickey around such beauty. Mickey and Minnie are members of the Steel Pier midget colony that helps to entertain guests on the ocean amusement structure. It has an index number, A16353 and it says, Ref. Dept. 7-28-36 N.E.A.

The Steel Pier seems to be the major amusement pier in Atlantic City and we will assume it has been ever thus. And while it seems sensible that this figure with Mickey was never meant to be Felix, it’s decidedly un-Minnie like as well, both mask and outfit. (And that suit looks hot for a July in Atlantic City too – she’d have been much happier in Minnie’s usual brief attire!) Mickey still looks a bit overdressed for July, but is in more traditional Mickey garb.

*Comic book publication of Stuff of Dreams, #3, cover image.*

It took a few times before the midget colony part sunk into my consciousness. Fascinating on its own, it also reminded me immediately of a story Kim did years ago, No Midgets in Midgetville which had roots in an actual town in northern NJ which is said to have originally been the winter home of a group of traveling circus midgets. (That story was published in his book, Alias the Cat which can be purchased on Amazon here or search eBay. Or you can find it in single comics under the name, Stuff of Dreams #3.)

We went and looked at the remains of the enclave of small (and occasionally tiny) houses as research for the story, an interesting morning jaunt with my ever patient father. In these days of tiny homes it is a bit hard to say how much truth was in the story, although some house did seem quite small. (The original story about it being Midgetville originated in the New York Times back in 2002 and can be found here although there are other references to the town online.) Regardless, the idea that circus performers (perhaps of all sizes) wintered there perhaps makes sense and it makes additional sense that perhaps some of those performers went no further than Atlantic City seaside for a summer gig.

*Centerfold of Midgetville, Kim Deitch, Stuff of Dreams.*

As for Miss Betty Van Auken of New York – it is hard to believe that even a veteran New Yorker showed up in Atlantic in a bathing suit, mincing along in high heels and lipstick for a day at the beach. At first I didn’t even bother googling her but it turns out that 1936 was her year. She has a Broadway role (Dodsworth) and film credits from that year, The Garden of Allah, Oasis Girl (uncredited), and a small part as a manicurist in Big Brown Eyes. The trail grows cold after that.

The weirdness of this duo continues to nag at me though. How odd to be on the seaside pier in roasting July heat, eating your cotton candy and have these two come gamboling up around you. The Stuff of Dreams indeed!

The Mickey Parade Continues

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Toy Post: So today I finally get to my wonderful birthday gift reveal – ongoing readers know that this year’s birthday was pre-empted and much deferred due to Covid. I am better finally, as is Kim, but a day of wandering and celebration remains deferred. At this rate it may be April before that happens, but nevertheless, the birthday bounty of the Mickey Mouses continues today.

My birthday Mickey is, in my opinion, a rather remarkable find. I even sent so far as to let AI have a crack at it and their “opinion” is that it was sewn from a kit. He is so very off-model that I did have to consider that but truly as I spend time with it and examining the stitching I believe he was commercially made. (My ideas of how such factories worked were changed when I found out that Felix dolls were handmade in a production factory in the East End of London. It was designed to give jobs to indigent women. Among my personal favorite posts, read it here.)

*Back of Mickey. Very careful examination shows some patching to the back of his head.*

This amazing and charmingly buck toothed fellow hails from Belgium via a kind seller there who tracks my birthday with offerings when she has them. (Previous posts on Regine finds can be read here and here.)

*Demonic Felix which is old number one purchase for me! A flea market in London. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.*

In a close study Mickey is made up of some familiar elements. The design of the feet is more Aesop’s fable doll than Dean’s Rag. The glass eyes can be found on many a Felix from a similar timeframe – which I am assuming is the 1930’s. He is somewhat reminiscent of the first Felix I ever purchased, shown below, and which may have been used as carnival prize give aways. Same black and white felt and stitched mouth. Kim has been known to say this Felix looks like a stuffed demon – Mickey has none of the same potential malevolence.

*Felix and Mickey for a side-by-side examination.*

Mickey’s hands are sewn down and his neckerchief remains tightly tied around his neck. The buttons on his trousers were glued however – or at least this incarnation of them was – they may have been replaced. There are a few black felt patches, on the back of his head near his ears and neck, so some work was done on him at some point, although also faded with age now so not recently.

A few errant bits of straw are peeking out from his legs, which incidentally look very professional machine stitched. He has his tail, but unlike our Dean’s friend from last week, it is just a bit of cloth. For the record it appears to be original. As mentioned, his ears have had a lot of reinforcement and a careful look makes me think one has been replaced. In line with the patches, this replacement seems fairly old.

For utter goofy charm however, this chap is hard to beat! I can’t help but feel that this off-license fellow looks like Mickey’s dufus country cousin, rather than a manifestation of the mouse himself.

Googly Eye Mickey: a Tale of Many Mickeys

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Toy Post: As it turns out, this birthday was a very Mickey one. I start today with one today I bought myself shortly after my birthday. A Dean’s Mickey I have wanted and lost on more than one occasion. I believe that I have bid on both larger and smaller versions of same, this one measuring in at about 30 inches for the record. There is a puppet version which I am also quite gone on, but have been unable to acquire.

For the record googly eyes seems to be the accepted technical term here and is searchable as such. No one was readily able to tell me when Dean’s switched from the beady eyed Mickey to the googly one, but this celluloid style of eye roughly seems to have been introduced in the 1930’s, the latter period for them.

*A cracked eye and tatty shorts are the extent of the damage on this fellow. Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.*

It is the toothy grin of the Dean’s Mickey that made me a fan in the first place. A very early post about Mickey Jazzer’s in my collection can be found here and they were, as such, my gateway drug to Mickey. As a cat collector, I have pointed out, it makes some sense to invest in mice and even dogs by extension and these Mickeys are an actual tributary in my collecting.

Therefore, after checking out my cat/Felix options thoroughly at an auction I stroll through the Mickeys among other things. To be clear, my Mickey collecting is very nascent compared to a real collector. (If we are talking about what qualifies as serious collecting I would reluctantly enter my Felix collection, but might feel compelled to argue that only my Felix photo collection is truly top drawer.) Still, I have some nice select little guys and they generally always put a smile on my face.

There is a rather wonderful online auction via Facebook on an account known as 200 Years of Childhood and they have an online auction late in the year. I believe it started during the pandemic when of course the in-person shows were on lockdown. I am grateful that it continues as an online venue as it gives me access to British vendors I would never see otherwise – as much as I would love to be there in person. It runs heavily to teddy bears and dolls, but I tend to find a gem or two tucked away via earnest searching.

It was via this auction that I bought my rather prized (by me anyway) Popeye Jeep toy, but it also lead me down a wonderful rabbit hole to a dealer who was selling some of his own Felix collection and from whom I purchased two wonderful Felix dolls which sit beside me even as I write. (The Jeep’s post can be found here.)

*Mickey Jazzer not in Pams-Pictorama.com Collection.*

This year I made an inquiry about a nice looking Mickey toy, reminiscent of a Steiff one Kim bought me for my birthday a few years ago. (That post is here.) He was well out of my budget for the moment, however the seller, a fellow named Andrew Greetham, asked if I might be interested in a large-ish Deans one he had. He sent a photo and yes, I now had my fairly large (I think there is an enormous one out there somewhere) googly eyed Mickey.

Aside from his velveteen trousers being a bit shredded and a crack in one googly eye, our man is in good shape. No moth nibbles to his felt hands or damage to the soles of his feet – these are typically vulnerable points. He seems to be sans the usual Dean’s label marking which would be applied directly onto the bottoms of his feet on other items and instead bears a number on the lower right side of his face. It appears to read Reg No 750611.

If I type this number and Deans into the internet I find that it appears on other Dean’s Mickey’s so it was a broadly utilized copyright rather than for a particular style; their licensing number. Deans products, for all their decidedly and charmily off-model appearances, were licensed products under the auspices of Disney – I guess at the time it was more the money than the likeness.

The googly eyed Mickey has a more affable look (slightly charmingly dufus-y, pleasantly so) than the more beady eyed, slightly feral earlier versions. I like both myself but they are different in spirit and expression. This is a hale and cheerful chap, the others look a bit ratty and like they may be plotting against us – in the most interestingly possible way.

*Mickey’s backside complete with wire tail.*

Remarkably, this fellow maintains his tail, which looking at former auction listings, is usually a casualty. It is wire and no longer stands at attention as it might have early on.

Included with Mickey as a bit of a treat was a rather splendid book of the same period (copyright 1931 by Walt Disney) which is in French which I hope to explore further with you in the near future. I will be limited to looking at the pictures for the most part as I do not read French – but really, it’s all about the pictures anyway, right?

Musical Mickey’s

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: A few weeks back I wrote a bit about our anniversary which we celebrated with a trip to Cold Spring, which is where Kim and I spent our one-day honeymoon. (That post can be read here.) We found Cold Spring largely unchanged in the intervening decades, although a tourist ferry landed at lunchtime while we were there, crowding the town with people who were leaf watching and enjoying the first nippy days of October. Some of the antique stores had folded or morphed together. One that had always featured vintage Halloween items either melted down into something else or is gone entirely, I could not tell.

However, one of my purchases that day was this trio, two Mickeys and a Minnie. Some quick research shows a similar, larger band composed only of Mickeys. However, Worthpoint sold these three pieces together, in lesser condition. Each piece is etched with Mickey or Minnie Mouse. And on the back of each, it is noted that they were Made in Japan. (These figures are very similar to a single Bimbo figure I came across and wrote about here. If not the same manufacturer, very much of a piece. It would appear he too had his own band.)

Bisque attracts dirt and is easily chipped and mine are in better shape than the ones auctioned previously on Worthpoint. However, ultimately I did find a set in the original box, below, sold on Heritage. (Note to self, Heritage sells something other than original art and comics? Huh.) There were originally four pieces and the missing piece appears to be an accordion playing Mickey. Part of my brain wonders at the Mickey to Minnie ratio – was it somehow okay to multiple Mickeys, but Minnie was singular? You have to look a bit to see the Minnie-ness; I missed it at first. This set was evidently produced in the 1930’s.

That day in the same store I purchased a nice Steiff duck which I wrote about in the post mentioned at the top, here. Perhaps the very best thing about that store was an internet radio station they were listening to, Radio Dismuke. This station, based on a singular collection which continues to be programmed by its founder, plays music from the early decades of the 20th century. I have been happily listening to it on a regular basis since discovering it. The station, which runs 24 hours a day, can be found here and do check it out if early jazz and dance band music is of interest to you. (For my remembrances of the great Rich Conaty, radio DJ who largely introduced me to this music, read the post here.)

*Kim and I meet Rich at Sophia’s in 2010, Maureen Solomon on my left*.

Kim has said that Radio Dismuke is a bit like you bought an old radio at a flea market and turned it on to find it playing the tunes of its day. He’s hit it spot on. There is no DJ, but the occasional period commercial is inserted, as is the periodic station identification. They are a non-profit and I assure you they are getting my support this season.

I do own another Mickey Mouse band, very small and made of china, purchased on a work trip in Lyon, France. Sadly one of the pieces has broken subsequently so I don’t feel I have been a good steward of it. (A post about it can be found here.) However, it is maybe notable that a proliferation of multiple Mickeys making music seems to have been so popular in his youth, and these radio tunes are the perfect partner.

Weihnachten Mickey

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: It is a Merry Christmas German Mickey post in July. This photo is marked Weihnachten (German for Christmas according to a Google translation) and Hindenburgstr on the back. (Hindenburgstr, according to Google, appears to be in a place called Bad Oldesloe, north of Hamburg.) Other than Mickey’s presence there isn’t anything that makes us think holiday when we look at this photo however, although Mickey makes a very nice gift (and would be memorable) indeed.

It is a very nice room and I like the leafy wall paper which is echoed by the actual plants in the sunny window – a preference for cactus and succulents. The somewhat elaborate birdcage houses at least one bird, but it is hard to peer properly inside of it so maybe it is a pair.

Collection Pictorama; Pams-Pictorama.com

Like the wallpaper, the couches have a jolly print fabric and even the pillows have a floral design. Behind Mickey is a photo of a street scene that is a bit hard to see. There are indistinct paintings on the wall as well. Somehow though it morphs into a comfortable looking, sunny room.

From the previous post, Nice with Mice, Pams-Pictorama.com collection

Mickey (all glorious 18 or so inches of him) is perched on the back of the couch, also in the sun. It is a very nice, large example of the Dean’s Rag Mickey. (I have written about the tiny versions I own in an early post here.) Today if you were lucky enough to come across this fellow he would cost a mint, but it would be a worthy cause for saving your nickels and dimes. I would be happy to wake up to him on any Christmas morning.

Felix in Pictorama collection, Pams-Pictorama.com

When we think of Christmas photos we tend to think of either dazzling Christmas trees with gifts, wrapped or recently released, piled below. Or small children hugging new toys. This looks more like one of my Christmas photos (one of those above), with an especially wonderful toy acquisition. Maybe somehow they had the foresight to know I would want the photo of Mickey, possibly as much as a hundred years later. It is hard to believe it is that long ago – looking at this photo it could be somewhere today.

Fishy Felix

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today’s addition to my suddenly burgeoning Felix collection is an oddity which I admittedly know very little about. It is an ice fishing decoy. These are said to be handmade by Native Americans, or so I have read in more than one description. The carving appears to be executed by hand, but the glass eyes and metal “fins” as well as the overall design seem to have been a pattern. I have seen a couple of these before albeit not many, and I have not run across one for sale until now. I purchased it from a seller who deals in fishing lures and offered little information, his being a fishing lure site, not a Felix one.

An online listing for a previous auction which promised decoys in the likeness of Felix and Mickey Mouse explains that such a decoy would have be jiggled on stick in the water, via hole cut in the ice and this would attract the fish which would then be speared. This answers my question about how a lure with no hook held a fish, not understanding it was more decoy than lure as such. Felix’s tail moves and presumably his size, shape, the shining glass eyes and the moving tail was enough to tempt a fish into making a move in the dark water under the ice.

*Catch ‘o the day! Felix decoy in Pams-Pictorama.com collection.*

I found the Mickey on Pinterest, below, and as you can see it is the same general design with additional Mickey-esque details added. Mickey seems to be more or less as rarified as Felix in terms of availability; there are some listings for both for past auctions, but not many images or any currently for sale. One photo of a Felix lure shows some small differences in the carving, making him slightly more Felix-y if you will. Mickey has fingers and a bit more detail seems to have been added to him – although his tail is more nominal. Unlike the vast majority of my Felix items which tend to skew to Great Britain as their place of origin, this is a resoundingly American item and shows how ubiquitous Felix and Mickey items were here as well.

*The Mickey Mouse version, not in the Pams-Pictorama.com collection.*

I paid up for this Felix – ask me my age all you want, but do not ask what I have paid for my high priced Felix items! However, I would say at a quick look it is in line with what hand carved ice fishing lures go for – although I suspect that if one was really hunting them you might find one going for sufficiently less, but probably not from a lure specialist. Since this was the first I have ever seen available I jumped in and now will not need to devote future years to thumbing through fish lure auctions. (Unless of course I want that Mickey Mouse.) I purchased him uncontested on eBay, although an odd thing did happen as I was notified that the item had been removed from sale. I was therefore surprised when my bid won him a week later.

While I may not know the details of ice fishing as such, I come from fishing lure making stock. My grandfather (Frank Wheeling, my mom’s dad) had a workshop in his garage where he made lures and repaired outboard motors for extra money. As a small child I was mostly forbidden to enter beyond the doorway (think hot lead for sinkers, metal hooks and who knows what else I could have gotten into) so I do not remember any of the specifics beyond the smell which was a mixture of petrol, paint, wood and innumerable other things I guess. Sadly he died when I was still very young so my memories of him and his shop are very early. (I have written about their house and yard in posts that can be read here and here.)

*A photo of my grandfather’s garage workshop as it exists today.*

The beach community I grew up in was at one time famous for ice boating and along with that there were always some ice fishing huts. Although I lived on a river on the ocean side of the peninsula, there is a second river, the Navesink, to the west of us on the Shrewsbury, and it froze solid on occasion. We would go skating there (it was a glorious expanse of ice to skate on) and also watch the wooden ice boats race. These wooden boats go incredibly fast and because they are made of wood they make a certain wonderful sound on the ice.

*A much more off*–*model Mickey decoy I also found online. Not in my collection.*

When skating we would pass small ice fishing huts, but I never was inside one nor do I know precisely what they were catching that was worth sitting out there in the cold. I assume it was the same fish we caught in the summer with less trouble? I have been told that in Minnesota people set up on the ice for the long haul and have very elaborate huts that are brought onto the ice or erected. These were simple and tiny for the most part, just a bit of protection from the wind I guess.

Looking carefully at Felix I would say he has been much used – the metal fins have some use and rust on them. He has wear marks, on his ears in particular. His tummy has these wooden inserts and I would guess this is how he is filled with lead there to give him the heft that was needed for him to sink in the water. He has a small rusted hook behind his ears for attaching him to the stick or pole and as mentioned, his tail moves side to side and his eyes are glass. His come hither fishing days are behind him and he has come to rest here in the Pictorama collection with his less hardworking Felix brethren.

Mickey Mouse-ing

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Post: Back in February (if we can turn the clock back that far which I grant you is a bit tough as I sit here poised on the cusp of this particular June 1), I made a power birthday buy from my friend Jean-Pol Ventugol at The Antique Toy Shop (his website can be found here) and I threw this plate in for the heck of it. This morning I was wrestling with some items on my work table (which has many photos and toys piled up on it – a remarkable and delightful pile in fact) in order to install a desk lamp retrieved from our basement locker and it rose to the surface, clamoring for attention.

I have written about several comics related mugs made by this company, the Patriot China Company. I started with the rather wonderful Little Orphan Annie mug (as shown below, and that post can be found here) and at the same time I purchased this I acquired the Three Little Pigs mug (which I posted about here) also made by Patriot. Unlike the mugs though, this plate has seen some hard use and is in rough shape.

Pams-Pictorama.com Collection

It is so worn that when I bought it I contemplated adding it to the cupboard and I may still eventually; it is so beat up, but I think it would still be very jolly to be eating off of it. I have in fact barely contained myself from making the Little Orphan Annie mug my daily coffee mug and have primarily been held back by the fact that it is somewhat child-sized, and frankly I drink a heck of a lot of coffee in the morning so I would be running back and forth constantly to the kitchen.

There is something deeply comforting and satisfying about this childish china though and the phenomenal popularity of it has made it all still so widely available that I have times when I consider making a big buy and converting our everyday dishes to these, with mixture of comic figures of days of yore.

This change of china would be notwithstanding the fact that I actually have kitchen plates I am emotionally attached to, which came from my great-grandparent’s bar. (I mentioned these in a post awhile back where I considered an all Felix life which can be found here.) Coincidentally those are sectioned as well and while I never thought about the appeal of neatly sectioned plates there is one. I have grown spoiled by our willow ware plates with their deep reservoirs which are handy in keeping our dumpling’s soy sauce safely from the sauce on our fish du jour.

Willow plate, our daily china

The Mickey Mouse plate, like the mugs, is just a bit down-sized a bit for a child – the sort of three quarter size of what I would think of as a luncheon plate. (A good plate for a diet – it would convince you to take just a little less.) This one must have delighted a child or children for many meals, wearing Mickey and especially Pluto down and fading them considerably. Perhaps there was just the one and they fought over it as I remember doing over certain a certain spoon and other items as a kid. Maybe Kim and I could start fighting over who gets their dinner on this one.

While I somehow doubt that I will purchase an entire set, you might expect to see a few more choice items added. As I come across them I find them irresistible and even while researching this I believe I found a pig mug I must have, therefore we will consider this to be continued.

Mickey Mystery Solved

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Toy Post: Sharp eyed readers may have noted last week that I made not one but two birthday purchases at Doyle’s recent auction. This delightful Mickey was the other winning item that came home with us that day.

Mickey is small of stature – only about ten inches high. He is made from nice velvet and he has a on-model face which makes me think he was made with the knowledge and approval of the folks over at Disney. His ears are a stiff sort of velveteen. He is very well made and despite his advanced years there’s something sturdy about him. His tail especially entertains me – long and very mousy showing that Mickey was still a bit of a rodent at the time and had not been converted wholly into pablum for kiddies.

Mickey back, Pams-Pictorama.com collection

Frankly, Mickey’s mugshot in the auction catalogue did not flatter him, somehow it just featured his grime. However, he was much more charming when we showed up in person at Doyle on the aforementioned afternoon preview. (That was last week’s post on Olive Oyl which can be found here.) I put together an aggressive bid strategy and Mickey and Olive came home with us – Mickey is a birthday gift from Kim. Thank you Sweetie!

Mickey is unmarked and was tagged with Dean’s as the maker. Since he wasn’t bearing a toothy trademark Dean’s grin I knew that wasn’t the maker. (I have a number of Dean’s Rag Mickey Mouse toys, including one the size of a small child. Those posts can be found here and here for starters.) This one below isn’t one of my fellows which are admittedly a bit tattier and this pristine one was handy.

A nice Dean’s Rag Co. Mickey not in my collection.

So the minor Mickey mystery was on as I puzzled through possible makers. If you look closely at Kim’s Valentine (below and revealed in full in a post that can be found here) this errant Mickey is running off the page on the bottom left.

While drawing him, Kim observed the specific likeness of Mickey to my Aesop Fable dolls which he has also devoted hours to drawing in recent years. It is true when you consider the pie eyes, the hand and the feet specifically that there are significant similarities. That would make Mickey the output of the somewhat mysterious W.R. Woodard Company which produced those toys for a limited time and haven’t left many tracks as toy makers in the industry. (I examine those toys in many posts but delve the best I can into Woodard in a post to be found here.)

Mickey Mouse, Pams-Pictorama.com collection

Still, it itched at my brain that it seemed unlikely. So I turned to my friend Mel who is the Zen Master of all things early Mickey, and in fact, all things toys. (Toy enthusiasts all know his site, Mouse Heaven which can be found here.) It was Mel who suggested Steiff and Knickerbocker as possible makers. I expressed doubt about Steiff at first – Mickey’s ear where his button would be is a bit misshapen so I cannot see if there is a hole or a mark where it would have gone. However, a quick search turned up many very similar period Mickey brethren online. Mel hit it on the head. It would seem he is indeed made by the famous German toy makers, Steiff.

A few Steiff toys have wandered into my collection – a few striped kitties (one of those can be found in a post here), a bird and a bear that I can think of offhand. The bears seem to have very human expressions. And, if you stay tuned to Pictorama, there might be another Steiff toy in the offing in coming posts she typed with a mischievous grin…

As this posts on my site I will be in the frosty winter land of Chicago. Hopefully Sunday will find me back in this chair and bringing you more toy fodder!

Brighton Mickey

Posted by Pam's Pictorama

Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Ah! Brighton in the early in the 20th century. This is the setting of many of my beloved photos of happy seaside visitors posing with a giant Felix doll. (See any number of posts, such as here and here.) My imagination turns to another universe where I am happy ensconced as an itinerant photographer, set up at the shore, busily snapping photos of happy tourists. Another fantasy I indulge in is that I travel to Brighton and find one of the intact Felix dolls in a dusty closet there – and take it home for my very own! (The seller identified this photo as Brighton; the photo is entirely unmarked.)

Images from Pams-Pictorama.com collection

There is a history of Mickey Mouse dolls for posing with as well. Perhaps because the copyright was held a bit closer, most of those Mickey’s are off-model indeed, at least among the ones I own. (Some of those post are here and here.) I offer an especially unidentifiable example from a prior post, taken at the Chicago World’s Fair, from my collection below.

From Pams-Pictorama.com collection

Today’s photo is a very proper looking Mickey Mouse – he doesn’t even have that sort of fang-y look I like that many of the British Mickey’s I have, influenced by the design of Dean’s Rag Company. I share one of those below. Someone paid up for this Mickey stand-in and purchased the real thing I think.

Today’s photo is quite tiny, just a very few inches across, about 2.5″x 1.75″ including the border. It has a reddish cast to it (I have enhanced it slightly, increasing the contrast) which Kim tells me looks like sun contact prints he used to make as a kid. It is printed on a thickish paper, somewhat brittle paper, unlike what one expects from more contemporary photo paper or even and early photo postcard. While I cannot really pinpoint the precise process, I believe it was some sort of a simple early contact print, made in a camera. Obviously it was fixed and not entirely fugitive, as it is with us almost a century later.

This photo is a rather homemade affair overall, and the fellow seems to have been persuaded to stop, well-dressed (short trousers, cap and tie), briefcase and all and perch on this primitive seat with Mickey. He’s thrown an arm around Mickey’s shoulders. There appears to be another camera on a tripod behind him to one side, and the shadows on this beach are long. To me it feels like early morning rather than evening.

I like the woman behind him most of all. There’s something about the casual way she is captures that especially appeals. A bath house of some sort is shown in the distance, just beyond her, a wooden beach chair too if you look very carefully. Unlike the Felix photos there is no evidence of a numbering system to return the photo to the person posing so I can’t imagine how that might work. I wonder a bit if this wasn’t either just someone sort of stealing a photo in passing, or someone the photographer knew. A summer long past, for me it tugs at a certain yearning for the early mornings and quiet evenings at the beach where I grew up, enjoyed before or after busy, tourist and family jammed days.

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