A Rat Patrol Was Upon Us!

Dateline 1931: Mutiple Mickeys Loose On Hollywood Boulevard

I'd guess there are a hundred oversized Mickey Mice running loose at Disneyland and Disney World, but where did it all begin? I'll be bold and propose 1931, the year Frisco's Loews Warfield offered Mickey "In Person" and took in $25,000 for an April week that also featured El Brendel in Mr. Lemon Of Orange. Prologues were essential to grim competition between big-town venues, and best among these were conjured by the brother-sister team of Fanchon and Marco, New Yorkbased, but with units fanned out cross-country (a nice website about the family here). They'd dream up minimum of fifty-two "ideas" in a given year, pressure forever on to top one week's novelty with another more sensational the next. If you want approximation of 24/7 push behind F&M's operation, watch Footlight Parade (1933), where James Cagney is a live wire inspired by the sibling wunderkinds.

Fanchon and Marco were recognized a quickest in the prologue race, enough so as to insure quick yes upon approach to Disney with a Mickey idea. His cartoons were beyond viral in 1931 theatres (as witness the February ad at above left). What more natural than to give Mickey life and offer face time to the fan base? Threshold questions, however: Did we need to be confronted with rats as big as us? ---let alone ones pacing in packs, as here? The Mickeys I've seen lurking Disney parks, with their modern big heads, are similarly adult-size and not a little intimidating. Do they frighten kids? --- I guess no more so than noggins adorning 1931 models. Might it have been preferable to scale these rodents to child stature, as better befitting mice vis a vis people?

Chaplin Associate and Restaurateur Henry Bergman Presents Cheese to Visitor Mice

Mickey Rings In 1931 For Showman Friends

The Hollywood Pantages Theatre was first on the West Coast to utilize mice, and how they did. The Fox chain was tied tight to Fanchon and Marco, the former's house organ (newsletter) tracking ways in which Mickey "gags," stunts, and tie-ups could enhance biz throughout the circuit. A parade of Mickey Mice going up Hollywood Boulevard? Can do (as shown at top). The first mouse to enter one of the new General Electric Refrigerators seemed a good idea, assuming we'd want vermin in our ice-boxes, and what better than for Mickey himself to give away dolls with his likeness in toy departments throughout LA? A real mind-blower for me  was discovery of H'wood restaurateur "Henry" presenting multiple Mickeys with cheese outside his famed eatery. Turns out Henry was none other than rotund comic Henry Bergman, loyal support and majordomo to Charlie Chaplin from legendary Mutual shorts made years before, and briefer appearance in City Lights and later Modern Times.