Vintage Pinback Buttons!
I know most of you think of ol' Major Pepperidge as a collector of vintage Disneyland images. But my sickness goes much deeper than that! Today I thought I'd share some photos from my collection of old Disney pinback buttons. Most of these are from the 1930's, and even though they are somewhat similar to each other, I love 'em all.
Before the 1950's "Mickey Mouse Club", there were the original Mickey Mouse Clubs. Theater owners enticed kids to watch Disney cartoons on Saturdays by forming clubs that included officers and oaths. Kind of like freemasonry for children! Below are three variations on a theme. The orange example is the first one I ever bought!
Oh man, I love that first button, with Mickey fearlessly skiing down a double black diamond slope. This great tin litho example was given away with Mickey Mouse gloves and mittens, as you can see by the back paper (I always try to get pinbacks with the back paper intact).
In the early '30's, Emerson sold some wonderful Mickey radios that are über expensive nowadays. In the middle... another mouse club example. And on the right, a button celebrating Mickey's 7th birthday, which would presumably date it to to 1935.
I'm not sure if the pinback on the left was given out at stores, or if they were included with a loaf of bread - or if kids had to send away for them. In any case, there are many variations with different bakeries represented ("Freihofer Special Loaf", "Buy Wesley's Bread", etc). The back paper has Kay Kamen's name - he was responsible for merchandising early Disney products. The button on the right was probably given out by dentists; I love that Mickey is knocking out the Big Bad Wolf with a toothbrush!
I have lots of old Disney pinbacks... let me know if you enjoyed looking at these (or not!); if the consensus is "thumbs up", I'll share more in an upcoming post.
10 comments:
Having exactly zero pinbacks, I'm enjoying seeing these so show all ya like.
Freemasonry for children! :)
Buy Bell Bread.
Thumbs Up.
I vote for more pin scans, if you've got 'em.
One question: What's the diameter of these, about an inch and quarter?
These are great! Nice background information you've provided with these pics. I'd definitely enjoy seeing more pinback buttons.
Yes, may we have more, please!?
I much prefer the pinback buttons to the newer "pins". Too bad there arent more of them. I have a nice collection of EPCOT Center buttons but none from Disneyland yet...
The button on the right in the second row is my all-time favorite Mickey pose
Thanks for a smile on this very rainy day here back East :-)
Mickey was much cuter back then :)
These are fantastic, Major! Do please show more of them.
Adorable! And I love the image of a theater full of tiny Freemasons.
Chiana, you need some old pinback buttons; they are awesome! Maybe start with a nice "I Like Ike" button and work your way up ;-)
D-ticket, yes, these are all about 1.25" in diameter.
K. Martinez, OK, I've already got a bunch of pinbacks photographed.
Nancy, I used to have a bunch of the new pins, but finally sold them all on ebay. I prefer the old stuff!
Debbie V., the 1930's Mickey was the best! I loved it when he could still be a rascal. They made him so bland later, no wonder Donald stole his thunder.
Pegleg Pete, OK!
Melissa, a theater full of tiny Freemasons is a scary thought (because they'll eventually become big Freemasons).
Hi Major. Always enjoy ephemera like these. I had several pinback buttons with changing images, look at one angle see Mickey, another angle see Goofy, etc. Lost in time.
I bought some recently at the SF Comic-Con with Chinese characters advertising the "Firefly" TV series.
Fun stuff.
JG
These are fantastic! More is always better. Having given up almost all of my side collections, I love to vicariously enjoy others.
Post a Comment