Flashback to WWII: The Mickey Mouse Gasmask
There's a metric assload of Disney-branded products, but currently their vast lineup just doesn't have anything for the child who'd like to avoid death by chemical weapons while still having fun. This wasn't always the case. Back in the early 1940s, there was an actual Mickey Mouse gas mask.
Designed to make kids less resistant to wearing masks that could save them from a wily Axis chemical attack, these rubber masks seemed like a pretty good idea. Plus, I bet they have that new-dog-toy smell.
It's hard to imagine Disney ever granting the rights to Mickey Mouse for something so morbid. In fact, a Mickey Mouse Gas Mask by artist Bill Barminsky was a part of our Illegal Art Exhibit a few years back. But I suppose it was in Disney's best interest to keep their primary target market from dying of mustard gas poisoning.
(Incidentally, the whole Gas Mask & Co. site is quite fascinating in itself. Especially check out the crazy baby gas suits and the horse masks.)
The Mickey Mouse Mask [Gas Mask & Co.]
Carrie McLaren & Jason Torchinsky are coeditors of Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. In previous lives, they worked together on the hopelessly obscure and now defunct Stay Free! magazine .
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My parents bought me a war bond (now called savings bonds) that was covered with pictures of Disney characters. I might still have it lying around somewhere if I ever acted on the urge to clean out the basement.
My mom told me about having one of these when she was a kid (born in 1938, just in time to be traumatized by WWII), but I never really believed her. But lo and behold, there it is. Dang.
@Michael Belisle: If you look at the uncesored Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes, they have a lot of pro-war effort stuff (and some pretty racist material too).
Are you my mummy?
*shudder*
@Michael Belisle: Clip reminds me of several clips on Cracked.com of videos shown in school about several educational topics. Well, "educational", to include "duck and cover" if you see the bright flash of an atomic attack, women should be more concerned about their appearance than anything because if they don't then the college men won't want them, that the "homosexual" is a predator, and so forth.
There is also a disney cartoon of Donald Duck as a Natzi, with Donald having to "heil Hitler" constantly and being worked almost to death. I'm not sure where I saw that clip, though, except that it was probably linked back to YouTube, like everything else.
This picture is freaking me out!! Holy crap, that is scary.
well, the horse mask is under the USSR. I couldn't find the baby suit/mask.
WE ARE COMING...
Creepy children on the Dr. Who spinoff, Torchwood, next Monday on BBC.
Zombie kids really do freak me out.
First rate Halloween costume.
@Michael Belisle: He was also photographed being with many Grand Wizards of the KKK and a 33rd degree freemason.
@Michael Belisle: Wow, clearly I'll have to catch this at home.
@ARP: Where can I find uncensored looney tunes?
@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): Thats the episode I was going to watch today. Love the line:
People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect... but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly.... timey-wimey.... stuff.
I actually found that episode a bit too campy for my taste, even for a Dr. Who episode. "I really need this one win, just this one time *emo /wrist*" Blah.
My friend actually has one of these gas masks. I just facebooked him to get him to send something this way!!!
@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): Ah! I was just watching/talking about that episode! It freaks me out every single time. I'll never look at angel statues the same way again.
@Jeremy82465: And I was just quoting that line with a friend yesterday. Good stuff.
There are a lot of DVDs out there that feature "banned" cartoons like the ones that are being referred to here. Lots of them are boring and only borderline offensive (especially with shows like Family Guy nowadays) but there are a few that are pretty bad, like this one where Bugs Bunny visits an island of savages and starts slinging slurs. I have one by the Cartoon Crazys folks, here's the amazon link: [www.amazon.com]
If you have a old bond sitting around- you should check out its value. My mom had some old series E bonds that were for $100 and cashed out for a couple thousand each. The old ones kept adding in the interest and compounding the savings, they just didn't end at the mature value.
Disney really had no choice but to support the war effort during the 30's and 40's. In reading a Walt Disney biography, a lot of studios were losing money since everything was focused on the war. Cartoons were not in demand. To keep his studio afloat Walt began contracting out to the government for cartoons such as the anti-Nazi one above, as well as instructional, how-to cartoons for educational purposes to both the troops and our children at home. He won though, because by the end of the war his was one of the only remaining animation studios still running.
My Grandmother was in England during the war and to this day is kind of ticked of that she was deemed "too old" to get a Mickey Mouse gas mask.
Disney was a big supporter of the war effort, including creating some propaganda with a touch of signature Disney charm: