ww2 walt disney designed a mickey mouse gas mask

#Ww2 walt disney designed a mickey mouse gas mask update#

The character’s public debut was in Steamboat Willie, which appeared in 1928 and was one of the first cartoons with synchronised sound. Quoted in Spiegelman, The Complete Maus, 164. ~ Newspaper article, Pomerania, Germany, mid-1930s.

Away with the Jewish brutalization of the people! Down with Mickey Mouse! Wear the Swastika Cross!” Healthy emotions tell every independent young man and every honourable youth that the dirty and filth-covered vermin, the greatest bacteria carrier in the animal kingdom, cannot be the ideal type of animal. “Mickey Mouse is the most miserable ideal ever revealed. The rarity of these masks is heightened by the fact that the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler propagandised against Mickey Mouse, with one mid-1930s newspaper article stating The masks therefore are extremely rare, given the combination of being very early on in the history of Mickey Mouse and Disney, and the fact that they were manufactured in Germany under licence. They were probably worn at the original Mickey Mouse Club that took place, as it did every Saturday, sometime, in the early 1930s in Germany. Disney, with one bearing the green and white makers label. Both have the patent stamp which tells us they are patented by Walt E. There are some damages as photographed with dents and small tears and with a guaze repair to one internally.

The ephemeral nature of the masks means it is pleasingly surprising that they have survived at all, and largely intact, this long.

#Ww2 walt disney designed a mickey mouse gas mask update#

Unlike my other example, it is fitted with a 'Contex' pre-filter, meant to update the respirator against newer chemical agents developed by the enemy.About The very rare pair of Mickey Mouse masks in pressed card, one bearing teeth, the other with a hanging tongue, having been made for the German market and with the German ink retail stamp and paper label to the interior and probably having been initially used for the Mickey Mouse Thanksgiving Parade or for a Mickey Mouse Club cinema screening, each with pierced holes and later elasticated attachments, surviving in good overall order from 1930s Nazi torn Germany.

It is in complete condition, with the exception of the rubber exhale valve, which is unfortunately missing. I refrained from cleaning the underside of the flutter valve, to preserve the ink stamps there.

There is little rust to be seen, no perishing to the rubber, and the harness straps remain good and springy. They also feature a special harness system, with a hook and eye to keep the mask secured, to prevent the wearer from removing it in a panic during a gas attack. The bright colouration of the rubber and metal parts are an attempt to make the respirator more appealing for young wearers, who would otherwise be scared of putting it on. These masks, officially the Avon C2, but colloquially referred to as the 'Mickey Mouse' gas mask, were developed for children aged 2-5, who were too large to fit the Anti-Gas Helmet for Babies, but whose heads were too small to properly fit the smallest size of Civilian General Respirator. The photograph below is how it looked when I first received it.Īnd here is how it looks now, after liberal application of a damp cloth. But I could see no signs of rubber perishing, and it looked like it would clean up very well. In the seller's photographs, it looked to be in rather bad condition. I already own one of these, but couldn't resist it at the price it was being sold for.