The Very First Disney Merchandise Item

What you see here are extremely rare examples of the very first Disney merchandise items ever created, a 1930 Mickey Mouse Children’s Composition Book on the left and a 1930 Mickey Mouse Children’s Writing Tablet on the right.  Note how the composition tablet flips from right to left, while the tablet flips from the bottom to the top.

In 1929, about one year after the release of Mickey’s third cartoon, Steamboat Willie, the affable and adventurous star was beginning to take the world by storm, and while his popularity soared, Walt was focused on creating Mickey’s next cartoon adventure, as well as running his growing business.  As a result, Walt and his brother Roy hadn’t given much thought to the idea of merchandising Mickey Mouse or any of their growing collection of Disney characters, but that changed in late 1929 when Walt was approached by a man while in a New York hotel lobby who offered him $300 for the rights to put an image of Mickey Mouse on the cover of a writing tablet for children.  In an interview years later, Walt recalled… “As usual, Roy and I needed money, so I took the three hundred.” And with that, the very first Disney merchandise item was created. 

Learn more about early Disney merchandise in the book, Disney History - Rare & Unknown.

Mickey Mouse Composition Book courtesy of the Mike Westby collection.

Mickey Mouse Writing Tablet courtesy of the Edward Bergen Collection.