Mickey Mouse:The Symbol of Industrialism

Mickey Mouse: The Symbol of Industrialism
Today’s society has an obsession with a cartoon mouse. His face can be seen in every country all over the world, such as Paris, France and Tokyo, Japan. This idolized mouse is not Speedy Gonzales or Jerry, but rather the infamous Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse has been captivating the public with his innocent comforting smile and white gloves for years. However, Mickey Mouse is not the naïve mouse that the public perceives him to be. Mickey Mouse is a source of propaganda controlled by the biggest “Fat Cats” of the corporate world. The Disney Corporation used their cute mouse to persuade the public to buy and invest in their company, which is not always a bad thing; however people should not be tricked by a cute animal to influence their consumer decisions. Yet, Mickey Mouse was not always a tool misused by the company that created him. At one point he was just a simple drawing on a napkin, but through the years, people started to see the power he had on the public, which transformed him into the powerful image he is today.
Walt Disney the creator of Mickey Mouse once stated, “I hope we never lose site of one thing: that it was all started by a mouse” (Bellis, about.com), which is true because The Disney Corporation would not be the machine it is today if Mickey Mouse was never brought to life. However, Mickey Mouse was not the first creation of Walt Disney; he was originally Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (Suddath, Time). Walt Disney worked for Universal Studios, and created Oswald for the company, however the company did not give Disney the cut he wanted. Universal was only going to give Walt Disney 20% of the profit that would be made by the rabbit’s cartoon shorts. This caused Disney to leave with his friend Ub Iwerks, and they decided to make their own business, however they needed their own cartoon character. Therefore, Disney destroyed his own rabbit by erasing and rounding its head and ears, creating Mortimer the Mouse. Conversely, Mortimer did not sound good to Walt Disney wife, and she created the name Mickey Mouse (Suddath, Time). Immediately, Walt Disney and his company started to produce a cartoon staring their new character. Their first film was “Plane Crazy” (1927) and it was a failure. The cartoon short was silent, and at this time silent movies were not popular, due to the fact that talking movies and cartoons were just coming out and the people preferred these. The company also did not get any funding from studios to get it produced, since they were a new company that no one knew about (Pophistorydig.com). This could have been the end for a primitive Mickey Mouse; however Walt Disney did not give up on his creation. His team got back to work and made a talking short with Mickey Mouse driving a boat down the river. This short, “Steamboat Willie” was released in theaters in May 1928, and it was an instant success (Suddath, Time). People instantly fell in love with the mouse and flocked to the theatres just to see him in action. The American public loved Mickey Mouse, and The Disney Company saw this as an opportunity to make them known to the world.
The Disney Company started to produce a cartoon every month to keep up with the public’s demand (Pophistorydig.com) and to make Mickey Mouse be the favorite cartoon in the theatres. Soon, the mouse became an icon to the American people because he brought happiness and hope. America in the 1930’s was in a depression, and people were losing their jobs and houses routinely. Yet, when Mickey Mouse came on the screen people forgot about all the problems that they were having. This cartoon mouse made people laugh, and made them enjoy life again. He gave the American public hope that the president and government of that time could not give them. The Disney Company feed off this hope in order to make their company the richest in the world. In the 1930’s Walt Disney started to market Mickey Mouse merchandise. These forms of goods included playing cards, phonographs, candy, playing cards, stuffed animals, and any other item that could be stamped with the face of Mickey Mouse (Pophistorydig.com). Even though the United States was in a depression, the citizens were lining up outside stores just to buy them. Mickey Mouse was having a positive effect on America during The Great Depression. People were buying the merchandise which caused money to start flowing in the economy again, and businesses were making their own Mickey Mouse products to stay in business. For example, Lionel Trains decided to make Mickey Mouse wind-up hand cars because they were going to go out of business and this was their last chance to make money. The cars were and instant hit and 250,000 were sold in the first four months. This caused the company to put many orders on back order since they could not keep up with the demand for the product. A similar experience happened to the Ingersol-Waterbury Clock Company when they determined to make and sell Mickey Mouse wrist watches. The watches sold for $2.95 (around 40 dollars toady) and they were also a success, making the clock company survive the depression and the years that proceeded (Pophistorydig.com). One reporter of the New York Times in 1935 called Mickey Mouse, “The world’s super-salesman. He finds work for the jobless folk. He lifts corporations out of bankruptcy…Wherever he scampers…The sun of prosperity breaks through the clouds” (pophistorydig.com). During the depression, the American public was looking up to Mickey Mouse as a hero and as someone they could trust. Unfortunately, when the depression ended and new cartoons came to the screen, the fascination with Mickey Mouse was slowly disappearing. Leaving Walt Disney and his group to scramble around, and try to come up with a method to gain their power back.
In 1942, Mickey Mouse was looking out of date compared to rising cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny of Looney Tunes and Tom of Tom and Jerry. Therefore, Walt Disney hired Fred Moore to reanimate his beloved creation and make him look modern. Fred Moore did just that by making Mickey Mouse have round ears, white gloves, red shorts, and all the other characteristics that Mickey still has today. However, The Disney Company not only needed a new Mickey Mouse, but also a new cartoon that blow the public’s mind and make them love Mickey Mouse just like they use too. With Fred Moore doing animation and the Philadelphia Orchestra being the music behind Moore’s work, the blockbuster Fantasia was created and turned the American citizens back into Mickey Mouse lovers. Fantasia was a movie that brought classical music and cartoons together, causing all generations to enjoy the film. Some of the most memorable scenes from the movie were “Night on Bald Mountain” and “Nutcracker Suite”. Nonetheless, nothing compared to the finale of the show, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”. In this short Mickey Mouse brought a mop to life to do the work for him, he fell asleep, and awoke to see that the mop had done the job wrong, and this lead to more mops coming to life, and so on. Mickey tried to fix it, but he could not until the Sorcerer came back. Americans loved this story and the new Mickey Mouse, causing them to go back to the theatres just to see Mickey do his magic. In the first week, Fantasia made over $980,798 (IMDB.com). The film was soon seen around the world, making him a worldly icon, and Walt Disney would stop at nothing to keep it that way.
When WWII ended, Walt Disney and his company decided to create a theme park that would take their symbol to the next level. In 1955, Disneyland was opened to the public, and the mascot for the park was no other than Mickey Mouse. Americans flocked to Disneyland just to see their beloved mouse in real life. On the first day the park opened, over 30,000 people arrived, because they wanted to see Mickey Mouse (Malloy, about.com). President Truman even went to Disneyland just to get a picture with the famous Mickey Mouse. This made the mouse gain power at a rapid pace, due to the fact that he was now getting a fan club, literally. While at Disneyland, Walt Disney saw how Americans and people from all over the world worshiped his creation, therefore he decided to make a fan club. This fan club was named The Mickey Mouse Club, however it was more than a club, it was a television show, and a way for The Disney Corporation to control young children’s lives. Since, The Mickey Mouse Club was a television show, it needed cast members, therefore auditions were held, and contracts were made. The children who found themselves on the show were Annette Funicello, and later on Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, as well as Ryan Gosling (vex.net). The club not only influenced young juveniles to have their chance in the lime light, but caused Mickey Mouse clubs to appear all over the state. There were applications that a child could fill out, and in a few days their certification card would come in the mail. However, the biggest thing that came out of the development of The Mickey Mouse Club would be the famous mouse ear hats. Every child in America wanted these hats, because not only did it have Mickey Mouse on it, but also due to the fact that they could pretend they were their favorite mouse. The hats were so popular that orders had to put on back order, and later on, different versions of the hats were produced. Over time, this became the “must buy item” when a family went to Disneyland (vex.net).
By the beginning of the 1960’s Mickey Mouse was not just a cartoon, but rather a face of a company, that now had its own TV, toy, and finance departments. Even when Walt Disney died in 1966, the company still used his creation to put them at the top of the corporate world. In 1971, the company built another amusement park in Orlando, Florida called Disney World, which is the most popular Disney park today. However, Mickey Mouse popularity hit an all time high when Paris and Tokyo built their own Disney theme parks. Tokyo, Japan was the first to build in 1983 followed by Paris, France, who built theirs in 1992. Now, Mickey Mouse was an international superstar, and The Disney Corporation did everything in their power to make sure that the mouse’s status would not lower from that. Therefore, the company made their own television station, Disney Channel, which allowed them to show the whole world what kind of programs they produced. The enterprise used Mickey Mouse as the icon to the station to attract viewers, and even though many of their shows did not star Mickey Mouse. They started new actors and actresses, who were used to lure in other children to form contracts with The Disney Corporation. One of these actresses was Hilary Duff who starred as Lizzie McGuire in the show Lizzie McGuire and she attracted many young girls to sign contracts with Disney, one of them probably being Miley Cyrus. Mickey Mouse even found his way into video games with this newly run company. The most popular being the Kingdom Hearts series (Miller, Gameinformer.com). Kingdom Hearts brought not only Mickey Mouse but the whole Disney Universe to another level. Now, people who did not care about Mickey Mouse before, were now playing games with him in it, causing them to go out and spend more money on the next one. This made Mickey Mouse and The Disney Corporation part of every industry in the world, meaning that Mickey Mouse was now the key image of industrialism.
At one point Mickey Mouse was a harmless drawing on a napkin created by Walt Disney as a new cartoon for his own industry, The Disney Corporation. In 1928, they released a short staring Walt Disney’s new creation, it was called Steamboat Willie, and everyone in America loved it. Mickey Mouse slowly became a hero to the American people, due to the fact the United States was in a depression, and this mouse made the citizens feel happy for once. He even helped local business survive the depression, since he was very popular. For example, The Lionel Train Company was on its last legs, therefore in their last attempt to save their business they released a Mickey Mouse handcar, which sold out in the first few months of production, making the company survive. However, in the 1940s, Mickey Mouse’s popularity dropped, and Walt Disney reanimated his creation, and made it appear in a new film. The new film he appeared in was Fantasia, and in this, Mickey Mouse had a rounder face, ears, white gloves, and looked cuter than before. Again, America fell in love with him, and The Disney Company was not going to let that go. In the 1950s, Walt Disney made a theme parked focused around his mouse. On the first day it opened thousands of people arrived just to see their hero in real life. Unfortunately, during this time the company started to abuse the power Mickey Mouse had on the public, by using him as a way to get them on top of the corporate world. It began when Walt Disney decided to form The Mickey Mouse Club, which was used to make The Disney Corporation not only part of the television franchise, but also to gain control over young peoples’ lives. The Mickey Mouse Club starred young actresses and actors who all had contracts with The Disney Company, and they were lured in because of Mickey Mouse. This attraction of aspiring young stars continued into present times, when the corporation gained control of their own channel named the Disney Channel, and its icon was of course the silhouette of Mickey Mouse. However, it was not until 1983, when Mickey Mouse hit his highest level of popularity. In 1983, Disney Tokyo was built, making Mickey Mouse an international super star. Today, “7,500 items bear his likeness” (Bellis, about.com), that is more than Jesus and Elvis merchandise combined. These items range from movies, stuffed animals, plates, and video games. Mickey Mouse is seen everywhere and in any form. The Disney Corporation saw how popular he was with the common man and used him as their pawn to be part of every key industry in the world, such as advertisement, causing Mickey Mouse to not only be a icon of one company, but rather the emblem of industrialism.