It All Started With A Mouse

My very first memories, my current job, most of the happiest times in my life, are all connected by one thing.  I say thing because he isn't a person or even real, but Mickey Mouse, has always been a huge part of my world.  My relationship with the Big Cheese will never be fully understood by some.  Most Disney fans can relate with nostalgia, their own personal stories, or a fandom unknown to anyone but themselves.  Mickey finds his way into my blog pretty often.  Whether I'm reviewing something from the parks, talking about my co-workers from the store, or even hidden Mickey's popping up in my photos, but now he gets to be the star.  With Mickey's 90th birthday coming, the Walt Disney Company has gone all out to celebrate.  Collaborating with high fashion names, they are putting the cartoon celebrity on apparel, jewelry, and shoes.  He even has his own Pop Art show in New York this month.  Within the Disney Stores, each month since January, a limited edition plush, mug, and pin, have been offered with a different era reflecting Mickey's career.  I no longer collect all things Mickey, but I love the designs and concepts that are constantly being updated to match trends and conjure those magical moments and feelings that only Mickey can give people.  As his birthday draws near, I am captured by one special release during this celebration.  Joffrey's, Disney's official specialty coffee supplier since {their first kiosk was installed at Typhoon Lagoon [water park] in the Walt Disney World resort in} 1995, has created a special blend for the occasion; Mickey’s 90th Anniversary Blend, and it is as classic as the mouse himself. 

The Joffrey’s company was started in 1984 in Tampa, Florida.  By the turn of the century, Joffrey’s was offering over 100 different varieties of coffee and tea.  The specialty blends created for the Disney Parks are named after some of the hotels and restaurants of Disneyland, California Adventure, the Disney Vacation Club, and Walt Disney World, and are also offered in the same individual pod style found in the resorts rooms. 

Oh Boy! Coffee!

In previous blogs I have reviewed some of the machine brewed Joffrey’s coffee sold at Disneyland and prefer it over the only other option available at the parks, the dreaded burnt Starbucks.  I tried to wait and see if the 90^th Anniversary Blend would become available at the parks but got impatient and ordered online.  It was delivered lightning quick which I was glad for as shipping was almost equal to the price of the one bag of coffee I was getting.  The packaging grabbed my attention.  Whimsical and covered in tiny Mickey faces from the last 9 decades, it made my nostalgic heart flutter.  As for the coffee itself, it was a medium roast with a sliver of a sharp spice finish, making it a perfect cold morning combatant. 

Now if it is considered Mickey’s birthday, why call it an Anniversary Blend?  In all reality, which can be seriously bent when debating animated rodents, November 18, 1928 was actually the debut of the black and white animated short Steamboat Willie at Universal’s Colony Theater in New York City (Now known as The Broadway Theater).  This would also be Minnie Mouse’s debut appearance as well.  Two shorts were made prior to Steamboat Willie but both were not approved for public viewing as this was and the cartoon about Mickey vs. Captain Pete premiered before Gangwar for two weeks.  It was the first correctly synchronized sound, character, and musical score, and the first fully created in post-production, using a click track.  The click track allowed all the animation and sounds to line up seamlessly, thus creating such rave reviews three days later in a Variety article that it was easy to see Walt and his studios had just created a star.  Mickey’s actual cartoon design was left to Walt’s trusted friend and animator Ub Iwerks.  Walt and Ub had a wonderful partnership from 1919 to the 1930’s that ended as Ub wanted to head his own studio and would fight Walt for the rights to his characters designs, thus crumbling trust and causing financial woes. To answer our question, Anniversary Blend rolls off the tongue better than Debut Blend, I suppose.

A few fun facts about my long tailed hero:

Walt originally wanted to call him Mortimer Mouse but he changed it when his beloved wife, Lillian, said to call him Mickey.

In the 1930’s, a Mickey Mouse comic strip debuted and it ran for 45 years.

Mickey is the first cartoon character to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (on his 50^th birthday, 1978).  (Donald Trump being the most recent)

Disney gave Mickey the iconic white gloves to contrast his black hands from his black body but the gloves did not appear until The Opry House in March of 1929.  The gloves influenced later Disney and non-Disney characters like in Bugs Bunny’s design. Now go double check all Steamboat Willie merchandise to make sure Mickey is sans gloves.

Mickey’s first words came in the short, Karnival Kid in 1929, as he is a vendor yelling, “Hot dogs! Hot dogs!” to sell his dancing, barking bunned deli meat.  In those days everything became anthropomorphized.

In 1932, Mickey was nominated for an Academy Award for Mickey’s Orphan’s (1931) and Walt was given an honorary Academy Award for his success with Mickey Mouse.

The first Mickey watches were sold by the Ingersoll Watch Company in 1933 and has long been in the same style, with Mickey’s arms being the watch hands used to tell time.

By 1934, Mickey merchandise earned $600,000 a year.  Almost the same amount spent by my dad by the mid 1990’s.

In 90 years, Mickey has done a lot and is one of the most recognizable icons in the world.  However, to me, Mickey is more than a corporate mascot.  Mickey is a part of my everyday life.  For every granule of Anniversary Blend coffee, I have a warm-hearted memory or story to tell about Mickey.  I want to share a few just so my readers can see how he is symbolic for all that is good in my life.  (Tissue Warning)

When I was 3, my parents threw me a Mickey birthday party at our home in North Hollywood.  In the tiny kitchen, pre-Little One time, my family, cousins and all, gathered around a homemade Mickey Mouse head cake.  It is my first and earliest memory.  After that, I started to “collect” Mickey memorabilia.  At that young age, I cleared an area in the bedroom I shared with my older sister, gathered all my toys that had Mickey on it, and brought my parents in to show off my collection.  My dad has always been the biggest donor to this obsession of mine, finding me rare and unique pieces.  It has been a never ending bonding tool for him and me.  When my parents split up when I was 11, I grabbed a handful of toys, blankets, and the clothes I wore on my back.  With me was my purple belt with Anniversary Mickey buckle.  Those toys and that buckle were my only connection to my dad in the time we didn’t see him.  When we would visit, he made sure my Mickey sheets and blankets were clean so it felt like home even in the lack of hearth.  Taking us to Disneyland was a great joy of his and even when money was tight, he made sacrifices to get us there.  To this day, every holiday and birthday card from him is Mickey in one form or another.   I cherish every one of them.

One of the most romantic gestures I remember was in the late 90’s, my boyfriend at the time, reached out to my dad to find a perfect Christmas present for me.  I didn’t know until after receiving my present, that my dad picked him up and they had gone shopping together to find something.  The gift was a Mickey plush with a Santa hat and I loved it, but more loved that these two important men in my life made a day bonding together in the sake of making me happy.

In Kindergarten, they expect you to choose a career path and share with the class.  At 5, I knew I wanted to grow up and become a Disney animator.  By 6, I knew that art talent was not in my future but I kept the goal of working for the Disney Company.  After many attempts to get hired from the age of 16, I put that dream on hold and was finally able to make it a possibility in 2006.  In October of that year, I was hired by the Disney Stores where I still currently work.  However, the realization of the achieved goal came about 3 weeks after my hire date.  On my very first paycheck, in the upper corner with the business return address was the mouse who started it all. 

A few of the more recent pieces from my collection.

A collection original piece.  Mickey's hands no longer move but the clock still plays "It's A Small World" when wound up.

More original pieces.  The big mug is missing it's red straw but that A.M. radio still works.

More original pieces.  Mickey Trapeze still flips around when the two white buttons are squeezed (1980's copyright on bottom).  Tall Mickey is the bank I put all my birthday money in as a kid.  Middle Mickey is a squeaky toy I used to annoy my sisters with.  And that is my still working wind up Mickey watch.  My older sister and I got them as Christmas presents in 1984.  She got the one with the red band.