Pinback button featuring an image of animated film star Mickey Mouse. The white button is printed with an illustration of Mickey with hands clasped behind his back, with "Mickey Mouse" in red letters outlined with black printed above. "Walt Disney Enterprises" is printed at the bottom edge of the button in black ink.
Buttons such as this were distributed to members of the Mickey Mouse Club, a fan club organized by Walt Disney Enterprises through cinema managers and local businesses across the United States, Canada, and Europe in the early 1930s. At its peak in 1932, the Mickey Mouse Club had more than 800 individual clubs totaling over one million members in the United States, according to the Motion Picture Herald.
The first club was organized in January 1930 by Harry W. Woodin, manager of the Fox Dome Theater in Ocean Park, California, who saw the potential to use the popular Mickey Mouse character to increase ticket sales among children. Woodin’s club was a success and he was hired by Walt and Roy Disney to organize similar clubs around the United States. The clubs were designed to encourage ticket sales and brand loyalty, but also aspired to educate children in good citizenship “through inspirational, patriotic, and character building activities related to the Club.”
Club chapters were organized along the lines of adult fraternal and civic organizations, with elected officers (Chief Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Sergeants-at-Arms, and color bearers), membership cards, regular meetings, secret handshakes, and a club creed:
“I will be a squareshooter in my home, in school, on the playgrounds, wherever I may be.
I will be truthful and honorable and strive always to make myself a better and more useful little citizen.
I will respect my elders and help the aged, the helpless and children smaller than myself.
In short, I will be a good American!"
After reciting the creed and official song, Mickey Mouse Club meeting attendees would then watch the latest Mickey Mouse short and perhaps other serialized films, special appearances and performances, and participate in contests and games. The clubs were usually sponsored by local businesses who helped theaters purchase promotional and membership material from Walt Disney Enterprises and received sponsorship promotion in return. For children, club membership was free but required frequent attendance at matinee screenings.
Although the Mickey Mouse club was extraordinarily successful and helped contribute to the popularity of Disney cartoons, by 1933 Disney executives worried that the concept had grown too unwieldy and began to phase out support. No new clubs were licensed by Walt Disney Enterprises after 1935, but many individual chapters continued to meet for years afterward. The club concept was revived in 1955 for the variety television series The Mickey Mouse Club.
