Among the personal family items on display at The Walt Disney Family Museum are two very special bracelets. One, the "Oscar Bracelet", and the second, the Cartier Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs bracelet.
The first is referred to as the “Oscar Bracelet” as it features miniature versions of the Academy Awards Walt received for his considerable achievements in filmmaking. The 18k gold bracelet is comprised of twenty Oscar charms, representing the first twenty awards Walt received, including two of his honorary Oscars. Walt discovered he was able to purchase mini-Oscars for his various wins, and decided to give them to Lillian to acknowledge the role she had played in his professional success. Lillian wore the charms proudly on a bracelet.
The other notable example is also a charm bracelet, though of a different nature. Dating back to 1937, the bracelet was designed by Cartier, Inc. with charms featuring the likenesses of Snow White and each of the Seven Dwarfs. Lillian wore the bracelet to the premiere of the film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at Carthay Circle Theater in 1937. Walt too owned a piece of Snow White Cartier merchandise: a money clip featuring one of the best beloved dwarfs, Dopey. Both the bracelet and money clip were fashioned from high quality gold and enamel, and represented some of the most exclusive products from a line of merchandise for children as well as adults created around Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Pages from a catalog of Walt Disney character merchandise for the years 1938 and 1939 and various pieces of merchandise can be seen on display in the core galleries of The Walt Disney Family Museum. An ambitious and forward-thinking promoter by the name of Kay Kamen was responsible for the tremendous line of licensed Disney character products, beginning in 1932. By the time Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released, an extensive line of merchandise already existed, offering an array of products developed around Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, the Three Little Pigs, and others.
Kamen viewed the holiday release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as a lucrative opportunity to market many of the products as gift items. Some of the licensed products developed for the film included neckties, linens, radios, shoes and slippers, puppets, wind-up toys, baby rattles, jewelry, records, and sheet music.
In the 1938-1939 catalog, Kamen articulated the extensive reach of the line of Disney products: “Demand for this merchandise has grown to such an extent that it has become of signal importance, not only to retail institutions everywhere, but to American industry as a whole…all volume records for Disney character merchandise have been broken.”
Kamen was also concerned with the quality of the products being developed in conjunction with Disney entertainment. Just as Walt’s films were considered to be some of the highest quality in the entertainment industry, Kamen wanted the character merchandise to uphold a similar standard of superiority: “…all of this implies a responsibility and a duty beyond the strictly commercial aspects of our association. We must dedicate our efforts toward a constant maintenance of the high quality which makes all of this possible.”
More examples of character driven merchandise can be seen throughout the galleries, including a large display of 1930s Mickey Mouse products and a number of pieces from the popular Disney television series from the 1950s, particularly Davy Crockett, The Mickey Mouse Club, and Zorro.
Alyssa Carnahan
Open Studio Coordinator