Plating up some Poppins!

I feel lucky to have grown up in a time that had some sort of at-home movie playback system. In the recent generation’s case, that would be Blu-Rays and DVDs, but in my case, it was VHS.

Ahhhh, yes. The days of showing your kindness through a courtesy rewind. And the days of little me totting down to my video rental store to further wear out their sole copy of Mary Poppins. I would happily bring it home, pry open that ugly brown rental case, and pop it in my VCR. I’d watch the neon, mock 3-D Mickey turn around slowly in circles while the music played an anticipatory fanfare that to me was the audible representation of a heavy curtain being drawn back to reveal a magical place that I was going to get lost in for the next 2 hours or so.

On the days when I was on my way home, mentally cursing the other fortunate child who had my coveted Mary Poppins VHS tape in their sticky little grasp, I would resort to my storytelling record of it. Full of wonderful illustrations, albeit an alternative cast, I was happy to get lost in another way… an artistic way. Whimsical, colorful drawings abound, and so did my imagination! I never forgot them, and they remain a happy part of my childhood. So when I happened upon this set of children’s plates recently with such reminiscent art, I jumped at them, and how cute they are!

The 1965 set of eight feature four larger plates and four salad or dessert plates- kid sized, of course. They’re made of some kind of tin, but are in perfect condition. Bright, glossy, and glorious! I hadn’t seen these before, so I’m betting on the fact you haven’t either. I thought I would share. Take a gander. :)

I have also discovered they came with a tray! I don’t have this, but lemme tell ya… I will! If anyone out there has one that they would like to sell, you just let me know! :D

And for those of you too young to know about the revolving Mickey at the beginning of many Disney VHS films, this one’s for you! It just happens to come from the 1985 copy of Mary Poppins. That’s good stuff right there!

Mickey, “Charming” as Ever!

Here is something any little 1950’s girl would have been so excited to have. I have never seen one like this before I received it. Well… strike that… I had seen the Mickey-in-the-box portion before, evidently (my friend says, “Yeah! You showed me a photo of it once!” and I said, “Really? Why don’t I remember that??!” I won’t forget it now.), but I’m sure I had no idea what it went to. Now, I know.

Somewhere there was a little girl who really felt like she was a member of the Club when she wore this as it appears to be well-loved. Both Mickey and Jiminy hang off its chain and seem to have been colored originally. You can see traces of paint left on both of them.  Jiminy’s  coat was green, it seems, and his umbrella was red. There is some remaining black paint in the crevices of Mickey’s ears and on his nose as well as a bit of red on his shorts and (oddly) one eye. Mickey apparently was suffering from conjunctivitis.  The paint on the Mickey Mouse Club logo and the boxed Mickey seems to have remained the longest.

Inner Mickey, as we will call him, is mounted on a little spring. You can remove the whole thing from the box, if you wish, but I’m thrilled nobody ever did long enough to misplace him, otherwise I would have been wondering what the significance of the box was and probably assumed maybe it was supposed to represent one of those super fantastic “strong boxes full of Mouseketreasures” you got when you were talented enough to be on a Talent Round-Up Day episode. Lucky kids.  But, lucky me for scoring such a sweet Mouseketeer trinket.

I hope all of my readers had a truly exceptional holiday! Here’s to 2011 being even more wonderful! Thank you for stopping by now and then to read my little retro Disney ramblings. I hope I’ll “see you real soon” in 2011!

Walt's Macaroni Mickey Mousse

While tripping along a Disney recipe index, I came upon this, which I think is so adorable. It's from a February 1934 Better Homes & Gardens issue. I thought it was too nice to be hidden, so I wanted to bring everyone's attention to it here.

I can't figure out who the blogger is who originally posted it, but here is the source link. It was great of whomever to post it.

Now, I don't know how much cheese had to do with the creation of Mickey Mouse, but it does make for a cute read and references the mouse that scampered around Walt's Kansas City office.

I love the part that reads, "Mr. Disney often serves Macaroni Mickey Mousse to his friends who visit him at his Hollywood bungalow." The recipe variations that follow lead me to believe that perhaps he actually did.

If anyone tries this recipe out, do let me know how it goes.

70 years ago today...

... you might have opened up your Sunday morning paper (straight to the funnies/comics, of course) and read this!

This is a cute piece from The San Diego Union from Sunday, August 29, 1937. Two very nice strips of Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. It must have been fun to open up the paper every Sunday and read these. I know if they were available when I was a kid, I would have been all over them!

*Note: I have left this a large file for your viewing pleasure. Please excuse the bit of glare from the flash, as the strip is behind plastic. Happy reading! :)