Now that the Walt Disney-United Artists combination has had an opportunity to get its bright new machinery into motion, Mickey Mouse and the Silly Symphonies find themselves the centrifugal point of a world-wide organization the like of which has never before been attempted on single-reel features. Or any other features, for that matter, according to United Artists.
Mickey and the Sillies have long since been the favorite film entertainment of a score of countries of the world, but now they are infinitely extending their influence, and, with the aid of the U. A. world-wide organization, are reaching a clientele never before dreamed of.
Through the various ramifications of this organization, millions of persons throughout the world are behind the popularizing of Mickey and the Sillies. These include about 40 mercantile manufacturers who make Mickey Mouse articles and toys, employees of nearly 300,000 retail stores, more than 15,000 exhibitors, publishers of nearly 200 newspapers in the United States alone and almost 1,000,000 children, members of the Mickey Mouse Clubs.
It was only two short months ago that Mickey Mouse reaped the reward of his unprecedented artistry by becoming a producer-member of United Artists, thereby joining hands with Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson and all the others. But in those two montns he has grown by leaps and bounds. And now his imprint upon the cinematic scheme of things is as deeply etched as that of any star in the business. This despite the insurmountable fact that Mickey is only a pen-and-ink character and all the others are flesh and blood pulchritude.
Mickey will be four years old Oct. 1. It is only since the talkies came in that he has become a star, for he and Al Jolson were the first to see the possibilities of the new medium. He receives as many as 20,000 letters in three weeks at times, and he has a different name in almost every country in the world.
Meanwhile, out in Hollywood Walt Disney and his brother, Roy, are pumping back every penny into the business with a view to keeping Mickey and the Sillies so far above any other short features that there will be no comparison.
