ww2 walt disney designed a mickey mouse gas mask

When Cline saw the results for the first time: “I got goosebumps.”

Regrettably, this isn’t the level of tech seen when Kanye West arranged for Kim Kardashian to have a holographic visit from her dead father, and the “ooh” factor is missing as Walt tells visitors, “There’s a lot of satisfaction in developing ideas into reality.” His speech is a combination of two historical audio recordings and his body is made from AI-enhanced footage from the 1960s. Half-hologram, half a strange sort of layered cinema screen, 3D Walt appears lifesize before exhibition-goers in a cloud of fairy dust. Keen to have Walt himself greet punters and undeterred by his 56 years dead, Cline worked with visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic to create “something that had not been done before”: Disney MagicStage. “I always had this dream of having Walt Disney host the exhibition,” says Cline, who has worked for Disney for 34 years. How exactly do you summarise everything the company has done in a century? When Disney archivist Becky Cline began working on the exhibition five years ago, she knew exactly where to start: resurrecting Walt. Guests can see hundreds of props and costumes as well as play with interactive installations – press this button to hear Moana sing in Hebrew! Pull this lever to play a different underwater Disney scene! The jewel in Prince Charming’s crown, however, is a touring exhibition which opened in Philadelphia in February, came to Munich in April and is arriving at the Excel in London in the October, with tickets going on sale on 18 July.ĭisney100: The Exhibition is made up of 10 galleries, organised not chronologically but thematically: in one you can learn about music, and another is all about theme parks. Though the mouse who needs no introduction was not created until 1928, Disney is capitalising on the anniversary of the far less recognisable Alice with a concert, a merchandise collection and an ambiguous-sounding “multi-sensory friendship experience” for over-18s. Walt Disney showing the sketch of the Mickey Mouse gas mask to Major General William Porter on January 8, 1942.Ĭhild sports a Mickey Mouse gas mask during WWII.How do you celebrate the centenary of the second biggest media company on the planet? This October marks 100 years since Walt Disney founded his eponymous film studio and began producing silent shorts known as the Alice Comedies. In addition to its child-friendly appearance, the Mickey Mouse mask was designed to fit a smaller head and weighed less than the adult gas mask. The mask pictured here is housed in The United States Army Chemical Corps Museum, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.ĭisney's Mickey Mouse gas mask was designed to eliminate children's fear of wearing the chemical warfare preventative device. Mickey Mouse Gas Mask at the 45th Infantry Museum.ĭuring WWII Walt Disney helped to design a Mickey Mouse gas mask to protect children against chemical warfare. This would reduce the fear associated with wearing a gas mask and hopefully, improve their wear time and, hence, survivability. The mask was designed so children would carry it and wear it as part of a game. Other comic book character designs were to follow, depending on the success of the Mickey Mouse mask. After approval of the CWS, Sun Rubber Products Company produced sample masks for review. Porter, Chief of the Chemical Warfare Service. This design of the Mickey Mouse Gas Mask for children was presented to Major General William N. Smith, Jr., the owner of the Sun Rubber Company, and his designer, Dietrich Rempel, with Walt Disney’s approval introduced a protective mask for children.

On January 7th, 1942, one month after Pearl Harbor, T.W.

Ww2 walt disney designed a mickey mouse gas mask