Disney Matchbook Covers
Matchbooks were created in the 1890s
but since in the beginning, the covers were blank for the most part,
matchbook cover collecting didn't start until around 1918 with the
earliest matchbook collecting clubs not appearing until the 1930s.
Today, there are more matchbook cover collecting clubs in the United
States than any other country.
Just like gum cards or bottle caps or pinback
buttons, matchbook covers were used for advertising and were inexpensive
collectibles.
During World War II, the Disney
Studio produced over a thousand military insignias for various branches
of the armed services. These colorful designs appeared on a variety of
merchandise including shoulder patches, decals, mugs, glasses, ash
trays, stationary, menus, Christmas cards, ceramic tiles, playing cards,
stamp albums and...matchbook covers.
The Diamond Match Company inquired
whether they could reproduce Disney designed insignia on matchbooks for
a Naval Supply Depot. Disney sent its approval along with a notation
that "OK to fill orders from official Navy Sources, but not for general
sale in retail stores." The Disney Studio was becoming concerned that
these designs were being exploited for profit. Walt had authorized that
the creation of these insignias be done for free and by the end of the
war that contribution amounted to over thirty thousand dollars which was
significant for a studio which was over a million dollars in debt thanks
to its war work.
The Universal Match Corporation of
St. Louis produced at least three matchbooks featuring Disney insignia
with Jiminy Cricket and Donald Duck. These matchbooks were produced
twice the width of a normal matchbook so they could be used as
postcards, because of paper rationing. There were also a dozen or less
miscellaneous matchbook covers for various units including the First
Motion Picture Unit, Army Air Forces (which featured a cartoony pilot
flying a plane and holding a motion picture camera as bullets whizzed by
the cameraman). That unit which was stationed at the old Hal Roach
Studio in Culver City, California produced military training films and
included several Disney artists.
However, there were two series of
matchbook covers featuring Disney insignias that are of interest to
Disneyana collectors.
The first is a set that appears most
frequently for sale on ebay and through collector sites is the Disney
Pepsi Set. It is a big set of 48 20-strike covers. It is popular with
Disney collectors, World War II military collectors and also collectors
of soft drink memorabilia. All of the covers feature a gray background
with a red, white, and blue Pepsi logo on the front panel (and the
advertising slogan "Purity in the big, big bottle") and the unit
designation and logo in blue on the back panel. Inside, it contains more
advertising for Pepsi-Cola "the drink with quick food energy" that is
"bottled locally by authorized bottlers coast to coast". These also
featured a copyright notice appearing as "c Walt Disney".
Disney/Pepsi Matchbook Covers
The set was manufactured by D.D.
Bean & Sons for National Match Company. An estimated one million were
distributed throughout the United States by the Whelan and United retail
chain. There is no record at the Disney Archives of a license being
granted to Pepsi Cola for this series. How the rights situation was
worked out is just another mystery in the history of Disney
collectibles. Reproduction rights were a problem since Walt Disney
Productions granted the U.S. Government "exclusive and perpetual right
and license to reproduce and use the following motif, device or design."
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Patwing Support
Force Aviation
Repair Unit No.1 |
01 |
02 |
03 |
04 |
05 |
26th
Material
Squadron 19th
Air Base |
U. S. S.
Blue |
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06 |
07 |
08 |
09 |
10 |
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11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
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16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
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21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
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(Aviation
Cadets)
U. S. Naval Aviation. |
26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
30 |
Primary
Training
Squadron 11-A U. S. |
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55th School
Squadron |
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31 |
32 |
33 |
34 |
35 |
121st Air
Corps
Observation
Squadron |
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36 |
37 |
38 |
39 |
40 |
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41 |
42 |
43 |
44 |
45 |
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46 |
47 |
48 |
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Since Coca-Cola was already the
soft drink of the American military during World War II, I guess Pepsi
was trying to get them to change their minds by appealing to the other
popular habit of the armed services....smoking. In later years, Pepsi
would team up with Disney for other promotions, including sponsoring the
Golden Horseshoe Revue in Disneyland but to my knowledge this is the
first merchandise of Disney and Pepsi.
Disney Matchbook Yellow Set
The second one is a set of twenty
covers produced by
the Maryland Match Company for the National Match Company. These covers
featured the insignia in blue and red over a yellow background. The name
of the unit appears on the back cover and it appears that these
matchbooks were intended for use by the specific units themselves. There
is a copyright notice on them appearing as "c Walt Disney". Some of
these designs were duplicates of ones that appear on another more
popular set.
There is
little documentation as to why Walt Disney chose any one military
unit to portray, but he did so in two WWII (1942) matchcover sets.
Each matchcover shows a Walt Disney cartoon character. The other
set, made in conjunction with Pepsi-Cola shown above, contained 48
matchcovers. Known as the Disney/Pepsi Set (within the hobby), and
there are three versions of this set, each with a different inside
printing. The inside of all Yellow Set matchcovers is blank.
Miscellaneous
Disney Military Matchbooks
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