Playthings Magazine - December 1950

The Walt Disney studio promotion machine got off to an early start in its promotion of Alice in Wonderland, as this cover to a national toy publication shows.  This is the December 1950 issue of Playthings magazine, featuring a cover of Mickey Mouse announcing that the news for 1951 was Disney's Alice in Wonderland.

The interior has only one Alice item, a full page ad promoting the fact that the entire year of 1951 was to be dedicated to Alice, starting with the Christmas Day TV show One Hour in Wonderland. The article states that the promotional campaign around Alice was to be Disney's largest ever, and that is probably true.  It is clear from the documentation that I have seen that Disney put a lot of effort into promoting Alice.

The article has some very interesting statistics as well, stating that at press time 62 television stations were slated to air the show, with an anticipated viewership of 20,000,000.  Sounds like a lot for 1950, especially on Christmas Day.