Below is an except from the forthcoming book.
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The Oak Rubber Company was one of the largest manufacturers of balloons for nearly 80 years, and a Disney licensee for 33 of those years.
Oak Rubber Company was founded by Paul Colette and John Shira in Akron, OH in 1916, but moved to Ravenna, OH the following year, which was already a rubber manufacturing center in Ohio. The company started out, as most companies do, with a handful of employees, but grew quickly; this forced the company to expand into new and larger buildings in Ravenna. But, on March 15, 1920, a fire completely destroyed their factory as well as several other properties and many feared the company was finished.
Happily, the company reopened in November 1920 with a full complement of 125 workers, and immediately began to produce up to 150,000 balloons per day. By 1921 company sales were over $1 million dollars, and by 1923 was the second-largest producer of rubber balloons in the country.
Initially producing only pure rubber balloons, in the 1930s they launched the “Oak-Hytex” line, which employed a new process using liquid latex (rubber tree “milk”) for making balloons. The Hytex line became the predominant brand for all but the most specialized balloons. Incidentally, Oak-Hytex was also the sole supplier of balloon “bubbles” for Sally Rand’s infamous “Bubble Dance” made famous at the 1934 season of the Chicago World’s Fair.
The company continued to make balloons and other rubber products until the company closed in 1993.
The Oak Rubber Company received their Disney license in 1934 and held it for 34 years with a small break during WWII. The company made a wide range of “toy balloons” featuring many Disney characters from the shorts and feature films. Perhaps their most iconic creation was the Mickey Mouse “head” balloon which they introduced in the mid-to-late 1930s, a balloon that, while no longer produced by Oak Rubber, is still sold in the Disney theme parks today.
The balloons were sold in a variety of styles and packages including counter-top boxes and illustrated card sets. All the various types of packaging were imprinted with their distinctive yellow and black logo.
The Alice in Wonderland line of toy balloons was released at the time of the film’s original run in 1951 (along with those sold by the Eagle Rubber Company oddly enough). Prices for individual balloons ranged from $0.05 to $0.25 each, corresponding to $0.52 to $2.61 in today’s dollars.
Balloons
While the balloons themselves are unlikely to exist in anything other than very poor shape, a wide variety of styles, sizes, and sets were sold. Notice the advertising photos featuring several characters in the ‘head’ style like the famous Mickey balloon.
Display Packaging
Even though most, if not all, of the balloons have not survived, any display cards, boxes, or other packaging may still exist, but I have as yet been unable to locate any.
