Mickey Mouse Weekly #596 from England - October 13th, 1951

This weeks installment does not have a Mickey Mouse story on the cover, which I find very odd as the comic is titled Mickey Mouse Weekly.

Instead, it sports another cool Alice badge inset, which I have cropped and cleaned up for potential use elsewhere.

On page 11, we learn the final outcome of the Alice Painting Competition.  Looking at the list of winners is pretty scary in today's climate.  Talk about privacy violations, they published the full address of all the winners!?  Can't imagine the flap that would cause today.

Chapter 13 features the Dodo and the White Rabbit preparing to burn the house down with Alice in it, until Alice finds her own way of the situation.

600th Post - Old School Cloisonne Pin of Cheshire Cat

Wow, 600 posts.  Hard to believe, and that's even with my relatively paltry output these past few months.

While not exactly vintage, I love this pin.  It is from the 'old days', when there were about 10 pins total, and they were all available on one spinner rack in the Disneyland Emporium.  This Cheshire Cat pin was very late to the game, and was really hard to find - still is.  I remember these pins from the late 1970s to the early 1980s, before the whole pin thing really took off once the Disney Stores came into being.

Mickey Mouse Weekly #595 from England - October 6th, 1951

Another fun cover on this issue from October 6th, 1951, with the title Stand and Deliver (makes me think of Adam and the Ants, but I'm dating myself).

Chapter 12 features the Dodo advising the White Rabbit on how to remove Alice, and we get a visit from one of my favorite (albeit only briefly seen) characters, Bill the lizard (poor Bill).

Mickey Mouse Weekly #594 from England - September 29th, 1951

I love this cover, I call it the Ben Hur cover (for obvious reasons).  Although I find it difficult to imagine Donald as a Roman charioteer.

This issue features Chapter 11, in which Alice succumbs to temptation and literally grows as big as a house.

The Dodo makes an appearance, and we know nothing good can come from this...

Even Despots Love the Mad Tea Party

I saw this article and just about died.  Too bad he wasn't as whimsical in his rule...

Disneyland Main Gate Station Fence Snapshot with Alice Attraction Poster

This may be the only photo I have of the Fantasyland variation of the Alice attraction poster (thank you Jed!).  It is a pretty nice snapshot as these vintage photos go, fairly in focus, and of course nicely featuring my attraction of choice in poster format.

I only wish there was less of a reflection in the image of the poster itself.  You can actually see the gates you would walk through in the glass of the frame.

One of these days I'll get this poster on the wall, until that time I'll just have to make do with the blank variation.

Mickey Mouse Weekly #593 from England - September 22, 1951

A little tardy (seems to be the norm for me these days), but better late than never!  Chapter 10, sporting a Donald cover amidst bucolic fall foliage (how appropriate for this time of year).

This time we wrap up the oyster feast (poor things), and Alice takes her leave of the tedious twins, to continue her search for the White Rabbit, and gets mistaken for his maid.

FYI, if any of you ever wondered who or what Mary Ann was, check out the comic Wonderland, listed below in my Amazon links.  Very fun read.  Also, as you can see my copy of this issue is a bit worse for wear, anyone got a nicer copy they'd like to part with?

Mickey Mouse Weekly #592 from England - September 15, 1951

Issue dated September 15, 1951, featuring a cool cover of jousting knights

and chapter 9, wherein we finally meet the Walrus and the Carpenter, and the oysters

Good thing this month has an R in it...

Bon Voyage Computer Girl - Cheshire Cat Scotland Pin

Today Computer Girl heads of to Bonnie Scotland for a year-long graduate program at the University of Glasgow. To commemorate this auspicious event, I present to you this Disney Auction Limited Edition pin of the Cheshire Cat in full Scots regalia, complete with bagpipe.

This was part of a set of LE pins that Disney Auctions put out in 2004 called Cheshire Cat World Tour, in an edition of 100.  A few years ago we made the decision to only collect vintage items and got rid of most of the modern Alice stuff.  A vast majority of the pins did not make the cut, this being one.  This past summer Computer Girl has been selling the deleted pin collection, she got $56 each for the two examples we had of this pin, quite good considering I only paid $18.  Go Computer Girl!

Great D23 Article

And I'm not just sayin' that 'cause I got quoted.   D23's Jim Fanning wrote this very nice article on all things Alice for the film's 60th anniversary, which just got published on Wednesday.  Jim is extremely knowledgeable on all aspects of Disney history, and an all-around swell guy.  Hop on over to D23 and give it a read!

Mickey Mouse Weekly #591 from England - September 8th, 1951

Chapter 8, dated September 8th, 1951, issue 591.

Looks like I jumped the gun slightly, but the Walrus and the Carpenter are at least mentioned in the last panel

Mickey Mouse Weekly #590 from England - September 1st, 1951

Continuing the series, with chapter 7, dated September 1st, 1951

wherein Alice meets the Tweedles and is instructed in the finer points of manners.

Next chapter should show us the Walrus and Carpenter.

Mickey Mouse Weekly #589 from England - August 25th, 1951

And on we boldly stumble...I'm having trouble keeping up these last few weeks, what with unexpected tremors, A/C death, and eminent departure of Computer-Girl to the far-flung reaches of the Scottish highlands.  But just in the nick of time, chapter 6 in the issue dated August 25th, 1951.

Here we find Alice (as predicted) enjoying the generated warmth of the Caucus Race, where (apparently) everybody wins!

The mouse, although in the original Carroll text, did not make an appearance in the film, but we get a (very) brief glimpse of him here.

Oh, and just for Major, Mr. Turnip!

Mickey Mouse Weekly #588 from England - August 18th, 1951

And on we go.  Cover this time features Donald and nephews, with an Enid Blyton Secret Seven badge.

As a bonus, we have the article on Kathy that I originally mentioned in my post about Leonardi figures.

And of course, Chapter 5, in which Alice sails away on the Sea of Tears, encountering the Dodo for the first time.

Interesting how Mr Bottle has a line of dialog in this issue.  Wonder if that is a throw-back to David Hall's original character of the talking Drink Me bottle?

I Couldn't Resist Linking These

As some of you may know, when I'm not cataloging Alice goodies from the 1950s, I'm a software guy with a Physics degree from Caltech.  These videos are awesome, produced by an enterprising AP Calculus class in Escondido.  Wish this technology had been available when I was in AP Calc lo' these many years ago...

Part 1

Part 2

Mickey Mouse Weekly #587 from England - August 11th, 1951

Chapter four in the issue dated August 11th, 1951 (I'm so clever matching up the dates, don't you think?).

Cover sports another cool inset, this time of the White Rabbit - Don't Be Late (I should take his advice).

Another colouring competition, this time featuring art of the croquet sequence.

And as predicted, Alice continues her encounter with the Doorknob and creates the Pool of Tears.

P'raps next week's issue will find us meeting the Dodo?

Mickey Mouse Weekly #586 from England - August 4th, 1951

Oops, caught me napping, sorry about that.  The next installment feature a neat cover inset with Mr Turnip (just for you Major),

another colouring competition, this time featuring the Mad Tea Party,

and Alice's conversation with the doorknob and the beginnings of her first series of size transformations.  Stay tuned for sea of tears in our next episode!

Mickey Mouse Weekly #585 from England - July 28th, 1951

Chapter 2 appears in the issue dated July 28th, 1951, the date of the US premiere and the official anniversary of the film's release.

Second of the colouring competitions, this time featuring my favorite character, the Caterpillar!

Chapter 2 finds Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole and chasing the White Rabbit through a small door.  Guess we'll meet the doorknob next time.

Again in this issue, beautiful painting not normally found in comic pages.  Wonder what happened to all this art?

World Premiere - Leicester Square Theatre, London

Although the Walt Disney Company celebrates the anniversary of the release of Alice in Wonderland on July 28th, it in fact had its world premiere on July 26th in London.  Here we have a photograph of Walt and Kathy at the world premiere, Kathy in her fanciest Alice costume and Walt looking smashing in his tux.

The premiere was at the Leicester Square Theatre in London, and they went all out for the displays as you can see in this photo.  Notice how the accompanying short is Beaver Valley; in the US it would be replaced by Nature's Half Acre.  If you look carefully, you'll see that several of the display pieces are enlargements of pages from the Big Golden Book.

Man, what I wouldn't give to have this World Premiere poster, even if the art of the Cheshire Cat is a little scary.

The Leicester Square Theatre is still in use today, although it is now known as the Odeon West End Cinema.

Photo courtesy of Matthew Lloyd of the
Music Hall and Theatre History Site

Mickey Mouse Weekly #584 from England - July 21st, 1951

The wait is over, issue #584 begins our Alice in Wonderland serialization, and less than a week before the world premiere in London!

I love the little Alice inset on the front cover, I may have to steal this for something.

And as promised in previous issues, the first of the Alice in Wonderland painting competitions - now retitled colouring competition (those brits and their superfluous U's).  Splendid cash prizes indeed!

And last but not least, chapter one of the serialization, where Alice, Dinah, and her sister rest under a tree before Alice is captivated by a passing White Rabbit!

Major pointed out that I have been remiss in my postings. Some details on the art in the adaptation. The art is painted, by a gentleman named Ronald Neilson from England. To the best of my knowledge, the art was created for this publication, but I do know that the art was reprinted at one time in Turkey of all places. For details on this comic, or any other comic for that matter, you should visit the Disney Comics Database, listed in my sidebar. A vast resource maintained by a dedicated group of volunteers all over the world.