- Joined
- Oct 11, 2010
- Messages
- 12,706
- Reaction score
- 7,458
- Age
- 61
Fearing a chemical attack from the Germans the USA government distributed over 40 million gas masks to men, women, and children during WW2.
However, since adult masks were too heavy and frightening for children to wear, Disney helped to create a mask for kids that looked like his popular cartoon character Mickey Mouse.
On Jan. 7th, 1942, a month after the Pearl Harbor Attacks, the owner of Sun Rubber Company in Barberton, Ohio., T.W. Smith Jr, along with his assistant, Dietrich Rempel, presented the sketch of the Mickey Mouse gas mask to the Chief of Chemical Warfare Service, Major General William N. Porter, and was approved. The mask was made for children and was given the look of the famous Mickey Mouse to reduce children's fear of wearing a gas mask. Walt Disney himself was very fond of the idea and approved of the production of the gas mask.
Walt Disney, shows off his studio’s proposed design of the Mickey Mouse gas mask in January 1942 to Col. George Fisher and Maj. Gen. William Porter, right, chief of the Chemical Warfare Service.
Sun Rubber Company went to produce a little over 1,000 of the Mickey Mouse gas masks and was given the Army-Navy "E" for excellence in 1944.
No chemical attack was laid onto the USA, and the desire for the Mickey Mouse gas mask vanished. The gas masks were handed to senior officials and others as mere keepsakes.
However, since adult masks were too heavy and frightening for children to wear, Disney helped to create a mask for kids that looked like his popular cartoon character Mickey Mouse.
On Jan. 7th, 1942, a month after the Pearl Harbor Attacks, the owner of Sun Rubber Company in Barberton, Ohio., T.W. Smith Jr, along with his assistant, Dietrich Rempel, presented the sketch of the Mickey Mouse gas mask to the Chief of Chemical Warfare Service, Major General William N. Porter, and was approved. The mask was made for children and was given the look of the famous Mickey Mouse to reduce children's fear of wearing a gas mask. Walt Disney himself was very fond of the idea and approved of the production of the gas mask.
Walt Disney, shows off his studio’s proposed design of the Mickey Mouse gas mask in January 1942 to Col. George Fisher and Maj. Gen. William Porter, right, chief of the Chemical Warfare Service.
Sun Rubber Company went to produce a little over 1,000 of the Mickey Mouse gas masks and was given the Army-Navy "E" for excellence in 1944.
No chemical attack was laid onto the USA, and the desire for the Mickey Mouse gas mask vanished. The gas masks were handed to senior officials and others as mere keepsakes.
