From: v091q428@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (DENNIS)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.disney
Subject: Re: Disneyana - Plates
Date: 6 Oct 92 23:27:00 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <Rich_Koster.0tlo@agwbbs.new-orleans.LA.US>, Rich_Koster@agwbbs.new-orleans.LA.US (Rich Koster) writes...
>This article is reprinted from the Orlando Sentinel newspaper, from
>Friday, September 25, 1992, Section B-1, by staff writer Jay Hamburg,
>writing a "Metro Journal" feature about the Disneyana convention.  He
>describes the plate craze very well.  The plates are commemorative
>ceramic pieces with the 1st Disneyana Convention logo on it.  Due to
>the popularity, a second edition is being made available to Convention
>participants.  The store the writer refers to is the Disneyana Store
>created in one of the small meeting rooms at the Contemporary's
>Convention Center at WDW to sell convention souvenirs and other Disney
>merchandise.
> 
>Headline for photo, showing interior of auction item display room:
>"Mad About The Mouse".  Caption:  "Bill Davidson is with one-of-a-kind
>Mickey [three-foot high bronze statue never used in the parks, auction
>item 53.].  Dumbo, from the original ride, is worth $12,000-$15,000.
>(Photo by John Raoux/Sentinel)"
> 
>Headline:  "Memorabilia convention collects a crowd"
> 
>"The retired school principals, art dealers and policemen kept
>snatching up limited-edition Mickey Mouse items as quickly as Walt
>Disney World workers could stick it on the shelves."
> 
>"It was the first day of the Disneyana Convention at the Contemporary
>Resort, and Disney had created some special edition items to tempt the
>nearly 1,000 eager collectors who came for the three-day event."
> 
>"The store grew packed, the lines grew long, but the group was
>orderly.  Until the store ran out of $25 Mickey Mouse plates."
> 
>"'I'm offering $50 for plates!' hollered a desperate man who missed
>out on the deal.  'I'm offering $50 for plates!'"
> 
>"He jumped out of line and ran over to Vicki Bowen, a 44-year old
>secretary from Atlanta, pointing at the box she had.  'Fifty dollars
>for that plate.'"
> 
>"'No.'"
> 
>"When he couldn't find any takers, Alexander Acevedo, a 48-year old
>art dealer from New York City, announced his predicament to those in
>the store.  'I'm dying for a plate,' he said.  'My mother is sick in
>bed and I need one to complete her collection.'"
> 
>"But the other collectors in line weren't the least bit moved by that
>tale of woe.  Only 500 special Mickey plates had been made, and by
>2 p.m. Thursday, they were all gone.  No hard luck tale was going to
>make these sharp-eyed buyers go misty-eyed."
> 
>"So Acevedo, who usually deals in 19th century American art, ran over
>to another woman."
> 
>"'Forty dollars for that plate.'"
> 
>"'No,' Joanne LaBella said, clutching it tightly."
> 
>"'Forty-five.'"
> 
>"'No,' she said, turning her body away, a little dazed."
> 
>"What happened?  Was it Mickey mania?  Was it Walt's version of Wall
>Street?"
> 
>"Nope, said Dan Bauer, head of the Orlando chapter of the National
>Fantasy Fan Club, a group devoted to Disney memorabilia."
> 
>"'It's a feeding frenzy,' he explained.  'The smell of Disneyana was
>in the air and people went wild.'"
> 
>"The convention continues today, Saturday and Sunday at the
>Contemporary Resort.  The public may browse through new and old
>Disneyana merchandise offered for sale by Disney World and independent
>collectors.  Items range from Walt Disney World 'wet paint' signs for
>$2.50 to a 1955 Dumbo the Flying Elephant car, which is expected to
>bring $12,000 to $15,000."
> 
>"The elephant car, which took kids for an aerial jaunt when Disneyland
>opened in 1955, will be auctioned off tonight between 7:30 and 9:30.
>An auction catalog and the right to bid cost $20.  Bidding privileges
>at a smaller auction, scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Saturday, will cost $5."
> 
>"Carolyn Bickler, who works in a Hallmark card store in Los Angeles,
>looked over the booths as vendors set up their wares.  She didn't see
>any pieces to complete her 1930's Disney tea set, but she did see a
>60-year old bar of soap in the shape of Mickey for $125, a 1934 Mickey
>Mouse Watch for $600, a French version of the pop-up Snow White book
>from the 1930's for $1,200, and dwarf-headed bobby pins priced at $30
>a piece."
> 
>"Bickler, 50, said Disney items remind her of her childhood and of
>good times with her three children when they were growing up.
>'There's nothing with Mickey's face on it that doesn't cheer you up,'
>she said."
> 
>"Jim Bruckman, a 59-year old retired assistant principal, said he
>often wished the world was a little more like Disney World while he was
>breaking up fights at his high school in Cincinnati.  How often did he
>feel that way?  'Everyday,' he sighed."
> 
>"Disney Archivist Dave Smith said the fanatic collecting of Disney
>artifacts started in the 1960s when the first baby boomers got caught
>up in a nostalgia craze and began to look back fondly on their
>childhood toys.  When Walt Disney dies in 1966, the items took on even
>more meaning.  'It was the end of an era,' Smith said."
> 
>"While some at the convention held tight to childhood memories, Joanne
>LaBella held tight to her Mickey plate while she inched through the
>crowds toward the cash register.  She expected more offers from
>determined collectors."
> 
>"'This doesn't end until Sunday,' she said warily.  'So I think
>they'll be following me around.'"
> 
>    End of text.  Words in brackets [] are ours.
> 
>-- Via DLG Pro v0.992
> 
>Internet: rich_koster@agwbbs.new-orleans.LA.US
>    UUCP: rex!agwbbs!rich_koster