From: Rich_Koster@agwbbs.new-orleans.LA.US (Rich Koster)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.disney
Subject: Disneyana - Plates
Distribution: world
Date: 4 Oct 92 16:44:04 CST
Organization: The Amiga GateWay BBS * New Orleans, La.

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.

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