"MICKEY STARTED THE CALLIOPE, THE MUSIC AND THE PARADE": DISNEY'S MICKEY MOUSE, FROM THE FIRST AMERICAN SERIES OF POP-UP BOOKS

DISNEY STUDIOS. The "Pop-Up" Mickey Mouse. New York: Blue Ribbon, (1933). Octavo, original pictorial paper boards, pictorial endpapers; pp. [28]. $1750.

First edition of an early American pop-up book, Disney's Pop-Up Mickey Mouse, published by Blue Ribbon Pleasure Books, the original patent-holder for pop-ups, with all three colorful pop-up illustrations bright and intact.

"As the Depression years deepened, American book publishers sought ways to rekindle book buying… Blue Ribbon Publishing of New York found a combination that proved successful. They animated Walt Disney characters and fairy tales with pop ups," becoming "the first publisher to use the term… to describe movable illustrations" (Montanaro, xix). The Pop-Up Mickey Mouse was the first title in the very successful series. "These pop-up books had the dual appeal of a book and a toy and became quite popular. Because of their unusual pop-up feature, they have become favorites among collectors" (Munsey, 164). Produced in cooperation with paper engineer Harold Lentz, these are the first modern pop-up books produced in America, following a series of British pop-ups by Brown and Giraud in the 1930s under the imprint Bookano. With three double-page pop-ups (two of which serve as endpapers) and numerous in-text black-and-white illustrations. Montanaro, 244. Munsey, 360. Contemporary owner ink signature, dated 1934, on title page, and faintly on front cover.

Pop-ups intact and vivid, trace of soiling, faint rubbing to bright, colorful boards. A near-fine copy.