Attempted Bloggery: Mickey Mouse: Viva Mous-olini!

Saturday, August 30, 2025

Mickey Mouse: Viva Mous-olini!

October 1, 1932, saw the release of "Bugs in Love," A Walt Disney animated short. It was directed by Burt Gillett and was to be the last of the Silly Symphonies to appear in black-and-white. This was the occasion for an unlikely full-page ad the studio took out that day in The Hollywood Reporter. The unfortunate text reads, "Viva Mous-olini! The New Dictator of Marquee Fashions." Fashions?

The art is still more unfortunate. Mickey Mouse, who represents the Disney studio, does not appear in the animated short. He, the "new dictator," is shown with his right arm raised in a Roman salute, also known as a Fascist salute (which the Germans had already adopted as the Nazi salute). Minnie Mouse's own comment, with its not-very-clever play of words on marquee for marquis, indicates the lack of seriousness with which this advertising copy was conceived. The ad is tone-deaf toward fascism, certainly, but that might have been forgivable in the America of 1932. The ad's main message is decidedly apolitical: that enough people throng to all Disney shorts, whether Mickey Mouses or Silly Symphonies, to make every one of them profitable. So why the raised arm? It has to be for humor.

In 1932, October 1st was also the first day (and second evening) of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. The red letters above the Reporter's masthead wished readers a good holiday—in transliterated Yiddish! In retrospect, this was not the right moment to belittle fascism, if there ever was a right moment.

In an eBay listing, a photo fo the full spread shows the full Disney ad. The militaristic crowd in the photo is returning Mickey's Roman salute.

The million-dollar asking price is surely wishful thinking on the part of this copy's eBay seller. A reasonable Best Offer might be entertained. You never know.