These masks are really rare to find in the US and most of them are in museums. The masks that were made for the US was never handed out because chemical warfare never came on to US soil however they were used more in England. It was 1942, just about a month after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The US version had colors that more resemble Mickey’s colors:Įven Charlie McCarthy ( a very popular entertainment act) was fitted to wear a Mickey Mouse gas Mask! During World War II, that meant outfitting a child with a weird Mickey Mouse gas mask. The British version of these was a solid color of blue or red: This model is 70mm tall, ideal for decoration purposes or for your memorabilia. The small mask with its Mickey ears was meant to put children at ease in an emergency situation. A unique model of Mickey Mouse, wearing a gas mask. Today one of these in mint condition in its original box. The different between the US and the British masks was the coloring of it. With the approval of Walt Disney himself, the Mickey Mouse gas mask was imagined in 1942. In the late 1930s, Ingersoll offered a deluxe Mickey Mouse wristwatch with a rectangular face 1 1/8 inches long attached to a leather band. There was even a British version of this mask and they tried to market them as a fun game to play in order for children to keep this mask with them on all times and to put them on if the occasion arose. They even made a pouch with a cartoon Mickey Mouse on it:Ībout a thousand of these masks were made in the US. The mask was produced by a company called The Sun Rubber Company who usually made rubber items for schools and hospitals. Adults had masks that looked like a pig-snout and the childrens were soon given nicknames such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. The sizes range baby to toddler to kid to small adult all the way up to a stand adult size. The Mickey Mouse gas Mask came in five different sizes for about $3.75 each. In January 1942 Walt Disney was invited to Washington DC to meet with “civil and chemical warfare” teams to come up with a concept and design a gas mask that children would want to wear that would not be so scary as this: That is when the government decided to give Walt Disney a call! However when it came to protect children of potential chemical attack these standard gas masks were not the best.Ī lot of time these masks were too big to fit a child’s face and/or it just scared the kids into not wanting to put them on. The US had a scare that deadly chemicals would attack America so having gas masks in your emergency kits in your house was not uncommon. World War II was an extremely scary time for a lot of countries.
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