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The Mickey Mouse Club began by accident
In the summer of 1929, the manager of the Fox Dome Theater contacted Walt with a plan: charge parents a membership fee for a Mickey Mouse club, pilot it at his theater, and franchise it nationally. The kids would love it, and their parents would get them out of the house every weekend.
Theaters bought a Mickey Mouse Club charter from the Walt Disney Studio for $25. Members then gained the right to buy exclusive Mickey merchandise such as hats, buttons, and banners, and the charter fees and merchandise revenue were split with Disney.
Within a short time there were 800 clubs and more than a million members, more than the Boy and Girl Scouts of America combined. This happened before the internet, cable, or television. For a theater owner, the weekend matinees were already mostly kids, so the club added a chance to sell them merchandise. For Disney, it brought wide distribution and brand recognition for Mickey Mouse and the company.
Why were Saturday matinees full of kids?
Theaters programmed Saturday afternoons with cartoons, serials, and comedies aimed at children. Parents got a few hours of supervised entertainment for a small admission price. A club gave the theater a way to turn that crowd into regulars. Mickey Mouse Club chapters opened their meetings with a creed and a club song.
What became of the Mickey Mouse Club later?
A television Mickey Mouse Club premiered on ABC on October 3, 1955. It starred a cast of young performers called Mouseketeers. The show popularized mouse-ear caps with the cast's names stitched on them. The original series ran for several seasons.
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