Subsidiary | |
Industry | Merchandising |
Predecessor | Character Merchandising Division |
Founded | 1929 |
Headquarters | Burbank, California, United States |
Area served
|
Worldwide |
Products | Textiles, apparel and luxury goods |
Services | Licensing |
Parent |
Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media (The Walt Disney Company) |
Divisions | Licensing |
Subsidiaries | Disney Store |
Website | disneyconsumerproducts |
Disney Bunnies | |
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Created by | Disney Consumer Products |
Original work | Licensing spin-off |
Print publications | |
Book(s) |
|
Miscellaneous | |
spun off from | Bambi and Bambi II |
Disney Dragonkind | |
---|---|
Created by | Disney Consumer Products |
Original work | Licensing spin-off |
Miscellaneous | |
Toys | statues |
spun off from | Disney Movies |
Division | |
Founded | June 2015 |
Headquarters | United States |
Area served
|
Worldwide |
Key people
|
|
Parent | The Walt Disney Company |
Divisions |
|
Website | dcpi |
Disney Consumer Products (DCP) is a subsidiary and business segment of The Walt Disney Company that engages in merchandising of the Disney brand and Disney properties.
DCP's origins trace back to 1929, when Walt Disney licensed the image of Mickey Mouse for use on a children's writing tablet. On December 16 of that year, Walt Disney Productions formed the Walt Disney Enterprises (WDE) division to handle merchandising.
The Mickey Mouse doll production by Charlotte Clark started shortly after in January 1930. The WDE division also hired George Borgfeldt & Company of New York as a licensing agent to make Mickey and Minnie Mouse toys. Borgfeldt & Company in turn set to work developing other products, granting the first license to Walkburger, Tanner and Company of St. Gall, Switzerland, for Mickey and Minnie Mouse handkerchiefs. That summer of 1930 Disney expanded WDE to England, granting a general license to William Banks Levy for Mickey and Minnie Mouse character merchandise.
In 1932 Disney closed a merchandising contract with Herman "Kay" Kamen for sole representation. Early on WDE began to show results. The company's merchandising made the Silly Symphony film Three Little Pigs (1933) the company's first profit-making animated film.
In 1934, Disney licensing expanded to hand-crank toy projectors, diamond-studded Mickey Mouse pins, Mickey Mouse toffee in England and a Lionel wind-up train toy, while a patent is received for Ingersoll-Waterbury Clock Company's Mickey Mouse watch.
Yet more companies licensed the Mickey Mouse image. General Foods did so for one year and made $1.5 million on the Post Toasties cereal box. Mickey was the first licensed character on such a product. Clashes with other companies weren't unavoidable, though. Disney filed suit on July 31 against the United Biscuit Company of America, Sawyer Biscuit Company, and the Chicago Carton Company for unauthorized use of Disney characters for animal crackers which lasted for four months and ended in Disney's favor.
Disney signed on July 19, 1938 with Courvoisier Galleries, making Courvoisier Disney's original art marketing representative. In December, Walt Disney Enterprises was renamed Walt Disney Productions.