From the back cover of DAGWOOD COMICS #8 (Harvey Comics, Cover Date: July, 1951) comes this ad for the new "GENUINE WALT DISNEY MASKS ON WHEATIES BOXES!"!
Lessee now... "No boxtop to send... cut 'em right off the package"!
That's right folks, they're asking you, or your kids, to... WEAR A LARGE PORTION OF THE BACK OF THE CEREAL BOX DIRECTLY OVER YOUR FACE!!!
...And after its been on any number of conveyor belts, loaded onto well-worn wooden pallets, further loaded into the backs of (presumably grimy) trucks, off-loaded into supermarket storerooms, and eventually put on store shelves by clerks who probably didn't wear gloves (it was 1951, after all) and had hands as "presumably grimy" as the backs of the trucks from which they were off-loaded... etc., etc.
Oh, the agony of being a kid in 1951... unless, of course, you got those Wheaties promotional Disney mini-comics which I wrote about HERE!
And, just LOOK at these things!
Donald with no sailor cap - and the boy's HAIR sticking out on top? Really convincing, eh? Just to compare, I had a Donald Duck Halloween costume as a kid. The mask was full-face, with a "forward beak", and the semblance of a HAT as part of it - so that no one saw my hair. ...Of course, that was more than ten years later, so I'll give 'em a break!
Cinderella as a redhead?
Only one option for girls? Why, even in 1951, Disney had its share of "princesses", or Minnie, or Daisy!
And is that Brer Rabbit (as the ad says) or a mash-up with the March Hare?
Finally, what if you wanted Mickey Mouse and all your local grocer had were Dumbo and Bambi? And you'd only learned that disappointing news after turning around EVERY Wheaties box in the store?
The things that passed for kid-fun... really! I'd skip this and go directly to my local candy store and buy some DELL FOUR COLOR COMICS, and be all the happier for it!
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