Original subtitles

[pensive music]

[knocking] - Hello?

- [Narrator] It's been eight years

since the world first fell in love

with Walt Disney's cartoon star, Mickey Mouse.

- This little animated every-man mouse

[baton clacking]

has so captivated the world by storm.

[knocking] - Hello?

- Mickey became more to people

than just a character on a screen.

[knocking] - Hello?

Do you have it?

- Have what?

- People see themselves in Mickey,

and Mickey becomes sort of an icon to everyone.

- There becomes a demand for people to have some ownership

of that story, of that thing that they love.

- [Narrator] Now, after conquering cartoons,

Mickey Mouse has sparked another revolution.

- The idea of taking a beloved character from the screen

and putting it on everything,

this had never been done before.

[tapping] - I'll take two.

No, three.

- Now, you can take the magic

of the character you love from the theater, home.

It was groundbreaking.

- [Narrator] Beginning with Mickey Mouse,

Disney will revolutionize entertainment

by lifting its star characters off the screen

and landing them in almost every facet of American life.

- It was an entirely new phenomenon.

- Merchandising could be anything.

It could be everything.

[dramatic music]

- [Narrator] By pioneering character licensing

for merchandise...

- Basically, he created cereal culture.

- [Narrator] Disney will launch new industries.

- Where'd that all come from?

The mouse.

- [Narrator] It will take a big gamble...

- Money was really being left on the table, left and right.

- Mr. Disney, I believe your Mickey Mouse

is an untapped goldmine.

- [Narrator] To leap from movie screens

to virtually everywhere else.

[paper tearing]

- Marshall Fields in Chicago.

[glasses clink]

- It's a big, big risk.

- Neiman Marcus in Texas.

- It could have failed spectacularly.

- Macy's in New York.

- This is the big bang.

This is the moment that creates merchandising as we know it.

- He says he can make us rich beyond our wildest dreams.

[dramatic music]

[lively music]

- [Narrator] At an upstart animation studio in Hollywood,

27-year-old filmmaker, Walt Disney,

is focused on getting more eyeballs

in front of his breakout new star.

- Hello, yes, I'm calling to see

if you're playing the new Mickey Mouse cartoons

I've heard so much about.

- [Narrator] Mickey is quickly becoming the king of cartoons

and the secret to his success is synchronized sound.

[playful music]

But to pull it off, Walt has dug his studio in deep.

[pensive music]

- My pals and I really wanna see it.

Well, do you know what theaters are playing it?

Thank you.

- Walt.

- I'm just building more buzz, Roy.

That's how you fan the flames.

- Did you even read that before you signed it?

- Of course not.

We need them.

- [Narrator] Recording the sound for Mickey Mouse shorts

requires licensing and expensive cutting edge technology.

- To get this technology, he signed on to a 10 year contract

during which he's going to shell out $26,000 every year,

plus a percentage of the profits coming from his cartoons.

- Walt, this deal is going to bleed us dry.

We'd have to double our output just to keep the lights on.

- Then we'll double our output.

- So despite the fact that they have a successful product,

because of the deal that Walt Disney signed,

it costs more to make the Mickey Mouse shorts

than they are making from them.

- [Narrator] The man responsible

for funding almost all of Walt's ideas,

is his brother Roy.

- Walt's the idea man, Roy is the businessman.

- Walt Disney was obsessed with quality,

regardless of cost,

and so poor Roy is constantly looking for revenue.

- Walt's spending money left, right, and center,

and Roy now has to make ends meet.

And then suddenly, the phone rings

and a lifeline is thrown to him,

and all he has to do is just say yes.

[phone ringing]

- Hello.

Yes, this is him.

- [Narrator] A small doll maker has called the Disney Studio

with a business proposition.

- For when?

Oh, not a problem at all.

[gentle music]

Walt, a minute?

- Let's add some more steam lines to the hot dogs.

I want the audience to smell them.

- I just got off the phone with a New York merchandiser.

- The shoe there, it looks a little off.

- He wants to produce Mickey Mouse products.

Dolls, toys, things like that.

We get a fee for every item sold.

- Sure, Roy.

Have at it.

Now the shadow...

- Walt only cared about doing good work.

He didn't necessarily care about

how to monetize his characters or his brand.

- [Narrator] Roy signs an agreement

granting the New York doll maker permission

to make a stuffed Mickey Mouse

in exchange for a percentage of every item sold.

- In the 1920s, this is a brand new idea.

- It's crazy now when you see

how much movie merchandise is out there,

to realize that merchandise

wasn't something that was thought of

when it came to producing films.

- Studios knew that they could bring people in the door

with a new film, but then what?

The only product was really the film itself.

- Consumerism and film,

those are still two very separate entities.

Movies do not sell products.

Products do not sell movies.

- The potential for making money

through merchandising Mickey,

most of that came from the toy companies.

- In the 1920s, Americans have access

to this abundance of manufactured goods

and there's all kinds of toys that every kid wants.

The Erector Set, model trains,

all of this stuff we're seeing for the first time

as a collective community, as a nation.

- [Natalia] The toy industry

is a crowded and competitive industry.

- And marketing is a new thing.

So as you go back and look at ads,

they were very oriented

toward, "This product will last you 30 years."

- Like, it's literally describing

everything that this product will do,

and cost a lot of time and resources.

- But with Mickey Mouse,

the companies realized that the hard work was done,

the marketing was done.

People knew who Mickey Mouse was.

They just had to make the toys of something

that people already love.

- [Narrator] In the first year,

Roy's deal with one company brings in just $63,

a little over a thousand today.

- Merchandise that was produced in the early years,

it was very limited.

It might be an occasional doll, it could be a figurine.

There wasn't very much that was produced,

but it was a bonus to Roy.

It was money that they didn't have before.

- [Narrator] Roy realizes Mickey Mouse toys

are a golden goose

and starts accepting more licensing contracts.

- Opportunities came to them by happenstance.

They weren't really involved in the process.

- It was just, "Give us the money,

go ahead, use the character."

[pensive music]

- The problem is this, the merchandising vendors,

they don't have the reverence and respect

for the intellectual property of Mickey Mouse

that the Disneys do.

- Masks are 10 cents each.

I can do you two for 15.

Ah, Mickey Mouse doll.

One of our best sellers.

Almost sold out.

[suspenseful music]

- Can you believe this?

- His bestseller.

- Does this look like Mickey to you?

- Walt, your cartoons are awfully expensive.

That doll is the only thing keeping us afloat.

- If we let these pretenders

do whatever they want with Mickey,

kids won't even recognize the real one.

What's Mickey worth then?

- Walt, from day one,

was obsessed with his work being distinctive

in terms of quality.

So a junky Mickey Mouse doll

that looks nothing like Mickey Mouse

really damages the reputation of all of his work.

- Any piece of material that is created

with the name of Disney

that doesn't meet the Disney standard

that he's working so hard to create within his studio,

is a threat to the thing

that he's creating in the first place.

[dramatic music]

- Roy has to be thinking,

"You wanna have these incredible flights of fancy?

That costs money.

I found you money.

If you want to keep making Mickey,

this is the easiest way to do it."

- You gonna buy that, or what?

- [Narrator] Walt and Roy Disney

are at loggerheads over Mickey Mouse toys.

Where Roy sees a much needed revenue stream,

Walt sees a drag on his creation.

- Merchandising is a brand new world.

No one knows how to navigate it.

- The problem is the quality.

Walt, from day one, has a vision of excellence and quality,

and there's no quality control in the merchandise.

- But Roy figures this merchandise

is what's keeping us afloat.

So you have Roy pulling in one direction

and Walt pulling the other direction.

[tense music]

- Have a seat, we'll be with you in a moment.

- Thank you.

- And then, enter a stranger from Kansas City

named Kay Kamen.

- Kay Kamen is this marketing whiz kid.

- He is an absolute genius at moving product.

The kinda guy who can talk a dog off of a meat truck,

as they would say.

- He had sort of a scattershot early life.

He worked in the mills braiding straw hats,

and then he got into the children's clothing trade.

- [Narrator] Kay Kamen pioneered a novel marketing technique

for a line of boys clothing

by creating a branded comic strip character to sell it.

- He recognized that entertainment

is what people would pay for.

That there was just hopefully that little extra

that was the joy factor.

And a good character could fulfill that.

- And he got wind of the success of Mickey Mouse

and he thought this was a character

that was going to make the company, and himself,

a lot of money.

- He wears a middle part,

kinda like the guy on your Pringles can,

suits that are out of date.

He's bristling with intense, nervous, kinetic energy,

and he hasn't slept all night in anticipation of this pitch.

[tense music]

- A Mr. Kay Kamen is here to see you.

- Mr. Disney,

I believe your Mickey Mouse is an untapped gold mine

and can make all of us rich beyond our wildest dreams.

- Kamen saw a huge opportunity

to be out there, selling Mickey

and really supervising the process,

making all of them a lot of money.

- And he walks right into their office and says,

"Give me control over the merchandise."

- Roy, this is Mr. Kamen.

He says he can make us rich beyond our wildest dreams.

[tense music]

- This actually happened.

He drains his savings,

he takes that cash, and sews it into his coat.

This is a bizarre turn of events.

[suspenseful music]

- Gentlemen,

hire me and I will make you all this money

plus more than you can count.

- Roy's just gotta be terribly impressed,

but Walt doesn't care, he's the creative.

Money never matters to Walt.

- Mr. Kamen, that's all well and good,

but what can you do about this?

- Kay Kamen realizes

he's actually been taking the wrong tack.

- But he is totally prepared for this.

- From his own prior practices,

he really understood the value of protecting this character.

- And the brilliance of Kay Kamen

is that he pivots on a dime.

[suspenseful music]

- Mr. Disney.

Under my watch,

you'll never see a second rate Mickey doll like this again.

- How?

- Not a single piece of merchandise will be made

without your personal approval.

[tense music]

- And in that moment,

Walt Disney realizes that he and Kay Kamen

are singing from the same hymn sheet

and that they both go to the church of quality.

- Alright, Mr. Kamen, deal.

[uplifting music]

- [Narrator] Kamen is put in charge of this new direction

overseeing Roy's toy rollout,

but with Walt's emphasis on quality,

giving Walt the assurance he needs

to pursue his next big creative swing,

Technicolor.

- But Technicolor is incredibly expensive.

It's a big, big risk.

- [Narrator] Making color cartoons

will triple Disney's lab fees

and raise production costs,

putting even more pressure on Disney merchandising

to bring in badly needed cash.

- Roy Disney was under so much duress,

because his brother was spending so much money.

Merchandise was sort of a lifesaver for the company.

- You gotta remember, those early opportunities

were keeping the studio afloat financially.

[tense music]

- But Kay Kamen was fully aware

that Walt was expecting him to maintain quality.

- He took a good look

at what kinds of products were being made,

what was their quality,

and how did it fit in with the values of the company.

- [Vendor] Evening, sir.

- You got a license for all this Mickey stuff?

[tense music]

- [Vendor] Whoa, buddy.

- He goes to all of the merchandising vendors

who are making substandard products and he cleans house.

- My boss is gonna have words with you.

- So that he can start again with top quality merchandise.

- Tell him to call me.

Evening.

- But put yourself in Roy Disney's shoes.

You're struggling, you need money.

They had money coming in.

Kay Kamen comes in and turns off the stream.

[gentle music]

- [Narrator] Kay Kamen, Disney's new head of merchandising,

must now find a happy medium

between the competing interests of the Disney brothers.

- How do you serve two masters?

- He needs to balance Walt's protectiveness of Mickey Mouse

as well as Roy's need to turn a profit.

And he was feeling the tension of that.

- At the time that Kamen joined the company,

there was a limited number of options

for how merchandise was used.

- Movie studios were thinking small.

They were thinking, "Oh, we'll make a doll.

We'll make a game of the thing."

- It was very derivative.

You had the character, you have a doll.

- He needs a big, bold, brand new move.

[inspiring music]

- And then, Kay Kamen had a vision

for how to brand Mickey Mouse into something so much more

than just a toy for kids.

[dramatic music]

- So Mickey Mouse is the first animated character

to adorn a licensed lunchbox.

Before that, we would think of kid's lunchbox

and it would be something like a plain, black, functional item.

Now, this became something

that you would buy specifically for your child

because they're a fan of Mickey.

- Kamen's big idea

is that you can put Mickey Mouse anywhere.

- Merchandising could be anything.

It could be everything.

[uplifting music]

- [Narrator] Kamen embarks on an unprecedented expansion

of movie merchandise,

turning products that have never been branded before

into billboards for Mickey Mouse.

- The idea of taking a beloved character

and putting it on something that wasn't a toy,

this was completely novel.

- [Narrator] Mickey Mouse's image is so powerful,

it launches smaller brands into the big time.

- The Hall brothers run the Hallmark company

and they sign their first ever licensing deal

to put Disney characters on their greeting cards,

which turns Hallmark into the juggernaut brand

that it is today.

- [Narrator] And even rescue struggling companies

from financial collapse during the depression,

like Lionel Trains and Ingersoll Watches.

- So the Ingersoll Watch Company,

part of the Depression, really about to go broke,

start manufacturing a new Mickey Mouse watch,

and unbelievably popular.

- By 1935, some 2.5 million Mickey Mouse wrist watches

had been sold.

- And to this day, we all wear Mickey Mouse watches.

- [Narrator] Kamen proves that if you can sell it,

Mickey can adorn it.

Now, he has an even bolder idea:

to draw audiences into a whole new market

and revolutionize one of America's largest industries.

[pensive music]

- This way, Mrs. Post,

we're set up for you in the sound stage.

- Marjorie Merriweather Post

was the head of General Foods in the 1930s

and she's one of the most powerful and wealthy women

in America at that time.

- General Foods is a huge conglomerate.

They make everything from Maxwell House Coffee

to Jello, and breakfast cereal,

Post Toasties breakfast cereal,

one of the biggest brands in America.

[gentle music]

- Today's cereal is marketed a lot

as, like, a kids fun product.

In the 1930s, that was not the case.

- Breakfast cereal is a staple of the American diet,

but mostly for adults and mostly is a health food.

- It's cheap, it's shelf stable.

You can feed people for a long period of time

for not a lot of money.

It's a depression-proof food.

- Kids are not seen as the target demographic for cereal,

nor did they have any reason to be excited about eating it.

- Marjorie Post is in a real good position.

She doesn't need any help.

And it's kind of the brilliant audacity of Kay Kamen

to say, "You could be making money

selling this food to kids."

- In 1933, marketing breakfast cereal to kids

would seem ridiculous.

You market to people who buy the food, that's mom and dad.

The kids don't have any input

on what goes on the kitchen table.

- Kay Kamen realizes that this is an untapped market.

[gentle music]

- When Kamen added Mickey Mouse onto this box,

cereal suddenly became not just this bland breakfast food,

but a form of entertainment for children.

[inpsiring music]

- [Narrator] Post agrees to pay Disney

an unheard of $1.5 million

to license Mickey and friends for her cereal boxes.

The deal sets the stage

for today's $40 billion cereal industry.

- This is the first of what we know today.

When you walk down the aisles

and there's the captain, and there's the count.

And as I say that,

we all know what those brands are, right?

The tiger, you know.

Where'd that all come from?

The mouse.

- [Narrator] Even as he floods the market,

Kamen keeps his promise to Walt to prioritize high quality

and a faithful depiction of Mickey Mouse.

- Mickey has so much influence throughout the world

that he has to be careful what he endorses.

- Walt's got to approve the merchandise

so his perfectionism and his quality control could be there.

- Kamen controlled who got the license,

he controlled the quality of the merchandise,

and then it was his own in-house artists

that designed all of the artwork.

- Kay Kamen made everything a standard.

The colors, the style, the ears.

So the thing that's tying it all together

is the Disney look, the Disney feel,

and that is what really took the Disney merchandising side

over the top.

- [Narrator] Within four years of Kamen's hiring,

Disney licensing explodes by 10,000%

and Disney merchandise becomes more lucrative

than the cartoons themselves.

[pensive music]

Now, with Kamen filling the company's coffers,

Walt embarks on his most audacious plan yet.

- He's gonna do the very first

animated, full-length feature film,

"Snow White."

- [Narrator] If successful,

"Snow White and the Seven Dwarves"

will propel animation forward

and open the door to a new generation

of marketable Disney characters.

But by September 1937,

the project is nearing financial disaster.

- "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"

will cost $1.5 million

for the studio to make in the 1930s,

which was $1.5 million that they simply did not have.

- "Snow White" is a financial money pit,

and so in this moment, Kay Kamen has to be a savior.

[birds chirping]

- Coffee?

- No, thank you.

- Kamen was under huge financial pressures at that time

because Walt's spending was out of control.

[pensive music]

- [Kay] So what do you think of the new Mickey samples?

- My daughter's been playing with them,

but you know what she really loves?

That new princess.

Mabel, come bring that figure here.

[pensive music]

- Oh, I'm sorry.

They shouldn't have sent that with the samples.

That's a prototype for a future project.

It's not for sale.

- Up to this point,

any kind of merchandising had followed the movie.

You put the movie out and then you sold products,

because people like the movie.

it's always been about extracting value

out of something that already exists.

- I'm very sorry, sweetheart,

but I'm gonna have to take that back with me.

- No, it's mine.

- Listen, your daddy can buy you one

when the movie comes out.

- There's gonna be a movie about her?

[suspenseful music]

- And then Kay Kamen has an idea

that will turn the movie merchandising world on its head.

- You know what?

She can keep it.

[dramatic music]

- This is the big bang.

This is the moment that changes marketing as we know it

and helps to make "Snow White"

the single most successful movie of all time.

- Would you like to know her name?

It's Snow White.

- [Narrator] On December 21st, 1937,

Walt Disney's moonshot production

of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves",

the first ever animated feature film,

premieres in Los Angeles.

- The premier of "Snow White" was this beautiful thing.

Everyone was wearing their tuxes

and their glitz and their glams.

Shirley Temple was there.

And boy, oh, boy, was this movie a hit.

As soon as it got in front of audiences,

we could not get enough.

- [Narrator] "Snow White" is Walt Disney's masterpiece,

but behind the scenes, "Snow White's" record smashing success

is Kay Kamen's crowning achievement.

- Would you like to know her name?

It's Snow White.

- Kay Kamen recognized,

"Wait a minute, we can use this merchandise

to warm our audiences up to the story

and build anticipation."

- His genius leap is that he puts the product out

before the movie comes out.

- This little fellow is Bashful.

He's secretly in love with Snow White.

- It's a promotional campaign through these products.

The market was flooded

with more than 2,000 products for "Snow White".

There was all manner of clothing.

There was dresses, there was jewelry,

and it was hugely successful.

- They were making "Snow White" costumes

and here we have some of the beginnings of cosplay,

which by the 21st century,

is also going to be an important pop cultural phenomenon

that Disney is gonna play a key role in.

- [Narrator] And as the film's run continues,

Kamen's formula creates a perpetual engine of profit.

- You make some merchandise, people get hyped for the movie,

the movie's a hit, you make more merchandise.

- He created this feedback loop

of the audience wanting to experience that film

over and over again in different ways.

- The idea that merchandise would be on the shelves

for weeks, or in some cases months,

before that film release,

this had never been done.

It could have failed spectacularly.

What it did instead,

was to rewrite how motion picture merchandising was done

and how it has been done ever since.

- Having merchandise based on a movie

in the stores when the movie comes out,

is commonplace now, with films such as "Star Wars"

and the Marvel films,

and that's all because of Kay Kamen.

- [Narrator] Kamen's marketing magic

powers the Walt Disney Studio

with a steady flow of income

through the turbulence of the war years.

- In the '40s, Disney had a lot of ups and downs

and the merchandising aspect was always there for the company

and kept things afloat when things were rough.

- And it wasn't just Mickey Mouse,

it was Donald Duck,

it was Goofy, "Pinocchio" characters, "Bambi" characters.

And so being able to tap into that

allowed Walt to keep growing and expanding

his artistic vision.

[jazzy piano music]

[patrons laughing]

- In the fall of 1949,

Kay Kamen and his wife Katie

went to Paris to talk to licensees.

Roy was also there on business

and Walt was in England filming "Treasure Island".

- Hey, Kamen, you got any more money in that jacket for this?

[laughing]

- [Narrator] 17 years after joining Disney,

Kamen is selling a record $100 million in licensed goods.

- Cheers. - [Walt] Ah, cheers.

[glasses clinking]

- He came along at exactly the right time

and had the same vision that Walt had.

He was the Walt Disney of Disney merchandise.

- [Narrator] What none of the men know

is that this is a farewell dinner.

- Mm, gentlemen, I better hit the road.

The wife wants to see the Eiffel Tower one last time

before we head home.

I'll see you stateside.

- Can't wait. - Safe travels.

One more? - I'm good.

- Kamen never really got to see how far the Disney brand went.

- When Kay and Katie came home,

their plane hit a mountain off the Azores

and the plane crash killed all 48 people aboard.

It was a tragic, tragic ending to Kay Kamen's life.

And Walt and Roy were just devastated by Kamen's passing.

- It really was Kay Kamen that was responsible

for making merchandise one of the tent poles

of Disney as a brand.

And Roy figures, "Okay, I guess we have to fill his shoes."

- I've arranged meetings

with the five biggest marketing firms in the country.

We'd better move quickly.

- But Walt knows nobody, not even Roy Disney,

was as adept at bringing money into the Disney door.

Kay Kamen was irreplaceable.

[suspenseful music]

- Cancel all the meetings, Roy.

- [Narrator] Without Kay Kamen,

money from Disney merchandising begins to plateau.

- So they have a problem.

Kay Kamen truly changed the game

and merchandise has gone from a bit of a crutch,

to a tent pole.

They don't want merchandising,

they absolutely needed it.

And Kay Kamen was really one of a kind.

No one can just step into his shoes.

- Certainly, Disney merchandising went on,

no question.

And Roy had a bigger role to play,

because somebody had to fill that void.

- [Narrator] Adding to Roy's woes

is Walt's newest, most expensive dream yet.

- Now he's giving us a theme park,

a park that tells stories.

Disneyland.

- Disneyland is gonna be 12 times the cost of "Snow White".

- [Narrator] Needing to tap new sources

of merchandising and production revenue,

[magical music]

the Disneys strike a deal with the ABC network

to create a weekly TV show.

- [Announcer] Walt Disney's Disneyland.

- [Narrator] In exchange for help

with funding the park's construction.

- And part of that TV show is gonna be sort of this homage

to the American West and American folk heroes.

[inspiring music]

- [Director] Davy Crockett, scene 12, take one.

Mark, action.

[suspenseful music]

Cut.

- Norman.

The shot feels flat.

- [Narrator] With his TV series,

Walt is once again raising the creative bar.

- Walt does his shoots like he was making a movie,

but he's making a television show.

He's gonna film things on location.

That's a huge departure

from what people had been used to at the time.

In its first iteration,

TV was basically an outgrowth of radio.

You had basically live programs

in front of studio audiences.

- "Ed Sullivan", "Jackie Gleason", "I love Lucy".

The shows were shot on exactly the same set,

exactly the same stage,

week after week, or day after day.

- Television was not about quality,

television was about cheapness.

Not with Walt Disney.

- Let's put the camera on a track

and dolly along with Crockett as he walks.

- You wanna shoot the whole sequence again?

That'll put us into overtime.

- Don't worry about that.

I want to feel like we're in the woods with him.

- The "Davy Crockett" show has a budget

that Walt would exceed by about double,

and it's not just double

what is budgeted for "Davy Crockett",

it's more than double than what's being spent

on any other television episodes at the time.

- "I love Lucy" was spending 50,000 on an episode.

For three episodes of "Davy Crockett",

Walt is spending 700,000.

[pensive music]

The problem is this:

Walt and Roy don't know how to monetize TV yet.

How do you see a return on that investment?

- Walt, Walt!

[suspenseful music]

We need to talk about this Crockett show.

- Kay Kamen was gone and television's a whole new market,

and the studio didn't have his vision

to figure out, what's gonna be the merchandise?

Like, what are you gonna imagine

children are gonna be screaming for?

- We're hundreds of thousands in the hole, Walt.

If you wanna make movies, stick to making movies.

- Leave the creative decisions to me, Rory.

- It's bigger than the creative, Walt.

Please, open your eyes.

The studio is bleeding cash.

We're building a theme park for God's sakes.

Something needs to start making money around here

or we won't be making anything.

- Roy is apoplectic.

You are spending the budget of movies

to make an episode of television.

We are going to lose our shirts.

Disney doesn't just need money.

They need to find it quickly.

- Turn!

- [Narrator] On December 15th, 1954,

the first episode of Disney's "Davy Crockett"

three-part mini series premieres on ABC.

40 million viewers, about one in four Americans, tune in.

- People of the 1950s,

they were getting this A-class content,

which was worthy of being shown in a cinema,

in their living room.

- The thing is, once again,

much like the runaway budget of "Snow White",

Walt kinda loses his mind

when it comes to his budgets for television.

- Look at the numbers.

They don't lie. - It's not that bad, Roy.

- Not that bad? Are you looking at what I'm looking at?

- It's a good show.

- If you're looking at "Davy Crockett"

from a television return standpoint,

Walt has yet again dug his studio into a hole.

[suspenseful music]

- [Secretary] Sorry to interrupt.

These calls have been coming in all morning.

- Thank you.

From Wanamaker's department store in Philadelphia.

Something about fur hats?

- Davy Crockett.

What do they want?

- They wanna know if we have raccoon hats they can sell.

Apparently, they have customers clamoring for them.

Marshall Fields in Chicago,

Neiman Marcus in Texas,

Macy's in New York.

Everybody wants these hats.

- Because the whole country's in love with Davy Crockett.

- "Davy Crockett" turned out to be much bigger

than the studio had anticipated,

because now you had the added medium of television.

- Movies had a slower distribution,

so its fandom sort of moved in waves.

Whereas with television, it was instantaneous.

Everybody went home, watched "Davy Crockett".

Everybody caught fever that night at the exact same moment.

- And that was an entirely new phenomenon

that Disney was not prepared for.

- And suddenly, you have this amazing character with his hat

and every kid in America wants one.

- [Narrator] Thanks to years of watching Kay Kamen

work his merchandising magic,

the Disneys recognized the opportunity at hand.

- He realized the power of merchandising

could mingle into every corner of what he was doing.

It didn't just have to be Mickey Mouse's face.

I can have really, really grounded tales

and people still want a piece of that.

- [Narrator] Disney begins selling raccoon skin caps

as official, licensed "Crockett" merchandise.

- Over 5,000 caps were being sold every day.

- The demand for "Davy Crockett" caps became so extreme

that raccoon skins

literally just disappeared off of the market.

- This was the first time ever

that something on television made people go out

and buy something to capture the magic of TV.

- If you read the newspapers from 1954 at Christmastime,

every single letter that a child writes in to Santa

is asking for a Davy Crockett cap.

The entire country is collectively playacting

as Davy Crockett.

- [Narrator] And the company finds other ways

to leverage the "Crockett" property,

making millions off of recordings

of the "Davy Crockett" theme song,

promotional tours of its star, Fess Parker,

and a ticketed re-release of the series

as a full length feature in movie theaters.

- It eclipsed anything that

had come before in pop culture.

- "Davy Crockett" amounts to what we can understand

to be the first real popular, cultural craze.

[gentle music]

- [Narrator] Crockett's phenomenal success

has awakened something in Walt Disney.

- In the early years, he didn't necessarily care

about creating this industry of merch around his films.

- He sees the potential of merchandise

as so much more than something to play with.

- For Walt, it still wasn't about the money,

it was about the new possibilities

that came out of it.

- Merchandise can immerse people

in the kind of rich experience that they know they'll get

when they go to see a Disney movie

or when they walk into a Disney park.

- It's really this moment where Walt realizes

the absolutely unique power his brand has,

'cause no one else has entertainment

cornered in every direction.

- He sees the different components of the company

working with each other.

Now you have a character who can be on a TV show

and in a film, and an action figure,

and you can meet them in person at the Disney parks.

And there's really no end to what you can do

with this singular character.

- In creating all these Disney productions and experiences,

people could live in a Disney world.

[inspiring music]

- [Narrator] Walt's concept will become known in the future

as a synergy map,

a plan for synchronizing and maximizing success.

- Disney finds a way to synergistically touch

every part of Americans' lives,

and it becomes this incredible juggernaut.

- [Narrator] Disney's model will spark a global industry

of licensed characters.

- George Lucas with the "Star Wars" films,

Mattel with Barbie,

Nintendo with its products.

Now most companies want to emulate Disney,

whether they'll say so or not.

- [Narrator] But Disney remains the world's leading licenser

with 60 billion per year in global sales.

- Nowadays, where we can find

our favorite movie or movie characters

as an action figure, a breakfast serial,

a cartoon, and a video game,

it's hard to believe that there was ever a time in Hollywood

where merchandising just really wasn't a thing.

When you really try to wrap your head around the impact

of the decisions made by Roy and Walt Disney or Kay Kamen,

[laughing] [glasses clink]

so many of the things that we see in our day-to-day lives

wouldn't be there without them.

[dramatic music]

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