By Fred Fuld III
Copyright ã International
Bond & Share Society 2001
The most popular name in the
entertainment industry is Disney. The name Disney is known in almost every
country of the world, primarily due to the enormous creative efforts of Walt
Disney, who had a vision of family entertainment far beyond what anyone else
could imagine. Disney certificates have also been a very popular collectible in
the scripophily market, because of both the visual appearance with their
colorful vignettes of Disney characters and as a reminder of what Disney
represents.
In 1923, Walt Disney started a film studio with
his brother Roy (who handled the financial side of the business) in Hollywood
California. They produced the first Mickey Mouse cartoon called Plane Crazy in
1928. Steamboat Willie was the third Mickey cartoon, and the first with a
soundtrack. Walt Disney created a series of short movies called Alice’s
Comedies which mixed live actors and cartoons, along with accompanying sound
(originally created by Walt’s voice). In 1937, they produced Snow White, which
was their first animated feature film. A year later, they incorporated their
company, Walt Disney Productions. They went public with preferred stock in
1942, and converted their preferred to common a few years later.
During World War II, the Disneys issued ‘War
Bonds’ which, although they were not true bonds themselves, were given to
investors who bought U.S. Treasury War Bonds. The certificates featured 22
different Disney characters making up the border of the certificate, including
Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto, etc. The Disney certificates were
generally given out by banks and war finance committees. These are available in
the collectors’ market in both issued and unissued form. There were two
different printers : the U.S. Government Printing Office and the Homer H.
Boelter Printing Co. There were also two different types of war bonds, one in
multi-color and one in black and white, where dots and line patterns were used
in place of colors.
Disneyland opened in Anaheim California in 1955 and the Mickey Mouse Club
television show was produced during the late 1950’s. The certificate that the
company used during the 1950’s and 1960’s was printed by Jeffries Banknote
Company and featured a vignette of a woman with a dove in her hand with the
Matterhorn Mountain on the left and the ocean on the right. It had the printed
signature of Roy Disney as president. As a collectible, this certificate is
extremely rare and is only known in specimen form.
In 1966, Walt died of lung cancer, Roy became
chairman, and a year later the company issued a new certificate with a vignette
of Mickey Mouse sitting on Walt Disney’s shoulder and Disneyland in the
background. In addition, numerous Disney characters were printed in one colour
(brown, purple, etc.) along the top. These certificates have various printed
signatures of the company President of the time including Cardon Walker and
Michael Eisner. In the collectors’ market, this certificate has appeared as
issued-and-cancelled (scarce), specimen, and void.
Roy died in 1971, the same year that Disneyworld opened in Orlando Florida. In
1984, Michael Eisner was hired as Chief Executive Officer after controlling
interest was established by Roy E. Disney (son of Roy) and the Bass brothers
of Texas. In February 1986, the company
changed its name to The Walt Disney Company, and changed its certificate
dramatically to one which features lots of color. The popular Disney characters
surround Walt as the primary vignette with the EPCOT Center underprinted. This
certificate appears in the collectors’ market as issued-and-uncancelled, and
specimen. It can also be bought on the New York Stock Exchange as a valid
investment.
Disney Tokyo opened in 1984. As far as is
known, this is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company and no
stocks have been seen on the collectors’ market. However, in a new venture in
the late 1980s, Disney established Euro Disneyland SCA, a French company which
obtained finance through a public offering and opened Euro Disney, outside
Paris, in 1992. The company issued red-white-and-blue bearer share certificates
featuring a vignette of Mickey Mouse. By law, share certificates cannot now be
issued to French residents (who receive a credit on a security account instead)
so these certificates are issued only to investors outside France. They have
been seen on the collectors’ market only in issued-and-uncancelled form.
There are other Disney certificates which, although not financial documents,
are still fun to collect : Mickey Mouse Club, Disney Talent Award,
Pinocchio Good Teeth Award, Sport Goofy Certificate of Participation and
certificates of VIP attendance at Walt Disney World.
Both the old and the modern Disney certificates
are fine reminders of the financial and entertainment empire that Walt Disney
built, starting out with just a dream. They make great framable gifts for
children of all ages.
Copyright ã INTERNATIONAL BOND
& SHARE SOCIETY 2001
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