How To Advertise Dumbo

When one looks at old movie magazines what amazes one is the lengths went to to advertise a movie. One example is Disney's 1941 masterpiece (and my favorite animated Disney movie) Dumbo.  The following article from The Showman's Trade Review (Dated October 4, 1941) gives us an example of how well advertised this movie was.


-Michael J. Ruhland


"Special exploitation and promotion on Walt Disney's forthcoming feature 'Dumbo' to be released by RKO October 31, was instituted in the Sep. 13 issue of the Saturday Evening Post, with a full page color advertisement inserted by the Parker Pen Company.

"'Dumbo' is the keynote of the fall campaign of the Parker Company in featuring their Quink writing fluid. The same ad is to be repeated in the Comic Weekly (King Features) which is inserted in leading newspapers throughout the country. Approximately 100,000 dealers would cooperate in the campaign using over 2,000,000 'Dumbo' song books as premiums.

"Additional 'Dumbo' coverage is identified with breaks in 33 national magazines with an aggregate circulation of 50,000,000 together with roto and black and white newspaper pictorials having a combined circulation of 100,000,000.

"Over 100 leading department stores will feature 'Dumbo' in their window displays, toy departments and local newspaper advertising for the period from Thanksgiving to Christmas. These include Robinson's, Los Angles; Kaufman's, Pittsburg; Wieboldt's, Chicago; Stixbaer & Fuller, St. Louis; Kern's, Detroit; Rhodes', Seattle; Foley Brother's, Houston; Weinstock Lubin, Sacramento; Block's, Indianapolis; Bloomingdale's, New York and Peck's, Kanas City.

"The Mid-Continent Petroleum corporation, operating in Oklahoma, Kanas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana, will feature 'Dumbo' in its newspaper and billing advertising, giving away 'Dumbo' masks, celluloid buttons and a comic weekly at over 4,000 filling stations.

"The Minnesota Valley Company, manufactures of Niblets and Green Giant Peas, will feature a number of characters including 'Dumbo' in their national advertising.

"List of manufactures licensed to adapt the characters from 'Dumbo' for merchandising tie-ups is as follows : American Dental Association, molds, giveaways for dentists; Character Novelty Company, stuffed dolls; Cohn & Rosenburger Inc., novelty jewelry; A.S. Fishbach, Inc., masks, costumes; Fisher Price Inc., Pull Toys; Hermann Handkerchief Co. Inc., handkerchiefs, scarves and neckerchief; Ideal Novelty and Toy Co. Inc., dolls of wood pulp; Lightfoot Schultz Co., soap; Louis Marx & Co., mechanical toys; Harris I. Nirenstien, static electric toy; Oak Rubber Co., rubber balloons, inflated rubber figures; Ohio Art Company, toys and pails, sand sets, housekeeper sets, lithographed steel toys; Owens-Illinois Glass Co., glass tumblers and containers; Paas Dye Company, Easter egg paper transfers; Plastic Novelties Inc., pencil sharpeners; Stark Brothers Ribbon Corp., ribbons and bows; W. L. Stensgaard & Associates Inc., retail store displays; P. Wunderle Inc. dandies; Garden City Publishing Co., three books; Whitman Publishing Company, two books (10 cents) ; Dell Publishing Company, cutout books, paint books, fast action book and K.K. Publications Inc., giveaway book for holiday promotion."