As you can see, this seems to be an item produced for Disneyland in it's first year of operation (1955). I didn't snatch it up right away, but after thinking about it a while, I went back and purchased it.
Now, usually the first thing I do when I buy something that I haven't seen before is to go to the Great and Powerful Google to see what I can find. I did, and I found...nothing. I then went to Ebay and other auction sites....also, nothing. Hmmmmm.
I kept trying and kept failing. Finally, I got to the point where I emailed the leading authority on all things Disney, Dave Smith.
He had never seen it before.
He suggested that it might be a knockoff, sold outside the gates in the first few years of the park. A couple of things support this idea. First, the plastic certainly seems of the right age, but the lighter is rather poorly and cheaply made. Also, the addition of a date on the copyright seems odd, since most merchandise was simply marked "Walt Disney Productions" with no date. Thirdly, we know that such items being sold on the cheap right outside the park drove Walt a little nuts and that fact, along with the development springing up around Disneyland, prompted him to look for a place with "the luxury of size."
So there you have it. It seems I have a piece of Disneyland history that might have, in a very small way, inspired Walt Disney World!
Until next time, keep searching for treasure!
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