Sunday, May 26, 2013

May 26, 1995 Premiere Evening Pin

A boxed Snow White pin was issued at Disneyland and was given to attendees of a special event on May 26, 1995. What exactly was this event? For the longest time, I had no idea.

The box lid reads "A Premiere Evening" along with the date: May 26, 1995.




I'd asked around quite a bit, but no one seemed to have an answer as to what the event was. David from Gorillas Don't Blog suggested that it may have been a Gift-With-Purchase pin at a Walt Disney Classics Collection release. The Musical Dwarfs figurines were issued that year (two in March, four in June, and one in August). As it turns out, though, it wasn't a WDCC event. Yet, David wasn't far off.

The pin was in my collection for years, but it wasn't until just a month ago that the answer was finally discovered. I was working on the previous blog post, the one with the Lladró porcelain sculptures by artist Francisco Polope. In my research, I came across the Wishing Well figurine. Printed on the bottom is the text, "A Magical Evening - May 26, 1995." This is it! There couldn't possibly be two unrelated Snow White "Premiere" events on the same date.

So our "mystery" pin was a GWP item for the Lladró Wishing Well, issued at a release event on May 26, 1995.


The pin measures 1.5" tall.



The opposite side reveals a metal clasp-style pinback and the copyright markings: "© Disney, Made in China."

Images from Filmic Light Collection.


Now we finally have the answer to this mysterious Disneyland event.

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UPDATE: I had always assumed the Premiere Evening for the Lladró Wishing Well sculpture had occurred at Disneyland, although there is no real indication of this on the pin or figurine. Recently, I came across a commemorative watch that was also available that one night. What's interesting about it is that not only does it mention Lladró and the May 26, 1995 date, but it's also inscribed with "Walt Disney World Resort." Did the event actually happen in Orlando rather than Anaheim? Or were there two releases at both parks? The mystery continues.

2 comments:

  1. I'm glad you finally discovered what this pin was really celebrating!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction Major.

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