January 27 - Kay Kamen

Image courtesy CBC.ca

On this day, in 1892, Herman Samuel Kominetzky was born in Baltimore, Maryland. The youngest of four children of Russian Jewish immigrants, Kay (as he became known) started his long career in sales and advertising selling mink hats in Nebraska. By his early thirties, he had started his own marketing company in Kansas City, the Kamen-Blair Company. His firm's specialty was developing products for movies. In 1932, Walt and Roy Disney contacted him with the opportunity of a lifetime.

Kay barely responded with interest to the Disney Brother's proposal before he went to the bank, withdrew his entire life savings and hopped a train to Los Angeles. When he arrived at the Disney Studio, he laid the cash on Walt's desk and suggested that the brothers take it plus half of the revenue derived from products based on their characters. Walt and Roy agreed and Kay became the exclusive merchandiser for Disney for the next two decades, an agreement that would benefit both parties beyond their wildest dreams.

Image copyright Ingersoll

In 1933, Kay introduced the Mickey Mouse watch, which quickly became the top selling watch in the country. From there, Kay's genius at merchandising ran wild. Producing everything from stuffed toys to cookie jars, Kay built the Disney account into a $100 million a year enterprise by 1948. The studio's share of that revenue is basically what kept it alive during the lean war years. It's also why every attraction in a Disney park empties out into a gift shop, but you have to take the bad with the good sometimes.

Unfortunately for Kay, his enjoyment of his relationship with Disney would be cut short. In 1949, the Air France airliner he was travelling on crashed into a mountain side in the Azores, killing everyone on board.