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The Jim Hill Media Podcast Network

The Man Who Sold Mickey: Kay Kamen’s Merchandising Magic (Ep. 62)

The Jim Hill Media Podcast Network

Jim Hill Media Podcast Network

Places & Travel, Society & Culture, Tv & Film

4.71.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jim Hill and Lauren Hersey dig into the world of Disney merch and history with a mix of spooky snacks and fascinating backstories: Why Jim bought Count Chocula, Boo Berry, and Franken Berry cereal he can’t eat—thanks to new Jim Henson puppet designs The launch of Bath & Body Works’ Disney Villains collection, from Maleficent’s plum scents to the Evil Queen’s apple blends Disney cracking down on resellers and what that means for collectors New Muppets merchandise teased for Destination D23, plus the latest on the Muppet redo of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster The untold story of Kay Kamen, the salesman who turned Disney into a merchandising powerhouse - before his career ended tragically From collectible cereal boxes to multi-million-dollar licensing deals, Jim and Lauren explore how Disney’s merchandising magic has shaped everything from your breakfast table to the theme parks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome back to I Want That Too, the podcast where Disney merch meets Disney history.

0:06.1

I'm entertainment writer Jim Hill and as always, I'm joined by the lovely Lauren Hersey.

0:12.3

Hey Jim, how's it going?

0:14.4

Well, I made an interesting purchase recently.

0:20.5

And as I was mentioning, as we were pre-gaming, I blame this to me. I made an interesting purchase recently.

0:24.3

And as I was mentioning, as we were pre-gaming,

0:25.9

I blame this totally on your husband.

0:28.3

As you should, we should always blame Eric Percy.

0:30.7

But he's the one who reached out to me and said,

0:34.9

Hey, have you seen the cool new count chocula boxes?

0:38.7

And I said, well, what's cool about the new count chocula boxes? Well, Jim Henson, the people at Henson have done something with them because they have

0:43.3

the characters, and we'll get to the other characters in a moment, in puppet form.

0:49.9

And so he sent me a picture, and they do in fact look really cool.

0:54.6

And so I end up at my local shawes earlier this week.

0:58.9

And it's one of these things where it's like, I'm a diabetic.

1:03.0

I'm not allowed to eat this stuff.

1:05.1

All right.

1:05.6

But I bought all three.

1:07.1

I bought the Kanchocula.

1:09.6

I bought the booberry.

1:14.2

I bought the, what is it, Frankenberry.

1:21.4

And I largely bought them because at the back of the box, what's interesting about this deal is,

...

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