Who's the leader of the club...?

When did Mickey Mouse, the cartoon character, become "Mickey Mouse," the rinky-dink and petty? If someone now says, "That's real Mickey Mouse," we know they mean it's cheap, no good, jury-rigged. It's pronounced as one word, mickeymouse, not as a name.

Mickey came along in the 1920s and had a slow start as a cartoon character. It wasn't until Disney went with the new technology and combined sound with pictures that Mickey took off. He soon became one of the most recognizable characters in the world. You'd be hard pressed to find someone in this world who wouldn't immediately recognize him, by whatever name he's known in their culture. Mickey was a plucky, smart little guy, and that's the key. He was a little guy; he had to depend on his smarts because he was up against a big world.

By the end of the run of Mickey Mouse shorts from the Disney studios, around 1953 I believe, Mickey had evolved into a sort of suburban guy. I haven't seen any of these shorts in years, but it seemed that bit players in the Mickey cartoons, like Pluto and Goofy, took over. That was after Donald Duck stole his thunder, too. But that was OK; Mickey makes his reappearance quite often, and Mickey's ears are now a corporate logo for the Disney company.

I just can't figure out how mickeymouse came into common usage as a slam. Mickey was an OK little guy. In fact, Mickey Mouse wasn't a bit mickeymouse.