The exhibit “The Walt Disney Studios and World War II” will be opening at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana on March 17, 2023.
The exhibit first opened at The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco in 2021. It just finished a run at The Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington. It will be on display in The National WWII Museum’s Senator John Alario, Jr. Special Exhibition Hall from March 17 through September 24, 2023.
An opening reception will be held in person on March 16 at 6:30 p.m. CT and a presentation will be at 7:30 p.m. CT in the US Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center. The presentation will also be livestreamed via Vimeo.
Registration for the reception is encouraged but not required. Guests can register on The National WWII Museum’s website.
The family-friendly exhibit is “expected to attract not only younger audiences but also art enthusiasts of all ages as we explore how one of America’s most beloved entertainment companies helped achieve Allied victory.”
Here is more information from The Walt Disney Family Museum:
When Walt Disney received word that the Disney studio lot in Burbank had been requisitioned as an Army anti-aircraft base after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, he and his staff pledged to support the war effort without hesitation—and without profit. This original exhibition illustrates how the The Walt Disney Studios devoted over 90% of its wartime output to producing training, propaganda, entertainment, and public-service films, publicity and print campaigns, and over 1,200 insignia, while also deploying a group of talented artists, including Walt Disney himself, to Latin America on a Goodwill Tour.
During this unique period in animation history, The Walt Disney Studios functioned as a morale-builder for both the civilian public and deployed Allied troops. Walt knew that cartoons would be an ideal medium for communicating with the American people—in an uncomplicated and amusing manner—about war-related issues and anxieties. In addition to the short films and military insignia produced, Disney characters appeared in a variety of home-front initiatives, from advertisements, magazines, and stamp books, to government posters promoting tax payment, food recycling, rationing, war bond sales, and farm production. The exhibition includes 550 examples of these rare historical objects and film clips.
Are you hoping to visit this exhibit? Let us know in the comments.
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