The Museum of Flight in Seattle is hosting "The Walt Disney Studios and World War II," an exhibit detailing the extensive contributions of Walt Disney Studios to the Allied war effort.
Walt Disney committed 90% of his studio's output to non-profit war work, producing numerous training films for the military and propaganda cartoons and posters for the home front.
The studio created over 1,300 custom insignias and mascots for military units, often featuring Disney characters like Donald Duck, and also designed Fifinella for the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).
The war impacted the studio's workforce, with men drafted or interned, leading to women taking on animation and art roles, many of whom were offered continued employment post-war.
When World War II broke out, everyone in America did their part for the war effort—including Walt Disney.
You can see it for yourself at the Museum of Flight (MOF) in Seattle in the new exhibit The Walt Disney Studios and World War II. The exhibit is made possible through a partnership with the MOF and The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco.
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Meg Godlewski has been an aviation journalist for more than 24 years and a CFI for more than 20 years. If she is not flying or teaching aviation, she is writing about it. Meg is a founding member of the Pilot Proficiency Center at EAA AirVenture and excels at the application of simulation technology to flatten the learning curve. Follow Meg on Twitter @2Lewski.
