When the United States of America is involved in a war, the country historically unifies for the cause, or divides by disagreement. The grandest collaborative effort occurred in the early 1940s when the U.S. entered World War II. Grieving the loss at Pearl Harbor fueled an aggressive fire in the American psyche.
Everyone tall to small wanted to help the war effort. Be it women entering factory jobs, men enlisting in the armed forces, or families buying war bonds, the country wanted to do their part. Within the entertainment industry, Disney’s first endeavor in the war effort was instructional films for soldiers and civilians on how each could make a difference. Then, Disney Studios made their greatest contribution, what became a very well known morale booster, were the insignias designed by Disney artists. Starting with the Mosquito Fleet, the insignias personalized military units allowing them to be recognized by other units, and symbolize a group characteristic.
Throughout the war Disney Studios created around 1,200 unique insignias for training schools, bombing squadrons, naval vessels, women’s units, and chaplains’ corps. They were so popular that the Los Angeles Examiner began reproducing the insignias as poster stamps in February of 1942, then created educational albums for children, and a second album was released in March of that year. The Examiner planned to run more than 250 stamps in color for the public to collect, the vast majority being Disney characters.
Allowing the public to collect the stamps proved a delicate process. The concern was that tactical or important information might be released, such as the location, name, or branch the unit represented. Therefore, stamps were particularly chosen that did not reveal sensitive information. Some insignias would use a number of stars to represent the unit number, for instance, instead of stating “54th Squadron” a character image would have five stars on one side and four on the other.
The Examiner offered the albums for fifteen cents each, but the stamps were considered free. To collect the stamps, readers could cut the black and white insignia out of the newspaper for ten days, then send them through the mail to be exchanged for the real thing. Essentially the stamps were free, though people paid for the newspaper the images came in.
This promotion, though patriotic and circulation boosting, was most likely developed to avoid problems with reproduction rights if the stamps were sold. When Walt Disney began creating the insignias, they made a contract with the U.S. government granting them, specifically whatever unit paid for the insignia, exclusive rights and license to the product. Therefore, the only way for the patriotic American public to get the stamps was not to pay for them.
