Thursday, February 17, 2011

Windows to the Past: Two Deer = 10,000 Bombs


In August of 1942, Walt Disney contributed to the war effort by donating two large lawn ornaments to a scrap metal drive. The setting of the photograph is Walt's Los Feliz home that was located at 4053 Woking Way. In the background, one can see the elaborate dollhouse built for Walt's daughters, Diane and Sharon. Pictured with Walt is General Salvage Chief for California Joseph F. MacCaughtry.  An Associated Press news report from August 10, 1942 provided this background to the photograph:
Walt Disney's two iron deer are leaving his front lawn in Hollywood for the war front. The motion picture producer offered the two deer for scrap and Lessing J. Rosenwald, director of the war production board's conservation division, accepted them. The deer, which weigh a ton, contain enough scrap for one 75-mm. field piece, or 10,000 incendiary bombs.
The photograph is part of the Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive at the UCLA Library.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A ton!?!?!? I know it's a publicity shot but that wheel barrow is not going to work.

dbenson said...

There was a Warner cartoon about an dimwitted dog who falls in love with a similar metal ornament in the shape of a greyhound. He gives chase when it too is hauled off to a defense plant, finally rescuing what he takes to be his beloved: a huge artillery shell. He kisses it and it blows up. "What a gal!," he exclaims.