Disney World War II Exhibition Debuts at Dallas Museum

In the dark days following the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, the whimsical Burbank lot of The Walt Disney Studios underwent a startling transformation. Almost overnight, the birthplace of Fantasia was converted into an Army anti-aircraft base, guarded around the clock by troops.

But inside the soundstages, a different kind of ammunition was being forged.

A new exhibition arriving at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum this spring, The Walt Disney Studios and World War II, tells the story of how Walt Disney and his artists pivoted from fairy tales to the front lines. Between March 13 and Sept. 10, visitors will see how a studio built on imagination became a vital gear in the American war machine.

When the war began, Walt Disney pledged to assist the war effort, eventually devoting more than 90% of the studio’s output to the Allies. Perhaps most remarkably, every frame of this wartime production was created entirely without profit.

The studio became a factory for morale and education. While soldiers on the front lines painted Disney characters onto the noses of B-17 bombers and the jackets of infantrymen, the artists back in California were busy creating more than 1,200 unique insignias for the Armed Forces.

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The exhibition, organized by The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, features over 500 rare objects, including film clips, posters, and original artwork.

From instructional films that taught sailors how to navigate by the stars to home-front posters encouraging the recycling of cooking fats and the purchase of war bonds, Disney’s characters were ubiquitous.

“Walt Disney and his studio acted as true Upstanders,” said Mary Pat Higgins, president and CEO of the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum. “They used their talents and resources to support the Allied war effort and uplift morale on the front lines and the home front alike.”

As Kirsten Komoroske, executive director of The Walt Disney Family Museum, noted, the studio’s wartime mission was driven by a specific hope for the future. She pointed to a quote from Walt himself: “Tomorrow will be better for as long as America keeps alive the ideals of freedom and a better life.”

For more information on the exhibition, go here.