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Walt Disney Participates in a Scrap Drive


disneydave
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During the war bands of children scoured vacant lots, alleyways and backyards looking for all types of salvageable scrap including pots, pans, wire, newsprint, rags and rubber products.

 

Walt Disney became involved in a scrap drive in the fall of 1942 when he wrote a telegram to Monroe Greenthal of the War Production Board:

 

It seems to me all of us ought to look around our backyards...in a concentrated effort to find the many useless articles lying around, which could be of such value to Uncle Sam...I have in my front yard two iron deer...I would like Uncle Sam to have this metal.

 

A return telegram from Greenthal indicated the War Production Board was interested in the iron deer and added someone from the Los Angeles office of the WPB would be in touch. On August 8th, 1942, Disney received a telegram from Lessing Rosenwald of the L.A. office:

 

We wish to acknowledge with thanks the receipt of your wire in which you so generously offer two iron deer...the War Production Program is limited only by our supply of materials. The excellent example, which you have established...we hope can be brought to the attention of the youth of America who have always been great admirers of Walt Disney.

 

Disney's scrap contribution was mentioned in at least two publications. An August 1942 issue of The New York Times reported:

 

Walt Disney's two iron deer are leaving his front lawn in Hollywood for the war effort. The deer, which weigh a ton, contain enough scrap for one 75mm field [gun].

 

Reference to Disney's contribution also appeared in a September 1942 issue of LIFE magazine. An article titled, "Speaking of Pictures...This Is Scrap," showed a publicity photograph of Walt Disney about to smash one of the deer with a sledgehammer.

 

The following image was taken at Disney's Los Feliz home. In the background is the life-sized playhouse built for Disney's two daughters, Diane and Sharon.

 

sledge.JPG

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