Transcripts For CSPAN3 Lectures In History American Cartoons In World War II 20240713

Class is bonds and taxes american cartoons and comics during world war ii. I can remember from my days in parochial chapel school, while our pastor gave us a sermon that has stuck with me ever since. The lesson of it draws from two parts. Two separate biblical texts. One is from second kings, if youre interested, chapter four, where the prophet elishah has somebody bring him 20 loaves of barley, and he has to feed 100 men. His children asked, how will we do that . And the prophet says, give them to the men so they may eat, so they shall eat and have some left. He said it before them, and they ate and they had some left. And there is an incident from the new testament where jesus is confronted with a crowd of 5000 people, how will we feed all these people . One of his disciples says, here is a young boy with five barley loaves and two fish. Not a lot. It could take six months worth of pay to feed a crowd of 5000. Jesus said, bring it up. He gave thanks to it, and the whole crowd was fed, and there was more than enough. I remember my pastor saying, it does not matter how little you are. You can be a little guy, and i was a little guy. You can be a boy, girl, it does not matter. When there is a need, if you bring your little bit, however little bit you might have, god will use that to meet the needs. He was trying to tell us that it did not matter how little we had. If we use it faithfully, to a righteous cause, it will help a big need to be met. I have been thinking about that lesson for a long time as i have been contemplating what will we talk about in terms of world war ii and paying for world war ii . In the days of world war ii, the need was great. Franklin roosevelt made a number of speeches to the American People in the weeks right after the attack on pearl harbor. One of the things he impressed upon the American People was that everybody, rich, poor, old, young, didnt matter, had a very Important Role to play in getting this monumental job done of paying for the war and winning the war. I am going to give you an excerpt of his state of the Union Address from 1942. Just a few sentences that will encapsulate what he was talking about, and how he was urging all americans to do their little bit. Fdr came before congress and before the American People on that occasion, and he said, war costs money. So far we have hardly even begun to pay for it. We have devoted only 15 of our National Income to National Defense. As will appear in my budget message tomorrow, our war program for the coming fiscal year will cost 56 billion. Or, in other words, more than half of the estimated annual National Income. That means taxes and bonds. And bonds and taxes. It means cutting luxuries and other nonessentials. In a word, it means an all out war, by individual effort and family effort in a united country. Now when he was talking about individual effort and family effort, he was talking about kids too. Family effort meant that even if you were over here on the home front, and your loved ones were fighting overseas over there, as the popular song went, there was still work that you could do to help defeat the enemy. Everybody, both young and old, no matter how much you had or do not have, had a very Important Role to play in this United States war effort. Roosevelt wanted to make very sure that everybody was clear about that. Early in that new year of 1942, the United States treasury is already going to work, trying to figure out how to get americans to help pay for the war. Roosevelt talked about taxes and bonds, and bonds and taxes. We know what taxes are, right . Its when the government compels you to pay a certain part of your income to meet the costs of government doing what it has to do. But what are bonds . A bond is an iou. Write that down. Its a statement that the United States government owes you money. Basically what uncle sam was doing was saying, we are going to have people pay us taxes to pay for this thing, but we are also going to have to go into debt to pay for this thing. Now, show of hands, how many people have some sort of United States savings bond . We got a few hands. How many people have been given Something Like that for a birthday, graduation, or something of that kind . Its a very important looking piece of paper that is not a toy. You open the card. Its not a toy, but its a very official looking piece of paper with some very official historical looking people on it. What your parents have to explain to you is that it is a u. S. Savings bond, which means, you keep it, dont do anything with it for a while, but in a few years you will be able to cash it and get money so that you can pay for your education, you can pay for important things. Its an investment in the future by having uncle sam go into debt to you. That is a savings bond. What the United States treasury decided to do was to initiate a savings bond program specifically for the purposes of collecting money for the war effort. Ok. How much . Well, you can get a United States savings bond at that time for as low as 18. 75. If you gave the United States government 18. 75 and said i want to buy a bond and you wait several year for that bond to mature, it would give you back 25. Thats not a bad deal, huh . You put out 18. 75, you get 25 back, years later, but this is all in lending uncle sam money to help win the war. I dont know about you, but what if youre a little kid in 1942 . Little kid with his hands in his pockets. One thing he does not have in his pockets is 18. 75. Because, remember, 1942 were just coming out of the great depression. Am i out of this great crusade . The u. S. Government says you are not. You can buy something called United States savings stamps. United states savings stamps . Yes. Here is what you would do. You would get yourself a Little Green Book like this. And in that Little Green Book, you would place, every time you would go and buy u. S. Savings stamps, what are you talking about stamps . I am talking about stamps, like this. They would sell these overthecounter at banks and at other institutions. Its like, ok, all i got is . 10. Thats not much. They say, thats ok, thats enough. For . 10, watch this. For . 10, you can go ahead and buy one u. S. Savings defense stamp. Ok, how does that help . How that helps is, you get to your Little Green Book, your stamp book, you put the stamp in here, and maybe you got other stamps in the past, you stick it right there, and the stamps, watch this, the stamps are in various denominations. Some are in . 10, some a dollar. You get them and you build a book full of them. When it comes out to 18. 75, you walk over to the place. You can buy yourself a war bond. Those of you who are math experts will realize that a . 10 stamp will take you a lot of time to buy enough saving stamps for 18. 75. That is why the stamps came in various denominations larger than that. One dollar, five dollars, things like that. But what if you were strictly a . 10 kind of person . What it did was, as we will see, the cost of a comic book back then was . 10. Action comics number one, the first appearance of superman got that . 10 price sticker on. Its worth a whole lot more than that now. If you only got . 10, heres what you do. You might spend one dime on a comic book, maybe another dime on Something Else like a cookie or some ice cream. But then another dime you would spend on this. What you did was you had friends. I bought superman for . 10, you may have bought wonder woman. What we would do is swap and trade. Whats happening, even on the level of a little kid and his friends, or her friends, it encourages kids not to spend every dime they have, but to put some of them away. Into u. S. Defense saving stamps. And what this did, among the merits of the u. S. Savings Bonds Program was that it curbed inflation. What is happening is that when people arent spending all the money theyve got, it puts a cap on inflation. World war ii was an inflationary time, and it reversed the deflationary process of the great depression. Its one thing to have a little bit of inflation, but you dont want too much. You have to encourage americans to keep some money in their pocket. Or save it. And this book, and other books like it, represented you putting money away, lending it to uncle sam to help win the war. You are not spending it on stuff. That over time curbs inflation among kids and they are asking adults to do the same thing. There would be payroll savings. You dont get your complete paycheck. You let part of that go by buying war bonds and things. That is what the war bonds and Stamps Program is about. Thats what its about. When you say buy defense bonds and stamps, thats what its about. If you are not rich enough to buy a full bond for 18. 75, go collect some stamps. . 10 apiece, one dollar, until you save enough to buy a box. Everybody clear on what the defense bonds and Stamps Program was about . And how whether you were rich or poor, an adult or little kid, you could participate . Of course, the government did not hesitate to tell you that you are doing your part, you may have a brother, an uncle, a parent overseas fighting. You can do a little bit for them. Your little bit is able to help in this great endeavor. Thats where the cartoons come in. U. S. Government was very smart. They said, well, we have to get taxes and bonds and bonds and taxes. They went to walt disney and said, we need your help to get americans to pay their taxes. Walt disney was thinking, if americans dont pay their taxes, throw them in jail. What is the problem with incentivizing here . I sure would pay mine. And they said, mr. Disney, walt, ok, Walt Walt Disney was informal we cant arrest and jail the whole country. If we are going to just rely on fear and intimidation, its not going to work. We cannot jail every last person in the country. We have to get people to want to pay their taxes. That is going to be tough. Nobody likes paying taxes. Walt disney is nodding. They say, ok, we want you to come up with a character called mr. Taxpayer. Walt said, no, no, no, i am not creating a new character. You are not . No, because we already have the perfect character for you. Donald duck. Donald duck . The Disney Studio is just like any other studio. We are giving you one of our star actors. Just treat it that way. Because if cantankerous donald duck could be persuaded to pay his taxes, then anybody could. Remember when we saw the history of animation, we saw donald duck and we saw how cantankerous he could be. If donald can pay his taxes, anybody can pay their taxes. Im going to show you a bit of a clip that walt disney created involving donald duck persuading the American People to pay their taxes. How do they work this in . Alright. [video clip] there is a new spirit in america. A spirit of free People United in a common cause to stamp tyranny from the earth. Our very shores have been attacked. Your whole country is mobilizing for total war. Your country needs you. Are you a patriotic american . Eager to do your part . Then there is something important you can do. Oh boy, oh boy. You wont get a medal for doing it. Thats alright. It may need a sacrifice on your part. But it will be a vital help to your country. Shall i tell you what it is . What is it . Tell me shall i . Tell me. Your income tax. Income tax . Yes, your income tax. [grumbles] income tax. It may not seem important to you, but it is important. Yes, and its your privilege. Not just your duty, but your privilege, to help your government by paying your taxes and paying it promptly. Whats the big hurry . Whats the big hurry . Your country is at war. Your country needs taxes for guns, taxes for ships, taxes for democracy. Taxes to beat the axis. Taxes to beat the axis. Thats the spirit. Yes, sir. Now how about your income tax . Oh boy [end of video clip] prof. Taylor if everybody attacked the process of paying their income tax with that much enthusiasm. And early tax payments went up after the release of that cartoon. It worked, and walt disney made sequels to it with donald duck. The catch phrase you heard was taxes to beat the axis. Taxes to beat the axis. The rest of that cartoon will show that it pays for guns, tanks, cannons, and implements of war. The thing you are not crazy about doing is vital to this great enterprise of fighting and winning the war. So much for taxes, how about bonds . Well, other studios got involved also. I want to show you a bugs bunny cartoon in which he sings a popular song. I want to caution you about something. Even as we are involved in this grand enterprise to fight the axis powers and the totalitarianism and the racism that they represented, the United States could still not raise itself entirely above its own racism in that time. I will show you because bugs bunny will perform in blackface. Pattern after a popular performer at the time who sang a song called my mammy in the 1927 groundbreaking film that signaled the end of the silent era and the beginning of the talking era. When bugs does that blackface impression, he is imitating a specific performer. He is saying uncle sammy instead of mammy. The racism is inexcusable. Its one of the very few cartoons with bugs bunny that uses this offensive form of humor. [video clip] bugs bunny the tall man with a high hat will soon be knocking at your door the tall man with a high hat will be coming down your way out when youngs are him shout come on lets get him, folks any bonds today . Bonds of freedom, thats what im selling any bonds today . Scrape up the most you can here comes the freedom man buy your share of freedom today we all invest in the usa sammy, my uncle sammy. Here comes the freedom man buy a share of freedom today anything, any bond today [end of video clip] prof. Taylor look at that. I want you to freeze your attention on that image. United statesuy saving bonds and stamps. The u. S. Treasury adopted this symbol. This is the minuteman soldier. This is from the revolutionary days. You have to impress upon the American People that this world war ii we are involved in is just as important as the revolutionary war in 1776. If you want to be in that grand tradition of the patriots of 1776, then you have to do your part for defense in buying United States savings bonds. This was a very prevalent symbol around the country advertising the need to buy savings bonds and stamps. It even made its way into the first issue of wonder womans own magazine. This is a panel from a story, from the end of the story of one of the adventures wonder woman had in wonder woman number one. Wonder woman said, when you see these minuteman posters, boys and girls, remember, hes talking to you. Yes, the superheroes we have been spending a number of days in this class researching the origins of, and getting into the background of, they are joining in this effort. I will tell you something, its not as if the comic book company was just, well, lets spot that in here. No, there was cooperation with the u. S. Government. The back cover of wonder woman number one was dedicated to a letter to the boys and girls of america from the secretary of the treasury himself. A special message to the boys and girls of america, from henry morganthal junior, secretary of the treasury. The secretary of the treasury in washington. Boys and girls of america, here is a way for everyone of you to help your country. Every time you buy a saving stamp, you are helping uncle sam to pay for a part of a gun, plane, or ship. Which your fathers, brothers, uncles are using for the defense of our country. If everyone of you, 40 million boys and girls would buy at least one . 10 saving stamp every week, you would be lending your uncle sam 200 million every year. Think of all the guns, planes and ships he could buy with that. Remember, you can help to keep him flying by buying a defense stamp every week. Sincerely, Henry Morgenthaler junior. Then you have the minuteman symbol again. Down here it says, this space is donated by the publishers of this magazine in the interest of National Defense and victory. The company was dc comics. Comics. Dc comics had some levels to its organizations. There was the National Comic that gave us superman, batman and green arrow. Then there was the allamerican comics that gave us wonder woman, the flash, Green Lantern and a number of other heroes. But the two companies were very interrelated. They were very close. These are the publishers who said, you know, lets donate the back cover of the first issue of wonder womans own magazine. She had appeared in allstar comics number eight, then, her first cover appearance was in 1942. They said, she is such a runaway hit that we will give her her own magazine. The first issue of her own magazine, they are donating space to tell every boy and girl in america to buy defense savings stamps and bonds. This is serious stuff. This is serious stuff. Its serious because, beyond enjoying the adventures of wonder woman, there is really something you can do to be a hero. Lets look at a few other covers. Here weve got worlds finest comics. You will notice a few things. Number eight, winter issue, a superman dc publication. Right . And you got superman and batman and robin handing out things that kind of look like these books, these Little Green Books. And these pages are stamps. That is what they are doing, they are handing these out. But what, what, what are superman, batman, and robin doing this under the sign of . We said there was racism in the bugs bunny cartoon. There is a big sign here that says sink the japanazis with bonds and stamps. Ugh. When you start taking the names of peoples nationalities and making puns out of them, you are dipping into racism also. You think sometimes, how would you feel if you happen to have been an america of japanese descent and wanted to help and you liked superman and batman comics and you want to buy defense of bonds and stamps . Like one of the people on the cover, you walk up there and that is the sign they got. Imagine if you were a kid in the real world and you are buying the next issue, and its like, that is what they are saying on the cover. Yeah. It tells you a bit about what was acceptable back then. You see on the rest of the cover, you have lots of kids. And batman, robin and superman are handing out the stamps. They are handing out these booklets. Unfortunately, they are also handing out morsels of racism. One shot example, i dont think so. Here is an issue of action comics. This is the magazine that introduced superman in the first place. This one is number 58. Worlds largest selling comic magazine. The reason its the largest selling magazine is because of who is depicted here, superman. Superman is in the middle of a big printing press. More at the basements of dc comics Printing Organization where you would have these huge gigantic presses printing out pages and pages and pages and pages and pages like a factory. This is depicting superman Strong Enough to run the presses all by himself. What notice is he running out . Superman says, you can slap a jap with war bonds and stamps. And as you can see, on this cover, there is a number of copies of that brochure that superman is printing out. Its not just a oneshot deal. Ugh. I want to show you, since we are in action comics, a couple of threedimensional examples of these covers. I have a copy of action comics number 50. The 50th issue, the Worlds Largest selling comic magazine. Superman is saving a miner. Why did i put this up here . If you look at the lower lefthand corner, it has a small picture of superman walking in between two servicemen. It says, superman says, buy defense stamps, help National Defense. Even if it was not the main part of the cover, the message would still be put someplace on the cover. You know it hit people, the young audiences, effectively because these messages were placed on the cover of the Worlds Largest selling comic magazine. This one here, back the attack with war bond, was another famous one. It was a famous phrase back the attack because it rhymes. We will take a look at captain america, i want you to buy war bonds. We will get to him in a bit. I wanted to tell you a personal story that sowed the seeds of how i got interested in this stuff. A cousin of mine years ago, when i was a little kid, i think it was my 10th birthday, gave me a retrospective book of batman and robin stories. [sighs] oh, i stand corrected. This will show just how much of a geek i am. My cousin got me the batman encyclopedia the christmas before. It was my aunt who got me the retrospective book of batman. Im sorry. By the time i am 10 years old i got these two batman books, and i am reading them and studying them. One of the books had a whole gallery of batman covers from the 1940s. And he is punching the joker and fighting the penguin. He is dealing with the catwoman. You had the first batman cover and the first robin cover. Wow. All those characters that i liked reading about. In the middle of it was this cover. Batman and robin seem to be interrupting their adventures to sit on top of a giant bird. They are not fighting the penguin. No, its not about the penguin. What is this all about . What are they saying here . There are a few planes in the back. Batman and robin both have their fingers up in the v for victory sign. They say, keep the American Eagle flying, buy war bonds and stamps. That sounds good, keep the American Eagle flying, but, what is a war bond, and why buy a stamp . All i knew about stamps was the little thing you put on the top of the envelope when you are writing your thank you notes to your cousin and your aunt to thank them for giving you wonderful batman books. In the context of the war, and i knew this was from the wartime period, i had to find out what was a war bond. Why did batman and robin interrupt their adventures . This does not have the joker, does not have the penguin, does not have two face, does not have the catwoman. Why did they sit on top of a bird to tell their readers to do that . Its because of this. Its because the need is great. The need is great. Even if you are a little kid and have just have a little bit, you can do something to help. If you dont have enough to buy a bond, you could buy a . 10 stamp. Instead of buying batman and superman, buy batman and then use the other dime to buy the saving stamp. Keep the American Eagle flying. Wow, that was heavy stuff with batman. Wow, they are getting involved in the war effort. There were other ways. Remember roosevelts speech excerpt i read. It also means cutting luxuries and other nonessentials. Sacrifice. Doing without in order to further a greater cause. And what the kids of america were asked to do through the cartoons and comics was not just to spare an extra dime for war bonds and stamps, but they were also asked to do without other things, like paper. Lets take a look. Like paper. Here is a cover of worldclass number 13 where superman, batman and robin are pushing this huge truck filled and filled with paper. What is the sign that robin is carrying . It says, fight paper waste and hang one on the paper hanger of berlin. They are taking a dig at hitlers personal biography. Hitler had been a number of things before he was the dictator of germany. He was a wanttobe artist, a house painter and he would also hang up paper in various places. Anything that the government or cartoon has been reviewed to make a local job at hitlers and promote the war effort, they would do. Thats three get the phrase of hang one on the paper hanger of berlin. Americans dont waste how do we waste paper . Back before tv you got your news through the newspaper. Its also where you got your favorite comic strips from. Like dick tracy and little orphan annie. What do you do after the next day . You have heard that phrase yesterdays news . This is where that was derived from. What do you do with yesterdays newspaper . You throw it out . Not so fast. Not so fast. Paper is used for a lot of things. You can use that waste paper to help the war effort. Inside this very comic book, alfred, batman and robins butler, will show a young person in gotham city how. This was a oneshot, onepage story that makes the case for saving paper. It starts like this. Paper, paper everywhere with witch to sock the foe. Paper paper everywhere, and then none to waste. That comes from the rime of the ancient mariner, water, water everywhere. Not a drop to drink. How many people have heard of this poem . Read that poem. This is a nice little pun on that poem. Whats happening in gotham city . Its a busy day for alfred. Butler extraordinary to bruce wayne. A kid comes up to alfred and said, where are you going with that junk . Alfred replies, junk, these are weapons of war. Weapons of war the kid says. Alfred says, this is no jesting matter. If you dont believe me, just tag along and see. They walk a block or two and they happen to come across his employer, batman and robin, who are collecting stacks of paper from kids in the neighborhood and throwing them in their truck. The kids say, batman and robin, what are they collecting that waste paper for . Alfred replies, we have a paper shortage due to lack of manpower in cutting the timber used in paper production. Everybody got that . Probably because they were drafted to fight the war, so you dont have people to cut down the trees. You have less trees being turned into paper. You have less paper and that equals a paper shortage. The kid says, paper shortage, you mean we might not be able to read our favorite comic magazine . Hes bringing it home here. Alfred says, right ho. Got to hand it to alfred. By salvaging all this waste paper, we provide a substitute and we will have sufficient supplies for both civilians and military purposes. And the kid replies, military, there you go again, whats paper got to do with war weapons . Alfred says, its used to make parachute flares, wingtips, and other military objects. Containers for shells, army rations, and various other essential supplies are made from paper as well. The kid did not know that. Alfred says everybody can help by using paper sparingly and by collecting waste paper. You can sell it to a dealer or turn it over to charitable organizations like the red cross or to your school. And the kid says, ok, let me help right now. He takes the big pile out of alfreds hands and carries it himself. Alfred is very impressed. He says i seem to be persuasive. The kid says i will collect plenty of paper myself from now on and help bop hitler and hirohito on the nose. You see how this one page story betweenn the connection collecting paper and bopping hetler and hirohito on t nose. Emperor ofs the japan. We will get to punching hitler in the nose in a little bit. I want to show you a few other people getting into this act of salvaging paper. Take a look at number six. Here we have wonder woman again pushing the express wagon. She is accompanied by her friends the golden age, 1940s version of Green Lantern and the flash. How many people have seen the latest live action flash tv show . That flash with a hat, we used to call him flash with the hat when we were kids. He was the flash of the golden age, the 1940s. I always used to wonder how could he run so fast without losing his hat . Especially on a windy day, or by the wind generated by him running so fast. But he could do it because he is the flash. See . With Green Lantern, i always wondered, with all of the different colors in his costume, the purple cape, the red shirt, the red and yellow boots, why does he call himself the Green Lantern . He could have picked a bunch of other colors. Because the ring was green and the lantern was green. Like superman, batman and robin, wonder woman kept her basic appearance from the golden age to the present. She is recognizable to people who might not recognize the other two. You notice these three superheroes are leading a crowd of kids. I will zoom in and zoom out. Notice there is a crowd of kids and they are all doing what . They are all carrying big stacks of paper. Wonder woman is pushing a wagon filled with big stacks of paper. She has this wagon and all of this paper tied up. The sign over here drives the point home, it says war production urgently needs weight waste paper. They are not very subtle about it. This tells you Something Else. It tells you why comics from the world war ii period are so rare and scarce. If you have a minto condition or near mint condition copy of the golden age comic, you can sell it for a lot of money. Its not so much the age of the comic book, although that is part of it, but the scarcity. As one writer put it, the kids reading these comics in world war ii were so good and so faithful about turning their waste paper in after reading them. So many of those comics were destroyed. See. That is why the comics were so scarce. They were destroyed by the kids who finished reading it and sharing it with their friends, now we will put it in this bundle so they can use the spare waste paper. Everybody see that . I remember the 1989 batman movie and all the batman hoopla that came out of that. A lot of people got it into their heads that if they started saving those comics from 1989, 1990, 1991, that they too could make a lot of money in 20 years. It did not pan out that way. Do you know why . Because we were not doing this anymore. Probably if you buy a comic now, and save it, it is probably not going to be the next action number one. Or the next detective comics, or even the next amazing fantasy number 15, which introduced spiderman. We said detective 27 was the first appearance of batman. You can save it if you want, you never know. You really dont. But if people count on that, they will be very disappointed. The reason comics from this era are so valuable if you have a mint condition copy, its because so many were destroyed. Everybody see that . They were sacrificed to a larger purpose. I sometimes i sometimes i was born in queens, one of the things i loved was looking at things from the 1939, 1940 world fair. That was so cool. I wish they kept the big pyramid and the globe. I wished they did not melt it down so that i could see it. Do you know why they melted it down . For a bigger purpose. It was melted down for war material. The same with these old comic books. They were destroyed for a bigger purpose. This was a generation of kids and parents who said whatever little bit i have, i will give that up for the bigger purpose. If we dont fight this war, there may not be a future for people to look back from. This is more than just the funny books. This is really serious stuff. Ok. Weve talked a lot about dc, lets get into marvel. We did talk about marvel the last couple of classes. Marvels first two big characters were the submariner and the human torch. Incidentally, the title submariner was borrowed from that poem i told you about. Water, water, everywhere and not a drop to drink. Fire and water, and they would fight. Their first big superstar character, the one that really put them on the map in a way they had not been before was of course captain america. We talked about captain america as a symbol of fighting the axis in a time before the United States officially entered world war ii. How many people have seen captain america the first avenger . Which is good, because i am going to show you a little excerpt from it, and i will not feel bad that i cannot show you more. I want to draw your attention to one particular part. Just before he goes out in what he considers a clownish suit. Why am i out selling war bonds, and the fellow says, listen, bonds buy bullets, bullets kill nazis, and he draws that connection. When he goes out there with that shield and he is reading all his lines, he is talking about the connection between buying a bond and helping your loved one overseas. This is a representation, i would say, of the reallife struggle that the captain america comic magazine was helping to wage. Ok . Lets show the excerpt, then i will show you a couple of other comics. [video clip] i dont know if i can do this. Bullets. Buy bullets kill nazis. You are an american hero. Take the shield. The american way not all of us can drive a tank. But in a way all of us can fight. Series b defense bond, each one you buy goes to your best guys gun. [end of video clip] prof. Taylor wait, wait, wait, what poster are they posing in front of . That one. Thats right. This is a takeoff of the uncle sam poster that says i want you. It was used in world war i and very effectively in world war ii. Here captain america is saying i want you to buy war bonds now. Now, many of you have seen this movie, and you know that as part of his war bond drama, as part of the routine, he was not dancing in it, but it was the act that there is this guy who portrays hitler. At the appropriate moment, captain america turns around and punches hitler in the face. If you look closely, it inspires the cover of a comic book. This comic book. Captain america number one. This is the actual real captain america number one. That came out long before the attack on pearl harbor, and we talked about in class that joe simon, jack kirby, the people who produced what would later be the Marvel Comics line of comics. They had a number of names back in the day. Timely, atlas, etc. They said, you know we are trying to make a statement about isolationism. Said we dontsts need to get involved in the war. There are folks who said, since when did hilter leave anybody alone if he had the chance to invade them . We need a hero that will express the need to fight hitler. There was a concern because hitler was a dictator who might get killed at any time, that by the time this comic book hit the stands, that hitler might already be dead. They thought, that might not be the worst outcome. Lets put it out anyway whether he is alive or dead by the time it hits the stands. If you look at the captain america movie again, what the movie makers did was come up with a fictional in comic book universe, in plot reason why this image became so popular. In action comics number one he really does lift up a car and smash it against the cliff, but in captain america he would not have gotten that close to hitler because the war would have already been over with. Excuse me. They said, ok, this is a representational cover, and the moviemakers came up with a real reason that inspired. Did everybody see that . Lets look a bit at captain america covers, which were pieces of propaganda. When you went to the newsstand to buy comics, the cover was important. It was the first thing that met your eye. The captain america comics was masterpieces of propaganda and he liked punching people in the face. Case in point, captain america number 13, the first captain america issue that came out after the attack on pearl harbor. Let us read this a bit. He is punching a japanese warlord and is saying, you started it, now we will finish it. You notice on the top lefthand corner it says, all out for america issue. There is a special urgency because now we are at war. Lets open this comic and see what hits us on the first page. By the way, down here it says remember pearl harbor. Which is kind of hard to forget at the moment, when this comic was published. Lets open up the cover and look at the first page. I will zoom in. All right. Captain america, new and exciting, number 13. Who is the editor . Stan lee. I told you Martin Goodman was the head of Marvel Comics, and the company that would become Marvel Comics. A relative of his, who was just a kid at the time, comes to marvel, he is hired to basically be a gopher. What is a gopher . Go for this, go for that. Sleep before, refill the ink, rinkydink jobs like that. He had some income coming in. The guy got paid. And overtime, as simon and kirby moved on to other things and other features, and as other people working at marvel were drafted into the army, stan lee becomes the only guy left in the office. Sometimes working for a Small Company can help you out if you are the only guy left in the office, because at that very young age, guess what . He is the editor. Stan lee would later say, it was supposed to be temporary while everybody else was at the war it turns out the temporary job i had for 30 years. Lets look at this page a little more. What is at the center of the page right in between captain america and bucky . What is this in the center . That minuteman image for defense, buy United States saving bonds and steps. It is right there front and center. Bucky is even saluting it. There is Something Else here, too. Way down here on page 57, after you have finished reading the adventures of captain america and bucky, we have a character called the secret stamp. Meet americas newest hero, as a young United States defense agent in the first of many thrill a minute, true to life adventures. How many people here have heard of the secret stamp . I didnt think so. I hadnt heard about the secret stamp before i got into comics. Who is the secret stamp . Why are they not going to make a movie about him . The secret stamp is a kid on a bicycle who puts on a mask and has a cape and he sells or bonds war bonds and stamps. But, he got the government attention. Lets turn to page 57 of this comic book. Let me zoom in. There he is. There is the kid, the bicycle, and what is that button he has . It says, official u. S. Defense agent. But, what is interesting about the splash page about the secret stamp is that the splash page, in addition to the big minuteman image here is also dedicated front and center to a letter to stan lee from the United States Treasury Department on december 2, 1941. That is a week before pearl harbor. And let us see what it says. Mr. Stan lee, editor captain america comics, 330 west 32nd 42nd street, new york, new york. Dear mr. Lee, we welcome the opportunity of congratulating you on the patriotic thought behind your new adventure comic strip, ronnie holt, u. S. Defense agent. Remember, ronnie cole is the civilian identity of the secret stamp. You cant forget that. We like the idea very much. And believe such a strip will be effective in connection with the plan promoted by Newspaper Publishers now reaching national proportion, to sell defense saving stamps through approximately 500,000 loyal, Young American newsboys from maine to california. Sincerely yours, director defense saving stamps, treasuring department, washington, dc. Wow. This guy got the government attention. Take the opportunity to buy some of these. These are on kindle and ibooks. You can get a lot of golden age comics for just one dollar just by reading these. It is not bad, the secret stamp. He is a kid who is mad when bullies knock over a bicycle and take all of the defense stamps for themselves. So what does he do . He puts on this mask, this cape, and he gets on his bicycle and he goes after them. He even gets the time at some point in the plot to call the police. I am always concerned about this kind of thing. It is like, you cant just put on a mask and cape and get on your bicycle and go after crooks. I mean, these guys could be dangerous. But, the message got through, that selling u. S. Saving bonds and stamps was an important thing. You were working with and for your government when you did it. And that somebody who tries to rob and steal them, really was a crook. Not just against the person he stole it from, but against the government. And the point got through. Apparently, the point got through very, very well. Because, with each passing year, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, americans kept buying bonds. There were different loans. The second war loan, then the third war loan, and the fourth war loan, etc. It was called the mighty seventh war loan. The idea was, and this may shock you, that if you begin to see good news in the newspaper about the war, this is not the time to sit back and say, ok, it is over. I wont buy so many defense stamps. They didnt want you to do that. They didnt want you to do that at all. They wanted to make sure that people kept it up. I am going to play the song, sung by the legendary bing crosby, about how, in the latter days of the war, americans were still urged to keep it up. To keep it up. All right. I am going to turn this up. People are very fond of my colorful speakers. I am going to turn it way up. I hope it doesnt blow anyones hearing away. It shouldnt. But this song comes under the title, buy, buy, buy bonds, which is pretty easy to remember. All right, here we go. Buy, buy, buy a bond. And byandby the bond will bring you victory. Buy, buy, buy a bond. And you will be standing by the victory arch when johnny comes marching home again. Oh, you should need no request. For after all, you know that you are investing in the best. Until the lads come back again, buy, buy, buy bonds. This is no time to say you have done enough. This is the time to really do your stuff. And even if you cant be a soldier in the ranks, you can be the guy that helps to buy the guns and planes and tanks. This is the time for you to do your best. This is no time for you to take a rest. The enemy is reeling, and his morale is low. And now is the time to fall in line and deal the final blow. Buy, buy, buy a bond. And byandby the bond will bring you victory. Buy, buy, buy a bond. And you will be standing by the victory arch when johnny comes marching home again. Oh you should need no request. For after all, you know that you are investing in the until the best. Investing in the best. Until the lads come back again, buy, buy, buy a bond. You think the message got through . Oh yes, oh yes. Buy, buy, buy bonds. Keep buying them and do not think that just because the war seems to be going our way that you can slack off. And actually, after the war was won, and that hardfought victory was achieved, the United States Treasury Department continued to advertise u. S. Savings bonds and stamps as a way to finance your education, to finance a home, to finance civilian things you wanted as an important way to save money. As of 2012, you cant go to a bank or other overthecounter institution, as they say to buy bonds. But you can buy them at the u. S. Treasurys online website, treasurydirect. Gov. Now, people have been asking, why arent u. S. Savings bonds and things of that nature as popular now as they were back in the days of world war ii . One of the reasons is that for some of the bonds, you are not getting any interest. It is zero or 0. 3 . It doesnt seem like it is going to give you much anymore. Not like when we were talking about and you put an 18. 75 and you get back 25. You are not having that so much. Some people are nostalgic, where you dont have that physical thing anymore. I mean you can print out and you can go online and buy the bond and you can print something out and stick that in your nieces or nephews birthday card. But, it just doesnt seem the same. The government has been saying that by discontinuing the paper bonds, we are saving a lot of money regarding the cost of printing the paper bonds. So, that is a thought. But some of the romance is gone. Some of the romance is gone. And some people, particularly , and i cant identify with this, of a generation that grew up before there were computers , before everything was online, they might find online buying of bonds a bit cumbersome, as one reporter put it. It is not as easy as just walking up to a place and maybe some celebrity might be there to give you one of these books and give you a set of stamps. It is not like that anymore. It is kind of impersonal. But the big reason is that people dont see it as much of an investment. I want to ask you this, after i do this i am going to open it up for the questions. Dr. Taylor, we are more interested in as than qs. I get that. That is all right. The question is, does our government need money today . Yes or no . Yes. So, why dont we have bond campaigns like we have been talking about over todays class for other purposes . Healthcare, what else . To lower the deficit . There are places where you can contribute money to the government to lower the deficit. Sure, you can do that. But come on, where are the celebrities . Where are the comic characters, where are the comic characters . Where are the songs about buying bonds . Where are people saying, hey, whatever you can give, it will help . I am saying, whatever the Economic Conditions that may or may not make u. S. Savings bonds as attractive to americans on the street as they used to be, what about that idea of connecting a great cause to an individuals purchasing of savings bonds and stamps . What happened to that . Couldnt we do that again . And, if so, what causes . And i would like to open it up for the questions with a mic, if anybody has any ideas. Just wait for the mic, you have to wait for that microphone. Would anybody like to take a crack at, why dont we do this anymore . This could be fun. Go for it. Is it possibly because there isnt as much patriotism with it . While we are still fighting in iraq and afghanistan, there isnt as much of a greater threat, as there was back in world war ii with the and the nazis and the japanese . I dont know. I think people would argue that the threat levels are just as high in our post9 11 world. But you are not the first person to think about what is happening to the patriotism, what is happening to the patriotism . Would it be something about how paying money towards the government is somehow viewed as this socialist effort that people are now completely turned off from . It has to do with what do americans think about various terms like socialism and capitalism, and all of the other isms . Is it not good anymore to pay money to the government . I want to throw in a related question on this for you to think about. Are americans more gung ho about paying taxes today than in 1943 . So what about that . What about getting a cartoon out there to help americans feel better about paying their taxes . Ok, wait for the mic. I was going to say society is different people are more selfish today. People are more selfish today . Yes, they are not willing to do those type of things anymore. It is a different era. I think that is why. That is sad. But it is a reality. Why are people more selfish . What do you think . It is all about me . I mean, arent there plenty of things to get excited about in terms of helping others . What happened to that . Ok. Is it because there is a lack of trust towards our government, that they are going to take our money and do the right with it . Now, this is something you have hit upon. In the wake of vietnam and watergate there is the idea that the government may not always be as trustworthy with the people. They may not tell the entire truth and you might not be able to trust everything you hear that the president says. There was an aura around the presidency during world war ii. That is part of it, that there is a mistrust of government. But maybe that mistrust is against the American Interest when it comes to not being a part of bond drives and savings drives. Is there a way to rebuild that trust . What do you think . What do you think . Hey, i am taking my aquaman break. Or my submariner break. I should be bipartisan, right . One character here, one character there. One company here, one company there. One has to be bipartisan. Ok, but the one thing that both dc and marvel and all the other cartoon and comic companies had in common was that when Something Like world war ii came up, they all pitched in to help. All joking aside on that, they all pitched in to help, but is there a great cause . When was the last time you picked up a comic book or saw a cartoon that talked about a cause in the real world . The real world, two syllables. Right . When was the last time . I mean, is it all just escapism now . Back then, did you notice something . That it was was escapism, but also a relevance. A relevance that said, when you finish reading this comic, and all your friends finish it give it to the government to help the war effort. You want to hit hitler on the nose . Help captain america do that, buy u. S. Savings bonds and stamps. What happened . Think about it. Think about it. A large distrust was built after the events of watergate. I remember when i took the presidency course with you, when Abraham Lincoln said something, nobody questioned it. Like, i mean somebody is going to have to question it now and again. But the masses believed in show there president. You mean there was an understanding . Yes, there was an understanding. Like, they are trying to help us. That was the mentality. But as like vietnam, watergate, everything, as time went on, do you know what i mean . There was a split between the people in the government happened. I think that is why people right now, if you ask any young person that doesnt know a lot about history knows a decent amount history, but they might not be in history classes and they might not want to be affiliated with politics, the majority of people say they dont know what is going on. Like, they just dont want to hear about it. They dont want to hear what is going on in the government. Because, in the eyes of the masses, the government doesnt care. They are out just for personal gain. And when they do this, that is is it. Whatever happened to the superhero approach . That the government was a hero . Whatever happened to that . I feel like nowadays people have a distaste for helping the government, because they dont really want to help a government they dont agree with. So the government seems to need to get the image of being a hero again. How do we do that . How do we do that . Isnt there an issue now that we would never be able to get away with publishing a superhero punching another leader in the face . That we would view that now as poking the bear, rather than as a nationalist or nationalism kind of pushing forward of something. Instead, it is dangerous almost and we are more likely to make fun of a crisis than back about it. Act about it. That is going to be part of it. And, when we look at what happened to comics in the rest of world war ii and in the future, because we are getting towards the end of our class today. I want you to think about something. How did the image of the government change, and watch this, how did the image of the superhero change, and the idea that comic books were good for kids in the first place . What happened to that idea as we move out of the 1940s and into the 1950s . We will be looking at a lot of different issues that we explored today as the calendar moves from one year to another and one decade to another. But we will have to pick that up next time. So, i will see you then. You are watching American History tv on cspan3. Coming up come we talk about the battle and let the right to claim toledo. The toledo war goes back to 1787 and the northwest ordinance that establish the area that eventually became five states. They established a border that started at the bottom of lake michigan, and ran east to lake erie. The strip of land that was formed was called the to