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

American cartoons and comics during world war ii. I can remember from my days in parochial chapel schools where our pastor gave us a sermon that has stuck with me ever since. And the lesson of it draws from two parts. Two separate biblical texts. One is from second kings, if you are interested, chapter 4, where the prophet elija, has someone bring him 20 leaves of barley and hes got to feed 100 men and his sermon asks him, how we going to do that . We only have 20 loaves of barley. And the prophet says give them to the men that they may eat for thus says the lord they shall eat and have some left. So, he set it before them and they ate and they had some left. Just as the lord told them. Anders that an incident from the you the testament, where jesus is confronted with a crowd of people, 5,000 people. How are we going to feed all these people . One of his disciples says, well, heres a young boy with five barley loaves and two fish. Not a lot. It could take like six months of pain to feed the crowd of 5,000. All we got is five loaves, two fish. He says, bring it up. He gave thanks, to it and the whole crowd was fed and there was more than enough and i remember my pastor saying, are it doesnt matter how little you are. You can be a little guy and i was a little guy. You can be a child. You can be a boy, you can be a girl. It doesnt 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. And he was trying to tell us that it didnt matter how little we had p. If we use it faithfully, to a righteous call, it will help a big kneeled to be met. And i have been thinking about that lesson for a long time as i have been contemplating what are we going to talk about in terms of world war ii and paying for world war ii. And in the days of world war ii, the need was, indeed, great. Franklin roosevelt as president made a number of speeches to the American People in the weeks right after the attack on pearl harbor and one of the things he impressed upon the American People what was that everybody, rich, poor, old, young, didnt matter, had a role to play, a very Important Role in getting this monumental job done of paying for the war and winning the war. Im going to give you an excerpt of his state of the Union Address from 19 troop, just a few sentences that are going to incapsulate what he was talking about here. 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. The 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 p. That means tax. 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. And family effort meant that even if you were over here on the homefront, 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 and no matter how much you had or how much you didnt have had a very Important Role to play in this United States war effort. And roosevelt wanted to make very, 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. Now, roosevelt talked about taxes and bonds and bonds and tax taxes. From 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. An iou. Its a statement that the United States government owes you moy for so much. What uncle sam was saying we will have people pay us taxes for this thing, but realso are going to have to go into debt to pay for this thing. N now, a show of hands, how many people have some sort of United States saveings bonds . Okay. We got a few hands. How many people have been given Something Like that for a birthday or a graduation or something of that kind. Right . Its a very, very important looking piece of paper thats 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. And what your parents may have to ex39 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 what you can pay for your education. You can pay for this, for that for important things. Its an investment in the future by having uncle sam go into debt to you. Okay. Thats 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. Okay. How much . Well, you can get a United States savings bond at that time for as low in the amount of for as low as 18. 75. If you gave the occupation government 18. 75 and said, hey, i want to buy a bond and you wait several years for that bond to mature, it would give you back 25. Senates n 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 win the war. I dont know about you, but what if are you a little kid in 1942, a little kid with his hands in his pock. One ting he does not have is 18. 75. Because remember 1942 were just coming out of the great depression. So what . Am i out of this . Am i out of this great crusade . The u. S. Government says, oh, no, youre not. You can buy something called United States savings stamps. United states staveings stamps. Yeah, yes, yes. See, heres what you would do. Youd 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 stamp, what are you talking about stamps . Im talking about stamps, like this, you can get them, you know, they would have these, you would sell these over the counter at banks and at other institutions. Its like, okay. All ive got is 10 cents. Thats not much and they say, thats okay. Thats enough. Because for 10 cents, watch this. For 10 cents, you can go ahead and buy one u. S. Savings defense stamp. Okay. How does that help . How that helps is, you get to the Little Green Book, your stamp book, you put the stamp right in here and maybe youve gotten other stamps, in the past you stick it right there. And these stamps, watch this, these stamps are in various denominations. Some of them are 10 cents. Some are a dollar. Some are 50s, Something Like that. You get them and you get them and you get them. And you fill the book full of them and when it comes out to 18. 75, if you walk over to the place and with that 18. 75 you can buy yourself a war bond. Now those of you who are math experts are going to realize that 10 cent stamp is going to take you a lot of time to buy enough savings stamps for 18. 75. Thats why the stamps came in various denominations larger than that, a dollar, 5, things like that. But what if you were strict lay 10 cent kind of earn . Its all right. What it did was as were going to see, the cost of a comic book back then was 10 cents. Right. Action comics number 1, the first appearance superman, got that 10 cent price sticker on it. Its worth a whole lot more of that now. If you only got 10 cents, heres what you might do, spend one dime on a comic book. Maybe another dime on Something Else like a cookie or some ice cream. Then another dime youd spend on this. But what you did is you had friends. I bought superman for 10 cents. You may have bought batman. You pay have bought wonder woman and what we would do is swap and trade. See. Whats happening even on the level of a little kid and his friends or her friends is that it encourages kids not to spend every dime they have, but to put some of them away into u. S. Defense, they called it defense savings stamps. And what this did, among the merits of the u. S. Savings bond program was that it curved inflation. Because whats 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. So its whats a little inflation to get you over the great depression. You dont want too much. The way to do that is to encourage americans to keep some money in their pockets. Or savings. 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. And that over time curbs inflation for kids. Theyre asking adults to do the same thing. They would be payroll savings where you dont get your complete paycheck. You let a part of that paycheck go for buying war bonds and things. See. So thats what the war bonds and Stamps Program is about. Thats what its about. So 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, well, go collect some stamps. 10 cents apiece. A dollar apiece. 5 apiece. Until you save enough to buy bond. Okay. Everybody clear on what the defense bonds and Stamps Program was about . And how whether you were rich or poor, an adult or a little kid, you could participate. And, of course, the government did not hesitate to tell you that youre 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. And thats where the cartoons come in. U. S. Deposit was very smart. They said, well, weve got to get taxes and bonds and bonds and taxes and they went to walt disney. And they said, walt, we need your help to get americans to pay your taxes. Walt disney was thinking, well, if americans dont pay their taxes, you got to throw them in jail. What itself the problem incentivizing here . I have a problem with mine. They said to mr. Disney. Walt, okay, walt, walt disney is very informal, we can arrest and jail the whole country if were going to just rely on fear and intimidation, its not going to work. We cant jail every last person in the country. We have to get people to want to pay their taxes. And thats going to be tough. Nobody likes paying taxes. And walt disney is not they say, okay, now, walt, this is what we want you to do. We want you to come one a character called mr. Taxpayer. We want that character, mr. Taxpayer. Walt says, no, no, no, no, no, im not creating new character. Youre not . No. Because weve already got the perfect character for you. Donald duck. Donald duck . I mean, donald duck. Listen, folks, and he says the Disney Studio is just like any other studio, were giving you one of our star actors right now. Treat it that way. They said, okay. Because its cantankerous if cantankerous donald duck can be persuaded to pay his tax, anybody can. We saw animations of donald duck and how cantankerous he could be. We saw how he was based, in part, on the cantankerous secretary of the interior harold ickes. If donald can pay his taxes anyone can pay their taxes. I will show you a bit of a clip of a cartoon that walt disney created involving donald duck persuading him and through persuading him, persuading the American People to pay their taxes. I want to show you how its done. How did they do that . How did they work into the argument snap all right. Fr from. There is a new spirit of america. Quack quack. A free People United in a common cause to stamp tyranny from the earth. Quack quack. Our very shores have been attacked. Your whole country is mobilizing for total war. Your country needs you. Okay. Im ready. Are you a patriotic american . Yes, sir. Eager to do your part . Yes, sir. Then theres something important you can do. All right. You wont get a medal for doing it. Oh, thats all right. It may mean a sacrifice on your part. Can i do that. But it will be a vital help to your country and its all thats needed. We have a plan. Shall i tell you what it is . Yes. Tell me. Shall i . The. Tell me. Your income tax. Income tax . Yes, your income tax. Income tax . It may not seem important to you, but it is important . What . Yes, and its your privilege, not just your duty, your privilege to help your government by paying your tax 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. Oh, good, taxes. Thats the spirit. Yes, sir. Now, how about your income tax . Okay. Oh, if everybody attacked the process of paying their income tax with that much enthusiasm, and tax payments, early tax payments went up after the release of that cartoon. It worked. And walt disney made sequels to it with donald duck paying his taxes and the catch phrase you heard was taxes to beat the axis. Taxes to beat the axis. The rest of that cartoon will show it paid for planes, tanks planes guns, canons and all those implements of war. The thing are you 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, any bonds today. I want to caution you about something, even as we are involved in this grand enterprise to fight the axis powers and the totalitarianism. The United States could not raise itself entirely above its own racism in that time. I will show you why. Bucks bunny will perform bit and black face patterned after a popular performer at the time al jolson who sang a song called my mammy in the 1927 Ground Breaking talking feature the jazz singer. The film that signals the end of the silent era, the beginning of the talking era. So when bugs bunny does that black face impression, he is imitating a specific performer and hes saying, uncle sam might have instead of mammy. Still the racism is inexcusable. Its why you dont see this cartoon too much and its one of the very few cartoons with bugs bunny that uses this offensive form of humor. Snoe. [ music playing [ music playing ] the tall man with a high hat and whiskers on his chin would soon be knocking at your door and you ought to be in. The tall man with high hats will be coming down your way. Get your savinging out when you hear him shot gets e get bond today cmon, any bond today, bonds of freedom, thats what im za selling. Any bonds today scrape up the notions can heres the freedom map asking you to buy a share of freedom today. Who managed stampsed to . You are blessed. We all invest in the usa sammy, my uncle sammy here comes the freedom man thats tomorrows plan not unless you fire a shell of freedom today any sam, any bond today [ music playing ] now, look at that, i want you to freeze your attention on that image here for defense buy United States savings bonds and stamps. The u. S. Treasury adopted this symbol. This is the minute man soldier. This is from the revolutionary war days and they said, you know, weve got to impression e press upon the American People that this world war ii that we are involved in now is just as important a fight for freedom and independence as was the revolutionary war in 1776. So if you want to be in that grand tradition of the patriots of 1776, then youve got to do your part for defense and buy United States savings bonds as stamps. This was the very prevalent symbol around the country, advertising the need to buy savings bonds as 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 1 f. And wonder woman says, when you see these minuteman posters, boys and girls, remember, hes talking to you. So, yes, the super heros that we have been spending a number of days in this class researching the origins of and getting into the background of, they, too, are joining in this fefrt. And ill tell you something, its not as if the comic book company was just well lets slap that in there. No, there was cooperation with the u. S. Government, because the back cover, the back cover of wonder woman number 1s was dedicated the to a let rer 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 morganle that, jr. , secretary of the treasury. You see the letterhead, the secretary of the treasury in washington. Boys and girls of america, heres a way for every one of you to help your country. Every time you buy a savings stamp, you are helping uncle sam to pay for a part of a gun, plane or ship, with your fathers, brothers or uncles are using for the defense of our country. If every one of you 40 million boys and girls would buy at least one 10 cent savings 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 them flying by buying a defense stamp every week. Sincerely, henry morganthal, jr. , then you got the minute man symbol again. Down here, this space is donated by the publishers of this magazine in the interest of National Defense and victory. Okay. Of course the company was dc comics. Dc comics had some levels to its organization at that time. There was the National Comics when which gave us superman batman and aqua man and green arrow and the all american comic wing which 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 and 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, of course, in all star comics number 8 first and then her first cover appearance was sensation comics number 1, 18 they said she is such a run away hit, were going to give her, her own magazine. First issue of her own magazine, theyre donating space to tell every boy and girl in america to buy defense savings bonds and stam stamps. This is serious stuff. This is serious stuff. Its serious, because kwondr bo beyond enjoying the adventures of wonder woman, there is Something Else you can do to be a he. Reporter lets look at a few other covers. Here we got worlds finest comics and you will notice a few things. Number 8, winter issue. A superman d. C. Publication. Right . And youve got superman and batman and robin handing out things that kind of look like these books, these Little Green Books. And these pages of stamps. Thats what theyre doing. Theyre handing these out. But what, what, what, what are superman and batman and robin doing this under the sign of . You know we said that there was racism in that bugs bunny cartoon . Theyre underneath a big sign here that says sink the japa nazis can bonds and stamps. Ug. Ug. When you start taking the names of peoples nationalities and making puns out of them, eh, youre dipping into racism also. You think sometimes how would you feel if you happen to have been an american of japanese dissent and you really wanted to help and you really liked superman and batman comics and you wanted to buy defense stamps, you know, like one of the people on this cover, are you walking up there and thats the sign theyve got. Imagine if you archbishop kid in the real world and its like you are buying the next edition of the worlds finest and thats what theyre saying on the cover. Oh, yeah. It tells you a bit about what was acceptable back then and you see on the rest of this cover here, youve got lots and lots and lots of kids. And batman, robin and superman are handing out these specs and theyre handing out these books. But unfortunate lip, theyre also handing out morsels of racism. One shy example, i dont think so. Heres 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 Worlds Largest coming selling magazine is because who is depicted here in the corner of superman. And superman is in the middle of a big printing press. These huge big presses, probably like at the bases of the daily planet buildinging more important lip, at the bases of dc printing organization, where youd have these huge gigantic presses and theyre printing out pages and pages and pages and pages like a factory. And so this here is the depicted superman, Strong Enough to run the presses all by himself and 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, theres a number of copies of that brochure that superman is printedi printing out, its not just a oneshot deal. Ah. I want to show you since were in action comics, a couple of the three dimensional examples of these covers. Ive got a copy here of action comics number 50, the 50th issue of action comics Worlds Largest selling comics magazine. Superman is sasheing minors trapped by a cavein. Why did i put this up here . Because if you look at the lower lefthand corner, its got a small picture of superman walking if between two service men and it says, superman says, buy defense stamps. Help National Defense. So even if it wasnt the main part of the cover, the message would still be put some place on the cover. And you know it hit people, the Young Audiences effectively because these messages were sold, were placed on the cover of the Worlds Largest selling comic magazine. This one here back the attack with war bonds was another famous one. It didnt involve comic book characters. It was a famous phrase, back the attack because it rhymes. And were going to take a look at captain america here. I want you to buy war bonds now. We will get to you in a bit. I wanted to show you, tell you a little personal story that sews the seeds of how i got interested in this stuff. A cousin of mine years ago when i was a little kid. I think, yeah, it was my tenth birthday, yep. My tenth birthday gave me a retrospective book of batman and robin story. Ah. Oh, i stand corrected. This is going to 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 on my 10th birthday. Oh, im sorry. By the time im 10yearsold i got these two batman books, im reading them, im studying them and everything and one of the box had a whole gallery of batman covers from the 1940s. Oh. And hes pupching the joker and the penguin and hes dealing with the cat woman and you had the first batman cover and then you had the first robin cover and all those things. Wow oum those characters that i liked reading about. Then 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. Whats going on here . Theyre not fighting the penguin. The penguin deals with birds, but, no, no, no, its not about the penguins. What is this all about . And what are they saying here . Theres a few planes if you look in the back. Batman and robin. They both have their fingers up in the v for victory sign, theyre saying keep the American Eagle flying. Buy war bonds and stamps. Okay. That sounds good. Yeah, keep the American Eagle flying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But whats a war bond . And why buy a stamp . I mean, all i few 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 for giving you these wonderful batman books. Thats what i knew what a stamp was. But in the context of the war and i knew this is from the war time period, i had to find out what is a war bond. What is a stamp in this context. And why did batman and robin interrupt their adventures . This doesnt have the joker. It doesnt have the penguin. It doesnt have two face. It doesnt have the cat woman to sit on top of a big bird and tell their readers to do that, in order to keep the American Eagle flying. And its because of this. Its because the need is great. The need is great and even if you are a little kid and youve just got a little bit, you can do something to help. If you dont have enough to buy a bond, you can buy one of those little 10 cent stamps for the cost of a comic book. You know, instead of buying batman and superman that month. Buy batman and then use the other dime to buy defense savings stamp. Keep the American Eagle flying. That says, wow, that was heavy stuff for batman and robin. Wow theyre getting all involved in the war effort. And there were other ways, too. Remember roosevelts speech excerpt that i read for you. It said that it also means cutting luxury 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. To buy the stamps so that they can buy a war bond but they were also asked to do without other things like paper. Lets take a look, like paper. Heres a cover world size number 13, where superman, batman and robin are pushing this huge truck filled and filled and filled and filled with paper f. Whats the sign that robin is carrying. It says, fight paper waste and hang one on the paper hangar of berlin. Now, what theyre doing there is they are taking a dig at hitlers personal biography, hitler had been a number of things before it became the dictator of germany. He was a want to be art effort. He was a house painter. He would also hang up paper at various places. So anything that the government or cartoonist could use to make a verbal jab at hitler and also promote the war effort, they would do. So thats where you are getting this phrase of hang one on the paper hangar of berlin. But the thing is, fight paper waist. Now, americans dont waste. How do we waste paper . Well, back then before tv you got your news through the newspaper. Its also where you got a lot of your favorite comic strips from, like dick tracy, like little orphan nanny and like superman adventures in the newspaper. What do you do after the next day . From you know, youve heard that phrase, yelleds news . And this is where it was derived from. Its yesterdays newspaper. 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. And you can use that waste paper to help the war effort. And inside this very comic book alfred, batman and robins faith. Butler will show a young person in gotham city how. This was the one shot, one page story that makes the case for saving paper. And it starts like this, paper, paper, everywhere. With which to fight the foe. Paper, paper, everywhere, and none to waste must go. That comes from the rhyme of the ancient mariner, right . Sam cule coolidge, water, water, everywhere, not a drop to drink. How many people have heard of that poem . Read that poem. This is a nice little pun on that poem. All right. Whats happening in gotham city here . It says its a busy day, butler extraordinary to bruce wayne and dick grayson, alias of batman and robin and the kid knocked it grayson comes up to am fred and says, hey, am fred, where are you going with all that junk . And alfred is there replying, junk, these are weapons of war, my boy, weapons of war, the kid says, ha, ha, ha, am fred says, this is no gesting matter. If you dont believe me, just tag along and see, and they walk off a block or two, and they happen to come upon his employer batman and robin who are collecting stacks of paper from kids in the neighborhood and theyre throwing them in a truck and the kid is saying batman and robin, what are they collect all that waste paper for . Alfred replies, because we have a paper shortage due to lack of man power in cutting the timber used in paper production. Everybody got that . Lack of man power because probably because they have been drafted a tough fight the war. Sow dont have people to cut down the trees and when you dont have people to cut down the trees, you have less trees being turned into paper. Sow got less paper and that equals a paper shortage. Okay. And the kid says paper shortage. You mean we might not be able to read our favorite comic magazines. Hes bringing it home here to where it really hurts. And alfred says, righto. You got to hand it to alfred, he knows how to say it. Righto, but by salvaging all this waste paper, we provide a substitute and well 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 . And alfred says, why, its used to make parachute flairs, wing tips, bomb bands and other military objects. Containers for she was e shells, army rations, and very other essential supplies are made from paper, too. See, you probably didnt know that. The kid didnt know that. And 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, okay. Let me help right now. He takes the big pile out of alfreds hands and he carries it, himself. And alfred is very impressed. He says, i seem to have been very persuasive. The kid says, dont worry, alfred, ill collect plenty of paper myself from now on and help box hitler and hiro ito on the nose. You see how this onepage story draws a connection between turning in waste paper and bopping hitler hiro ito on the nose, heir ro ito was the emperor of japan at this time. Well get into this thing of punching hitler in the nose in a little bit. But i wanted to show you a few other people getting into this act of salvaging paper. Take a look at comic cavalcade number 6. Here weve got wonder woman again pushing the express wagon and shes accompanied by her friends the golden age 1940s versions of Green Lantern and the flash. How many people have seen the latest live action flash tv show . Lsht remember and that flash with the hat. We used to call him flash with the hat when we were kids. He was the flash of the bolden age the 1940s. And i always used to wonder, how can he run so fast without losing his hat . Especially on a windy day, or was the wind generated by him running so fast . But he could do it, because hes the flash. See. And with green lan term, i always wondered, with all the different colors in his costume, the purple cape, the red shirt, the red and yellow striped boots, why does he call himself the Green Lantern. He could have picked a whole bunch of other colors. Well, the lean was green and the lantern was green. Like superman and batman and robin, wonder woman kept her basic appearance to the present. So she is recognizable to people who might fought recognize the other two. Now you notice these other super heroes are leading a crowd of kids, ill zoom in and zoom out at the same time here. Notice there is a crowd of kids and theyre all doing what . Theyre all carrying big stacks of paper and wonder woman is pushing a wagon filled with big stacks of paper. See, shes got this wagon and all this paper is tipiled up. The sign over here drives the point home, it says war production, urgently needs waste paper. Theyre not very subtle about it. And this tells you Something Else, too. It tells you why comics from the world war ii period are so rare and scarce and if youve got a mint condition or near mint condition copy of a gold him age 1940s comic book, yes, you can sell it for a lot of money. Its not so much the age of the comic book, although, thats a part of it, but the scarcity, because as one rider put it, the kids reading these back in the world war ii days were so good and so faithful about turning the waste paper in after theyve finished reading them. So many of those comics were destroyed. See. Thats why the comics were so scarce, because they were destroyed by the kids who finished reading it, finished sharing it with your kids, take it and turn it into the government 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 and a lot of people got it into their heads that if they started saving those comics of 1989, 1990, 1991, that they, too, could make a lot of money in 20 years. And it didnt quite pan out that way. You know why . Because we werent doing this anymore. Probably if you buy a comic now and save it and save it and save it, its probably not going to be the next action number 1 or the next Detective Comics number 27 or even the next amazing fantasy number 15, which introduced spiderman. I remember we said detective 27 was the first appearance of batman. You know, its probably not going to be, i mean, you can go ahead and savt if you want. You never know. You really dont. But if people count on that, theyre going to be very disappointed. The reason comics from this era are so valuable if you got a good or mint condition copy today is because so many of them were destroyed in the paper drive. Okay. Everybody see that . They were sacrifice to a larger purpose. I sometimes, i sometimes, i was born in queens, grew up in queens, manhattan. One of the things i loved was looking at things from the 19391940 worlds fair. That seemed to be so cool. And i wish that they had kept the trilon and the perisphere. Wished that they had not melted it down so that i could see it. But 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, because this was a generation of kids and their parents who said whatever little bit ive got, even if ive got to sacrifice, im going to give that up for the bigger purpose. Weve got a war to win. If we dont fight this war, if we dont wage this battle, 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. Okay. Weve talked a lot about d. C. , lets get more into marvel. We did talk about marvel the last couple of classes. The first two big characters were the submariner and the human torch. Incidentally the title submariner was borrowed. 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 hadnt quite been before is of course captain america. We talked about captain america as a symbol of fighting the axis, even in the time before the United States officially entered world war ii. How many people have seen captain america, the first avenger . Okay. All right. Which is good. Because im going to show you a little excerpt of it, and im not going to feel so bad that i cant show you more of it right now because most of you have seen it. I want to draw your attention to one pick part just before he goes out in what he considers a clownish suit. Why am i out here selling war bonds . And the fellow says, listen, listen, bonds buy bullets. Bullets kill nazis. And he draws that connection. And when he goes out there with that shield and hes reading all his lines, hes talking about the connection between buying a bond and helping your loved one overseas. This is a representation, i would say, of the real life struggle that the captain america comic magazine was helping to wage, okay . Lets show the excerpt and then im going to show you a couple of other comics. Nothing do it. Sell a few bonds. Bonds buy bullets, bullets kill nazis, bing, bang, boom. Senators have a lot of pull up on the hill. You play ball with us and youll be leading your own platoon in no time. Not all of us can storm a beach or drive a tank, but theres still a way a lot of us can fight. Series e defense bonds. Each one you buy is a bullet in the barrel of your best guys gun. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What poster are they posing in front of . That one. Thats right. This is a takeoff of the famous uncle sam poster that says i want you. That was done during world war i and was used again very effectively during world war ii. But 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, part of the routine, i will say, he wasnt dancing in it, but it was the act that theres this guy who portrays hitler. At the appropriate moment captain america turns around and punches hitler in the face, right . If you look at it closely, it inspires a cover of a comic book. This comic book, captain america, number 1. Now, this is the actual real captain america number 1. That came out long before the attack on pearl harbor. We talked about in class that joe simon, jack kirby, the people who produced what would later be called the Marvel Comics line of comics, it had a number of names back in these days. Timely, atlas, et cetera, et cetera. Said, you know, were trying to make a statement against the isolationism. The isolationists were saying, lets just make our separate American Peace with hitler so that hell leave us alone. We dont need to get involved in the war. Lets just leave hitler alone and he will leave us alone. There were folks that said since when did hitler ever leave anybody alone if he had the chance to invade them. No. We need a hero that will express the need to fight hitler. There was a concern because hitler was this dictator who might get killed at any time, that by the time this comic book hit the stands that hitler might already be dead. And they felt, well, that might not be the worst outcome. Lets put the comic out anyway whether hes alive or dead by the time it hits the stands. If you look at the captain america movie again, and theres a lot of comics of him being sold punching hitler in the face. What the movie makers did is come up with a fictional in comic book reason why this image became so popular. In action comics number 1, he really does lift up a car and smash it against a cliff. But in captain america, its like, well, he couldnt have gotten that close to hitler, otherwise the war would already be over with. What they did was say, okay, this is a representational cover and the movie makers came up with the real reason that inspired it. Everybody see that. Lets look a bit at captain america covers, which in and of themselves were pieces of propaganda. You see when you went to the newsstand to buy comics, the cover was so important because its the first thing that met your eyes, and the captain america comics were masterpieces of propaganda and he liked punching the enemy 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. Hes punching a japanese war lord and hes saying you started it. Now well finish it. And 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 lets look at the first page. Ill zoom in here. Captain america, new, different, exciting. Number 13. Whos the editor . Stan lee. I told you that Martin Goodman was the head of Marvel Comics or the company that would become Marvel Comics and a distant relative of his who was just a kid at the time comes to marvel. Hes hired to basically be a gopher. And whats a gofer. Go fer this, go fer that. The guy had some income coming in and over time 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 youre the only guy left in the office because at that very young age, guess what, hes the editor. Stan lee would later say, its just supposed to be temporary while everybody else was at the war but it turned out that temporary job i had for like 30 years. All right, lets look at this page a little bit more. Whats at the center of the page right between captain america and bucky . Whats in the center right here . Looks familiar . The minute man image for defense buy United States savings bonds and stamps. Bucky is even saluting it. Theres Something Else here too. Way down here on page 57 after you finished reading the adventures of captain america and bucky, we have a character called the secret stamp. Meet americas newest hero as roddy colt, young United States defense agent, dons the mask of the secret stamp in the first of many thrillaminute, truetolife adventures. How many people here have heard of the secret stamp . I didnt think so. I hadnt heard of the secret stamp before i got into this comic. Whos the secret stamp . Why, are they not going to make a movie about him or something . The secret stamp is a kid on a bicycle who puts on a mask and has a cape and sells war bonds and stamps. But he got the governments attention. Let us turn to page 57 of this comic book. There he is, dont miss him. There it is, the kid, bicycle, and whats that button hes got . It says official u. S. Defense agent. Woohoo but what is interesting about this splash page about the secret stamp is that the splash page in addition to the big minute man image here is also dedicated front and center to a letter to stan lee from the United States Treasury Department on december the 2nd, 1941. That is a week before pearl harbor. And let us see what it says. Mr. Stan lee, editor, captain america comics, 330 west 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 roddy colt, u. S. Defense agent. Remember, roddy colt is the civilian identity of the secret stamp. Cant forget that. We like the idea very much and believe such a strip will be effective in in connection with the plan promoted by Newspaper Publishers now reaching national proportions to sell defense savings stamps through approximately 500,000 loyal Young American newsboys from maine to california. Sincerely yours, eugene w. Sloan, director, defense savings staff, Treasury Department, washington, d. C. Wow. This guy got the governments attention. Take the opportunity to buy some of these. These are on kindle and ibooks. Its not bad, the secret stamp. Hes a kid who is mad when bullies knock over a bicycle and take all the defense stamps for themselves. So what does he do . He puts on this mask, he puts on this cape, 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. Im always concerned about this kind of thing. Its like you just cant put on a mask and put on a cape, get on your bicycle and go after crooks. I mean the guys could be dangerous. But the message got through. That selling u. S. Savings 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 rocked and 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. You know, the second war loan, then the third war loan and the fourth war loan and the fifth war loan and the sixth war loan. It was called the mighty seventh war loan. The idea was, and this may shock you, if you begin to see good news in the newspaper about the war, this is not the time to sit back and just say, okay, its over. I wont buy so many defense stamps. I wont buy so many bonds. 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. So im going to play this 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. Im going to turn this up here. People are very fond of my colorful speakers. Im 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, buy a bond and buy and buy the bonds you buy will bring you victory buy, buy, buy, buy a bond and youll be standing by the victory when johnny comes marching home again oh, you should need no request for after all you know that youre investing in the best till the lads come back again back the old attack again buy, buy bonds this is no time to say youve 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 to help supply 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 so nows the time to fall in line and deal the final blow buy, buy, buy a bond and buy and buy, the bonds you buy will bring you victory buy, buy, buy a bond and youll be standing by the victory arch when johnny comes marching home again oh, you should need no request for after all you know that youre investing in the best till the lads come back again, back the old attack again and buy, buy bonds 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 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 youre not getting any interest. Its zero or its 0. 3 . It doesnt seem like its going to give you much anymore, not like when we were talking about you put in 18. 75 and you get back 25. Youre not having that so much. Some people are nostalgic, where you dont have that physical thing anymore. I mean you can printout you can go online and you can buy the bond and 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 thats a thought. But some of the romance is gone. Some of the romance is gone. And some people, particularly, and i can identify with this too, of a generation that grew up before there were computers, before everything was online, they might find the online buying of bonds just a bit cumbersome as one reporter put it. Its 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. You know, its not like that anymore. Its kind of impersonal. But the big reason is that people dont see its much of an investment. Now, i want to ask you this. I want to ask you this. And after i do this, im going to open it up for the questions, for the qs and the as. Dr. Taylor, were more interested in as than qs. I get that. Thats all right. The question is, does our government need money today, yes or no . Yes. Right . So why dont we have bond campaigns like weve been talking about over todays class for other purposes . Health care. 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. Come on, where are the celebrities, where are the comic book characters, where are the cartoon characters, where are the songs about buying bonds . Where are people saying, hey, whatever you can give, its going to help. Im 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 id like to open it up for the questions with the mic if anybody has some ideas. Just wait for the mic. Remember we talked about Lamont Cranston and the shadow. You have to wait for that filtered microphone. So 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 of course, there isnt as much of a greater threat as there was back in world war ii with the nazis and the japanese . I dont know. I think people would argue that the threat levels are just as high in our post 9 11 world, but youre not the first person to think about whats happening to the patriotism. Whats 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 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 gungho about paying taxes today than 1943 . So what about that . What about getting a cartoon out there to help americans feel better about paying their taxes. I was just going to say society is different. People are more selfish today. People are more selfish today . Yeah. Theyre not willing to do those type of things anymore, i think. Its a different era, different i think thats why. Thats sad. But its the reality. Why are people more selfish . Its all about me. I mean arent there plenty of things to get excited about in terms of helping others . What happened to that . Okay. Is it because theres a lack of trust towards our government now, that theyre going to take our money and do the right thing with it . Now, this is something youve hit upon. In the wake of vietnam and watergate, theres this idea that the government may not always be as trustworthy with the people. They may not tell the entire truth and you might not reporters might not be able to trust everything that the president says. There was an aura around the presidency back during world war ii. That is part of it, that theres a mistrust of government. But maybe that mistrust is against the american publics own interest when it gets to not getting to be 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, im taking my aquaman break here or my submariner break here. I could be bipartisan, right . Notice, one character here, one character there. One company here, one company there. One has to be bipartisan. Okay. But the one thing that both d. C. , marvel and all the other cartoon and comics companies had in common was that when Something Like world war ii came up, they all pitched in to help. See . 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 . Is it all just escape now, escapism now . Back then did you notice something, that it was escapism but also irrelevance. Hey, hey, when you finish reading this comic, 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. The large distrust was built after the events of like watergate and all of that. I remember when i took the presidency course with you. Yes. When Abraham Lincoln said something, no one questioned it. Like i mean somebody is going to have to question it now and again, but like the masses believed in their president. Youre saying that there was an understanding yeah, there was an understanding. Like government is for us, theyre trying to help us. That was the like their mentality. But as like, you know, vietnam, watergate, everything, as time went on, you know what i mean, a split between the people and the government happened. I think that thats why people right now, if you ask any young person that doesnt know a lot about knows a decent amount about history but isnt in history courses so they might not want to be affiliated with politics, the majority of people say that they dont know whats going on. Like they just dont want to hear about it, about whats going on in the government. Because in the masss eyes now, nobody like the government doesnt care. Theyre out just for personal gain and when they do this thats it. Whatever happened to the superhero approach, that the government was a hero . Whatever happened to that . Well, i feel like nowadays people have kind of a distaste for helping the government because they dont 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, its dangerous almost, and were more likely to make fun of a crisis than act about it. Thats going to be part of it. And when we look at what happens to comics, the rest of world war ii and in the future, because were getting towards the ending of our class today. I want you to think about something. How did how did the image of the government change. And watch this, how did the image of the superhero change and the idea were comic books good for kids in the first place. What happened to that idea as we move out of the 40s and into the 50s. Well be looking at a lot of different issues that we explore today as the calendar moves from one year to another and one decade to another. But were going to have to pick that up next time. So ill see you then. Campaign 2020. Watch our live coverage of the president ial candidates on the campaign trail and make up your own mind. Cspans campaign 2020, your unfiltered view of politics. Tonight on the communicators we are at the very beginning of building out a smart city. We were fortunate very early on to convert our old telephone booth infrastructure into wifi kiosks, and they are strategically located across the city of new york. That in and of itself provides a means of communicating that sets out sort of a predicate for what can be done with sensor technology, how we can regulate our lighting systems. Theres so much that can be done just from that platform alone. New York Democratic congresswoman yvette clark tonight at 8 00 eastern on the communicators on cspan 2. It was a century ago that a u. S. Army convoy of about 80 vehicles made its way from washington, d. C. , to san francisco. This picture depicting exactly what happened, a transcontinental mission to inspect americas roads, and the map showcasing the journey from washington, d. C. , to san francisco. A journey documented in a 25minute silent film which we will be showing in just a moment. First joining ugs is