Scene still for the film “Food Will Win the War” (1942)
Extent and Medium
Overall: Height: 10.000 inches (25.4 cm) | Width: 8.125 inches (20.638 cm)
Creator(s)
- Walt Disney Productions (Production Company)
- RKO Radio Pictures (Distributor)
- Ken Sutak (Compiler)
Biographical History
The Cinema Judaica Collection consists of more than 1,200 objects relating to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical subjects, from 1923 to 2000, from the United States, Europe, Israel, Canada, Mexico, and Argentina. The collection was amassed by film memorabilia collector Ken Sutak, to document Holocaust-and Jewish-themed movies of the World War II era and the postwar years. The collection includes posters, lobby and photo cards, scene stills, pressbooks, trade ads, programs, magazines, books, VHS tapes, DVDS, and 78 rpm records. Sutak organized these materials into two groups, “Cinema Judaica: The War Years, 1939–1949” and “Cinema Judaica: The Epic Cycle, 1950–1972” and, in conjunction with the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum (now the Dr. Bernard Heller Museum in New York), organized exhibitions on these two themes in 2007 and 2008. Sutak subsequently authored companion books with the same titles.
Archival History
The scene still was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by Ken Sutak and Sherri Venokur.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Ken Sutak and Sherri Venokur
Scope and Content
Scene still from the animated short film, “Food Will Win the War,” released by RKO Radio Pictures in July 1942. Scene stills are photographs relating to the film and used as marketing and advertising tools. Created by Walt Disney Productions, the film was commissioned by the United States Department of Agriculture shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941. It boasts about the extensive agricultural output of the United States, and the role it could play in defeating the Axis powers. By personifying the Axis powers and their weapons as the villains threatening beloved characters from the 1930s, such as the Three Little Pigs, the filmmakers enabled the audience to feel the threat more viscerally while remaining far from the frontlines. “Food Will Win the War” was one of many propaganda shorts Disney produced under a contract for the United States government. In addition to propaganda, the Disney studios also produced a series of instructional films for government and military personnel. This object is one of more than 1,200 objects in the Cinema Judaica Collection of materials related to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical themes.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Restrictions on use. Copyright status is unknown.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Black-and-white scene still from the animated short film, “Food Will Win the War.” The image has a white border on all four sides and has a large illustrated image in the center. Filling the majority of the image is a clouded sky, the white clouds forming the shape of North America, including the countries of Canada, United States, and Mexico. In the bottom right corner of the image is the smoldering frame and chimney of a burned house. A plume of gray smoke is rising above the house. In the bottom left corner is a bare tree branch, arching over a pair of hunched figures, shown from the back and unidentifiable. On the left is a man wearing a brimmed hat, with his arm around the figure on the right. The unidentifiable figure is bent over, and has a shawl wrapped around their head and shoulders. In the bottom margin, the film title, credits, and copyright information are printed in black ink. The paper is discolored and the edges are lightly worn.
back, top right, handwritten, pencil : 1766
Subjects
- Motion pictures--History--20th century.
- United States.
- Short films.
- Patriotism in motion pictures.
- National characteristics, American, in motion pictures.
- Propaganda, American.
- Animated films.
Genre
- Film stills.
- Object
- Photographs