George Stewart Benson, president of Harding University, was tapped by entrepreneur Alfred P. Sloan to make propaganda films. Courtesy of Harding University.

A story that sounds too simplistic to be accurate is Sloan heard George Stewart Benson, president of Harding College in Searcy, Arkansas, deliver a “fundamentalist anti-labor diatribe” and was so moved that he decided “that day” to underwrite Harding College’s plans to produce educational anti-Communist, pro-free enterprise system films. In any case the Sloan Foundation did give Harding a lot of money to produce propaganda films (reports vary from $300,000 to $597,870). There were nine animated films made for Harding using money donated by Sloan according to Rick Prelinger. He runs Ephemeral Film, a film library that had an enormous collection of unusual films paid for by corporations, educational institutions and our government. The collection was purchased by the Library of Congress in 2002.

I find it hard to believe that the just-retired head of General Motors would fund an expensive propaganda film in Technicolor and let a school in Arkansas with no track record as a film producer handle the project unless there was an unstated ulterior motive. Sloan isn’t mentioned in the film credits, which is odd as most sponsors want some recognition. Did he want the school to be his front? Something about the project doesn’t make sense.

Benson's deal with Sloan benefited Harding University financially. Courtesy of Harding University.

Since the first of the Harding films dates from 1948 and the CIA was created in July 1947 it is possible, but unlikely that one of the CIA’s first activities was to fund propaganda cartoons. It is possible the films were made at the request of another federal agency, but most likely the money used was Sloan’s. He probably felt there was a need for strong anti-Communist propaganda films and using Harding would keep his name from being identified with the cause. It is common for foundations to give restrictive gifts that are designed for the money to be used for specific purposes.

Mike Barrier, author of the remarkably well-researched Hollywood Cartoons, interviewed John Sutherland in February 1990. Sutherland owned the Hollywood studio that produced the animated series for Harding. His interview confirms the above scenario and adds additional information. Sutherland told Barrier that Sloan “sent a representative to Walt” to approach him about making cartoons on economic themes and that Walt sent the representative to Sutherland. Sutherland told Barrier that Sloan gave a grant to Harding so they could commission him to make the films. Harding owns the rights to the films so any income from them went to the college. The school also owns the negatives to the films. Barrier was also told, “So I got a million dollar contract.”

Sutherland probably inflated the amount of the contract in his conversation. A typical Warner Bros. cartoon cost about $23,000 to make in the mid-‘50s and George Pal Puppetoons were costing under $50,000 at Paramount after WWII. Prelinger’s $597,870 is probably the most likely amount for the grant.

Eventually other conservative corporations contributed to Harding including General Electric, U.S. Steel and Olin Mathieson Chemical. By 1961 Harding’s endowment from corporations was said to be $6 million.

Harding, founded in 1924, began as a small religious college, run by the Church of Christ. It is named after James Harding, a minister who was co-founder of the Nashville Bible School. The school was integrated in 1962, becoming the first college in the state to integrate. Today Harding University is a much larger institution offering a wide range of degree programs.

Benson’s biography includes his being born in a log cabin in Oklahoma in 1898, going to a one-room school and eventually graduating from Harding in 1925 with a B.A. He and his bride spent the next 11 years as Church of Christ missionaries in China. In 1936, “Harding College urged Benson to take over the presidency and for the next 29 years of his presidency Benson raised a great deal of money for the college. In 1936, he formed the National Education Program dedicated to teaching Americans the importance of faith in God, constitutional government and free enterprise” (from Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans). Benson retired in 1965. He was also chancellor of Oklahoma Christian University and presented a radio program Behind the News for many years. The Arkansas Archive of Public Communication has 543 tapes of his radio broadcasts on file (1975–85). He died in 1991.