Part Two — Cartoon Shorts; A Preliminary Report on Militant Liberty Films
In Frances Saunders’ book The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters (Who Paid the Piper? in England), she mentions a policy developed in the 1950s called Militant Liberty. The phrase was the name of a top-secret campaign by the CIA, Pentagon and other agencies that encouraged studios to insert the theme of freedom into our movies in the mid-‘50s. It also can be used to describe an informal trend or movement to include pro-American content into films. In the 1940s it is seen in a series of anti-Nazi and then anti-Communist films.
Saunders covers some of the Militant Liberty themes Carleton Alsop wrote about in memos to the CIA when he was working undercover at Paramount. In Arrowhead (1953), he saw serious potential problems that “the Commies could use to their advantage.” The film about the Apaches was tinkered with so scenes of the Indian tribe being shipped against their wishes to a reservation in Florida were removed or “their impact (was) significantly diluted.” After the film ended its run in the U.S., dialogue was re-dubbed so that the international release could be presented on “a commercial and patriotic basis.”
Images showing heavy drinking in our films were eliminated when they were not essential to the script. Showing Tobacco Road poverty (especially in our black population), corporate knavery, being irreverent toward organized religion and showing outrageous crimes were other themes to avoid if possible. Alsop wanted Hollywood to avoid showing negative stereotypes and to include “characterizations which represented a healthy America.”
The CIA called the Militant Liberty image of a sanitized America the “Hollywood Formula.” While Saunders doesn’t discuss how it affected short films and cartoons there are differences in the content of cartoons from the 1950s from those that were made before WWII. There is a reduction of racist stereotypes, drunken scenes, showing people living in poverty, etc. Which elements if any were reduced or cut consciously by Militant Liberty advisors is impossible to know at this point. For example while black stereotypes were eliminated in Warner Bros. cartoons by 1950, there are several Bugs Bunny cartoons from the ‘50s showing hillbillies and criminals living in shacks. At Paramount’s Famous Studios shacks were omitted from their 1950s productions, but Casper the Friendly Ghost lived in a rundown ruined house and the last black stereotype appears in a cartoon from Famous in 1958. (Alsop worked for Paramount in Hollywood and Famous was in New York so it appears his influence wasn’t as strong there.)
While the influence of patriotic watchdogs to remove negative images in cartoons is impossible to prove, their influence is obvious in several cartoons that promote freedom and the American way of life. The films to be discussed from Warner Bros., Sutherland, Disney and other studios are clearly propaganda and none would have been made if it were not for outside money and advice. Most clearly state in the opening or end credits who sponsored the film, but what isn’t said is whom the sponsors really were and why they felt there was a need to present these messages to the public. We might also wonder from where their money came. In 1967 the New York Times revealed that the CIA was using private and corporate philanthropic foundations as conduits to fund some seemingly innocent educational projects. It isn’t known if government funding was used to make any of these films, but Disney’s Our Friend the Atom, 1957, was made with the assistance of the Navy and Duck and Cover, 1951, was sponsored by the U.S. Federal Civil Defense Administration.
The Sloan Foundation, Harding College and John Sutherland Productions
Alfred P. Sloan (1875-1966) was the CEO of General Motors from 1923 to 1946. He is considered the father of the modern corporation. Today his foundation is a major supporter of PBS radio and TV, medical research projects and other impressive projects. The foundation has ties with many major corporations and institutions. They were not mentioned in the 1967 scandal over the CIA using foundations as conduits.
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.
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 [4], 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.
On the Internet, there are references to the John Birch society and other conservative groups showing films produced by Harding College. There are also references to people who question Benson’s beliefs. A review of Arkansas Mischief by Jim McDonald in the Denver Post, 1998, describes the purpose of Harding’s National Education Program as “to spread warnings of Communist peril lurking in the civil rights movement and among the ranks of peace demonstrators.” An unidentified writer for www.spiritone.com [6] says the organization’s “sole purpose was to produce propaganda films supporting his fascist views” and the Church of Christ “opposes most modern doctrines including Darwin’s theory of evolution.” While the information on the site includes oversimplifications and basic factual errors, it does indicate the controversy that exists about Benson.
Harding hired John Sutherland Productions in Los Angeles to produce their animated films. Sutherland (1910-2001) worked for Disney for several years (chiefly as a writer) before opening his own studio in 1945. His first productions included the animated Daffy Dillies series for United Artists and a series of animated one-minute theatrical ads for Chiquita Bananas. He experimented using puppets in at least one of his early Daffy Dillies, but he became known for his high-end cel animation. It appears that his first propaganda films were for Harding College. They were distributed to theaters and to schools, civic groups and corporations by Loew’s, a division of MGM. He received an Oscar nomination in 1968 for the documentary short A Way Out of the Wilderness. His biography published in trade annuals says he was the creator of Thumper in Bambi. He was given screen credit in that film for being one of two actors doing the voice of Bambi.
Bill Scott on Working at Sutherland
Scott found the work great training for the tight deadlines he had later on as co-producer and head writer at Jay Ward’s studio (Rocky and Bullwinkle). He said, “I learned a great deal…” but, “I was not particularly happy at Sutherland studio. The material I was doing was not anything I really believed in, but there was always a great set of challenges. It was always a satisfaction to be able to solve problems, which is largely what writing is. It is like doing puzzles.” He also says he was well paid and, “We traveled first cabin all the way.” He described the quality of the studio’s work as “really good stuff,” but left after four years: “I couldn’t stand it anymore.”
The Sutherland Productions
Giving the viewer lots of facts is part of each film. They stress the freedoms given to us by our Constitution and Bill of Rights from religious freedom and free speech to the right to own your own business. We learn the USA occupies only 7% of the planet, but we own 70% of the cars, 92% of the earth’s bathtubs and 50% of the radios. A film sponsored by the New York Stock Exchange explains each step a corporation has to take before they will list that stock. After showing us how great the system is, they issue a warning that occasionally they list a lemon, so read carefully before you invest.
In the mid-1950s Sutherland hired Bill Scott as a writer. Scott told Paul Etchevery in an unpublished interview taped November 2, 1981 that working at the studio, “was pretty fascinating, as a matter of fact. I had never worked on that kind of picture before. They were propaganda and informational pictures in large part, which meant that you took a problem of communication that somebody wanted to handle. They would give you points a, b, c, d and e that they wanted the picture to be about or convey. Then the writer would come up with the entire concept of how to do it and what kind of characters and how best to use animation, and develop the entire picture from its concept to its final production. It was a very useful training ground for me although the material wasn’t what I would normally have picked to work on.”
The following are examples of the kinds of animated propaganda shorts produced by Sutherland for Harding and other clients in the late 1940s and ‘50s. The films for Harding began with a card that reads, “This is one of a series of films produced by the Extension Department of Harding College to create a deeper understanding of what made America the finest place in the world to live.” After screening several of the studio’s propaganda films, Chris Robinson, artistic director of the Ottawa International Animation Film Festival [7], wrote, “The major theme of the series is the reconciliation of labor and management, along with the need to reinvest profits into research and development…the conclusions of each film delivers the same message: as consumption is both a means and an end in defining American freedom.” (Essay titled “Selling America: Post-War Propaganda Cartoons,” in the 1999 Ottawa International Student Animation Festival Reader.)
All the Sutherland films were released in Technicolor. Most are eight to ten minutes long. Some of the films have dates in the title sequences, but others do not. It was common to leave out dates in industrial films (a.k.a. sponsored films) so people wouldn’t know how old the film was. These were films shown in schools and to other groups year after year. Since older animation doesn’t always look dated, hopefully these films could stay in distribution for many years. It is difficult to date some of them accurately. Many of them can be seen at no cost on the Internet at Ephemeral Films’ Websites.
A Description of Several Sutherland Productions
Warner Bros.
Jerry Beck, co-author of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, 1989, says the Sloan Foundation paid the studio $25,000 to produce each cartoon and each was produced with a $23,000 budget resulting in a profit before the films were even shown to the public. The films are still shown on TV by the Cartoon Network. Fans rarely say anything nice about them and all three made it onto an Internet list of “politically incorrect stereotypes that seem to offend just about everyone.” They are listed under a special category, “capitalist propaganda (Sloan Foundation cartoons),” at www.nc.rr.com/tuco/looney.lists/politically.
In the mid-1950s the Sloan Foundation funded three theatrical cartoons made by Warner Bros. that have heavy-handed economic messages within them. Heir Conditioned (Freleng, 1955) has Elmer Fudd trying to convince Sylvester to invest his inheritance rather than spend it. In By Word of Mouse (Freleng), we are taught the benefits of mass production and consumption, and Yankee Dood It (Freleng, 1956) presents capitalist theory on how to run a profitable factory. It is somewhat amusing to see Elmer Fudd waxing poetically about “mass pwoduction” and “pwofits.”
While there is no proof any animated short was produced under our government’s Militant Liberty program, the three from Warner Bros. are possible candidates. They were made at the right time, their content was the type of material the Militant Liberty people wanted and cartoons from Warner Bros. were seen in many countries. In an e-mail from Frances Saunders, she said, “The Sloan Foundation was, as I'm sure you know, full of cold warriors (including Lucius Clay) and, if memory serves, it was used as a conduit by the CIA. But I don't think I have anything in my files to help you.” It would be a mistake to jump to conclusions about the circumstances under which these films were made.
Animation from Disney and Other Producers
Live-Action Propaganda Films Made for Harding College
Other talks presented by Ganus in this film series from 1955 include Secret of American Production and Why Kill the Goose: The Profit System.
Was There a Need for These Films?
The War We Are In: Communism vs. Captalism, 1962, a lecture by Dr. Benson, President of Harding College.
If you are still wondering why these films were made and are still feeling a bit skeptical about culture being used as a Cold War weapon, let me leave you with a few facts from the CIA’s Freedom of Information Website. One document stamped, “CIA historical review program, released in full, 1999” says, “Since the mid-Fifties, expenditures by Communist countries for cultural and propaganda programs directed toward less developed countries have expanded rapidly and now exceed $430 million annually…USIA funds for programs in less developed countries are currently about $90 million.” Next it outlines, “Instruments employed in the Communist cultural offensive.” They include books, films and exhibits in one of the seven categories listed (www.foia.cia.gov [11]). The undated document, probably from the mid-‘60s, shows the agency felt using culture, as a weapon for the Cold War, was important. An independent Website says, “By the mid-Reagan era, the USIA would spend nearly a billion dollars per annum to export propaganda…”
The CIA was not the only one to believe we needed propaganda films. We know from Mark Langer’s excellent Animation World Network article “Disney’s Atomic Fleet” [13] from April 1998, that Our Friend the Atom was a tool to counter opposition to the military use of atomic weapons by showing peaceful uses of atomic energy and by explaining it can be a harmless friend that can benefit mankind. Disney’s staff met with government officials while the work was being developed. The article goes on to show how Disney took his propaganda efforts further by building a fleet of “atomic” submarines at Disneyland. Vice-president Nixon, Walt Disney and a Navy admiral were on the maiden voyage of the ride before millions of viewers on ABC television, June 14, 1959. This is a fine example of Militant Liberty.
The films discussed were made at a time when many Americans were really scared of the red menace and the evil empire. The right wing fringe saw Commies everywhere. We had the House Un-American Activities Committee and Joe McCarthy in the Senate holding hearings (a common mistake is to say McCarthy was involved with the House group). I can imagine conservative businessmen on corporation boards suggested to their friends on other boards that all corporations should do something positive to fight the influence of Russia at home and abroad. It makes perfect sense for defense contractors to do their part by making small contributions toward the production of propaganda tools (films, etc.). Since the films were shown in classrooms, to civic groups and in company lunchrooms, it was good public relations to say, “This important message was brought to you by…” at the end of each film.
It appears that by the late ‘50s the emphasis of the conservative pro-American/anti-Communist film had shifted away from using animation and the themes in the works discussed. There were new dangers at home and abroad to worry about that were better dealt with through live-action footage. Harding produced Brink of Disaster(1972) that tells us how the 1960’s activism “threatens” American moral, religious and ethical principles. CBS photographed Harry Reasoner “without any flowers in my hair” taking a tour of the Haight-Ashbury in The Hippie Temptation (1967), an anti-LSD propaganda classic with contempt for those who reject our country’s mainstream values during a time of war. Operation Abolition (1960) was made to show the horrors of anti-American protesters “rioting” in San Francisco’s City Hall. The ACLU was so outraged by the distortions of truth in the film that they produced Operation Correction (1961), a film that explains what actually happened. It was a peaceful sit-in protesting the House Un-American Committee’s hearings in May 1960 in San Francisco. It ended with protesters being doused with fire hoses and dragged out to paddy wagons. The conservative film claimed those who opposed the committee were either Communists or Communist dupes. The “riot” footage showed a peaceful sit-in being disrupted by angry police.
Animated anti-Communist propaganda didn’t die out completely. Tom Sito, an animator/director, told me: “In 1984 during Ronald Reagan’s ‘Evil Empire’ buildup, Hanna-Barbara had a show called Challenge of the GoBots, a toy based show similar to the Transformers. The main GoBot Leader-1 could turn from a robot man into a F-14 fighter plane. In one episode his enemy was a robot called Red Menace, who brainwashed other GoBots so that they didn’t know they could turn into trucks, planes, SUVs and the like. Red Menace would turn from a man into a Soviet style MIG-21.” Dr. Norman S. Cohen, an uncle who once headed Occidental University’s history department (retired), wrote me, “Messing with the heads of kids is a great propaganda technique.”
Researching this paper was an exciting challenge as most of the material discussed was new to me and it has not been discussed in print before. I feel I’ve made important discoveries and have begun to understand what happened during the Cold War. I suspect a great deal more is to be learned about animation used as propaganda. There may even be some surprises to discover in well known animated films that we now assume were made solely for entertainment. This study also raises important moral and ethical questions. I’m personally uncomfortable with the knowledge that our government and corporate interests have used a great art form for covert purposes. I’m saddened at animation's loss of innocence.
The author would like to thank the individuals who provided material for this report. Frances Stoner Saunders’ research has opened a new chapter in animation history. Vivien Halas has been kind enough to check this text for errors and has provided a wealth of information. Chris Robinson provided his notes on Sutherland Productions and other material. Over two-dozen other people made important contributions. Among them were Michael Barrier, Jerry Beck, Howard Beckerman, Paul Etcheverry, Mark Kausler, Mark Langer and Tom Sito. I’d also like to thank the 19 people who sent e-mails to awn.com regarding my controversial article Was Walt Disney a Saint, An Evil Sinner Or The Devil Incarnate? The Truth About Some Of Those Nasty Disney Stories! [14] Some of their comments inspired me to search the Internet for other questionable Disney stories. I found more, plus my first reference to Saunders’ book. Without their letters this study into Cold War propaganda might not exist. Finally, I’d like to thank Ron Diamond and Heather Kenyon for making awn.com an exciting Website.
The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters by Frances Stonor Saunders. New York, New York: The New Press, 2000. 528 pages with eight pages photographs. ISBN: 1-56584-664-8. (US$18.95)
Nine of John Sutherland's films can be viewed and downloaded from www.archive.org/movies/prelinger.php
Karl Cohen is a frequent contributor to Animation World Magazine and is the author of Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators (1997, McFarland). He teaches animation history at San Francisco State University and is president of ASIFA-SF.
Links:
[1] http://www.awn.com/imagepicker/image/5681
[2] http://www.awn.com/imagepicker/image/5682
[3] http://www.awn.com/imagepicker/image/5683
[4] http://mag.awn.com/index.php3?ltype=search&sval=barrier&article_no=1211
[5] http://www.awn.com/imagepicker/image/5684
[6] http://www.spiritone.com
[7] http://www.awn.com/ottawa/
[8] http://www.awn.com/imagepicker/image/5685
[9] http://www.awn.com/imagepicker/image/5686
[10] http://www.awn.com/imagepicker/image/5687
[11] http://www.foia.cia.gov
[12] http://www.awn.com/imagepicker/image/5688
[13] http://mag.awn.com/index.php3?ltype=search&sval=Mark Langer&article_no=537&page=1
[14] http://mag.awn.com/index.php3?ltype=search&sval=cohen disney&article_no=1439
