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"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (Film)
Snow White was Disney’s first animated feature film and has been a continuing success story. Considered significant by the Library of Congress on many levels, it was also the first to have its own soundtrack album. This one minute trailer is a nice piece of film work itself!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029583/ -
"Selz Bros. Circus" (Painting)
Standish Backus, Jr., California
Backus was a naval Combat Artist in the Pacific theater during WWII. He painted in the style of California watercolorists. This circus scene depicts one of America’s favorite pastimes. -
"Superman" Action Comics
This comic book brought Superman and other heroes into our world. It is considered to be the most valuable comic book of all time. Its original cost was 10 cents; in 2014, a copy sold for over $3,000,000! -
"The Good Earth" (Literature)
Pearl S. Buck receives the Nobel Prize for Literature. Based on her experiences living in China with missionary parents, Buck's true-to-life depictions of Chinese life and people are credited with paving the way for 1930s Americans to consider China as an ally when war with Japan broke out. -
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"Somewhere Over the Rainbow" (Song)
Judy Garland, singer
From the movie "The Wizard of Oz," this song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW2QZ7KuaxA -
Falling Water House (Architecture)
Frank Lloyd Wright
Recognized as "Best All-Time Work of American Architecture" in 1991. -
"The Great Dictator" (Film)
Charlie Chaplin's satirical take on Hitler! Chaplin later said he would not have made the film had he known at the time the true horrors of the Holocaust.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032553/ -
"In the Mood" (Instrumental Music)
Glenn Miller, Big Band Era
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I81zAs6z_Fc
This song has a fascinating history in that it was originally performed mainly by Black artists with limited air play. For more info: http://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/in%20the%20mood%20essay.pdf -
"Lascaux Cave Paintings" (Visual Art)
These paintings were discovered by a group of teenagers.
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/thisday/sep12/lascaux-cave-paintings-discovered/ -
"The Maltese Falcon" (Film)
Considered the first major film noir, this film brought us Detective Sam Spade. It maintains its popularity and is considered highly influential in the noir genre.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033870/ -
Completion of Mount Rushmore (Sculpture)
Carving took place from 1927-1941
https://www.nps.gov/moru/learn/historyculture/carving-history.htm -
"Mrs. Miniver" (Film)
Mrs. Miniver, winner of six Academy Awards, is an American film about life on the English home front during WWII. The film is credited with Impacting Americans’ attitudes toward our British allies. -
"Yankee Doodle Dandy" (Film)
This is a biographical musical about the life of composer George M. Cohan, starring James Cagney (Academy Award, Best Actor). Cagney had been accused of Communism earlier during the 1919 Actors' Equity Strike. He didn't like Cohan personally, but set out to make a hyper-patriotic film, of which Cohan approved. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035575/ -
"Camoufleurs" (Visual Art)
Artists and designers were called upon to camouflage important sites during World War II.
https://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/whats-on/forthcoming/concealment-deception -
"Flower Seller" (Painting)
Diego Rivera
https://www.diegorivera.org/flowerseller1942.jsp
Some believe that Rivera was using his art as a political expression about ordinary Mexicans going about their daily work, usually for the benefit of the upper echelons of society. -
"The Stranger" (Novel)
Albert Camus "wrote The Stranger from a place of tragedy and suffering. His father had died in World War I, and the unfolding carnage of World War II forced a questioning of life and its meaning..." (Britannica)
https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Stranger-novel-by-Camus
https://newrepublic.com/article/115492/albert-camus-stranger -
"White Christmas" (Song)
Bing Crosby first performed this on Christmas Day 1941, shortly after the attacks on Pearl Harbor. It is the best selling single record of all time, and even spent three weeks on the Harlem Hit Parade.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9QLn7gM-hY (Original version) -
"The Boxer" (Sculpture)
Richmond Barthé created this piece from his memory, inspired by watching Cuban boxer "Kid Chocolate."
https://www.artic.edu/artworks/62452/the-boxer -
"Four Freedoms" (Painting)
This is one of Norman Rockwell's responses to President Roosevelt's 1941 address to Congress, wherein he described his ideal vision of a world after war, founded on the basic freedoms of speech and religion, and freedom from want and fear.
https://www.nrm.org/2012/10/collections-four-freedoms/ -
"Oklahoma" (Musical Theater)
Richard Rodgers' first collaboration with Oscar Hammerstein, this musical play took some risks opening with "a lone cowboy singing a gentle idyll about corn and meadows" (History.com). Rave reviews!
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/oklahoma-premieres-on-broadway
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk0LCz7kvEc -
"Camp Scene" (Painting)
Unidentified artist; Heart Mountain Internment Camp, Wyoming
From a larger exhibition, “The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942-1946”
http://www.rafu.com/2012/10/the-art-of-gaman-to-tour-japan/ -
"The Glass Menagerie" (Play)
Tennessee Williams' first successful play, "Menagerie" is largely autobiographical and deals with the sensitive topic of mental illness. Williams continued writing and is considered of one America's best playwrights. -
"This Land is Your Land" (Song)
Woody Guthrie, in an interesting link to current news, was apparently annoyed by Kate Smith's recording of "God Bless America" playing constantly on the radio! So he wrote this song instead!
https://www.npr.org/2000/07/03/1076186/this-land-is-your-land
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxiMrvDbq3s
