Windows to the Past: Two Deer = 10,000 Bombs

In August of 1942, Walt Disney contributed to the war effort by donating two large lawn ornaments to a scrap metal drive. The setting of the photograph is Walt's Los Feliz home that was located at 4053 Woking Way. In the background, one can see the elaborate dollhouse built for Walt's daughters, Diane and Sharon. Pictured with Walt is General Salvage Chief for California Joseph F. MacCaughtry.  An Associated Press news report from August 10, 1942 provided this background to the photograph:

Walt Disney's two iron deer are leaving his front lawn in Hollywood for the war front. The motion picture producer offered the two deer for scrap and Lessing J. Rosenwald, director of the war production board's conservation division, accepted them. The deer, which weigh a ton, contain enough scrap for one 75-mm. field piece, or 10,000 incendiary bombs.

The photograph is part of the Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive at the UCLA Library.