Presented by the Special Events Section of the United States Dept. of Treasury, this short film is a promo for the Victory Loan Program in 1945. The film presents an overview of the motion pictures created to promote the Victory Loans — war bond sales — to continue financing the war effort. The films promoted include “Peace Comes to America”, “Stilwell Road”, “Objective Security”, “Diary of a Sergeant”, and more. The film ends with the song “We’ve Got Another Bond to Buy” sung by Bing Crosby.
The War Finance Committee was in charge of supervising the sale of all war bonds during WWII, and the War Advertising Council promoted voluntary compliance with bond buying. Popular contemporary art was used to help promote the bonds such as Any Bonds Today?, a Warner Brothers theatrical cartoon. More than a quarter of a billion dollars’ worth of advertising was donated during the first three years of the National Defense Savings Program. The government appealed to the public through popular culture. Norman Rockwell’s painting series, the Four Freedoms, toured in a war bond effort that raised $132 million. Bond rallies were held throughout the country with famous celebrities, usually Hollywood film stars, to enhance the bond advertising effectiveness. Many motion pictures during the time, especially war dramas (a form of propaganda itself), included a graphic shown during the closing credits advising patrons to “Buy War Bonds and Stamps”, which were sometimes sold in the lobby of the theater. The Music Publishers Protective Association encouraged its members to include patriotic messages on the front of their sheet music like “Buy U.S. Bonds and Stamps”. Over the course of the war 85 million Americans purchased bonds totalling approximately $185 billion.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example like: “01:00:12:00 — President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.”
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
