Altruistic World Online Library

by **admin** » Thu Sep 26, 2019 7:53 am

Individual Isolationists: Henry Ford
by Historical Boys' Clothing
Accessed: 9/26/19

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

One of the most important American industrialists was Henry Ford. He became noted for paying workers a decent wage, but hated labor unions. He was also a pacifist and against war as well as a virulent anti-Semite. [Baldwin] He sponsored a peace expedition to Europe during World War I (1915). The Europeans of course did not take him seriously and the mission was a complete failure. Once America entered the War, his company became a leading producer of ambulances, airplanes, munitions, tanks, and submarine chasers. Ford had said he would not profit from the War. In fact he profited greatly. He ran as a Democrat for the Senate, but was defeated (1918). Ford took a paternalistic attitude toward his employees and tried to control their lives. [Wik] He hired thugs who attacked trade unionists and Ford was the last major U.S. corporation to accept collective bargaining. Ford joined the isolationists as Europe moved toward War. Ford had a range of reasons for joining the isolationists. He did oppose war in general as he had shown during World war I. He did not see Hitler as a great threat and his anti-Semitism helped excuse NAZI barbarities. Ford in fact received a medal from the Führer. Another reason was his hatred of Franklin Roosevelt which began early. (Roosevelt as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the Wilson Administration has opposed Ford's peace expedition.) Ford developed a relationship with Charles Lindbergh. Both passionately believed that the United States should stay not get involved in the European war and even aid Britain. Ford joined the America First National Committee (1940). Not all American Firsters were pleased about this as Ford was such a controversial figure. The AFC was concerned about being labeled anti-Semitic. Ford's anti-union reputation was also not helpful to the movement. The AFC thus voted to cancel his membership. We know that Ford and Lindbergh discussed the Jews in their private conversations. [Collier and Horowitz, p. 205.] Some believed that Lindbergh's speech for the America Firsters in Des Moines, Iowa during which he identified the Jews as one of the groups trying to drag America into the War. After Pearl Harbor and the dissolution of the American First Committee, Ford offered Lindbergh, who had lost much of his popularity, a job with his company. Lindbergh accepted the offer. Again after Pearl Harbor, Ford Motors played an important role in the American war effort. Ford retired after the War (1945).

American Industrialist

One of the most important American industrialists was Henry Ford. He became noted for paying workers a decent wage, but hated labor unions. He was also a pacifist and against war as well as a virulent anti-Semite. [Baldwin]

World War I

Ford sponsored a peace expedition to Europe during World War I (1915). The Europeans of course did not take him seriously and the mission was a complete failure. Once America entered the War, his company became a leading producer of ambulances, airplanes, munitions, tanks, and submarine chasers. Ford had said he would not profit from the War. In fact he profited greatly.

Senate Run

Ford ran as a Democrat for the Senate, but was defeated (1918).

Soviet Operations

Henry Ford is best known for the Model "T" Ford and the mass production of automobiles. He also produced the Fordson tractor which provided low-cost utility vehicles to American farmers. Ford negotiated a major contract for these tractors with the Soviet Union immediately after World War I (1919). The Soviets became Ford's most important foreign client. The Soviets purchased over 24,000 Fordson tractors (1921-27). Ford help the Soviets open the Leningrad plant "Red Putilovite" (Красный Путиловец) (1924). The plant produced Fordson-Putilovets (Фордзон-путиловец) tractors. Like their American versions, these tractors were both inexpensive and rugged. They became widely used throughout the Soviet Union. They were used on the new collective farms. The Soviets used images of the tractors in their propaganda (posters , paintings, postage stamps, etc.) to show how the Communists were modernizing Russia. The Ford Motor Company received a contract to provide technical assistance for the giant tractor plant in Stalingrad--The Traktorostroi. In effect, the United States was helping to build Soviet industry.

German Involvement

He was well thought of in both the Soviet Union and NAZI Germany. The Germans liked him because of his anti-Semitism, even publishing anti-Semitic tracts. He was an early financial backer of the NAZIs. [New York Times, December 20, 1922.] Testimony at Hitler's 1924 trial after the Beer Hall Putch revealed, "Herr Hitler openly boasts of Mr. Ford's support and praises Mr. Ford as a great individualist and a great anti-Semite. A photograph of Mr. Ford hangs in Herr Hitler's quarters, which is the center of monarchist movement." [U.S. State Department] The NAZIs awarded Ford the Grand Cross of the German Eagle-- a NAZI medal given to distinguished foreigners (August 1938). [New York Times, August l, 1938.] He was the first American to receive the honor. The occasion was Ford's 75th birthday. Ford was shaken by the storm of criticism and met with a Detroit Rabbi to say he was sympathetic toward the suffering of German Jews and to deny he supported the NAZIS. [New York Times, December 1, 1938.] Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes. Ickes criticized both Ford and fellow isolationist Charles A. Lindbergh for accepting NAZI awards. [New York Times , December 19, 1938.] Congress after World war II investigating charges of American support for the NAZI war effort. They found that the NAZIs obtained considerable U.S. technical and financial assistance. One of the areas of support were provided by Ford-Werke A.G. The company assisted the NAZIs in obtaining rubber and other critical war materials during 1938 and 1939. [Congressional subcommittee.] Ford-Werke when war broke out placed itself at the disposal of the Wehrmacht for arms contracts. One report suggested that Ford officials in Germany quarreled over who would control Ford operations in England after the NAZI invasion.

Labor Management Relations

Ford took a paternalistic attitude toward his employees and tried to control their lives. [Wik] He hired thugs who attacked trade unionists and Ford was the last major U.S. corporation to accept collective bargaining.

Business and War

Ford was a vicious anti-Semite. He despised Jews, bankers, and unions. And wrote hate-filled pamphlets linking all three. He seemed to have associated Jews and bankers, This association seems to come wholly from his stereotypical image. Jews in America did not have a major role in banking. He also seems to have picked up the idea that American business was involved in getting America into World War I and profiteered during the War. Many companies did profit from the War--few more tn Ford Motors. Ford told a New York Times reporter, " There is a constructive and a destructive Wall Street." and "... if these financiers had their way we'd be in a war now. They want war because they make money out of such conflict — out of the human misery that wars bring." [New York Times, June 4, 1938.] Only Ford did not explain how much Ford Motors had benefited from World War I and how Ford was involved in projects in America, France, Germany, and the Soviet Union--posed to benefit no mater how the war turned out in Europe.

Isolationists

Ford joined the isolationists as Europe moved toward War. Ford had a range of reasons for joining the isolationists. He did oppose war in general as he had shown during World War I. He did not see Hitler as a great threat and his anti-Semitism helped excuse NAZI barbarities. Ford in fact received a medal from the Führer. Another reason was his hatred of Franklin Roosevelt which began early. (Roosevelt as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the Wilson Administration has opposed Ford's peace expedition.) Ford developed a relationship with Charles Lindbergh. Both passionately believed that the United States should stay not get involved in the European war and even aid Britain. Ford joined the America First National Committee (1940). Not all American Firsters were pleased about this as Ford was such a controversial figure. The AFC was concerned about being labeled anti-Semitic. Ford's anti- union reputation was also not helpful to the movement. The AFC thus voted to cancel his membership. We know that Ford and Lindbergh discussed the Jews in their private conversations. [Collier and Horowitz, p. 205.] Some believed that Lindbergh's speech for the America Firsters in Des Moines, Iowa during which he identified the Jews as one of the groups trying to drag America into the War.

World War II

After Pearl Harbor and the dissolution of the American First Committee, Ford offered Lindbergh, who had lost much of his popularity, a job with his company. Lindbergh accepted the offer. Again after Pearl Harbor, Ford Motors played an important role in the American war effort. Ford retired after the War (1945).

Sources

Baldwin, N. Henry Ford and the Jews (2001).

Collier, Peter and David Horowitz. The Fords: An American Dynasty (New York: Summit Books, 1987).

Congressional subcommittee. Elimination of German Resources, p. 656-58.

Roman, Meredith. "Racism in a “Raceless” Society: The Soviet Press and Representations of American Racial Violence at Stalingrad in 1930," International Labor and Working-Class History (Cambridge University Press) Vol. 71 (March 2007), pp. 185-203.

U.S. State Department Decimal File, National Archives Microcopy M 336, Roll 80, Document 862.00S/6, "Money sources of Hitler," a report from the U.S. Embassy in Berlin.

Wik, R. M. Henry Ford and Grass-Roots America (1970). ]

New York Times (December 20, 1922).

New York Times, (June 4, 1938).

New York Times (August l, 1938).

New York Times (December 1, 1938).

New York Times (December 19, 1938).

by **admin** » Thu Sep 26, 2019 8:07 am

Willow Run
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 9/26/19

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

B-24s under construction at Willow Run.

Willow Run, also known as Air Force Plant 31, was a manufacturing complex in Michigan, located between Ypsilanti Township and Belleville, constructed by the Ford Motor Company for the mass production of aircraft, especially the B-24 Liberator heavy bomber.[1] Construction of the Willow Run Bomber Plant began in 1940[2] and was completed in 1942.

Defense plant

Turning out parts for bomber planes at Willow Run, 1942

The plant began production in summer 1941; the dedication plaque is dated June 16. The plant initially built components; Douglas Aircraft and the plane's designer Consolidated Aircraft assembled the finished aircraft. Remote assembly proved problematic, and by October 1941 Ford received permission to produce complete Liberators.[3][4] Willow Run's Liberator assembly line ran through May 1945, building almost half of all the Liberators produced.

Airport

Willow Run Airport was built as part of the bomber plant. The airfield passed into civilian hands after the war and is now controlled by Wayne County Airport Authority. Part of the airport complex operated at various times as a research facility affiliated with the University of Michigan, and as a secondary United States Air Force Installation. Willow Run Airport remains active as a cargo and general aviation airfield; since 1992 it has been home to the Yankee Air Museum.

Postwar

Ford built the factory and sold it to the government, then leased it back for the duration of the war. When Ford declined to purchase the facility after the war, Kaiser-Frazer Corporation gained ownership, and in 1953 Ford's rival General Motors took ownership and operated the factory as Willow Run Transmission until 2010. Willow Run Assembly operated from 1959 to 1992 on a parcel to the south of the airport. The Fisher Body division also operated at Willow Run Assembly until its operations were assumed by the GM Assembly Division in the 1970s. In 2009 General Motors announced that it would shut down all operations at the GM Powertrain plant and engineering center in the coming year.[5]

Since the 2010 closure of Willow Run Transmission, the factory complex has been managed by the RACER Trust, which controls the properties of the former General Motors. In 2011 A.E. Equities Group Holdings offered to buy the former Powertrain plant from the RACER Trust.[5] In April 2013 a redevelopment manager for the RACER Trust confirmed that, whether or not the Yankee Air Museum relocates to the original bomber plant at a future date, unused portions of the powertrain plant would likely be razed as a step toward redeveloping the property.[6]

The Willow Run complex has given its name to a community on the east side of Ypsilanti, defined roughly by the boundaries of the Willow Run Community School District.

Inspection of the landing gear of a transport plane at Willow Run

History

Willow Run takes its name from a small tributary of the Huron River that meandered through pastureland and woods along the Wayne-Washtenaw county line until the late 1930s. By the mid-1920s a local family operating as Quirk Farms had bought the land in Van Buren Township that became the airport. Quirk Farms was purchased by automobile pioneer Henry Ford in 1931.[7] Ford, a keen exponent of the virtues of country living, used it as farmland for a “social engineering” experiment that brought inner-city boys to the Willow Run farms to learn about farming, nature, and the rural way of life. The residents of the Willow Run farm planted, tended, and harvested field crops and collected maple syrup, selling their products at the farm market on the property. In the process, the boys were to learn self-discipline and the values of hard work, and benefit from the fresh air of the country.[8]

From farm to flight line

Like virtually all of the United States' industrial concerns, Ford Motor Company, by this time under the direction of Henry Ford's only son Edsel, directed its manufacturing output during World War II to Allied war production.

In early 1941 the Federal government established the Liberator Production Pool Program to meet the projected demand for the B-24, and the Ford company, joined the program shortly thereafter. Ford Motor would not only build the bombers, it would supply the airfield as well; the farm at Willow Run was an ideal location for the airfield's runways, being under the personal ownership of Henry Ford (thus solving any land acquisition problem) and sited between the main roads and rail lines connecting Detroit with Ann Arbor and points to the west. Easements were acquired from landowners across the county line in Ypsilanti Township where the Liberator plant (and eventually the airport terminal) would be built.

Although officially retired, Henry Ford still had a say in the company's affairs and refused government financing for Willow Run, preferring to have his company build the factory and sell it to the government, which would lease it back to the company for the duration of the war.[9] Ford Motor was to have first option on the plant after war production ended, an option it ultimately chose not to exercise, although a rumor in Drew Pearson's syndicated column had Ford planning a postwar use as a tractor factory,[10] but that never came to pass. Ford would eventually sell its land to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation's Defense Plant Corporation in July 1944, shortly after the Ford farms were transferred to the company's ownership.[11]

Architect Albert Kahn designed the main structure of the Willow Run bomber plant, which had 3,500,000 square feet (330,000 m2) of factory space, and an aircraft assembly line over a mile (1600 m) long. It was thought to be the largest factory under one roof anywhere in the world.[8] The Willow Run plant featured a large turntable two-thirds of the way along the assembly line, allowing the B-24 production line to make a 90° turn before continuing to final assembly. According to legend, this arrangement allowed the company to pay taxes on the entire plant (and its equipment) to Washtenaw County, and avoid the higher taxes of Wayne County where the airfield is located; overhead views suggest that avoiding encroachment on the airfield's taxiways was also a motivation.[12]

Liberator production

Despite intensive design efforts led by Ford production executive Charles E. Sorensen,[13] the opening of the plant still saw some mismanagement and bungling, and quality was uneven for some time. Although the Ford Trimotor had been a success in the 1920s, the company had since shied away from aviation, and initially, Ford was assigned to provide B-24 components with final assembly performed by Consolidated at its Fort Worth plant, or by fellow licensee Douglas Aircraft at its Tulsa, Oklahoma plant. However, in October 1941 Ford received permission from Consolidated and the Army to assemble complete Liberators on its own at its new Willow Run facility.[3][4] Even then it would take nearly a year before finished Liberators left the factory.

According to Max Wallace, Air Corps Chief General "Hap" Arnold told Charles Lindbergh, then a consultant at the plant, that "combat squadrons greatly preferred the B-17 bomber to the B-24 because 'when we send the 17’s out on a mission, most of them return. But when we send the 24’s out, most of them don’t.'”[14]

A 1943 committee authorized by Congress to examine problems at the plant issued a highly critical report; the Ford Motor Company had created a production line that too closely resembled an automobile assembly line "despite the warning of many experienced aircraftmen."[15]

Although the jumping of an automotive company into aircraft production posed these quality problems, it also brought remarkable production rates. The plant held the distinction of being the world's largest enclosed "room." The first Ford-built Liberator rolled off the Willow Run line in September 1942; the first series of Willow Run Liberators was the B-24E.

The Willow Run Plant had many initial startup problems, due primarily to the fact that Ford employees were used to automobile mass production and found it difficult to adapt these techniques to aircraft production. The plant at Willow Run was also beset with labor difficulties, high absentee rates, and rapid employee turnover. The factory was nearly an hour's drive from Detroit, and the imposition of wartime gasoline and tire rationing had made the daily commute difficult. In only one month, Ford had hired 2,900 workers but had lost 3,100.[3][4]

Also, Henry Ford was cantankerous and rigid in his ways. He was violently anti-union and there were serious labor difficulties, including a massive strike. In addition, Henry Ford refused on principle to hire women. However, he finally relented and did employ "Rosie the Riveters" on his assembly lines, probably more because so many of his potential male workers had been drafted into the military than due to any sudden change of principle on his part.[3][4]

By autumn 1943, the top leadership role at Willow Run had passed from Charles Sorensen to Mead L. Bricker.[16]

At the request of the government, Ford began to decentralize operations and many parts were assembled at other Ford plants as well as by the company's sub-contractors, with the Willow Run plant concentrating on final aircraft assembly. The bugs were eventually worked out of the manufacturing processes, and by 1944, Ford was rolling a Liberator off the Willow Run production line every 63 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

At its peak, Willow Run produced 650 B-24s per month with highest production listed as 100 completed Bombers flying away from Willow Run Between April 24 and April 26, 1944. By 1945, Ford produced 70% of the B-24s in two 9-hour shifts. Ford built 6,972 of the 18,482 total B-24s and produced kits for 1,893 more to be assembled by the other manufacturers.[17] The B-24 holds the distinction of being the most produced heavy bomber in history.[1][18]

Army Air Forces support and post-production activities

After their manufacture, the next step in the process was the delivery of the aircraft to the operational squadrons. This was done at Willow Run by 1st Concentration Command (1st CC). The 1st CC was responsible for completing the organization and equipment of tactical and combat bombardment squadrons prior to their deployment to the overseas combat theaters. It also provided a final inspection of the aircraft and make any appropriate final changes; i.e., install long-range fuel tanks, remove unnecessary equipment, and give it a final flight safety test.[19][20]

While the planes were being serviced and made ready for overseas movement, personnel for these planes were also being processed. Pilots, co-pilots, navigators and crew chiefs were assigned as a crew for each aircraft, sleeping on 1,300 cots as they waited for the B-24s to roll off the assembly line. Paperwork was handled, necessary specific B-24 life support equipment was issued and some technical training for supporting the aircraft accomplished.[19][21]

Once production began, it became difficult to introduce changes dictated by field experience in the various overseas theaters onto the production line in a timely fashion. Consequently, newly constructed Liberators needed modifications for the specific geographic areas they were to be flown in combat. For this reason, a series of Air Technical Service Command modification centers were established for the incorporation of these required theater changes into new Liberators following their manufacture and assignments. There were seven known modification centers: the Birmingham Air Depot in Alabama; Consolidated's Fort Worth plant, the Oklahoma City Air Materiel Center at Tinker Field, the Tucson Modification Center at Tucson International Airport;[22] the Northwest Airlines Depot in Minneapolis; the, Martin-Omaha manufacturing plant, and the Hawaiian Air Depot at Hickam Field.[3][4] The Birmingham Air Depot's primary mission was modifying Liberators from Willow Run.[23]

Liberator variants produced at Willow Run

See also: B-24_Liberator § Variants_and_conversions

The B-24E was the first variant of the B-24 that underwent primary manufacture by Ford at Willow Run. Not only did Ford build 490 complete planes, but it also supplied components of B-24Es as kits that could be trucked for final assembly at the factories of Consolidated in Fort Worth and Douglas in Tulsa, 144 and 167 kits.[3]

B-24Es built and fully assembled at Ford were designated B-24E-FO; those assembled at Tulsa and Fort Worth out of parts supplied by Ford were designated B-24E-DT and B-24E-CF respectively. Because of production delays encountered at Willow Run as a result of the inevitable difficulties and snags involved in the adaptation of automobile manufacturing techniques to aircraft, the B-24Es produced at Willow Run were, generally, obsolete by the time that it began to roll off the production lines, and most were relegated to training roles in the United States and hence few ever saw combat.[3][24]

The B-24H was the first variant produced by Ford at Willow Run in large numbers that went into combat. The B-24H differed from earlier B-24s by having a second turret placed in the nose of the aircraft to increase defensive firepower. Because of the many structural changes required to accommodate the nose turret, the first B-24Hs were delivered slightly behind schedule, with the first machines rolling off the production lines at Ford in late June 1943. Production for the B-24H at Willow Run was 1,780.[3]

Upon the introduction of the B-24J, all three of the Liberator manufacturing plants converted to the production of this version. The B-24J incorporated a hydraulically driven tail turret and other defensive armament modifications in the nose of the aircraft. The bomber plant produced its first B-24J in April 1944; 1587 were built at Willow Run.[3][24]

During June 1944, the Army determined that the San Diego and Willow Run plants would be capable of meeting all future requirements for Liberator production. The Boeing B-29 Superfortress was taking over the long-range bombing role in the Pacific Theater and no new B-24 units were programmed for deployment in the other combat theaters of Europe, the Mediterranean or in the CBI.[24]

The B-24L was the first product of the new, downsized Liberator production pool. It was an attempt to reverse the trend toward ever-increasing weight of the Liberator as more and more armament, equipment, and armor had been added, with no corresponding increase in engine power. With the weight reduction and more powerful engines, it also had a much longer range than earlier models. 1250 B-24L aircraft were built at Willow Run.[3][24]

The B-24M was the last large-scale production variant of the Liberator. Apart from a new tail turret, the B-24M differed little from the B-24L. The first B-24Ms were delivered in October 1944, and by the end of its production in 1945, Willow Run had built 1677; 124 Ford-built B-24Ms were cancelled before delivery.[3][24]

Ford had switched over to the single-tailed B-24N in May 1945, but the end of the war in Europe in the same month brought a rapid end to Liberator production; the contract with Ford was officially terminated on 31 May 1945 and orders for 5168 unbuilt B-24N-FO bombers were cancelled as well. The delivery of seven YB-24Ns by Ford in June 1945 marked the end of Liberator production at Willow Run.[3][25]

Post-war conversion

Although Ford had an option to purchase the plant once it was no longer needed for war production, the company declined to exercise it, and ended its association with Willow Run. Eventually, the plant fell into the hands of the company's archrival, General Motors.

Kaiser takes control

After war production ended, the plant was sold to the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation, a partnership of construction and shipbuilding magnate Henry J. Kaiser and Graham-Paige executive Joseph W. Frazer. The plant produced both Kaiser and Frazer (automobile) models, including the compact Henry J, which with minor differences was also sold through Sears-Roebuck as the Allstate.

Willow Run produced 739,000 cars as part of Kaiser-Frazer and Kaiser Motors, from 1947 through 1953, when after years of losses, the company (now called Kaiser Motors after Frazer's exit from the partnership) purchased Willys-Overland and began moving its production at Willow Run to the Willys plant in Toledo, Ohio; Kaiser Motors would give up on the passenger car business in 1955. (Kaiser Motors became Kaiser Jeep in 1962, and would be purchased in 1970 by American Motors, which in turn became part of Chrysler Corporation in 1987, as the Jeep-Eagle division.)

Although Willow Run is synonymous with the Liberator bomber, B-24s were not the only planes manufactured at Willow Run. As the U.S. Air Force struggled to expand its airlift capacity during the Korean War, Kaiser-Frazer built C-119 Flying Boxcar cargo planes at Willow Run under license from Fairchild Aircraft, producing an estimated 88 C-119s between 1951 and 1953. Kaiser also built two C-123 Provider airframes at Willow Run, which were scrapped before delivery, as a procurement scandal involving the company put an end to any chance for future Air Force contracts.[8]

General Motors operations

Later in 1953, after a fire on August 12 destroyed General Motors' Detroit Transmission factory in Livonia, Michigan, the Willow Run complex was first leased to GM, and eventually sold to it, with the salvaged Hydramatic transmission tooling and machinery relocated to Willow Run, and put back into production just nine weeks after the fire.[26]

Over the years, GM expanded the bomber plant by roughly half, into a nearly 5,000,000 square feet (460,000 m2) GM Powertrain factory and engineering center; a parcel of land to the south of Powertrain was set aside for assembly operations that began in 1959, including a Fisher Body plant that built bodies for the Chevrolet models assembled there, including the Corvair and Nova. In 1968, General Motors began reorganizing its body and assembly operations into the GM Assembly Division (GMAD). GMAD required 16 years to completely absorb Fisher Body's operations, and Fisher would manufacture bodies at Willow Run Assembly until the 1970s; vehicles would roll off the line there until 1992.

In addition to making automatic transmissions, Willow Run Transmission also produced the M16A1 rifle and the M39A1 20mm autocannon for the U.S. military during the Vietnam War.[27]

By the time General Motors entered bankruptcy in 2009, manufacturing and assembly operations at Willow Run had dwindled to almost nothing; the GM Powertrain plant closed in December 2010 and the complex passed into the control of the RACER Trust, which is charged with cleaning up, positioning for redevelopment and ultimately, selling properties of the former General Motors.[6]

MARC and Willow Run Laboratories

On the other side of the airport from the assembly plant were a group of World War II hangars, which were sold to the University of Michigan in 1946. The university operated the Michigan Aeronautical Research Center (MARC), later known as Willow Run Laboratories (WRL), from 1946 to 1972 at Willow Run. MARC and WRL produced many innovations, including the first ruby laser and operation of the ruby maser, as well as early research into antiballistic missile defense and advanced remote sensing. In 1972, the University spun off WRL into the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan, which eventually left Willow Run for offices in Ann Arbor.

Willow Run as a community and in sociology

The Willow Run manufacturing complex, was constructed in the early years of World War II for the mass production of war munitions. Even with people driving 100 miles or renting every spare room between Ann Arbor and Grosse Pointe, the sheer size of Willow Run led inevitably to a housing shortage. Because of the crying need for shelter, the Federal Public Housing Administration went to work. Eventually, a compromise was reached; the Federal Public Housing Administration would build temporary housing, dormitories for single people and dwellings for family groups. This housing could be built on the land north of Michigan Avenue and south of Geddes Road, with the eastern boundary along Ridge Road and the western following Prospect Road to Clark, then along Clark to Harris Road. This covered 90 parcels of land totaling 2,641 acres (1,069 ha).[28]

In February 1943, the first dormitory was opened; Willow Lodge consisted of fifteen buildings containing 1,900 rooms, some single- and others double-occupancy, with room for 3,000 people. Meanwhile, trucks, carpenters, plumbers and electricians worked until there were temporary "flat-top" buildings that would provide homes for 2,500 families. Some of these were ready for tenants in June 1943 and the project was finished later that year. This part of Willow Run was known as "the Village." The flat-tops contained four, six, or eight apartments with one, two, or three bedrooms.[28]

The "West Court" buildings had peaked rooftops and its units were built for couples, or three adults. Of the 1,000 apartments in West Court, some had no bedrooms and were called "zero bedroom" apartments, and the rest had one bedroom. The first of these apartments was ready for occupancy in August 1943. Another large dormitory project, containing 1,960 rooms and known as West Lodge, was also ready for tenants at that time.[28]

By the end of 1943 there were six different temporary projects in the vicinity of Willow Run: two dormitory projects, two trailer projects (one renting trailers, and another for privately owned trailers; each with community laundry, shower, and toilet facilities), and two projects with apartments for couples or families, West Court and the Village. Between them, there was shelter for more than 15,000 people, or roughly, the number of people living in Ypsilanti at the time. [28]

Sociologist and professor Lowell Juilliard Carr of the University of Michigan studied the sociological conditions at Willow Run arising from the wartime surge in the worker population in his landmark book of 1952.[29]

Redevelopment efforts and the Yankee Air Museum

The airfield, owned by the Wayne County Airport Authority since 2004, continues to operate as the Willow Run Airport and is primarily used for cargo and general aviation flights. The Yankee Air Museum resides on the airport grounds, occupying as of April 2013 a 47,000 square feet (4,400 m2) hangar and other properties.[6]

The former Willow Run Assembly has become a giant warehouse, about a quarter of which is leased by GM as a facility for parts distribution.[30]

In April 2013, the Detroit Free Press confirmed that the facility's current owner, RACER Trust, was negotiating with the Yankee Air Museum to preserve a small portion of the original bomber plant as a new home for the museum. Yankee was originally granted until August 2013 (deadline was later extended) to raise the funds needed to purchase and separate a portion of the approximately 5,000,000 sq. ft. building, which later became the GM Powertrain facility. The museum would consolidate operations scattered on various parcels at Willow Run, and the Trust expects to clear the remainder of the plant for redevelopment.[6] The 175,000 sq. ft. portion of the original bomber plant that Yankee seeks to preserve is less than 5% of the massive facility, comprises the end of the former B-24 assembly line at the far eastern edge of the property, and contains the two iconic bay doors from which the finished Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers exited the plant during World War II.

The campaign to save a portion of Willow Run for the Yankee Air Museum is called SaveTheBomberPlant.org, and is centered on a fundraising website by the same name.[31] The campaign has attracted national, and even international, attention from media outlets that include many major news dailies in the U.S. as well as National Public Radio, The History Channel magazine, National Geographic TV, The Guardian (UK), and the (UK) Daily Mail.[32]

Building owner RACER Trust extended the original fundraising deadline (August 1, 2013) a total of three times since the Yankee Air Museum launched its SaveTheBomberPlant.org campaign. The first two extensions were to October 1, 2013, and then to November 1, 2013.[33] On October 26, 2013 RACER Trust and the Yankee Air Museum again reached a third, and final, deadline extension agreement that gave Yankee until May 1, 2014 to raise the $8 million estimated as necessary to secure, enclose and preserve a portion of the original Willow Run plant for the Yankee Air Museum.[34] The majority of the $8 million goal reflects separation costs to make the preserved portion of the plant viable as a standalone structure. RACER Trust has been supportive of the campaign, even reconfiguring engineering and demolition plans to save cost for the museum.[33]

At the time of the May 1, 2014 deadline, the Yankee Air Museum had raised over $7 million of its original $8 million fundraising goal, which was enough to enable the building's owners to move forward with signing a Purchase Agreement with Yankee, with the actual purchase expected to be finalized in late summer or fall of 2014.[35]

Meantime, the remaining portion of the Willow Run property, which includes over 95% of the historic original bomber plant building, was optioned to Walbridge, Inc. for redevelopment as a connected car research and test facility. The option to Walbridge has since lapsed and the property remains available for purchase and redevelopment.[36]

Demolition of the majority of the Willow Run facility began in December 2013, with much of the plant already gone, with the exception of the portion that the Yankee Air Museum hopes to purchase.

Chapel of Martha and Mary

Henry and Clara Ford dedicated a series of churches, the chapels of Martha and Mary as a perpetual tribute to their mothers, Mary Ford and Martha Bryant. The Fords built seven of these: The first at Greenfield Village, Michigan, was completed in 1929. The others, completed in the 1930s, were located in Dearborn, Michigan (site of the Fords' Fair Lane estate); Sudbury, Massachusetts; two in Richmond Hill, Georgia (the Fords' winter home); Macon, Michigan; and Willow Run.[37]

The Willow Run chapel was the one originally built for Camp Willow Run, and became the place of worship for the Belleville Presbyterian Church in 1979 after a series of handoffs. After the war, Ford sold the chapel to Kaiser-Frazer, who in turn sold it to General Motors as part of the purchase of the Willow Run bomber plant. GM used the building to store files until an undetermined time, where it was sold to the Cherry Hill Baptist Church. When Cherry Hill outgrew the little chapel and decided to build a new church, it sold the chapel to the Belleville Presbyterian Church for one dollar in July 1978.[37]

The Willow Run chapel of Martha and Mary now stands a few miles from where it was originally constructed and on property that used to be owned by Henry Ford's Quirk Farms. Of the seven chapels, this is the only one currently in use as a regular place of worship. It still has the original pews and other furnishings; the only other set in active use belongs to the Greenfield Village chapel.[37]

See also

• B-24 Liberator
• Willow Run Airport
• Willow Run Assembly
• Willow Run Transmission
• World War II aircraft production
• Yankee Air Museum
• Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Collection

References

1. Nolan, Jenny (January 28, 1997). "Willow Run and the Arsenal of Democracy". The Detroit News. Archived from the original on December 4, 2012. Retrieved December 24, 2017.
2. "Willow Run Bomber Plant, Beginning Construction, 1940". The Ann Arbor News. Retrieved July 29, 2017.
3. Lloyd, Alwyn T. (1993), Liberator: America's Global Bomber, Pictorial Histories Publishing Co, Inc, ISBN 0-929521-82-X
4. O'Leary, Michael, (2003), Consolidated B-24 Liberator (Osprey Production Line to Frontline 4), Osprey Publishing, ISBN 1-84176-023-4
5. Bomey, Nathan (July 16, 2011). "DETROIT FREE PRESS: Former GM Willow Run plant attracts $9 million offer from redevelopers". AnnArbor.com. Retrieved April 23, 2013.
6. Bomey, Nathan (April 23, 2013). "Former GM Willow Run plant may be demolished". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved April 23, 2013.
7. Bryan, Ford Richardson (1997). Beyond the Model T: The Other Ventures of Henry Ford. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. p. 116, note 8. ISBN 081432682X.
8. "History of Willow Run Airport". Michigan Aerospace Foundation. 2014. Archived from the original on February 21, 2014.
9. Hess, Jerry N. (January 10, 1968). "Oral History Interview with John W. Snyder". Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
10. Pearson, Drew (September 16, 1944). "Ford May Convert Willow Run Into Huge Tractor Plant". St. Peterburg Times. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
11. Bryan, Ford Richardson (1997). Beyond the Model T: The Other Ventures of Henry Ford. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. p. 116. ISBN 081432682X.
12. Weber, Austin. "A Historical Perspective." Assembly Magazine, 2001. B-24 Production
13. Sorensen 1956, pp. 273–300.
14. Wallace, Max. (2003). The American axis: Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and the rise of the Third Reich. New York: St. Martin’s Press. page 311
15. Wallace, page 312
16. Sorensen 1956, p. 329.
17. "28 June 1945". This Day in Aviation. June 28, 2017. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
18. Lewis, David L. (September 1993). "They may save our honor, our hopes—and our necks". Michigan History. Archived from the original on January 14, 2008.
19. Thole, Lou. "Preparing C-47s for War (Baer Field)". Museum of the Soldier. Archived from the original on October 5, 2011.
20. AFHRA Document 00155775 1 Concentration Command History
21. AFHRA Document 00150138 AAFTC Technical Training Command
22. Ring, Bob (June 20, 2013). "Tucson International Airport's Historic Hangars" (PDF). Ring Brothers History. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
23. Holley, Irving Brinton (1964). United States Army in World War 2, Buying Aircraft: Material Procurement for Army Air Forces. Government Printing Office. p. 531.
24. Davis, Larry, (1987), B-24 Liberator in Action - Aircraft No. 80, Squadron/Signal Publications Inc. ISBN 0-89747-190-3
25. Johnson, Fredrick A (1996) Consolidated B-24 Liberator - Warbird Tech Vol. 1, Specialty Press. ISBN 0-933424-64-7
26. Kidder, Warren Benjamin, Willow Run, Colossus of American IndustryMichigan:KFT,1995
27. Lane, Kirk and Reyes, Jon. "History of the Willow Run Plant, Part 3" (PDF). The Liberator (a newsletter of UAW Local 735). Archived from the original (PDF) on February 28, 2018. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
28. Wilson, Marion F. (1956). The Story of Willow Run. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. p. 138. ASIN B0007DKQ4K. Lay summary.
29. * Carr, Lowell J., and Stermer, James Edison, Willow Run (Work, Its Rewards and Discontents): a Study of industrialization and Cultural Inadequacy, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1952. (ISBN 978-0405101588)
30. "InSite Signs 568,000 SF Lease". press release. InSite Real Estate. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
31. Save The Bomber Plant – Information and fundraising site for Yankee Air Museum's effort to save a portion of the Willow Run Bomber Plant
32. "Save The Bomber Plant Website". SaveTheBomberPlant.org. Retrieved September 27, 2013.
33. "Preservation group gets extension to raise money for historic Willow Run factory". The Detroit News. Archived from the original on October 4, 2013. Retrieved September 27, 2013.
34. "Willow Run bomber plant preservationists get more time to reach goal". The Detroit Free Press. Retrieved October 26, 2013.
35. "Yankee Air Museum signs deal for part of Willow Run Bomber Plant".
36. "YPSILANTI TOWNSHIP: RACER Trust reaches demolition, development agreements for Willow Run plant". The Ypsilanti Courier. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
37. "The History of our Chapel". Belleville Presbyterian Church. Archived from the original on April 18, 2016. Retrieved July 10, 2017.

Bibliography

• Baime, A.J. The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War (2014) excerpt and text search
• Sorensen, Charles E.; with Williamson, Samuel T. (1956), My Forty Years with Ford, New York, New York, USA: Norton, LCCN 56010854. Various republications, including ISBN 9780814332795.
• Peterson, Sarah Jo (2013). Planning the Home Front: Building Bombers and Communities at Willow Run. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-02542-X. LCCN 2012043150.

External links

• Save The Bomber Plant Information and fundraising site for Yankee Air Museum's effort to save a portion of the Willow Run Bomber Plant
• A Bomber An Hour
• "The Story of Willow Run (1945)" on YouTube

by **admin** » Thu Sep 26, 2019 8:17 am

Dearborn, Michigan
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 9/26/19

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

Dearborn, Michigan
City of Dearborn

Ford Motor Company World Headquarters
Motto(s): "Home Town of Henry Ford"[1]
Country United States
State Michigan
County Wayne
Settled 1786
Incorporated 1893 (village)
1927 (city)
Government
• Type Strong mayor–council
• Mayor John B. O'Reilly Jr.
Area[2]
• City 24.52 sq mi (63.50 km2)
• Land 24.23 sq mi (62.77 km2)
• Water 0.28 sq mi (0.73 km2)
Elevation 591 ft (180 m)
Population (2010)[3]
• City 98,153
• Estimate (2018)[4] 94,333
• Density 3,899.11/sq mi (1,505.44/km2)
• Metro 4,285,832 (Metro Detroit)
Time zone UTC−5 (EST)
• Summer (DST) UTC−4 (EDT)
ZIP code(s)
48120, 48121, 48123, 48124, 48126, 48128
Area code(s) 313
FIPS code 26-21000
GNIS feature ID 0624432[5]
Website Official website

Dearborn is a city in the State of Michigan. It is located in Wayne County and is part of the Detroit metropolitan area. Dearborn is the eighth largest city in the State of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 98,153 and is home to the largest Muslim population in the United States.[6] First settled in the late 18th century by ethnic French farmers in a series of ribbon farms along the Rouge River and the Sauk Trail, the community grew in the 19th century with the establishment of the Detroit Arsenal on the Chicago Road linking Detroit and Chicago. In the 20th century, it developed as a major manufacturing hub for the automotive industry.

Henry Ford was born on a farm here and later established an estate in Dearborn, as well as his River Rouge Complex, the largest factory of his Ford empire. He developed mass production of automobiles, and based the world headquarters of the Ford Motor Company here. The city has a campus of the University of Michigan as well as Henry Ford College. The Henry Ford, the United States' largest indoor-outdoor historic museum complex and Metro Detroit's leading tourist attraction, is located here.[7][8]

Dearborn residents are Americans primarily of European or Middle Eastern ancestry, many descendants of 19th and 20th-century immigrants. Because of new waves of immigration from the Middle East in the late 20th century, the largest ethnic grouping is now composed of descendants of various nationalities of that area: Christians from Lebanon and Palestine, as well as Muslim immigrants from Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. The primary European ethnicities, as identified by respondents to the census, are German, Polish, Irish, and Italian.

History

Before European encounter, the area had been inhabited for thousands of years by successive indigenous peoples. Historical tribes belonged mostly to the Algonquian-language family, especially the Council of Three Fires, the Potawatomi and related peoples. In contrast, the Huron (Wyandot) were Iroquoian speaking. French colonists had a trading post at Fort Detroit and a settlement developed there in the colonial period. Another developed on the south side of the Detroit River in what is now southwestern Ontario, near a Huron mission village. French and French-Canadian colonists also established farms at Dearborn in this period. France ceded all of its territory east of the Mississippi River in North America to Great Britain in 1763 after losing to the English in the Seven Years' War.

Beginning in 1786, after the United States gained independence in the American Revolutionary War, more European Americans entered this region, settling in Detroit and the Dearborn area.[9] With population growth, Dearborn Township was formed in 1833 and the village of Dearbornville in 1836, each named after patriot Henry Dearborn, a general in the American Revolution who later served as Secretary of War under President Thomas Jefferson. The Town of Dearborn was incorporated in 1893. Through much of the 19th century, the area was largely rural and dependent on agriculture.

Stimulated by industrial development in Detroit and within its own limits, in 1927 Dearborn was established as a city. Its current borders result from a 1928 consolidation vote that merged Dearborn and neighboring Fordson (previously known as Springwells), which feared being absorbed into expanding Detroit.

According to historian James W. Loewen, in his book Sundown Towns (2005), Dearborn discouraged African Americans from settling in the city. In the early 20th century, both whites and Afrian Americans migrated to Detroit for industrial jobs. Over time, some city residents relocated in the suburbs. Many of Dearborn's residents "took pride in the saying, 'The sun never set on a Negro in Dearborn'". According to Orville Hubbard, the segregationist mayor of Dearborn from 1942 to 1978, "as far as he was concerned, it was against the law for a Negro to live in his suburb."[10]

The area between Dearborn and Fordson was undeveloped, and still remains so in part. Once farm land, much of this property was bought by Henry Ford for his estate, Fair Lane, and for the Ford Motor Company World Headquarters. Later developments in this corridor were the Ford airport (later converted to the Dearborn Proving Grounds), and other Ford administrative and development facilities.

More recent additions are The Henry Ford (a reconstructed historic village and museum), the Henry Ford Centennial Library, the super-regional shopping mall Fairlane Town Center, and the Ford Performing Arts Center. The open land is planted with sunflowers and often with Ford's favorite crop of soybeans. The crops are never harvested.

With the growth and achievements of the Arab-American community, they developed and in 2005 opened the Arab American National Museum (AANM), the first museum in the world devoted to Arab-American history and culture. Arab Americans in Dearborn include descendants of Lebanese Christians who immigrated in the early twentieth century to work in the auto industry, as well as more recent Arab immigrants and their descendants from other, primarily Muslim nations.[11]

In January 2019, Dearborn Mayor John "Jack" O'Reilly, Jr., terminated the contract of Bill McGraw, new editor of the Dearborn Historian, a city publication. He refused to allow distribution of the Autumn 2018 issue to subscribers. That issue, on the 100th anniversary of Henry Ford's acquisition of the Dearborn Independent newspaper, discussed the influence that Ford exerted in expressing his anti-Semitism. The mayor's suppression of the issue received national publicity.[12][13] The Dearborn Historical Commission held an emergency meeting and passed a resolution calling for the mayor to reverse these actions.[14] The suppressed article was published in DeadlineDetroit and may be read here.

Geography

Parklane Towers

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 24.5 square miles (63 km2), of which 24.4 square miles (63 km2) is land and 0.1 square miles (0.26 km2) (0.37%) is water. The city developed on both sides of the Rouge River. An artificial waterfall/low head dam was constructed by Henry Ford on his estate to power its powerhouse. The Upper, Middle, and Lower Branches of the river come together in Dearborn. The river is widened and channeled near the Rouge Plant to allow lake freighter access.

Fordson Island (42°17′38″N 83°08′52″W) is an 8.4 acres (3.4 hectares) island about three miles (5 km) upriver on the River Rouge from its confluence with the Detroit River. Fordson Island is the only major island in a tributary to the Detroit River. The island was created in 1922 when engineers dug a secondary trench to reroute the River Rouge to increase navigability for shipping purposes; businesses needed it to be navigable by the large lake freighters. The island is privately owned, and public access is prohibited. The island is part of the city of Dearborn, which has no frontage along the Detroit River.[15][16]

Dearborn is among a small number of municipalities that own property in other cities. It owns the 626-acre (2.53 km2) Camp Dearborn in Milford, Michigan, which is located 35 miles (56 km) from Dearborn.[17] Dearborn was among an even smaller number of cities that hold property in another state: for a time the city owned the "Dearborn Towers" apartment complex in Clearwater, Florida, but this has been sold. Camp Dearborn is considered part of the city of Dearborn. Revenues generated by camp admissions are incorporated into the city's budget.

Demographics

As of the 2010 census, the population of Dearborn was 98,153. The racial and ethnic composition was 89.1% Whites, 4.0% black or African-American, 0.2% Native American, 1.7% Asian, 0.2% Non-Hispanics of some other race, 4.0% reporting two or more races and 3.4% Hispanic or Latino.[22] 41.7% were of Arab ancestry (categorized as "White" in Census collection data).[23]

Dearborn has a large community of descendants of ethnic Europeans who arrived as immigrants from the mid-19th into the 20th centuries. Their ancestors generally first settled in Detroit: Irish, German, Italians, and Polish. It is also a center of Maltese American settlement, from the Mediterranean island of Malta. Also attracted to jobs in the auto industry, some were among immigrant Maltese who first settled in Corktown.[24]

The city has a small African American population, many of whose ancestors came to the area from the rural South during the Great Migration of the early twentieth century.[25]

In Census 2000, 61.9% spoke only English, while 29.3% spoke Arabic, 1.9% Spanish, and 1.5% Polish as first languages. There were 36,770 households out of which 31.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.0% were married couples living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.1% were non-families. 30.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.65 and the average family size was 3.42.

In the city, the population was spread out with 27.8% under the age of 18, 8.3% from 18 to 24, 29.2% from 25 to 44, 19.1% from 45 to 64, and 15.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 99.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.5 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $44,560, and the median income for a family was $53,060. Males had a median income of $45,114 versus $33,872 for females. The per capita income for the city was $21,488. About 12.2% of families and 16.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 24.4% of those under age 18 and 7.6% of those age 65 and over.

As of the 2012 estimate, Dearborn's population was thought to have fallen to 96,474, a decrease of 1.7% since 2010. Over the same period, though, SEMCOG, the local statistics agency of Metro Detroit Council of Governments, has estimated the city to have grown to 99,001, or an increase of 1.2% since 2000. SEMCOG's July 2014 estimate listed Dearborn with a population of 102,566.[26]

Arab Americans

The Arab American National Museum in Dearborn

Main article: History of the Middle Eastern people in Metro Detroit

The city's population includes 40,000 Arab Americans. Since the late 20th century, there has been growth in immigration from new areas of the Middle East, such as Syria.[27] Arab Americans own many shops and businesses, offering services in both English and Arabic.[28]

Per the 2000 census, Arab Americans totaled 29,181 or 29.85% of Dearborn's population; many are descendants of families who have been in the city since the early 20th century. The city has the largest proportion of Arab Americans in the United States.[29] As of 2006 Dearborn has the largest Lebanese American population in the United States.[30]

The first Arab immigrants came in the early-to-mid-20th century to work in the automotive industry and were chiefly Lebanese Christians (Maronites). Other immigrants from the Mideast (Assyrians/Chaldeans/Syriacs) have also immigrated to the area. Since then, Arab immigrants from Yemen, Iraq and Palestine, most of whom are Muslim, have joined them. Lebanese Americans comprise the largest group of ethnic Arabs.[31][32] The Arab Muslim community has built the Islamic Center of America, the largest mosque in North America,[33] and the Dearborn Mosque. More Iraqi refugees have come, fleeing the continued war in their country since 2003.

Warren Avenue has become the commercial center of the Arab-American community. The Arab American National Museum is located in Dearborn.[34] The museum was opened in January 2005 to celebrate the Arab American community's history, culture and contributions to the United States.

Economy

Further information: Economy of metropolitan Detroit

Dearborn skyline with Ford River Rouge Complex in background, 1973

Edward Hotel and conference center

Ford Motor Company has its world headquarters in Dearborn.[35] In addition its Dearborn campus contains many research, testing, finance, and some production facilities. Ford Land controls the numerous properties owned by Ford, including sales and leasing to unrelated businesses, such as the Fairlane Town Center shopping mall. DFCU Financial, the largest credit union in Michigan, was created for Ford and related companies' employees.

One of the largest employers in Dearborn is Oakwood Healthcare System. Other major employers include auto suppliers like Visteon, education facilities such as Henry Ford Community College, and museums such as The Henry Ford. Other businesses headquartered in Dearborn include Carhartt (clothing), Eppinger (fishing lures), AAA Michigan (insurance), and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.

Largest employers

According to the City's 2015 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report,[36] the largest employers in the city are:

Education

Colleges and universities

University of Michigan–Dearborn

University of Michigan–Dearborn and Henry Ford College are located in Dearborn on Evergreen Road and are adjacent to each other. Concordia University Dearborn Center, and Central Michigan University both offer classes in Dearborn.[37][38] Career training schools include Kaplan Career Institute, ITT Tech, and Sanford Brown College.

Primary and secondary schools

Dearborn residents, along with a small portion of Dearborn Heights residents, attend Dearborn Public Schools.[39] The system operates 34 schools including three major high schools: Fordson High School, Dearborn High School and Edsel Ford High School. The public schools serve more than 18,000 students in the fourth-largest district in the state.

Divine Child High School and Elementary School are in Dearborn as well; the high-school is the largest private coed high school in the area. Henry Ford Academy is a charter high school inside Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum. Another charter secondary school is Advanced Technology Academy. Dearborn Schools operated the Clara B. Ford High School inside Vista Maria, a non-profit residential treatment agency for girls in Dearborn Heights. Clara B. Ford High School became a charter school in the 2007–08 school year.

A small portion of the city limits is within the Westwood Community School District.[40] The sections of Dearborn within the district are zoned for industrial and commercial uses.[41]

The Islamic Center of America operates the Muslim American Youth Academy (MAYA), an Islamic elementary and middle school.[42]

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit operates Sacred Heart Elementary School. It previously operated the St. Alphonsus School in Dearborn. In 2003 the archdiocese closed the high school of St. Alphonsus;[43] and in 2005 closed the St. Alphonsus elementary school.[44]

Global Educational Excellence operates multiple charter schools in Dearborn: Riverside Academy Early Childhood Center, Riverside Academy East Campus (K-5), and Riverside Academy West Campus (6–12).[45]

Public libraries

Henry Ford Centennial Library

Dearborn Public Library includes the Henry Ford Centennial Library, which is the main library; and the Bryant and Esper branches.[46]

Dearborn's first public library opened in 1924 at the building now known as the Bryant Branch. This served as the main library until the Ford library opened in 1969. In 1970 what became known as the Mason building was classified as a branch library. The library was renamed in 1977 after Katharine Wright Bryant, who developed a plan for the library and campaigned for it.[47]

Around April 1963 the Ford Motor Company granted the City of Dearborn $3,000,000 to build a library as a memorial to Henry Ford. Ford Motor Company deeded 15.3 acres (6.2 ha) of vacant land for the public library to the city on July 30, 1963, the centennial or 100th anniversary of Henry Ford's birth. The Ford Foundation later granted the library an additional $500,000 for supplies and equipment. On November 25, 1969 the library was dedicated. Library employees have occupied the building since its opening; originally only the library had offices in the building. In 1979 the library staff gave up the western side's meeting rooms, and the City of Dearborn Health Department occupied those rooms.[48]

The Esper Branch, the smallest branch, is located in what is known as the Arab residential quarter of the city. The library has about 35,000 books, entertainment and educational videocassettes, music CDs, children's music cassettes, audio books, and magazines. Newspapers are also available. It features many Arabic-language books, newspapers, and videocassettes for Arabic-speaking residents. This library was dedicated on October 12, 1953. Originally named the Warren Branch, this structure had replaced the Northeast Branch, which opened in a storefront in 1944. In October 1961 it was named after city councilman Anthony M. Esper.[49]

Post office

During the years 1934 to 1943, during and after the Great Depression, murals were commissioned for federal public buildings in the United States through the Section of Painting and Sculpture, later called the Section of Fine Arts, of the Treasury Department. They often featured representation of local history. In 1938 artist Rainey Bennett painted an oil-on-canvas mural for the federal post offices in Dearborn titled, Ten Eyck's Tavern on Chicago Road.

Infrastructure

Sports facilities

Sports facilities include the Dearborn Ice Skating Center.

Transportation

Further information: Transportation in metropolitan Detroit and Dearborn (Amtrak station)
Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides service to Dearborn, operating its Wolverine three times daily in each direction between [[Chicago, Illinois and Pontiac, Michigan, via Detroit. Baggage cannot be checked at this location; however, up to two suitcases, in addition to any "personal items" such as briefcases, purses, laptop bags, and infant equipment, are allowed on board as carry-ons. There are two rail stops in Dearborn: the regular Amtrak station and a rarely used station at Greenfield Village. Amtrak operates on Norfolk Southern's (NS) "Michigan Line". This track runs from Dearborn to Kalamazoo, Michigan. Most of the freight traffic on these rails is related to the automotive industry. Norfolk Southern's Dearborn Division offices are also located in Dearborn.

Dearborn is served by buses of both the Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT) and the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) systems.

From 1924 to 1947, Dearborn was the site of Ford Airport. It featured the world's first concrete runway and the first scheduled U.S. passenger service.[citation needed]

Government

Dearborn has a mayor-council form of government. As of 2019, the Mayor of the City of Dearborn is John B. "Jack" O'Reilly, Jr.[50] The City Council President is Susan Dabaja.[51]

Media

The metropolitan-area newspapers are The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press.

The Dearborn & Dearborn Heights Press and Guide publishes local news for Dearborn and the neighboring Dearborn Heights.[52] The Arab American News is published in Dearborn.[53]

Notable people

Henry Ford's Fair Lane estate in Dearborn

River Rouge from Henry Ford's estate

• Frankie Andreu - professional cyclist, rode Tour De France multiple years
• Bazzi - singer
• Dave Brandon – CEO of Toys "R" Us, chairman of Domino's Pizza
• David Burtka – chef and actor, married to Neil Patrick Harris
• Brian Calley – 63rd Lieutenant Governor of Michigan
• Garrett Clayton – actor
• Jim Cummins – NHL player
• John Dingell – former dean of the U.S. House of Representatives, longest-serving Congressman
• Agnes Dobronski – Michigan educator and legislator
• Ronnie Duman - auto racer
• Chad Everett – actor, Medical Center, The Last Challenge, Made in Paris, Airplane II: The Sequel
• Rima Fakih – Miss Michigan USA 2010, Miss USA 2010,[54]
• Henry Ford – iconic automaker, founder of Ford Motor Company
• Edsel Ford – Henry Ford's son, second president of Ford Motor and co-namesake of Fordson
• Dan Gheesling – winner of Big Brother 10 (U.S.) and runner-up on Big Brother 14 (U.S.)
• Russ Gibb - concert promoter and media figure
• George Z. Hart – Michigan state senator
• Ahmad Harajly – rugby player (USA Rugby)
• Orville L. Hubbard – Mayor of Dearborn from 1942 to 1978
• Al Iafrate – NHL defenseman
• Art James – TV quiz-show host
• John C. Kornblum – diplomat, former Ambassador to Germany
• Derek Lowe – Major League Baseball pitcher, 2004 World Series champion with Boston Red Sox
• Don Matheson – actor, Land of the Giants
• Nancy Milford – author and biographer
• Alan Mulally – CEO of Ford Motor Company
• Dorothy Naum - baseball player
• Johnny Pacar – actor, Flight 29 Down, Make It or Break It, Now You See It...
• Eugenia Paul – actress and dancer
• George Peppard – film actor, known for Breakfast at Tiffany's, How the West Was Won, and more
• Tom Price - United States Secretary of Health and Human Services
• Brian Rafalski – NHL defenseman (New Jersey Devils, Detroit Red Wings)
• Doug Ross – college ice hockey coach
• Soony Saad – soccer player
• Scott Sanderson – All-Star Major League Baseball pitcher in 19 Major League seasons for seven teams
• Norbert Schemansky – four-time Olympic medalist in weightlifting
• Suzanne Sena – host of Independent Film Channel program Onion News Network and former Fox News anchor
• Serena Shim – Lebanese-American journalist
• Jim Snyder - Major League Baseball player and manager
• Edward Stinson – aviation pioneer
• Windy & Carl – musicians

Target of Christian missionaries and politicians

In the 21st century, the Arab-American community in Dearborn has sometimes been subject to public prosyletizing by Protestant Christian missionaries and inflammatory statements by political candidates. In 2010, Nabeel Qureshi, David Wood, and two other people acting as Christian missionaries, were arrested at the Dearborn International Arab Festival. They had been handing out Christian literature aimed at Muslim believers. The four were prosecuted for breach of the peace. Police ordered them to stop filming the incident, to provide identification, and to move at least five blocks from the border of the fair.[55]

After reviewing the video evidence, the jury acquitted the defendants.[56] The four defendants filed a separate civil suit against the city. Dearborn was found to have violated their constitutional rights related to freedom of speech. The city settled the lawsuit and issued a formal apology to the individuals.[57]

Sharron Angle, a Republican senatorial candidate in Nevada, said in an October 2010 political speech that the Arab Americans in Dearborn contributed to a "militant terrorist situation,"[58][59] and that the city government was enforcing Islamic sharia law.[58] Mayor Jack O'Reilly strongly criticized Angle for her deliberate misrepresentation of the city and its residents, and he called her comments "shameful."[58] He said her claim was based on distorted Tea Party accounts of the arrest of members of an anti-Islam group at an Arab festival.[58]

Preacher Terry Jones of Gainesville, Florida, known for burning a Quran, the sacred book of Islam, planned a protest in 2011 outside the Islamic Center of America. Local authorities required him either to post a $45,000 "peace bond" to cover Dearborn's cost if Jones incited violence, or to go to trial. Jones contested that requirement, and he and his co-pastor Wayne Sapp refused to post the bond. They were held briefly in jail, while claiming violation of First Amendment rights. That night Jones was released by the court.[60] The ACLU had filed an amicus brief in support of Jones's protest plans.[61] A week later, on April 29, Jones led a rally at the Dearborn City Hall, in a designated free speech zone. Riot police were called out to control counter protesters.[62][63][64] Jones also planned to speak at the annual Arab Festival on June 18, 2011, but his route was blocked by protesters, six of whom were arrested. Police said they did not have enough officers present to maintain safety.[65] Christian missionaries accompanied Jones with their own protest signs. Both festivalgoers and counter protesters said the missionaries had yelled insults at Arabs, Muslims, and Catholics.[66]

On November 11, 2011, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Robert Ziolkowski vacated the "breach of peace" ruling against Jones and Sapp on the grounds that they were denied due process.[67] On April 7, 2012 Jones led another protest in front of the Islamic Center of America, where he spoke about Islam and free speech. The mosque officials had locked it down to prevent damage. The city used thirty police cars to block traffic from the area in an effort to prevent a counter protest.[68]

Historical timeline

European exploration and colonization

• 1603 – French lay claim to unidentified territory in this region, naming it New France.
• July 24, 1701 – Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and his soldiers first land at what is now Detroit.
• November 29, 1760 – The British take control of the area from France.
• 1780 – Pierre Dumais clears farm near what is today's Morningside Street in Dearborn's South End.

Early U.S. history

• 1783 – By terms of the Treaty of Paris ending the American Revolutionary War, Great Britain cedes territory south of the Great Lakes to the United States, although the British retain practical control of the Detroit area and several other settlements until 1797.
• 1786 – Agreed year of first permanent settler in present-day Dearborn.
• 1787 – Territory of the US north and west of the Ohio River is officially proclaimed the Northwest Territory.
• December 26, 1791 – Detroit environs become part of Kent County, Ontario.
• 1795 – James Cissne becomes first settler in what is now west Dearborn.
• 1796 – Wayne County is formed by proclamation of the acting governor of the Northwest Territory. Its original area is 2,000,000 square miles (5,200,000 km2), stretching from Cleveland, Ohio, to Chicago, Illinois, and northwest to Canada.
• May 7, 1800 – Indiana Territory, created out of part of Northwest Territory, although the eastern half of Michigan including the Dearborn area, was not attached to Indiana Territory until Ohio was admitted as a state in 1803.
• January 11, 1805 – Michigan Territory officially created out of a part of the Indiana Territory.
• June 11, 1805 – Fire destroys most of Detroit.
• November 15, 1815 – Current boundaries of Wayne County drawn, county split into 18 townships.
• January 5, 1818 – Springwells Township established by Gov. Lewis Cass.
• October 23, 1824 – Bucklin Township created by Gov. Lewis Cass. The area ran from Greenfield to approximately Haggerty and from Van Born to Eight Mile.
• 1826 – Conrad Ten Eyck builds Ten Eyck Tavern at Michigan Avenue and Rouge River.
• 1827 – Wayne County's boundaries changed to its current 615 square miles (1,593 km2).
• April 12, 1827 – Springwells and Bucklin townships formally organized and laid out by gubernatorial act.
• October 29, 1829 – Bucklin Township split along what is today Inkster Road into Nankin (west half) and Pekin (east half) townships.
• March 21, 1833 – Pekin Township renamed Redford Township.
• March 31, 1833 – Greenfield Township created from north and west sections of Springwells Township, including what is now today east Dearborn.
• April 1, 1833 – Dearborn Township created from southern half of Redford Township south of Bonaparte Avenue (Joy Road).
• 1833 – Detroit Arsenal built.
• October 23, 1834 – Dearborn Township renamed Bucklin Township.
• March 26, 1836 – Bucklin Township renamed Dearborn Township.
• January 26, 1837 – Michigan admitted to the Union as the 26th state. Stevens T. Mason is first governor.
• 1837 – Michigan Central Railroad extended through Springwells Township. Hamlet of Springwells rises along railroad.
• April 5, 1838 – Village of Dearbornville incorporates. Village later unincorporated on May 11, 1846.
• 1849 Detroit annexes Springwells Township east of Brooklyn Street.
• April 2, 1850 – Greenfield Township annexes another section of Springwells Township.
• February 12, 1857 – Detroit annexes Springwells Township east of Grand Boulevard.
• March 25, 1873 – Springwells Township annexes back section of Greenfield Township south of Tireman
• May 28, 1875 – Postmaster general changes name of Dearbornville post office to Dearborn post office, hence changing the city's name.
• 1875 – Detroit Arsenal closed.
• 1875 – Detroit annexes another section of Springwells Township.
• 1876 – William A. Nowlin writes The Bark Covered House in honor of country's 100th birthday.
• June 20, 1884 – Detroit annexes Springwells Township east of Livernois.
• 1889 – First telephone installed in Dearborn at St. Joseph's retreat.

Incorporation as village

• March 24, 1893 – Village of Dearborn incorporates.
• 1906 – Detroit annexes another section of Springwells Township.
• 1916 - Henry, Clara, and Edsel Ford move to Dearborn.
• 1916 – Detroit annexes more of Springwells Township, forming Dearborn's eastern boundary.
• 1917 – Rouge "Eagle" Plant opens.
• November 1, 1919 – The first house numbering ordinance in Dearborn starts. Residents required to place standard plate number on right side of the main house entrance five feet up.
• December 9, 1919 – Springwells Township incorporates as village of Springwells.
• October 16, 1922 – Springwells Township annexes small section of Dearborn Township east of present-day Greenfield Road.
• December 27, 1923 – Voters approve incorporation of Springwells as a city. It officially became a city April 7, 1924.
• September 9, 1924 – Village of Warrendale incorporates.
• November 1924 – Ford Airport opens.
• April 6, 1925 – Warrendale voters and residents of remaining Greenfield Township approve annexation by Detroit.
• May 26, 1925 – Village of Dearborn annexes large portion of Dearborn Township.
• December 23, 1925 – Springwells changes name to city of Fordson.
• February 15, 1926 – First U.S. airmail delivery made, going from Ford Airport in Dearborn to Cleveland.
• September 14, 1926 – Election approves incorporation of village of Inkster. Unincorporated part of Dearborn Township split into two unconnected sections.
• October 11, 1926 – Only dirigible to ever moor in Dearborn docks at Ford Airport.

Reincorporation as city

• February 14, 1927 – Village of Dearborn residents approve vote to become a city.
• June 12, 1928 – Voters in Dearborn, Fordson and part of Dearborn Township vote to consolidate into one city.
• January 9, 1929 – Clyde Ford elected as first mayor of Dearborn.
• 1929 – Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village opens.
• July 1, 1931 – Dearborn Inn opens as one of the first airport hotels in world.
• March 7, 1932 – Ford Hunger March crosses Dearborn city limits. Four marchers are shot to death by police and Ford service men.
• 1936 – John Carey becomes mayor of Dearborn.
• June 19, 1936 – Montgomery Ward opens in Dearborn.
• May 26, 1937 – Harry Bennett's Ford "service" men beat United Auto Workers (UAW) official Richard Frankensteen in the Battle of the Overpass
• June 21, 1941 – Ford Motor Company signs its first union contract.
• 1939 – The Historic Springwells Park Neighborhood is established by Edsel B. Ford to provide company executives and auto workers with upscale housing accommodations.
• January 6, 1942 – Orville L. Hubbard takes office as mayor of Dearborn for first time.
• April 7, 1947 – Henry Ford dies.
• October 20, 1947 – Dearborn City Council approves purchase of land near Milford, Michigan for what would become Camp Dearborn. First section of camp opens following year.
• October 21, 1947 – Ford Airport officially closes.
• 1950 – First Pleasant Hours senior citizen group formed.
• 1950 – Dearborn Historical Museum formally established.
• January 1953 – Oakwood Hospital formally opened and dedicated.
• April 22, 1958 – Election held to annex part of South Dearborn Township to Dearborn. Proposal fails.
• 1959 – University of Michigan (Dearborn Campus) opens.
• April 6, 1959 – Election held to annex part of North Dearborn Township to Dearborn. Proposal fails.
• 1962 – St. Joseph's retreat closed and razed
• 1962 – New Henry Ford Community College campus dedicated.
• November 9, 1962 – Ford Rotunda burns down
• 1967 – Dearborn Towers in Clearwater, Florida opens.
• March 2, 1976 – Fairlane Town Center opens.
• 1978 – John B. O' Reilly, Sr. becomes mayor of Dearborn
• November 6, 1981 – Cable Television reaches first home in Dearborn, on Abbot Street.
• December 16, 1982 – Orville Hubbard dies.
• 1986 – Michael Guido becomes mayor of Dearborn.
• 1993 – Michael Guido is the first mayor to run unopposed.
• 2006 – Michael Guido dies at the age of 52 during his 6th term, the only mayor to die in office.
• 2006 – John B. O'Reilly, Jr. is to become temporary Mayor. O'Reilly's father was the mayor who had preceded Mayor Guido.
• 2007 – John B. O'Reilly, Jr. is elected mayor of Dearborn winning 93.97% of the vote.
• 2008 – John B. O'Reilly, Sr. dies at the age of 89; he was Mayor of Dearborn (1978–1985) and also served as Chief of Police for 11 years.

See also

• History of the Middle Eastern people in Metro Detroit

References

1. "City of Dearborn, Michigan". City of Dearborn, Michigan. Retrieved August 25, 2012.
2. "2017 U.S. Gazetteer Files". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved Jan 3, 2019.
3. "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 2013-01-02.
4. Jump up to:a b "Population and Housing Unit Estimates". Retrieved July 16, 2019.
5. "Dearborn". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey.
6. Population of Michigan Cities, Villages, Townships, and Remainders of Townships. http://www.michigan.gov.
7. America's Story, Explore the States: Michigan (2006). Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield VillageArchived 2009-10-14 at the Wayback Machine Library of Congress Retrieved on May 2, 2007.
8. State of Michigan: MI Kids (2006).Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village Archived 2010-12-07 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on May 2, 2007.
9. "History" Archived 2007-07-21 at the Wayback Machine, Dearborn Area Living, accessed 15 May 2010
10. Loewen, James W. (2005). Sundown Towns. The New Press. pp. 110–112. ISBN 156584887X.
11. "Arab American National Museum of Arab American History, Culture & Art". Arabamericanmuseum.org. Retrieved 2009-04-09.
12. Woeste, Victoria Saker (February 9, 2019). "Why Ford needs to grapple with its founder's anti-Semitism". Washington Post.
13. Eisenstein, Paul A. (February 4, 2019). "Mayor's attempt to censor local article about Henry Ford's anti-Semitism draws national attention". CNBC.
14. Stanton, Jonathon (February 4, 2019). "Dearborn Historical Commission urges mayor to release article on Henry Ford and the Dearborn Independent". Press and Guide.
15. Buttle and Tuttle Ltd (2000–2008). "Wayne County island place names". Archived from the original on May 27, 2009. Retrieved June 10, 2009.
16. Heritage Newspapers (2009). "Dearborn Area Living: rivers, creeks, ditches". Archived from the original on June 29, 2009. Retrieved June 10, 2009.
17. Camp Dearborn Archived 2009-08-06 at the Wayback Machine, Dearborn city website
18. "NowData – NOAA Online Weather Data". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
19. "MI Dearborn". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved July 29, 2016.
20. "U.S. Decennial Census". Census.gov. Archived from the original on April 26, 2015. Retrieved June 6, 2013.
21. "Population Estimates". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on 2014-05-22. Retrieved 2014-08-14.
22. "Dearborn (city) QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau". census.gov. Archived from the originalon 2014-01-04.
23. Data Access and Dissemination Systems (DADS). "American FactFinder – Results". census.gov.
24. Maltese In Detroit, Diane Gale Andreassi, Larry Zahra, Arcadia Publishing, Feb 28, 2011, p. 47
25. Rev. Horace L. Sheffield, III, Denounces 'Residents Only' Policy at New Dearborn Civic Center as Racist Attempt to Limit Access by African-Americans, PR Newswire, HighBeam Research[dead link]
26. Population and Household Estimates for Southeast Michigan July 2014, SEMCOG, July 2014
27. "Dearborn, Michigan: America's Muslim Capital". Planetizen: The Urban Planning, Design, and Development Network.
28. of Citizenship, University of Michigan[dead link]
29. The Arab Population: Census Bureau, 2000, pp. 7–8, accessed 15 Apr 2008
30. Raz, Guy. "Lebanese-Americans Are Angry and Anxious", National Public Radio. August 8, 2006. Retrieved on March 27, 2013.
31. Michigan statistics – Arab Institute of America Archived 2010-06-01 at the Wayback Machine
32. Pierre M. Atlas. "Living together peacefully in heart of Arab America". commongroundnews.org. Archived from the original on 2010-10-13. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
33. "Islamic Center of America - Dearborn, Michigan - Mosques on Waymarking.com". waymarking.com.
34. Karoub, Jeff. "Oasis of Arab culture sits comfortably in Dearborn, Michigan." Chicago Sun-Times. August 6, 2011. Retrieved on November 20, 2012.
35. "Contact Ford Archived 2009-10-07 at the Wayback Machine." Ford Motor Company. Retrieved on November 7, 2009.
36. "City of Dearborn 2015 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report" (PDF). p. 186.
37. Locations: Detroit (Dearborn) Archived 2012-10-17 at the Wayback Machine, Spring Arbor University, accessed November 8, 2012
38. CMU in Dearborn, Michigan, CMU Global Campus, Central Michigan University, accessed November 8, 2012
39. "Dearborn Public Schools". Dearborn Public Schools. Retrieved August 25, 2012.
40. "Westwood Community Schools." Michigan Department of Information Technology Center for Geographic Information. Retrieved on May 4, 2017.
41. "Zoning Map Archived 2016-12-25 at the Wayback Machine." City of Dearborn. Retrieved on May 4, 2017.
42. "Home." Muslim American Youth Academy. Retrieved on November 1, 2015. The address is "19500 Ford Road, Dearborn, MI 48128, United States"
43. "School History – St. Alphonsus Schools Alumni Dearborn, MI". Stalsalumni.com. Archived from the original on 2016-01-02. Retrieved 2016-03-13.
44. Pratt, Chastity, Patricia Montemurri, and Lori Higgins. "PARENTS, KIDS SCRAMBLE AS EDUCATION OPTIONS NARROW." Detroit Free Press. March 17, 2005. A1 News. Retrieved on April 30, 2011. "School closings announced Wednesday by the Archdiocese of Detroit doomed eight high schools in Detroit and neighboring suburbs and will shutter 10 elementary schools, including historic landmarks such as St. Alphonsus Elementary in Dearborn and St. Florian Elementary in Hamtramck."
45. "GEE Academies." Global Educational Excellence. Retrieved on September 1, 2015.
46. "Hours/About Us." (Archive) Dearborn Public Library. Retrieved on November 15, 2013.
47. "A LOOK AT THE Bryant Branch." (Archive) Dearborn Public Library. Retrieved on November 15, 2013.
48. "A LOOK AT THE Henry Ford Centennial Library." (Archive) Dearborn Public Library. Retrieved on November 15, 2013.
49. "A LOOK AT THE Esper Branch." (Archive) Dearborn Public Library. Retrieved on November 15, 2013.
50. "City of Dearborn".
51. "City of Dearborn Council President".
52. Guide, Press and. "pressandguide.com - Serving Dearborn and Dearborn Heights since 1918". Press and Guide.
53. "About Us Archived 2013-05-20 at the Wayback Machine." The Arab American News. Retrieved on September 22, 2013.
54. "Michigan's Rima Fakih Wins Miss USA Pageant". CBS News. May 16, 2010.
55. Brayton, Ed (2010-07-22). "Dearborn police accused of violating First Amendment". The Michigan Messenger. Archived from the original on 25 November 2010. Retrieved 23 April 2011.
56. Light, Jonathan (September 25, 2010). "Acts-17 Group Acquitted of Inciting Crowd". Dearborn Free Press. DEARBORN, Michigan. Retrieved 23 April 2011.
57. "Dearborn ordered to apologize for arrests of Christian missionaries at Arab Fest".
58. Jill Lawrence, "Sharron Angle on Sharia Religious Law: It's Already Supplanting the Constitution", Politics Daily, 7 October 2010
59. "Sharron Angle Claims Dearborn, Michigan Ruled by Sharia Law", The Atlantic
60. "Jones Released from Jail After Paying 'Peace Bond'". WJBK. Dearborn. 2011-04-22. Archived from the original on 2 July 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
61. "Terry Jones Amicus Brief", ACLU Michigan Website, accessed 1 September 2011
62. WDIV. "Crowds Bust Barricades At Pastor's Speech In Dearborn". ClickOnDetroit.
63. "Riot Police Respond as Counter-Protesters Storm Terry Jones' Demonstration". Dearborn, Michigan Patch.
64. "Riot police were called in Friday evening after Gainesville pastor Terry Jones taunted protesters here, prompting the protesters to rush past a police barricade and begin throwing water bottles and shoes". Gainesville.com. 2011-04-29. Retrieved 2016-03-13.
65. "6 Arrested as Mob Rushes Terry Jones on Way to Arab Festival in Dearborn". Dearborn, Michigan Patch.
66. WARIKOO, Niraj (Jun 19, 2011). "Christian missionaries take on Muslims, Catholics at Arab International Festival". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 20 June 2011.
67. Wattrick, Jeff (November 11, 2011). "Judge vacates 'breach of peace' judgement against Terry Jones". MLive.com. Retrieved November 3, 2012.
68. Warikoo, Niraj (April 7, 2012). "Fla. pastor Terry Jones: Islam's goal is 'world domination'". USA Today.

Further reading

• Barrow, Heather B. (2015). Henry Ford's Plan for the American Suburb: Dearborn and Detroit. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press.
• Cantor, George (2005). Detroit: An Insiders Guide to Michigan. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-03092-2.
• Fisher, Dale (2003). Building Michigan: A Tribute to Michigan's Construction Industry. Grass Lake, MI: Eyry of the Eagle Publishing. ISBN 1-891143-24-7.
• Fisher, Dale (2005). Southeast Michigan: Horizons of Growth. Grass Lake, MI: Eyry of the Eagle Publishing. ISBN 1-891143-25-5.
• Hill, Eric J. and John Gallagher (2002). AIA Detroit: The American Institute of Architects Guide to Detroit Architecture. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-3120-3.
• Rignall, Karen (graduate student). "Building an Arab-American Community in Dearborn." University of Michigan. Volume 5, Issue 1, Fall 1997.

External links

• City of Dearborn
• Dearborn Chamber of Commerce
• Dearborn, Michigan at Curlie

by **admin** » Fri Sep 27, 2019 7:16 am

Hubertus Strughold
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 9/27/19

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

Hubertus Strughold
Born June 15, 1898
Westtünnen-im-Hamm, Westphalia, Germany
Died September 25, 1986 (aged 88)
San Antonio, Texas, United States
Citizenship German and American (1956)
Alma mater Georg August University of Göttingen; University of Würzburg
Known for Space medicine, Nazi human experimentation
Scientific career
Fields Aviation medicine, space medicine, physiology

Hubertus Strughold (June 15, 1898 – September 25, 1986) was a German-born physiologist and prominent medical researcher. Beginning in 1935 he served as chief of aeromedical research for the Luftwaffe, holding this position throughout World War II. In 1947 he was brought to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip and held a series of high-ranking medical positions with both the US Air Force and NASA.

For his role in pioneering the study of the physical and psychological effects of manned spaceflight he became known as "The Father of Space Medicine".[1] Following his death, Strughold's activities in Germany during World War II came under greater scrutiny and allegations surrounding his involvement in Nazi-era human experimentation greatly diminished his reputation.

Biography

Early life and career

Strughold was born in the town of Westtünnen-im-Hamm in the Prussian province of Westphalia on 15 June 1898. As a young man he studied medicine and the natural sciences at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the Georg August University of Göttingen, where he received his doctorate (Dr. med. et phil.) in 1922. He later went on to obtain his medical degree (Dr. med.) from the University of Münster and completed his habilitation (Dr. habil.) at the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg in 1927. Strughold also worked as a research assistant to the renowned German-Austrian physiologist Dr. Maximilian von Frey. He remained at Würzburg and pursued a career as a professor of physiology.

During this time Strughold's attention was increasingly drawn to the emerging science of aviation medicine and he collaborated with the famed World War I pilot Robert Ritter von Greim to study the effects of high-altitude flight on human biology. In 1928 Strughold traveled to the United States on a year-long research fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation. He conducted specialized studies into aviation medicine and human physiology at the University of Chicago and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He would also visit the medical laboratories at Harvard, Columbia and the Mayo Clinic. Strughold returned to Germany the following year and accepted a teaching position at the Würzburg Physiological Institute, eventually becoming an adjunct professor there in 1933. He would later serve as a professor of physiology at Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin.

Work for Nazi Germany

Through his association with von Greim (Adolf Hitler's personal pilot), Strughold became acquainted socially with various high-ranking members of the Nazi regime and in April 1935, he was appointed Director of the Berlin-based Research Institute for Aviation Medicine, a medical think tank that operated under the auspices of Hermann Göring's Ministry of Aviation. Under Strughold's leadership, the Institute grew to become Germany's foremost aeromedical research establishment, pioneering the study of the medical effects of high-altitude and supersonic speed flight, along with establishing the altitude chamber concept of "time of useful consciousness".

Though Strughold was ostensibly a civilian researcher, the majority of the studies and projects his Institute undertook were commissioned and financed by the German armed forces (principally the Luftwaffe) as part of the ongoing German re-armament. With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Strughold's organization was absorbed into the Luftwaffe itself and was attached its medical service. It was renamed the Air Force Institute for Aviation Medicine, and placed under the command of Luftwaffe Surgeon-General (Generaloberstabsarzt) Erich Hippke. Strughold himself was also commissioned as an officer in the German air force, eventually rising to the rank of Colonel (Oberst).

Human experimentation

In October 1942, Strughold and Hippke attended a medical conference in Nuremberg at which SS physician Sigmund Rascher delivered a presentation outlining various medical experiments he had conducted, in conjunction with the Luftwaffe, in which prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp were used as human test subjects. These experiments included physiological tests during which camp inmates were immersed in freezing water, placed in air pressure chambers and made to endure invasive surgical procedures without anesthetic. Many of the inmates forced to participate died as a result.[2] Various Luftwaffe physicians had participated in the experiments and several of them had close ties to Strughold, both through the Institute for Aviation Medicine and the Luftwaffe Medical Corps.

Following the German defeat in May 1945, Strughold claimed to Allied authorities that, despite his influential position within the Luftwaffe Medical Service and his attendance at the October 1942 medical conference, he had no knowledge of the atrocities committed at Dachau. He was never subsequently charged with any wrongdoing by the Allies. However, a 1946 memorandum produced by the staff of the Nuremberg Trials listed Strughold as one of thirteen "persons, firms or individuals implicated" in the war crimes committed at Dachau. Also, several of the former Luftwaffe physicians associated with Strughold and the Institute for Aviation Medicine (among them Strughold's former research assistant Hermann Becker-Freyseng) were convicted of crimes against humanity in connection with the Dachau experiments at the 1947 Nuremberg Doctor's Trial. During these proceedings, Strughold contributed several affidavits for the defense on behalf of his accused colleagues.

Work for the United States

In October, 1945 Strughold returned to academia, becoming director of the Physiological Institute at Heidelberg University. He also began working on behalf of the US Army Air Force, becoming Chief Scientist of its Aeromedical Center, located on the campus of the former Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research. In this capacity Strughold edited German Aviation Medicine in World War II, a book-length summary of the knowledge gained by German aviation researchers during the war.

In 1947 Strughold was brought to the United States, along with many other highly valuable German scientists, as part of Operation Paperclip. With another former Luftwaffe physician, Richard Lindenberg, Strughold was assigned to the US Air Force School of Aviation Medicine at Randolph Field near San Antonio, Texas.[3] It was while at Randolph Field that Strughold began conducting some of the first research into the potential medical challenges posed by space travel, in conjunction with fellow "Paperclip Scientist" Dr. Heinz Haber.[4][5]

Strughold coined the terms "space medicine" and "astrobiology" to describe this area of study in 1948. The following year he was appointed as the first and only Professor of Space Medicine at the US Air Force's newly established School of Aviation Medicine (SAM), one of the first institutions dedicated to conducting research on "astrobiology" and the so-called "human factors" associated with manned spaceflight.

Under Strughold, the School of Aviation Medicine conducted pioneering studies on issues such as atmospheric control, the physical effects of weightlessness and the disruption of normal time cycles.[4][5] In 1951 Strughold revolutionized existing notions concerning spaceflight when he co-authored the influential research paper Where Does Space Begin? in which he proposed that space was present in small gradations that grew as altitude levels increased, rather than existing in remote regions of the atmosphere. Between 1952 and 1954 he would oversee the building of the space cabin simulator, a sealed chamber in which human test subjects were placed for extended periods of time in order to view the potential physical, astrobiological, and psychological effects of extra-atmospheric flight.

Strughold obtained US citizenship in 1956 and was appointed Chief Scientist of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Aerospace Medical Division in 1962. While at NASA, Strughold played a central role in designing the pressure suit and onboard life support systems used by both the Gemini and Apollo astronauts. He also directed the specialized training of the flight surgeons and medical staff of the Apollo program in advance of the planned mission to the Moon. Strughold retired from his position at NASA in 1968.

Evidence of experimentation on Dachau inmates and epileptic children

During his work on behalf of the Air Force and NASA, Strughold was the subject of three separate US government investigations into his suspected involvement in war crimes committed under the Nazis. A 1958 investigation by the Justice Department fully exonerated Strughold, while a second inquiry launched by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1974 was later abandoned due to lack of evidence. In 1983 the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations reopened his case but withdrew from the effort when Strughold died in September 1986.

Following his death, Strughold's alleged connection to the Dachau experiments became more widely known following the release of US Army Intelligence documents from 1945 that listed him among those being sought as war criminals by US authorities. These revelations did significant damage to Strughold's reputation and resulted in the revocation of various honors that had been bestowed upon him over the course of his career. In 1993, at the request of the World Jewish Congress, his portrait was removed from a mural of prominent physicians displayed at Ohio State University. Following similar protests by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Air Force decided in 1995 to rename the Hubertus Strughold Aeromedical Library at Brooks Air Force Base, which had been named in Strughold's honor in 1977. His portrait, however, still hangs there. Further action by the ADL also led to Strughold's removal from the International Space Hall of Fame in Alamogordo, New Mexico in May 2006.

Further questions about Strughold's activities during World War II emerged in 2004 following an investigation conducted by the Historical Committee of the German Society of Air and Space Medicine. The inquiry uncovered evidence of oxygen deprivation experiments carried out by Strughold's Institute for Aviation Medicine in 1943. According to these findings six epileptic children, between the ages of 11 and 13, were taken from the Nazi's Brandenburg Euthanasia Centre to Strughold's Berlin laboratory where they were placed in vacuum chambers to induce epileptic seizures in an effort to simulate the effects of high-altitude sicknesses, such as hypoxia. While, unlike the Dachau experiments, all the test subjects survived the research process, this revelation led the Society of Air and Space Medicine to abolish a major award bearing Strughold's name. A similar campaign by American scholars prompted the US branch of the Aerospace Medical Association to announce in 2012 that it would also consider rechristening a similar award, also named in Strughold's honor, which it had been bestowing since 1963. The move was met with opposition from defenders of Strughold, citing his massive contributions to the American space program and the lack of any formal proof of his direct involvement in war crimes.[6]

Awards and honors

Known as The Father of Space Medicine[7]

• Theodore C. Lyster Award, Aerospace Medical Association, 1958
• Louis H. Bauer Founders Award, Aerospace Medical Association, 1965

Hubertus Strughold Award

The Hubertus Strughold Award was established by the Space Medicine Branch, known today as the Space Medicine Association, a member organization of the Aerospace Medical Association. In 1962 the Award was established in honor of Dr. Hubertus Strughold, also known as "The Father of Space Medicine".[8] The award was presented every year from 1963 through 2012 to a Space Medicine Branch member for outstanding contributions in applications and research in the field of space-related medical research.

Awardees

1960s

• 1963 Cpt. Ashton Graybiel, Cpt. M.D., USN
• 1964 Maj. Gen. Otis O. Benson, Jr., USAF, M.C.
• 1965 Hans-Georg Clamann, M.D.
• 1966 Hermann J. Schaefer, Ph.D.
• 1967 Charles Alden Berry, M.D.
• 1968 David G. Simons, M.D.
• 1969 Col. Stanley C. White, M.D., USAF, M.C.

1970s

• 1970 RearAdm Frank Burkhart Voris, MC, USN
• 1971 Dr. Donald Davis Flickinger, M.D.
• 1972 Col. Paul A. Campbell, USAF (Ret.)
• 1973 Andres Ingver Karstens, M.D.
• 1974 Cdr. Joseph P. Kerwin, MC, USN
• 1975 Lawrence F. Dietlein, M.D.
• 1976 Harald J. von Beckh
• 1977 William Kennedy Douglas
• 1978 Walton L. Jones, Jr., M.D.
• 1979 Col. John E. Pickering, USAF (Ret.)

1980s

• 1980 Rufus R. Hessberg, M.D.
• 1981 Maj. Gen. Heinz S. Fuchs, GAF, MC (Ret.)
• 1982 Sidney D. Leverett, Jr., Ph.D.
• 1983 Sherman Vonograd P., M.D.
• 1984 Arnauld E. Nicogossian, M.D.
• 1985 Philip C. Johnson, Jr., M.D.
• 1986 Carolyn Leach Huntoon, Ph.D.
• 1987 Karl E. Klein, M.D.
• 1988 Anatoly Ivanovich Grigoriev, M.D.
• 1989 Brig. Gen. Eduard C. Burchard, GAF, MC

1990s

• 1990 Joan Vernikos-Danellis, M.D.
• 1991 Stanley R. Mohler, M.D.
• 1992 Roberta Lynn Bondar, M.D.
• 1993 George Wyckliffe Hoffler, M.D.
• 1994 Emmett B. Ferguson, M.D.
• 1995 Mary Anne Bassett Frey, Ph.D.
• 1996 Norman E. Thagard, M.D.
• 1997 Shannon Matilda Wells Lucid, Ph.D.
• 1998 Valeri V. Polyakov, M.D.
• 1999 Sam Lee Pool, M.D.

2000s

• 2000 Franklin Story Musgrave, M.D.
• 2001 John B. Charles, Ph.D.
• 2002 Earl Howard Wood, M.D., Ph.D.
• 2003 Jonathan Clark (for STS 107 crew)
• 2004 No award
• 2005 William S. Augerson, M.D.
• 2006 Jeffrey R. Davis, M.D.
• 2007 Clarence A. Jernigan, M.D.
• 2008 Richard Jennings, M.D.
• 2009 Jim Vanderploeg, M.D.

2010s

• 2010 Irene Duhart Long, M.D.
• 2011 Michael Barratt, M.D.
• 2012 Smith L. Johnston III, M.D.
• 2013 Award retired by the Space Medicine Association

See also

• Aerospace Medical Association
• Human factors and ergonomics
• Nazi human experimentation
• Sigmund Rascher

References

1. Walker, Andrew (November 21, 2005). "Project Paperclip: Dark side of the Moon". BBC News.
2. Campbell, Mark R.; Mohler, Stanley R.; Harsch, Viktor A.; Baisden, Denise (2007-07-01). "Hubertus Strughold: the "Father of Space Medicine"" (PDF). Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine. 78 (7): 716–719, discussion 719. ISSN 0095-6562. PMID 17679572. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-12-03.
3. PRESENTATION OF AN AWARD FOR MERITORIOUS CONTRIBUTIONS TO NEUROPATHOLOGY to RICHARD LINDENBERG, M.D. by KENNETH M. EARLE, M.D. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 1981 Nov;40(6):583-584.
4. Jump up to:a b Strughold, Hubertus. (1954). Atmospheric space equivalence. Journal of Aviation Medicine. 25(4): 420-424.
5. Jump up to:a b Strughold, H. (1956). The US Air Force experimental sealed cabin. Journal of Aviation Medicine. (27): 50-52.
6. A Scientist's Nazi-Era Past Haunts Prestigious Space Prize, By LUCETTE LAGNADO, Wall Street Journal, December 1, 2012
7. Campbell, M., and Harsch, V. (2013) Hubertus Strughold: Life and Work in the Fields of Space Medicine. Rethra Verlag: Norderstedt, Germany, 235.
8. Campbell, Mark R., et al. (July 2007), "Hubertus Strughold: The 'Father of Space Medicine'", Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine; Vol. 78, No. 7; pp 716–9.

Bibliography

• Musgrave, S (2000). "Hubertus Strughold Award". Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine. 71 (8) (published Aug 2000). p. 874. PMID 10954370
• "Hubertus Strughold Award. Earl H. Wood, M.D., Ph.D". Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine. 73 (9) (published Sep 2002). 2002. pp. 948–9. PMID 12234052

External links

• Additional references and photograph at [1] and [2]
• February 22, 1982, March 8, 1982, March 15, 1982, April 19, 1982, April 27, 1982, Interview with Hubertus Strughold, May 23, 1982, University of Texas at San Antonio: Institute of Texan Cultures: Oral History Collection, UA 15.01, University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Collections.

by **admin** » Fri Sep 27, 2019 8:01 am

Disney's Atomic Fleet
by Mark Langer
Animation World Magazine
April, 1998

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

Walt Disney with the Richard Nixon family at the 1959 opening of the atomic submarine ride at Disneyland. Photo courtesy of Mark Langer.

In 1959, the largest "atomic" submarine fleet in the world was owned by Walt Disney. While I'm not proposing that a bad day in the Magic Kingdom might have resulted in nuclear Armageddon, the Disney fleet is an historical fact that stems from the cooperation among Disney's business empire, major American arms manufacturers and the U.S. government.

Disney had long established relationships with the federal government dating back to the early 1940s. In a sense, Walt Disney went to war before America did, producing war shorts on contract for the National Film Board of Canada and military production films for Lockheed Aircraft. Days after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, Walt Disney was in Washington meeting with top government officials. The result of these meetings was The New Spirit(1942), an animated film made to encourage citizens to pay "taxes to smash the Axis." This began a close relationship between Disney and the U.S. government in the production of films for propaganda, training, and educational purposes. These films not only served the needs of the government in wartime, they added over two and a half million dollars to the Disney studio's coffers in the first year of the war alone.

Getting Through the Slump

In 1941, Disney was asked to go on a goodwill tour of Latin and South America by the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. The U.S. government was concerned about Axis influence in this part of the world, while Disney and the motion picture industry were interested in developing new markets for their product since the war had cut off traditional export areas in Europe and Asia. Patriotism and good business were intermeshed by the complimentary interests of government and the film industry.

With the end of the war, came a slump in the animation industry. Rising costs of production made animated film, always a marginal enterprise, even more so. Disney sought to strengthen his company's financial position through diversification. Walt Disney Productions already had developed reciprocal ventures with other companies that dated back to the early 1930s, when Disney licensed his characters to corporations like the Lionel Train Company and the Ingersoll Watch Company (now Timex) to produce Mickey Mouse handcars and watches. Mickey Mouse comic strips and a lucrative contract with the Western Printing and Lithographing Company (publishers of the Little Golden Books) were other major sources of income.

Building on this, Disney first moved into live-action films which were more cheaply produced than their animated counterparts. On Christmas Day of 1950, the first Disney television program was aired -- One Hour In Wonderland -- which was a promotion for the upcoming animated theatrical feature Alice In Wonderland (1951). The special reached twenty million viewers, which was a phenomenal number for early television. This not only pleased the sponsor, Coca-Cola, but made a deep impression on Disney executives. At the time, Walt's brother Roy Disney remarked that One Hour In Wonderland "leads us to believe that television can be a most powerful selling aid for us, as well as a source of revenue. It will probably be on this premise that we enter television when we do."

When Disney did enter television, it was part of a move that further diversified Disney's business interests. Disney agreed to produce the "Disneyland" television series for ABC, if the network's parent company would join Disney and Western Publishing as the major investors in the new Disneyland theme park. The television show, amusement park, publishing interests, and movies would all promote each other in a synergistic relationship. By establishing interlocking business relationships with allied companies, Disney was able to create interlocking systems of promotion among different media.

Our Friend The Atom was produced by Disney in cooperation with the U.S. Navy and General Dynamics, builders of the nuclear submarine USS Nautilus. Photo courtesy of Mark Langer.

Atoms for Peace!

The Disneyland amusement park and the "Disneyland" television program were enormously successful, catapulting Disney out of financial difficulty and turning the company into a media giant. This success was noticed by the government in a critical time for American public relations, both internally and internationally. After WWII, the use of atomic energy for defense figured large in the United States government's plans. However, these plans faced growing opposition both from the scientific community and the public in the wake of the American experience in the Korean war and a series of mishaps related to atomic testing.

In order to counter opposition to the military use of atomic weaponry, the Eisenhower administration began a public relations effort called "Atoms for Peace," in which positive propaganda would be developed to promote the use of atomic energy. In a letter to President Eisenhower on December 20, 1955, Acting Director of the United States Information Agency Abbott Washburn reported on his bureau's efforts. Wrote Washburn, "We have also had favorable preliminary conferences with Walt Disney (whose overseas audience surpasses all others) on an `Atoms for Peace' cartoon." (Disney would go on to animate television commercials for Eisenhower's 1957 re-election campaign.)

Our Friend The Atom

Disney was the ideal venue for the government's propaganda effort. Not only did Disney have a long-standing track record of creating government propaganda, but, as Time magazine reported in 1954, almost one billion people worldwide had seen at least one Disney film. After all, Disney was a leader not only in the film industry, but in publishing, television and the amusement park business.

Our Friend The Atom (January 23, 1957), the "Atoms for Peace" cartoon to which Washburn referred, was produced by Disney in cooperation with the U.S. Navy and General Dynamics, builders of the nuclear submarine USS Nautilus. As a "Tomorrowland" segment of the Disneyland television show, Our Friend The Atom relates the history of atomic energy, beginning with a clip from the earlier film 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, which erroneously maintains that author Jules Verne predicted the use of atomic energy. The film then progresses to an animated fairy tale of a fisherman who finds a bronze bottle in his net. Opening the flask, the fisherman is confronted by a genie, who explains that after centuries of confinement, he has resolved to kill whomever opens the bottle. The fisherman feigns surprise that so large a being could fit into the bottle. The genie returns to the vessel to prove that it can be done, and the wily fisherman corks the bottle up. Finally, the genie relents and promises to grant the fisherman his wishes if the bottle is uncorked. Says the narrator, "The story of the atom is like this fable, come true through science. For centuries we have been casting our nets into the sea of the great unknown in search of knowledge. Finally, we found a vessel and, like the one in the fable, it contains the genie."

In a combination of live-action and animation, Our Friend The Atom moves from this fairy tale premise to an international history of atomic energy that culminates in American control of the technology. To soothe public apprehension, atomic energy is explained in terms of common household items. An atomic reactor, the viewer is told, is just like a big furnace. An atomic chain reaction is likened to what happens when a stray ping-pong ball is thrown at a mass of mousetraps with ping-pong balls set on each one. The narrator relates that an atomic explosion might be like the angry genie, but with the nuclear reactor and the magic power to transmute ordinary materials into radioactive tools in science and medicine, "Here lies our chance to make the atomic genie our friend." The film ends with the prediction that "clean" nuclear reactors will replace grimy coal and oil power plants. Radiation will be used to produce better crops and livestock. People will zoom from place to place in atomic cars, trains, boats and planes. "Then, the atom will become truly our friend."

Heinz Haber, narrator of Our Friend the Atom, with the mousetraps that illustrate nuclear fission. Photo courtesy of Mark Langer.

One Step Further

Our Friend The Atom, both as a telefilm and a companion book printed in several languages by Western Publishing, was an enormous success. This was followed by the further cooperation of General Dynamics, the U.S. government, and Disney in the development of a new US $2,500,000 ride at Disneyland, composed of eight air-conditioned "atomic" submarines. The "Tomorrowland" section of Disney's Magic Kingdom now had the largest fleet of "atomic" submarines in the world. On June 14, 1959, in front of millions of ABC television viewers, Vice-President Richard Nixon and family joined Rear Admiral Charles C. Kirkpatrick of the U.S. Navy and Walt Disney in the maiden voyage of the Disney submarine fleet. A highlight of the ride was a cruise past a graveyard of sunken ships.

One indication of how successfully this ride propagandized the American atomic arms program came from a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor, who enthused that "all these things were turned, by Disney magic and with Disney color, to sheer fun, as though the real purpose of technological achievement, after all, was human happiness." Although Our Friend The Atom and the "atomic" submarine ride at Disneyland were not to be the only examples of cold-war propaganda carried out by Disney, they were in many ways representative of an ongoing network of connections between sections of Disney's Magic Kingdom, the broadcasting networks, the publishing industry, defense contractors, and the state.

Mark Langer teaches film at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. He is a frequent contributor to scholarly journals and a programmer of animation retrospectives.

by **admin** » Fri Sep 27, 2019 9:17 am

A Scientist's Nazi-Era Past Haunts Prestigious Space Prize
by Lucette Lagnado
Wall Street Journal
Updated Dec. 1, 2012 2:46 pm ET

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

Every year since 1963, the Space Medicine Association has given out the Hubertus Strughold Award to a top scientist or clinician for outstanding work in aviation medicine.

Dr. Hubertus Strughold, dubbed the 'Father of Space Medicine,' in an early chamber designed to simulate the conditions in space. Some scientists want his name removed from a medical prize. LUIS MARDEN/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC STOCK

The prestigious 50-year-old prize is named in honor of the man known as the "Father of Space Medicine," revered for his contributions to America's early space program. The German émigré, who made Texas his home after World War II, is credited with work that helped American astronauts walk on the moon.

But it is what he allegedly did during the war that has fueled a bitter controversy.

Nearly 70 years after the end of World War II, the scientific community is still fractured over the legacy of Nazi science—a conflict underscored by the clash over the Strughold prize.

Dr. Strughold, a former scientist for the Third Reich, was listed as one of 13 "persons, firms or organizations implicated" in some notorious Dachau concentration camp experiments, according to a 1946 memo by the staff of the Nuremberg Trials. The document referenced the infamous hypothermia, or "cold experiments," in which inmates were used, and typically died, as subjects exposed to freezing conditions.

For years, former colleagues and disciples have defended him, saying there was no evidence to conclude he engaged in atrocities. Other space scientists have argued that his involvement in Hitler's war machine should prevent any honors, including the eponymous prize, from being named for him.

He was never tried at Nuremberg. In America, the U.S. Justice Department investigated him at several junctures but never found sufficient grounds for prosecution.

Dr. Strughold headed a major aviation research lab in Nazi Germany before coming to the U.S. where he helped shape the space program. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE/PHOTO RESEARCHERS, INC

During in his lifetime, Dr. Strughold himself repeatedly denied any involvement in the Dachau experiments or other atrocities. He told a Nuremberg investigator that he knew about the cold experiments but disapproved of such tests on nonvolunteers.

"I have always forbidden even the thought of such experiments in my Institute, firstly on moral grounds and secondly on grounds of medical ethics," he is quoted as saying in this Nuremberg report. His immediate family members are deceased.

Dr. Strughold, who died in 1986, became a revered figure in American science. He built an impressive career, helping to develop the first pressurized space craft cabin that made manned space flights possible. Doctors and scientists in the emerging field of space medicine looked to him as a mentor and some affectionately called him by his nickname, "Struggie." They have remained loyal, despite allegations about his past.

To his defenders, Dr. Strughold was a "pure scientist." His legacy, they say, was to ultimately help America beat the Soviets to the moon.

"I certainly didn't have the feeling that he was a great deceiver," says Dr. Charles Berry, 89, a veteran of the U.S. space program who received the Strughold award in 1967. He strenuously backs Dr. Strughold, whom he came to know in the early days of the space program. "He would sit and talk to you and tell you about any of the subjects you were concerned about," says Dr. Berry.

But as more evidence surfaced in recent years about Dr. Strughold's wartime activities—including the disclosure by German scholars that his institute in Berlin had conducted experiments on young children from a psychiatric asylum—the doctors, scientists and astronauts who inhabit the rarefied world of space and aviation medicine have become embroiled in an anguished debate.

At Dachau, an inmate being subjected to high-altitude conditions. MUSEUM OF JEWISH HERITAGE

"He was not a war criminal," says Dr. Mark Campbell, a former president of the Space Medicine Association. "We would not have been where we are in space medicine without Strughold," he adds.

Dr. Strughold's critics argue that a scientific organization like SMA has no business awarding a prize that honors a man who held a senior position in the Third Reich and was possibly complicit in some of its crimes.

"I never thought that you could prosecute Strughold, but that doesn't mean you have an award in his name," says Professor Robert Proctor of Stanford University, an authority on Nazi-era medicine.

Dr. Russell Rayman, a former Executive Director of the Aerospace Medical Association—an umbrella group that includes the SMA—has lobbied over the years to have the award stripped of the name. He offers a more stark appraisal. Dr. Strughold, he says, "was part of a big killing machine."

The ravages of World War II left the world trying to grapple with the enormity of the crimes that were committed, and pondering how to punish their perpetrators. The Nuremberg Trials, which took place after the war, were intended to bring to justice the worst offenders, including doctors. Major corporations tried to come clean about their business relationships with Hitler's regime.

While the U.S. Justice Department has shrunk its Nazi-hunting arm in recent years, and prosecutions dwindled as suspected war criminals aged and died, roughly a half-dozen cases remain active. Meanwhile, historians and scholars, including many in Germany, continue to probe relentlessly into the country's dark scientific past.

Prof. Proctor believes that the dispute over the Strughold prize is analogous to a larger debate over what researchers call "eponyms"—conditions named after their discoverers. Several disorders and diseases were first identified by German scientists who worked for the Reich and yet still bear their names.

"What do we do with the legacy of Nazi knowledge? How do you honor or dishonor Nazi achievements and Nazi crimes?" asks Professor Proctor.

He cites the example of Dr. Josef Mengele, the notorious Auschwitz physician known as the Angel of Death. Prior to the war, Dr. Mengele had been an avid researcher. "Is it legitimate to say, 'for more on cleft palates, see Mengele, J., 1937'? " he asks.

The Dachau "cold" immersion experiments—whose brutality stood out even in the context of Nazi crimes—have long been a subject of discord in scientific circles. Some have argued the experiments were of no value, so flawed as to be useless. Others have said that despite the horrific means used to obtain the data, the information could still be useful.

Nazi doctors submerged prisoners in freezing water to gauge ways to help downed pilots survive. Dr. Strughold's knowledge of, and possible involvement in, this type of experiment is the subject of intense debate. YAD VASHEM

There is no question, says Professor Robert Pozos, a hypothermia expert at San Diego State University, that the Dachau data seeped into scientific circles after the War, and was referenced in multiple scientific journals.

The conflict over Dr. Strughold began with a single, cryptic remark he made at a conference during the war—a statement that has been studied, analyzed, parsed and dissected by scientists, historians and Nazi hunters for years.

During the war, Dr. Strughold was director of the Aeromedical Research Institute in Berlin, a prominent research facility under the Luftwaffe, the German air force. In that capacity, he attended a 1942 medical conference in Germany. The highlight of the top secret meeting was a presentation on hypothermia or "cold" experiments that were performed on human beings; they were prisoners of the Dachau concentration camp.

The subject was of intense interest to Hitler's war effort. Germany was losing pilots who were shot down in the frigid seas of Northern Europe. Could they be rescued? What would it take to save them?

At Dachau, doctors submerged inmates, some in full pilot gear, in icy water tanks or else forced them to remain naked in frigid temperatures for hours. Their vital signs were monitored and they were observed for how long it took them to die. Some were exposed to scalding temperatures to see if they could be "rewarmed" back to life. Most suffered agonizing pain, and an unknown number perished. The Dachau "cold" experiments became an emblem of the cruelty of Nazi medicine.

In minutes from the "Cold" conference, Dr. Strughold was recorded as saying:

"With regard to the experimental scientific research, but also for the orientation of the Sea Distress service, it is of interest to know what temperatures are to be counted on in the oceans concerned during the various seasons."

Critics of Dr. Strughold and his award argue that his participation at the conference shows, at a minimum, that he was aware of some of the most perverse activities of the Third Reich.

Eli Rosenbaum, a senior human rights prosecutor at the Justice Department who heads its Nazi-hunting program, believes that "Hubertus Strughold encouraged the perpetrators of the now-infamous Dachau concentration camp freezing experiments" or at least signaled "the possible necessity of such repetition," he says. Mr. Rosenbaum is a 30-year veteran of the agency's Nazi-hunting arm.

David Marwell, a former Justice Department historian, recalls investigating Dr. Strughold back in the 1980s for the Nazi-hunting arm and being struck by the significance of his comment at the "Cold" conference.

"We know that he was present when results of the experiments were reported and that he made suggestions that could be interpreted as intended to make the experiments more useful and precise. He didn't stand up and leave or say this is outrageous," says Mr. Marwell, now director of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Lower Manhattan.

After the War, the "Cold" conference minutes were featured prominently in the Nuremberg Trials. General Telford Taylor, the chief prosecutor, cited them in his opening statement, calling the Dachau experiments "sickening crimes."

Dr. Viktor Harsch, a German physician and author of a friendly biography of Dr. Strughold, says that while the scientist may have known about the Dachau experiments, the comment he made at the conference was very "general" and he doesn't believe it was necessarily related to human experiments.

There were a number of topics discussed, he says, and the remark could have been about "meteorological," or weather, conditions. Dr. Strughold never joined the Nazi party, he points out, and "it was not in his nature" to support human experiments.

Other German authorities on Nazi medicine emphatically disagree. "He was sitting in the Luftwaffe ministry, he was the director of the Medical Research Institute—he knew exactly what was going on at Dachau," says Dr. Wolfgang Eckart, a professor at the University of Heidelberg and the author of a new book on Nazi-era medicine.

"A lot of people were not in the Nazi party," Dr. Eckart contends. "What is most important is what they did—what was their work for the Nazis?"

Adds Dr. Yehezkel Caine, a member of the aerospace medical group who wants the award eliminated, declares: "there is no way on this planet that anyone of Strughold's stature could have been where he was without being complicit."

Within the last decade, German scholars found that at least one set of human experiments—involving children—took place inside Dr. Strughold's own institute. The experiments were also confirmed by his biographer.

In 1943, half a dozen children 11 to 13 years old were taken from a nearby psychiatric facility known as Brandenburg-Goerden and brought over to the Institute. Once there, the children, most of whom had epilepsy, were subjected to "hypoxia," or oxygen deprivation experiments. They were placed in an altitude chamber and administered lower levels of oxygen to see if the conditions would trigger seizures.

In a book on Nazi medical practices between 1927-1945, author Hans-Walter Schmuhl, a German scholar, recounted in detail those experiments, explaining how the tests had initially begun on rabbits. He described how Dr. Strughold had several "vacuum chambers" and the children were subjected to experiments that simulated altitudes of nearly 20,000 feet. The children survived the research, which didn't end up triggering seizures—so the undertaking was deemed a scientific failure.

Even so, Dr. Schmuhl wrote that the scientists "knew from the animal experiments that young epileptic rabbits reacted…with violent, often fatal convulsions" and they "expected (and hoped) that the children would react like the rabbits."

Dr. Harsch says it is unclear whether Dr. Strughold authorized the experiments. But he was in charge, he acknowledges, and therefore bore responsibility for what happened. Brandenburg-Goerden was a center for euthanizing mentally ill patients and other so-called undesirables, including children. Their bodies were disposed of in a nearby crematorium.

Dr. Harsch, who heads the history committee at the German Society for Air and Space Medicine, says he informed his colleagues in 2004 about the experiments on children—a revelation that prompted them to eliminate the Strughold award they had given out since the 1970s.

Back in America, one by one, honors that had been heaped upon Dr. Strughold for his contributions to the space program have been discontinued as a cloud descended over his name. Brooks Air Force Base had named a library for him in 1977, but decided to remove Dr. Strughold's name in 1995 after Jewish groups raised objections. At Ohio State University, his image, part of a glass mural of medical luminaries like Marie Curie, was removed.

But the SMA remained loyal. It has continued to hand out the Strughold Award at a special luncheon held every spring.

Responding to pressure from some of its own members over the award, the association launched an investigation into the matter in 2006, says Dr. Campbell, a former president. He and some colleagues examined the allegations against Dr. Strughold and pored through U.S. and German government records.

"Our response was, he was not a Nazi, he was not a war criminal, and no, we're not going to take his name off the award," Dr. Campbell says. That remains the association's position, he says, unless new evidence links him to atrocities.

Professor Eckart vehemently disagrees, saying the experiments on children were evidence of the kind of work performed at Dr. Strughold's institute. The children were "institutionalized patients," says Dr. Eckart, with no way to give consent. "These experiments were clearly criminal—the risk to the children was recklessly disregarded."

Following The Wall Street Journal's inquiries, both the Space Medicine Association and its umbrella organization, the Aerospace Medical Association, say they are now rethinking the Strughold award. The larger group, which is affiliated with the American Medical Association, stresses that the Space Medicine branch operates independently.

"Why defend him?" says Dr. Stephen Véronneau, a member of both groups. "I can't find another example in the world of honoring Dr. Strughold except my own association."

During a meeting on Nov. 14, Dr. Campbell made an appeal to uphold the award; Dr. Rayman countered that Dr. Strughold's known activities on behalf of Hitler's war machine made him unworthy.

The children's experiments were not mentioned. When contacted by the Journal, Jeff Sventek, the aerospace association's executive director, said the information was new to him.

Dr. Campbell, who was aware of the experiments, says that while wrong and inappropriate, they were "fairly benign."

"I don't defend these experiments," he says. "The question is did Strughold know" about the research. "Just because it was in the chamber in his institute doesn't mean he knew about it," he says.

Dr. Campbell is considering one solution: changing the award's name—but only if there is an agreement stating categorically that Dr. Strughold wasn't a Nazi or a war criminal.

That isn't likely to satisfy critics like Professor Proctor. "You can't whitewash history," he says.

Write to Lucette Lagnado at lucette.lagnado@wsj.com

by **admin** » Fri Sep 27, 2019 9:31 am

Heinz Haber
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 9/27/19

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

Heinz Haber (left) and Wernher von Braun[1]

Heinz Haber (May 15, 1913 – February 13, 1990) was a German physicist and science writer who primarily became famous for his TV programs and books about physics and environmental subjects. His lucid style of explaining hard science has frequently been imitated by later popular science presenters in Germany.

Biography

After studying physics in Leipzig, Heidelberg and Berlin and obtaining his doctorate, Haber served in World War II for the German Luftwaffe as a reconnaissance aviator until 1942. He returned to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Physik, where he headed a small Potsdam-based division constructing a diffraction spectrograph.[2]

After the end of the war Heinz Haber — as well as several other Germans involved in military research like Wernher von Braun — was targeted by the Operation Paperclip with the aim of denying scientific expertise and knowledge to the Soviet Union and bringing researchers and scientists to the United States; Ultimately this operation resulted in a considerable contribution to the development of NASA.[3] Haber at first stayed in the American occupied zone of Germany and lectured at Heidelberg. However, in 1946, he emigrated to the United States and joined the USAF School of Aviation Medicine at Randolph Air Force Base. Together with fellow German Hubertus Strughold, he and his brother Dr. Fritz Haber (April 3, 1912 – August 21, 1998) made pioneering research into space medicine in the late 1940s.[4][5][6] The brothers proposed parabolic flights for simulating weightlessness.[7]

In 1952, he became associate physicist at the University of California, Los Angeles; in the 1950s, Haber eventually became the chief scientific consultant to Walt Disney productions. He later co-hosted Disney’s Man in Space with von Braun. When the Eisenhower administration asked Disney to produce a show championing the civilian use of nuclear power, Heinz Haber was given the assignment. He hosted the Disney broadcast called Our Friend the Atom and wrote a popular children’s book with the same title, both of which explained nuclear fission and fusion in simple terms. General Dynamics, a manufacturer of nuclear reactors, sponsored Our Friend the Atom and the nuclear submarine ride at Disneyland’s Tomorrowland.[8]

In the 1960s and 1970s, he was well known in Germany as a popular science spokesperson and wrote magazine columns and numerous books and presented his own TV programs like Professor Haber experimentiert, Das Mathematische Kabinett, Unser blauer Planet, Stirbt unser blauer Planet?, Professor Haber berichtet, and WAS IST WAS mit Professor Haber. He was founding editor of the German science magazine Bild der Wissenschaft from 1964 to 1990. His memorable experiments included one where the onset of a nuclear chain reaction was simulated with hundreds of mousetraps, each one having been loaded with two ping pong balls.[9]

Heinz Haber had an unparalleled capability for presenting hard scientific facts in a manner and language which was understandable and entertaining for the layman without being sloppy. This won him many accolades, such as the Adolf-Grimme-Preis and the Goldene Kamera.

Heinz Haber had two children, Kai (born 1943) and Cathleen (born 1945), from his first marriage, and a third child, Marc (born 1969), from the second. His first wife Anneliese lives in Tucson, Arizona, his second wife Irmgard in Hamburg, Germany.

References

1. This image is a detail from a larger photograph, which may be seen at the article on Willy Ley.
2. James, Jeremiah; Steinhauser, Thomas; Hoffmann, Dieter; Bretislav, Friedrich (2011). One hundred years at the intersection of chemistry and physics: the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, 1911-2011. Berlin: De Gruyter. pp. 117, 127. ISBN 3110239531.
3. Linda Hunt. (May 23, 1987). "NASA's Nazis". Literature of the Holocaust. http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/ ... nazis.html. Linda Hunt. Secret Agenda: The United States Government, Nazi Scientists, and Project Paperclip, 1945 to 1990. (New York: St.Martin's Press, 1991).
4. Buettner, K. J., & Haber, H. (1952). The aeropause. Science. 115: 656-657.
5. Editor. (19 November 1951). Science: The Unfriendly Aeropause. Time. New York.
6. White, C.S. & Benson, O.O. (1952). Physics and medicine of the upper atmosphere: a study of the aeropause. University of New Mexico Press, 1952.
7. Haber, Fritz; Haber, Heinz (1950). "Possible methods of producing the gravity-free state for medical research". Journal of Aviation Medicine. 21 (5). pp. 395–400. PMID 14778792. Summary of the article: Campbell, Mark R. (2009). "Classics in space medicine. Possible methods of producing the gravity-free state for medical research". Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine. 80 (12). p. 1077. doi:10.3357/ASEM.26010.2009. PMID 20027862.
8. Eric Schlosser. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001) pg. 39.
9. In Walt Disney's film Our Friend the Atom, Haber is the science presenter (see [1]). While explaining a chain reaction, the camera travels over a field of mousetraps, all ready to close and throw two ping pong balls in the process (see a resume in "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2004-12-28. Retrieved 2009-02-05.).

Further reading

• Linda Hunt (1991), Secret Agenda: The United States Government, Nazi Scientists, and Project Paperclip, New York: St. Martin's.
• Eric Schlosser (2001), Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
• Manfred Gross (2013), "Sterne, Menschen und Atome - Zum 100. Geburtstag von Heinz Haber" (German), Mannheim. Available at Karl-Friedrich-Gymnasium Mannheim, Stadtarchiv Mannheim - Institut für Stadtgeschichte, Planetarium Mannheim, Freundeskreis Planetarium Mannheim e.V.
External links[edit]
• VERHEXT — a 1960s puzzle game by Heinz Haber based on hexiamonds (Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine)

by **admin** » Sat Sep 28, 2019 3:09 am

Inside Hitler’s Plan To Build The “Capital Of The World”
by Daniel Rennie
allthatisinteresting.com
Published April 21, 2018
Updated June 12, 2019

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

The city in 'Man In High Castle' may seem like a dystopian nightmare, but Hitler had plans to make it very real.

The Grand Hall, the monstrous centerpiece of the planned Nazi super-city Welthauptstadt Germania.

On Amazon’s alternative history thriller, The Man in the High Castle, viewers are taken into a CGI-world of a new Berlin that has grown in scale and grandeur to reflect its place as the center of a Thousand Year Reich that now covers most of the globe.

But rather than springing from the mind of filmmakers, this Nazi super-city is based on real plans conceived by Adolf Hitler and Albert Speer, the “General Building Inspector for the Reich Capital.” The project was started in 1937. A massive scale model was made, sections of Berlin were cleared, and its construction sites may have even initiated the Holocaust.

Hitler was determined this vision of a Nazi dystopia called Welthauptstadt Germania (World Capital Germania) would be finished by 1950. Speer had impressed Hitler with his work on buildings at Nuremberg, which were deliberate reinterpretations of classical architecture into massive, distinctly austere Nazi architecture designed to intimidate and overwhelm.

This aligned with Hitler’s vision to make Welthauptstadt Germania the grandest city of them all by taking the best monuments Europe had to offer and to super-size them. Most of these monuments would be placed along a seven-kilometer (4.3 miles) Boulevard of Splendours to create an overall narrative describing Nazi Germany’s superiority to citizens and visitors alike. At the south end of the boulevard, would sit the Triumphal Arch, designed to dwarf Paris’ Arc de Triomphe, which could fit inside Hitler’s planned arch six times. At the north end, the boulevard would open up into a parade ground featuring a colossal Fuhrer’s Palace, the Reich Chancellery, and the ridiculously massive Grand Hall.

The more elegant domed structures of Rome’s Pantheon and St Peter’s Basilica influenced the Grand Hall. But Hitler preferred size to elegance. It would cover 99,000 square meters and would be capped with a colossal dome that was 300 meters high and weighed 200,000 tons. Designed to be a sort of Nazi cult site and city focal point, it would be the largest enclosed space in the world, able to hold 180,000 people inside it. Apparently, the breath from the crowd would have created the building’s own rainfall as it precipitated from the ceiling.

Hitler’s scale-model of Germania. The Boulevard of Splendours connects the Grand Hall, in the distance, to the Triumphal Arch, a gargantuan, inelegant version of the Arc de Triomphe.

Only a handful of buildings were constructed. Hitler’s Reich Chancellery was one, with its Long Hall twice as long as Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors, which inspired it. Unfortunately, it was destroyed in the bombing of Berlin in 1945. Another building was the stadium for the 1936 Berlin Olympics, built five miles from Berlin’s center. It was the largest in Europe, modeled off the Roman Colosseum, but 200 meters longer. After the game’s success, Hitler decided he needed a more massive arena, which, was it planned, would house every Olympic Games hence. It was only partially built.

The rest of Welthauptstadt Germania would be new ring roads, autobahns, tunnels and living areas. The environment would have been hostile to citizens. Traffic lights and tramways would be a thing of the past, forcing pedestrians underground into a system of tunnels just to cross the roads and negotiate the complex roadways.

The architecture would literally and metaphorically oppress its people.

Areas of residential Berlin were marked for development. Speer and his cronies had 60,000 apartments bulldozed and 100,000 Germans became homeless. The real suffering was once again directed at the Jews. There would be no place for them in this new city, so 25,000 apartments were seized from Jews. Evicted, they were sent to ghettos, then concentration camps, while homeless Germans were crammed into their apartments.

The Jews became the laborers. Speer apparently remarked: “The Yids got used to making bricks while in captivity in Egypt.”

Many believe the “Night of Broken Glass” in Nov. 1938 was the beginning of the Holocaust but it started months earlier with Germania’s construction. Gross-Rosen, Buchenwald, and Mauthausen concentration camps were built near quarries, while Sachsenhausen was built near a brickworks. Speer signed a contract with the SS to have all bricks shipped to Germania’s construction sites. Sachsenhausen was 35 kilometers from Berlin’s center, so canals ferried the quarried stone to the Welthauptstadt Germania construction sites. These brickworks proved the harshest labor in all camps. Literally, tens of thousands were worked to death.

The Schwerbelastungskoerper, a structure built to see if Berlin’s weak ground could hold the heavy foundation of the planned arch.

The workforce of 130,000 included not only Jews but POWs. Then in June 1938, police started rounding up tramps, gypsies, homosexuals, and beggars off the streets to make up the labor force.

Hitler’s project was not without its critics. Speer’s number two, Hans Stefan drew a series of caricatures which parodied the overbearing nature of the Germania project in secret. Several drawings poke fun at the ridiculous size of the Grand Hall. One depicts Berlin’s largest building, the Reichstag, being accidentally moved by a crane during construction of the impossibly large Grand Hall.

Stefan does not hold back in criticising the changes to Berlin, which he sees as tampering with German history and culture. Hitler had the Victory Column relocated. Stefan’s response was to show the Goddess Victory, unhappy with Hitler’s decision, escaping via parachute from her fixture at the top of the column.

Construction on Welthauptstadt Germania finally ground to a halt as the Second World War progressed. Speer believed that Nazi victory was imminent and remarked that Allied air strikes on Berlin had helped to level the old city to pave way for Germania. They hadn’t.

Though Hitler committed suicide Albert Speer was luckier. At the Nuremberg Trials he charmed the court, and despite his heavy use of concentration camp labor, he denied knowledge of the Holocaust. Spared execution, he spent the next twenty years in Spandau prison.

by **admin** » Sat Sep 28, 2019 4:46 am

Disney animators' strike
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 9/27/19

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

Striking Disney animators at Walt Disney Productions, Burbank, in May 1941
Date May 29, 1941
Location Burbank, California
Methods Striking
Parties to the civil conflict
Screen Cartoonist's Guild
Walt Disney Productions
Lead figures
Herbert Sorrell
(Union leader)
Walt Disney
(Owner of studio)
vte
Labor disputes by sector
vte
Service strikes

The Disney animators' strike was a labor strike by the animators of Walt Disney Productions. The strike began on May 29, 1941, and lasted roughly five weeks. Though it resulted in the studio officially recognizing labor unions, it resulted in many departures and had a permanent psychological impact on the studio and its founder, Walt Disney.

History

In the 1930s, a rise of labor unions took place in Hollywood in response to the Great Depression and subsequent mistreatment of employees by studios. Among these unions was the Screen Cartoonist's Guild (SCG), which formed in 1938 after the first strike at an animation studio occurred, at Fleischer Studios. By 1941, SCG president Herbert Sorrell had secured contracts with every major cartoon studio except Disney and Leon Schlesinger Productions. Schlesinger gave in to the SCG's requests to sign a contract after his own employees went on strike, but upon signing reportedly asked, "What about Disney?"[1]

Disney's animators had the best pay and working conditions in the industry, but were discontented.[2] Originally, 20% of the profits from short cartoons went toward employee bonuses, but Disney eventually suspended this practice.[3] Disney's 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was a financial success, allowing Disney to construct a new, larger studio in Burbank, California.[4] At the Burbank studio, a rigid hierarchy system was enforced where employee benefits such as access to the restaurant, gymnasium, and steam room were limited to the studio's head writers and animators, who also received larger and more comfortable offices. Individual departments were segregated into buildings and heavily policed by administrators.

The box-office failures of Pinocchio and Fantasia in 1940 forced Disney to make layoffs, although Disney rarely involved himself in the hiring and firing process with those who were not atop the pay chain. The studio's pay structure was very disorganized, with some high-ranking animators earning as much as $300 a week while others made as little as $12. Many employees, including Art Babbitt, grew dissatisfied and joined the SCG. Babbitt was one of Disney's best-paid animators, though he was sympathetic to low-ranking employees and openly disliked Disney.[4] Disney saw no problem with the structure, believing it was his studio to run and that his employees should be grateful to him for providing the new studio space.[4]

Sorrell, along with Babbitt and Bill Littlejohn,[5] approached Disney and demanded he unionize his studio,[1] but Disney refused. In February 1941, Disney gathered all 1,200 employees in his auditorium for a speech:

The assembly was poorly received, and more employees joined the SCG. Tensions between Disney and Babbitt reached a peak when Disney began to see Babbitt as having personally betrayed him by becoming a union leader.[4] Disney fired Babbitt along with 16 other employees who were members of the SCG. The next day on May 29, more than 200 members of the studio staff went on strike, during the production of the 1941 film Dumbo. Other studios' animators, such as those from Schlesinger, offered their support during the strike. Disney retaliated by depicting some of the striking employees in caricature in Dumbo as antagonistic circus clowns, and on one occasion even attacked a picketing Babbitt.[5]

The strike was resolved when the National Labor Relations Board asked Disney to sign a union contract and he agreed. Disney was returning from a goodwill tour of Latin America to produce animated films as part of the Good Neighbor policy, allowing tensions to cool in his absence. Saludos Amigos was released the following year in 1942, while The Three Caballeros was released in 1944.

Aftermath and notable departures

The strike left the studio with only 694 employees.[6] In addition to Babbitt, the studio lost Bill Tytla, Walt Kelly, Tyrus Wong, Virgil Partch, Volus Jones, Phil Duncan, Claude Smith, Bernie Wolf, Joey Lockwood, Alfred Abranz, William Hurtz, T. Hee, Howard Swift, Milt Schaffer, and Frank Fullmer. Stephen Bosustow, David Hilberman and John Hubley left to form United Productions of America. Kenneth Muse, Ray Patterson, Preston Blair, Ed Love, Walter Clinton, and Grant Simmons left for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio. Frank Tashlin returned to Warner Bros. Cartoons, and was joined by Hawley Pratt, Bill Meléndez, Emery Hawkins, Basil Davidovich, Maurice Noble, Cornett Wood, Ted Bonnicksen, and Jack Bradbury.

In the years following World War II, Hee, Jones, Duncan, Schaffer, Hawkins, Davidovich, and Bradbury returned to the studio. Disney was forced to rehire Babbitt after he brought an unfair labor practices suit against the studio, though Babbitt eventually left for good.

Disney never forgave the participants and subsequently treated union members with contempt,[5] arguing in a letter that the strike "cleaned house at our studio" and got rid of "the chip-on-the-shoulder boys and the world-owes-me-a-living lads".[7] Testifying to the House Un-American Activities Committee, Disney alleged that communism had played a major role in the strike, and many of the participants were blacklisted.[5]

References

1. Isbouts, Jean-Pierre (Director) (2001). Walt: The Man Behind the Myth (Television documentary film). ABC/Walt Disney Home Video.
2. Thomas, Bob (1994). WALT DISNEY: AN AMERICAN ORIGINAL. Disney Editions. ISBN 0-7868-6027-8.
3. Barrier, Michael, Hollywood Cartoons (1999), Oxford University Press, UK
4. Grimberg, Sharon (Producer) (2015). American Experience, Walt Disney- Part One (Television documentary film). PBS.
5. Lowry, Sam (Nov 1, 2006). "The Disney cartoonists strike, 1941". libcom.org. libcom.org. Retrieved June 23, 2018.
6. SEP 16 Disney History
7. Garchik, Leah (22 February 2015). "Beauty only skin deep, so women are considering their history". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
• Sito, Tom. Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson. Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, 2006. ISBN 0-8131-2407-7

External links

• The Disney strike, on The Animation Guild's website
• Another look back at the 1941 Disney Studio strike; includes contemporary article from Screen Actor magazine

by **admin** » Sat Sep 28, 2019 6:12 am

1941 Disney Strike: Picket Lines in Paradise
by Jake S. Friedman
History Net
Accessed: 9/27/19

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

(Courtesy Barbara Babbitt)

THE STRIKE WAS in its third week. Picketers had plans to bombard non-striking colleagues at the front gate right at quitting time, 5:30 p.m. on Friday, June 13, 1941. But before that confrontation could be joined, the boss led loyalists off the company grounds to a nearby high school, where he held an impromptu meeting. By the time 400 picketers, waving placards and signs, realized what was up and raced to the school, most of the scabs had left. Except for a handful of allies, only the boss himself remained, sitting in his car and tipping his hat at the strikers in the style of President Roosevelt. Out of the crowd rushed the tall, steely-eyed strike leader. Art Babbitt shouted at his boss and former pal, “Walt Disney, you ought to be ashamed of yourself!” Disney scrambled from the vehicle, fists clenched, calling Babbitt a dirty sonofabitch. The crowd came between them, half booing, half cheering.

Before the 1941 strike at the Walt Disney Studios, Art Babbitt considered Walt Disney his friend. The men owed much to one other. Babbitt was unquestionably one of Disney’s star artists during the Golden Age of animation. And Walt Disney once entrusted Art Babbitt with the brand and the characters he guarded so dearly. Babbitt developed Goofy’s movements and personality. He contributed Oscar-winning animation to The Three Little Pigs and The Country Cousin. Walt had assigned the animator feature characters like the Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Geppetto in Pinocchio. Disney and Babbitt shared an ambition to elevate animation to fine art, and to that end Art helped Walt establish an in-house art school. Babbitt could claim to have been among the reasons Disney animation advanced exponentially between 1932 and 1941, Babbitt’s professional heyday. But now these creative titans were at war, and the Disney Studios’ fate was at stake.

Strikes were nothing new. Capitalizing on half a century of labor activism and the desperate years of the Depression, enthusiasm for organizing had unionized the Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors assembly lines and a host of other industries—albeit not without resistance and even violence. At first, unions enlisted assembly line workers and the manual trades, but now more and more creative types, like those in Hollywood, were standing together.

Across Hollywood, crafts had been unionizing through the 1930s. Actors, directors, writers, projectionists, electricians, musicians, background painters, secretaries, film processors—name any job in filmmaking, and it had a union, except for animators. And Disney Studios was the biggest employer of animators in Hollywood.

Walt Disney had grown up hearing all about labor and capital. His father, a naïve socialist, often brought home brochure illustrations of the bloated capitalist and the woebegone worker for his artistic son to copy.

The elder Disney “thought everybody was as honest as he was; he got taken many times because of that,” Walt said in adulthood. “I know the usual union methods. I’ve been brought up through my life with them. My dad was beat up by a bunch of union people one time.”

Walt, who as a volunteer drove an ambulance in France during the First World War, had a strong streak of practicality and drive to succeed. He was still a teenager in Missouri when he formed his first animation company, Laugh-O-Gram, which went bankrupt in 1923. He and brother Roy next built Disney Brothers Studio. In 1927, Walt created the cartoon character Oswald the Rabbit for Universal Pictures and distributor Charles Mintz. By 1928, when Walt traveled to Mintz’s New York office to negotiate a payment increase from $2,250 per short, Mintz had hired away most of Walt’s employees and told Walt he would be getting $1,400 per animation and giving Mintz half the profits. To escape the deal, Walt had to give up Oswald. He found himself with no contract, no character, and a barebones staff. On the train back to Hollywood, Walt sketched the character that became the fabulously popular Mickey Mouse. Enriched by Mickey’s global stardom and remembering Oswald’s sad fate, Walt branded all his studio’s creations with the Disney moniker. Walt was the studio, and the studio was Walt.

Mickey Mouse was as huge a star as Clark Gable, but Clark Gable did not need a team of dozens in order to come alive. At Disney Studios, directors met with storymen and storyboard artists to outline each cartoon short—and later, each full-length animated feature. Like actors making performance choices, supervising animators planned each character’s actions. These artists’ drawings went to assistants who filled in the frames between main poses with additional drawings. Assistant animators handed their work to in-betweeners who completed necessary drawings.

Once an animation passed a camera test for exposure and smoothness of movement, a stack of pencil drawings went to inkers. The inkers traced the drawings onto sheets of transparent celluloid, giving the “cels” to painters for color. Finally, one frame at a time, the production camera department shot a negative at a rate of 12 to 24 drawings per second. Each animation artist had a hand in bringing a cartoon star to the screen, and none belonged to a union.

The first try at organizing the artists at Disney arose because of racketeer Willie Bioff. Bioff, a member of mobster Al Capone’s gang, was also the West Coast head of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, in 1937 Hollywood’s biggest, most corrupt union. According to Variety, the show business trade magazine, it was “an open secret” that IATSE regularly made a practice of signing up entire departments at a studio, then threatening a strike there unless the studio’s management greased Bioff’s palm.

Art Babbitt (Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives)

Art Babbitt, filled with creative ambition, had nothing against empowering the workingman. Born in 1907, Arthur Babitsky grew up in Sioux City, Iowa, a son of poor Russian immigrants. To help support his family, he went to New York at 16, struggling as a commercial artist until 1929, when he landed an animation job at TerryToons Studio, later famous for Mighty Mouse. Babbitt animated for three years at TerryToons before applying to Disney—the only studio he saw as sharing his vision for animation’s future. A master at self-promotion, Babbitt hand-painted a letter on a sheet of paper 18 feet x 20 feet that he sent special delivery to Walt’s secretary. The gimmick earned him an interview with Disney, who hired Babbitt in July 1932 at $40 a week.

By 1936, Babbitt was making $200 a week as one of Disney’s top artists, and was in the thick of the action. That year the studio was making Snow White, a project so daunting that Walt and Roy went on a hiring spree, muscling up the animation staff from 80-odd to around 1,200.

In late 1937, with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs about to premiere, Babbitt read in Time magazine about Bioff’s corrupt influence on the motion picture industry. He wondered how long Disney could fend off IATSE and the mob. Babbitt conferred with Roy Disney, who sent him to Disney’s chief legal counsel, Gunther Lessing. Babbitt and Lessing outlined a “social organization,” the Federation of Screen Cartoonists, that Lessing said would serve their purposes. While Babbitt was arranging meetings and starting to draft a charter, Lessing encouraged him to enroll as many Disney employees as possible in the Federation.

Babbitt did not realize that the Federation was a “house union,” company-led and company-controlled. Babbitt just wanted to keep out Bioff. Lessing wanted to insulate Disney from all independent union activity.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered to ecstatic reviews, boffo box office returns, industry honors, and warm words from Disney. “Dear Art,” Walt wrote, “since the critics have voted Snow White best picture of 1938, I thought you might like to stow away the attached copy of Film Daily with all the other memoirs you may be receiving for your grandchildren.” Another of Babbitt’s keepsakes was a photo of the Snow White animation team.

Pending National Labor Relations Board certification, the Federation had to sit on its hands, frustrating Babbitt until July 22, 1939, when the NLRB declared the Federation the sole union for Disney employees. Babbitt and the rest of the Federation’s negotiating committee scheduled a meeting with Roy Disney in October, hoping to negotiate a contract. Another goal was a small raise for inkers and painters, who at $18 and $16 a week were the lowest-paid in the industry. Roy listened but shook his head, saying he “had no use for unions.” With no contract, the Federation was powerless. The negotiating committee voted to let the hollow union die.

Deploying profits from Snow White and a loan from Bank of America, Walt spared no expense constructing a campus-style studio in Burbank, over the hills from Hollywood. Intended to streamline the animation process, the new production house was rife with status symbols. Top artists enjoyed wall-to-wall carpeting; lesser animators got bare linoleum. Only those paid $100 a week or more could join the in-house exercise facility, “The Penthouse Club.” Babbitt would not use the gym. Walt asked why.

“As soon as you make it open to everybody,” said Babbitt, “I’d be delighted to join.”

Animators elsewhere were forming or joining real unions. The Screen Cartoon—later “Cartoonists”—Guild was organizing animation artists around Hollywood. By December 1940, the Guild had a contract with MGM, maker of the hit “Tom & Jerry” cartoons. MGM artists, especially the inkers, painters, in-betweeners, and assistants who occupied the lowest rungs of the production process, received raises. One by one, the Guild was signing up workers at all the animation studios, circling the biggest fish—Disney.

On December 11, 1940, Walt and Lessing summoned Babbitt and the other four men who had been the moribund Federation’s original negotiating committee. Walt showed the artists a letter from the Guild claiming that the union represented a majority of Disney artists, and demanding that Walt sign a contract. He called on the five to reanimate the Federation, subvert the Guild, and “stop this thing.”

“You know how I am, boys,” Babbitt quoted Walt as saying. “If someone tells me to do something, I will do just the opposite, and if necessary I will close the studio.”

Babbitt saw the request to revive the Federation as hypocritical. If the point was to empower employees, why block a bona fide union? Lessing talked vaguely about a contract, but revealed nothing concrete. The Federation had been demanding a contract for a year and half without any result. The negotiating committee members got together a week later to determine their next steps.

“I would have liked to have said to Walt, ‘Well, you’re the boss—whatever you say goes,’ and then I’d be a good boy,” Babbitt said at the Federation meeting. “But still at the same time, I feel I owe an obligation to all the people that have been foolish enough to follow me into this thing, and I can’t feel that it’s right.”

During that meeting, Babbitt expressed empathy for the man who had made him a prince of Hollywood animation. “As swell as Walt has been in the past, he’s never taken the trouble to see the other side,” Babbitt told his colleagues. “He’s firmly convinced that all unions are stevedores and gangsters. It has never occurred to him that he might find a decent person to deal with. If Walt had taken the trouble to find out what we were doing and why we were doing it, the contract would have been signed long ago.”

Babbitt quit the Federation and began attending Guild meetings. By March, he was chairing the Disney unit of the Screen Cartoonists’ Guild, Local 852. This infuriated Walt and Lessing. Lessing reactivated the Federation with replacement committee members and renewed force.

Disney had come off Snow White’s success to produce Pinocchio and Fantasia, both released in 1940. Each lost about $1 million because in September 1939, Europe went to war, slamming shut the international market.

To make his loan payments, Disney, now more than $3 million in debt, had to go public. When Walt and Roy asked Bank of America for more credit, the bank and Disney stockholders urgently suggested the company lay off personnel. Walt instead bore down on producing shorts, accelerating production and monitoring employee efficiency, which added to worker stress.

“In desperation I tried to keep these people employed by increasing their output,” Walt, on the verge of tears, recounted the following year. “I felt a responsibility to all these people. It was my mistake. I didn’t know it.” Some Disney employees empathized with the studio, others saw management as incompetent and top-heavy.

Walt doubted the company could survive the higher salaries that unionization would impose on Disney. On February 10 and 11, 1941, he addressed his entire staff in the studio theater. “There are certain individuals who would like to blame the executives of this company for not foreseeing this calamity that was caused by the war in Europe,” Walt said, referring obliquely to Babbitt. “I think that is unfair…how the hell can anyone hold us responsible?”

Walt closed by declaring that the studio wouldn’t have to resort to drastic measures “if every one of you would dig in and do his individual and collective damnedest to roll out production of the highest quality with the most economy.” The speech left the staff more polarized and drove many abstainers to sign with either the Guild or the Federation. Whichever collected a majority of Disney artists’ signatures would be the union at Disney, and the rival sides inundated the campus with fliers and petitions. In the halls, people were buttonholing one another to sign up. More than once, management demanded Babbitt shut down Guild recruitment at the studio.

“People on both sides are guilty,” Babbitt responded. “Everyone who is not on my side is bound to criticize me!”

Walt cornered Babbitt in a hallway.

“You don’t know what is going on in the rest of the studio,” Walt said, according to Babbitt in 1942 testimony. “If you don’t stop organizing my employees, I’m going to throw you right the hell out of the front gate!”

The simmer came to a boil May 16, when Disney laid off 24 Guild members, several of them committee chairmen. The Guild demanded Walt sit down with the union or face a strike. Walt refused. On Tuesday, May 27, 1941, the company abruptly fired Babbitt. Armed guards escorted him off the lot. That night the Guild unit voted to strike, and in the morning, more than 300 Disney artists were marching at the gates demanding that Disney recognize the Guild.

The strikers picketed 24 hours a day, carrying signs illustrated with Disney characters. Across from the studio, an outdoor cafeteria sponsored by sympathizers served three meals daily. Striking artists drew sketches distributed to the press. Teams of pickets rushed any theater screening a Disney picture. Other unions, including the Screen Actors Guild, lent support. Developers at Technicolor refused to process Disney film. Newspapers withheld Disney comic strips. RKO, which distributed Disney films, announced it would stall all Disney releases until the strike was settled. Union animators at Warner Bros., after ending shifts animating Bugs Bunny and other Looney Tunes characters, built parade floats and effigies they displayed in step with the Disney strikers. Dances, magic shows, fairs, and other benefits filled Buena Vista Street at night. Trade papers like Variety and the Hollywood Reporter, as well as publications across the spectrum, covered the strike in detail.

“We represent a majority of the cartoonists in the studio,” Babbitt told the Daily Worker. “We demand recognition of our field and a closed-shop contract. We demand wage adjustments and the betterment of working conditions. We want all bonuses previously promised but not paid; we want to get the company men off our necks every time we turn around.”

Walt Disney doubted the Guild actually had the enrollment that the union claimed. He met regularly with Guild members, trying to determine the true numbers. The Guild wanted to crosscheck union enrollment against Disney’s payroll. Walt refused, saying he would accept only the results of a secret-ballot vote deciding which union would represent his people. Both sides accused the other of coercion. The Guild had enough support among unions to make a credible threat to place Disney and all its productions on a “do not patronize” list unless Walt agreed to a crosscheck.

“I have never been a coward,” Walt replied. “When it comes to a compromise of this sort, to me it isn’t a compromise. It’s just laying down. To me it’s one of the most un-American things that can be done.” As the stalemate ground into a ninth week, strikers were edging closer to poverty. Nonetheless, violence never intruded.

On July 28, two NLRB mediators finally arrived from Washington, DC. The mediators’ August 2 ruling found in favor of the strikers. The studio would sign a closed-shop union contract with the Guild; wages would rise 25 percent to the industry’s peak; should the company propose layoffs, an independent joint committee would review them; each striker would get 100 hours in back pay.

The artists returned to work, but the studio was never the same. Walt, who valued loyalty above all, withdrew from the family unit he had created. Disney’s own involvement with his studio would be increasingly managerial, and never again would he experiment with animation the way he once had. The Golden Age of Disney animation had ended.

Back at the studio, Babbitt found himself short of assignments. On November 24, the company laid off its former star animator, ostensibly for lack of work. He and the union sued Walt Disney, and in October 1942, Babbitt appeared in court, offering testimony that clashed with representations by Walt, Gunther Lessing, and every director the animator ever worked with at Walt Disney Studios. The proceedings lasted seven days; Babbitt and the Guild won.

Though he was reinstated in his job, Babbitt immediately enlisted in the Marines. He served three years in intelligence in the Pacific, mustering out in October 1945 as a master technical sergeant. At Disney, which had grudgingly held his position for him, Babbitt was persona non grata. No non-striker, other than directors, dared to talk with him or even look his way.

On January 16, 1947, Babbitt quit. He went on to success at United Productions of America with Mr. Magoo and other UPA cartoons, and won dozens of awards for commercials. Still, nothing in post-strike, post-war life matched what Art Babbitt had achieved in his heyday at Disney. He was directing ads for Hanna Barbera in 1973 when Canadian animator Richard Williams rediscovered him. Williams, a connoisseur of classic animation, hired Babbitt to teach at his production house in London. Babbitt’s years of direct influence inspired Williams’s hand in Robert Zemeckis’s 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a masterful blend of live action and animation that helped propel the big-screen renaissance in animation that continues today.

In 2007, 15 years after Babbitt died, Walt’s nephew, Roy E. Disney, inducted Babbitt into the company’s creative pantheon by honoring him as a Disney Legend. Roy noted that right up until his death, Babbitt kept the photo of the Snow White animation team, carefully labeling each person.

By his own face, Babbitt had written “the Troublemaker.”

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