A regular feature at the Disney History Institute is “Covering Disney” (well, nothing has been too regular at DHI for several months). The use of the magazine during Walt Disney’s heyday for the purpose of promotion and exploitation. You can read my original essay on this here. To see all the essays and magazine covers at DHI, go to: Covering Disney.
I have a bit of a mercenary attitude in writing about this particular publication: I would like to see if someone would be willing to translate the article for me. As many of you know, I am working on a book on Walt Disney’s contributions to the War effort (WWII) for the Walt Disney Family Foundation. A small part of this story does include the battle for South America (keep in mind as late as 1942 some South American countries were still in “play” as to whether they would go Axis or Allied!). As such, this magazine, Caminos del Aire from February 1943 was right in the middle of the propaganda war underway south of the border. If anyone is willing to take upon themselves the translation of this article, I would be most appreciative (which would manifest itself in an acknowledgement in the book). To help in this worthy endeavor, I have uploaded the two pages with text in all their glorious 3mb detail (give or take). They should provide plenty of detail to perform a babel fish operation.
As for the magazine itself (which is an airplane publication, the kind found in the pocket of your front seat along with one regulation barf bag and safety instructions), the cover is brilliant. The Pedro segment has always been a personal favorite (and I get a kick out of the well placed aviation advertisements on mom and dad’s nose–CMA for Compañia Mexicana de Aviación [a Mexican-American Airline] and PAA for Pan America Airlines; these were, of course, the two main airlines that provided El Groupo with transportation). The article itself features some wonderful candid shots, three of which I have not seen anywhere else (my guess is exclusive to this publication).
To learn more about Walt’s travels south of the border, I highly recommend my good friend JB Kaufman’s book, conveniently named, South of the Border With Disney: Walt Disney and the Good Neighbor Program, 1941-1948 (which also, conveniently, I have for sale SIGNED in the Institute’s book store, just click on the SHOP link at the top of this page and scroll down).
Enjoy!
Paul: You must be kidding right? I will obviously translate this for you next week. Amazing find by the way. I had never seen that magazine!
But Didier, you are already THANKED HEAVILY in the book. 🙂 Not kidding, just figured you probably had enough on your plate (I know the feeling now). Anyway, thanks, will look forward to it. Cheers, Paul