Historical Context: May, 1943

The U.S. debut of Disney’s classic Bambi was held on August 13, 1942, and Bob’s Theatre in Twin Bridges, Montana offered the groundbreaking animation to its local crowd a few months later, May 9-10, 1943. On that day in history, Francisco Franco, the fascist dictator of Spain, spoke in favor of world peace, saying that neither the Axis nor the Allies could have a complete victory. Franco and Spain had won the Spanish Civil War with assistance from both Germany and Italy. As he spoke, the Axis powers — Germany, Italy and Japan — were surrendering to the Allies in North Africa. Spain remained neutral during World War II.

 Other news events of May, 1943, included the crash of millionaire Howard Hughes’ flying house boat, the Sikorsky S-43. Hughes crashed the unusual craft into Lake Mead during its test flight, killing two passengers. The Sikorsky S-43 was a 1930s American twin-engine amphibious flying boat monoplane.

In other war news, Americans were asked to ration both meat and cheese in May of ’43.