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Page 12 The Antique Shoppe February, 2019
SEAGRAM’S WORLD WAR II POSTERS
“LOOK WHO’S LISTENING!”
by Roy Nuhn
The late 19th and
early 20th centuries
mark the golden age of
commercial poster art.
Such placards were an
important advertising
medium in the
tumultuous and frantic
decades of the Industrial
Revolution era.
During World War I
(1917-1918) the Wilson
administration used
them as propaganda
to rally home front
support. Under the
informal leadership of
famed illustrator Charles
Gibson, creator of the
iconic “Gibson Girl,”
dozens of patriotic-minded volunteer artists
dashed off nearly 3,000 different designs.
More than 25 million copies of these colorful
graphic images rousing patriotic fervor were
printed and distributed. They decorated the walls
of public and private buildings in every American
city, town and village.
Many World War I posters, especially those
promoting Liberty Bond sales, were also issued as
posters - some by government agencies; others by
the private sector for the retail trade.
The emergence of broadcast radio and the
growth of mass appeal magazines in the 1920s
and ‘30s ended the dominance of the poster as an
important advertising tool. Illustrators now drew
magazine covers and print advertisements instead.
With the arrival of WW II, though, the poster
made a dramatic comeback. Its use during the
global conflict would be the final chapter of an
illustrious history.
The wartime propaganda campaign undertaken
by Washington this time was much better
organized and controlled than Gibson’s somewhat
casual handling a generation earlier.
The federal government organized a
committee of advertising agency executives to
manage and coordinate the effort. This group
transitioned into the Office of War Information
(OWI), a critical part of the nation’s censorship
and internal security strategy. Its goals were many.
They included increasing industrial output and
efficiency, selling War Bonds, instilling public
patience with rationing and marketplace shortages
(such as gasoline and sugar), and bolstering
morale.
Such posters were displayed wherever people
gathered - notably in manufacturing plants,
shipping docks, stores, and schools.
Again, postcards reproducing this wartime
propaganda artwork were printed
and circulated - but in far smaller
numbers and rarely by the
publishing industry.
Heavily relying on symbols
Americans had quickly come to
despise, the artwork was full of
German swastikas and Japanese
rising suns. The graphics also
warned people of the omniscient
presence of enemy spies listening
to their conversations. Young
and old alike were warned to
be careful of what they said to
prevent the subversives from
gaining valuable information
about the cargo and sailing times
of freighters, industrial secrets and
production, military movements
(especially troop embarkations), and
internal security apparatus.
Along with the massive
government activity in circulating
propaganda posters, many similar
private ventures also took place.
General Motors, now making
machines of war such as tanks and
armored vehicles, was one of these.
They distributed several posters
throughout its many plants. One
design pictured the Army nurses of
Corregidor in Japanese captivity
and admonished a greater effort to
“WORK! To Set ‘Em Free.”
Perhaps the outstanding effort began in
1942 by New York-based Seagram Distillers, a
major supplier to the nation’s taverns. Working
in tandem with the OWI, the company issued
a series of four posters for placement in bars.
These emphasized the importance of preventing
espionage activities by enemy spies and their
supposed domestic Fascist sympathizers.
A national paranoia gripping the nation in
the early years of the war was the belief that the
enemy and its allies were everywhere. Mostly,
though, they were thought to be eavesdropping on
beer drinkers gathered together in the thousands
of taverns located coast to coast. Workers and
their friends had to be constantly aware of such
insidious activity and be careful of what they said.
This was the theme of Seagram’s placards.
Each used a patriotic slogan currently in wide use
throughout the country, such as “Loose Lips Might
Sink Ships.” The artist was Henry Sharp Goff, Jr.,
whose last name appears on the posters.
The posters were: “Loose Lips Might Sink
Ships,” freighter sinking after being torpedoed.
“Stop Loose Talk Rumors,” caricature of
Hitler’s face. “No Room for Rumors,” Uncle
Sam pointing outward. “Look Who’s Listening,”
cartoon renditions of Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo.
The firm’s patriotic effort, however, was not
entirely selfless. It earned them a public relations
benefit. To be found at the bottom of each was the
notation, “This poster is published by the House of
Seagram as part of its contribution to the national
victory effort.”
Seagram also circulated at least one other
poster. Titled “Fire Away. Buy Extra Bonds,” it
depicted a submarine in action and was dedicated
“In Memory of O.S.S. Dorano.” There is no artist
identification. This, too, became a postcard.
The Seagram posters were in use throughout
the war years. Goff’s artwork was also adopted for
other ephemera.
These included
mini-posters,
postcards, and
patriotic greeting
cards.
The many
posters distributed
by Seagram are
an interesting
footnote in the
chronicles of home
front activity
during World War
II. Along with the
other products
borrowing the
illustrations!
They are a great
collectible for us
today.