Walt Disney
September 22, 1944, 80 years ago: A rally for Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York, the Republican Party's nominee for President, is held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. It is organized by Walt Disney, head of America's leading cartoon studio.
Disney had been a supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Democratic Party in the 1932 and 1936 elections. But in 1940, he became a Republican. In 1944, despite World War II being waged and America and its allies appearing to be doing well, Disney supported Dewey, contributing heavily to his campaign.
Disney was approached by film producer and director Cecil B. DeMille and actor Lionel Barrymore, both dedicated conservatives, to help them organize a rally for Dewey at the Coliseum, designed to make it look like Dewey was popular in Los Angeles, then the 5th-largest city in the country and easily the largest in the American West (with 1.5 million people, then trailing New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Detroit), and in California overall, then the 5th-largest State and just ahead of Texas as the largest in the West (with 6.9 million, then trailing New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio).
Disney agreed, and, with his contacts, he got some of the biggest names in Hollywood to agree to come. A crowd of 93,427 attended. Admission to the rally was free, but, in 2018, a ticket to it was auctioned off at $50.
The whole thing looked like a Hollywood premiere, with floodlights, a giant flag, the Olympic torch being lit, and big signs featuring the names of Dewey and his Vice Presidential nominee, Governor John Bricker of Ohio. (There was a rhyming slogan, which seems ridiculous in hindsight: "Win the war quicker with Dewey and Bricker.")
The spectators heard speeches by Dewey, and Disney; producer David O. Selznick; and these actors, in alphabetical order: Don Ameche, George Burns and his wife Gracie Allen, Gary Cooper, Irene Dunne, Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Fred MacMurray, Raymond Massey, Adolphe Menjou, Ray Milland, George Murphy, Mary Pickford, William Powell, Ginger Rogers and Barbara Stanwyck. Not speaking, but also attending, were directors Howard Hawks, Preston Sturges and King Vidor; and actors Wallace Beery, William Bendix, Janet Blair, Lillian Gish, Jeannette MacDonald and Joel McCrea.
Mary Pickford was a legend of the silent film era, but neither her ex-husband and partner in founding United Artists, Douglas Fairbanks, nor her stepson, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., was at this rally. Douglas Sr. had died in 1939, and Douglas Jr. remained a devoted Democrat throughout his long life. Lillian Gish was another silent film legend, as was her sister, Dorothy Gish, who was not at the rally, although she was also a Republican. (Lillian did admit to voting for FDR in 1936.)
George Murphy, better known as a dancer, was elected a U.S. Senator from California in 1964, but lost his bid for re-election in 1970. William Powell was famous for starring in the Thin Man movies with Myrna Loy, but Loy wasn't there: She was a Democrat. Ginger Rogers was famous for her dance routines with Fred Astaire, but Astaire wasn't there, although he was a lifelong Republican. Jeannette MacDonald was famous for her musical films with Nelson Eddy, but Eddy wasn't there, although he was a Republican.
Also notably not attending, despite being devout Republicans, were Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, who had already starred together in 3 "Road to... " movies since 1940, and would do 4 more.
It was not notable at the time, but is in hindsight, that Ronald Reagan was not there: While he had been appearing in movies since 1937, and was a genuine star from 1940 onward, he didn't being to turn from left to right until 1947, and didn’t switch his party registration from Democratic to Republican until 1962. He was in the U.S. Army Air Force at this point, but was based just outside Hollywood in Culver City, so if he had wanted to attend, he just would have needed to get a pass from his commanding officer.
People born after 1960, who know Reagan as a Republican icon and Hollywood as "liberal," would be shocked to know about this rally. In that year's campaign, FDR got huge crowds to see his motorcades, but in stadiums, he got no crowd bigger than the 40,000 who squeezed themselves into Fenway Park in Boston the weekend before the election.
Did the Coliseum rally for Dewey work? Not by a long shot: FDR won the election, taking 36 States for 432 Electoral Votes, to Dewey's 99 from 12 States. FDR got 55.9 percent of the popular vote nationally, 56.5 percent in the State of California, and 56.7 percent in the County of Los Angeles. Dewey won just 12 of the State's 58 Counties, including only 3 in the South: Orange, Riverside and Imperial. San Diego County, then as now home to a major naval base, has usually voted Republican. At the time, the sailors stationed there must have voted for their Commander-in-Chief.
I can find no reference to any supporter of FDR and the Democrats telling Walt Disney, or any of the people at the rally, "Stick to show business, leave politics out of it." When conservatives say that to liberals today, I remind them that nobody ever says, "Stick to (whatever you do), leave politics out of it" when they agree with your politics.
One more thing: At this point, the Republicans were getting most of the attention in the campaign. Rather than hitting the trail, FDR was staying close to home, and doing his job as head of government and commander-in-chief, and many Democratic activists were telling him to do something. They were not aware of the state of his health, and didn't seem to care that there was a war on.
The night after the Coliseum rally, he had a speech nationally broadcast from a union dinner in Washington, and showed Hollywood what a real showman was, invoking "my little dog, Fala!"
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