ABSTRACT
Born from the ashes of the Disney strike and flourishing in the 1950s, the animation studio United Productions of America adjusted its existence by diversifying the productions into educational and training films, TV commercials, theatrical releases, a TV show and an animated feature film. Its innovative attitude towards animation was the result of concurrent events: the New Deal legacy, the unionizations and the strikes, the war propaganda audiovisual experimentations, the crisis of the entertainment industry and the TV prominence, and the HUAC investigations, among others. This chapter frames United Productions of America within its historical, cultural and sociological background. It considers the historical period that spans from 1929 to 1960, then offers a description of American society and some of its cultural expressions, so as to conclude with an analysis of the studio as a cultural artifact of its time and the 1955 Museum of Modern Art exhibition, which was entirely devoted to UPA animated films.
