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It was what America used to nuke Japan in 1945.

It was an American-made made 4 four-engine propeller plane made in 1942.

3,970 were ever built and were retired in the 1960s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-29_Superfortress

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The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Flying Fortress, the Superfortress was designed for high-altitude strategic bombing, but also excelled in low-altitude night incendiary bombing, and in dropping naval mines to blockade Japan. B-29s dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only aircraft ever to drop nuclear weapons in combat.

One of the largest aircraft of World War II, the B-29 was designed with state-of-the-art technology, which included a pressurized cabin, dual-wheeled tricycle landing gear, and an analog computer-controlled fire-control system that allowed one gunner and a fire-control officer to direct four remote machine gun turrets. The $3 billion cost of design and production (equivalent to $45 billion today), far exceeding the $1.9 billion cost of the Manhattan Project, made the B-29 program the most expensive of the war. The B-29 remained in service in various roles throughout the 1950s, being retired in the early 1960s after 3,970 had been built. A few were also used as flying television transmitters by the Stratovision company. The Royal Air Force flew the B-29 as the Washington until 1954.

The B-29 was the progenitor of a series of Boeing-built bombers, transports, tankers, reconnaissance aircraft, and trainers. For example, the re-engined B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II became the first aircraft to fly around the world non-stop, during a 94-hour flight in 1949. The Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter airlifter, which was first flown in 1944, was followed in 1947 by its commercial airliner variant, the Boeing Model 377 Stratocruiser. This bomber-to-airliner derivation was similar to the B-17/ Model 307 evolution. In 1948, Boeing introduced the KB-29 tanker, followed in 1950 by the Model 377-derivative KC-97. A line of outsized-cargo variants of the Stratocruiser is the Guppy / Mini Guppy / Super Guppy, which remain in service with NASA and other operators. The Soviet Union produced 847 Tupolev Tu-4s, an unlicensed reverse-engineered copy of the B-29. Twenty B-29s remain as static displays, but only two, FIFI and Doc, still fly.

Before World War II, the United States Army Air Corps concluded that the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, which would be the Americans' primary strategic bomber during the war, would be inadequate for the Pacific Theater, which required a bomber that could carry a larger payload more than 3,000 miles.

In response, Boeing began work on pressurized long-range bombers in 1938. Boeing's design study for the Model 334 was a pressurized derivative of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress with nosewheel undercarriage. Although the Air Corps lacked funds to pursue the design, Boeing continued development with its own funds as a private venture. In April 1939, Charles Lindbergh convinced General Henry H. Arnold to produce a new bomber in large numbers to counter the Germans' bomber production. In December 1939, the Air Corps issued a formal specification for a so-called "superbomber" that could deliver 20,000 lb (9,100 kg) of bombs to a target 2,667 mi (4,292 km) away, and at a speed of 400 mph (640 km/h). Boeing's previous private venture studies formed the starting point for its response to the Air Corps formal specification.

Boeing submitted its Model 345 on 11 May 1940, in competition with designs from Consolidated Aircraft (the Model 33, which later became the B-32), Lockheed (the Lockheed XB-30), and Douglas (the Douglas XB-31). Douglas and Lockheed soon abandoned work on their projects, but Boeing received an order for two flying prototypes, which were given the designation XB-29, and an airframe for static testing on 24 August 1940, with the order being revised to add a third flying aircraft on 14 December. Consolidated continued to work on its Model 33, as it was seen by the Air Corps as a backup if there were problems with Boeing's design. Boeing received an initial production order for 14 service test aircraft and 250 production bombers in May 1941, this being increased to 500 aircraft in January 1942. The B-29 featured a fuselage design with circular cross-section for strength. The need for pressurization in the cockpit area also led to the B-29 being one of very few American combat aircraft of World War II to have a stepless cockpit design, without a separate windscreen for the pilots.

Manufacturing the B-29 was a complex task that involved four main-assembly factories. There were two Boeing operated plants at Renton, Washington ( Boeing Renton Factory), and one in Wichita, Kansas (now Spirit AeroSystems), a Bell plant at Marietta, Georgia, near Atlanta ("Bell-Atlanta"), and a Martin plant at Omaha, Nebraska ("Martin-Omaha" - Offutt Field). Thousands of subcontractors were also involved in the project. The first prototype made its maiden flight from Boeing Field, Seattle, on 21 September 1942. The combined effects of the aircraft's highly advanced design, challenging requirements, immense pressure for production, and hurried development caused setbacks. Unlike the unarmed first prototype, the second was fitted with a Sperry defensive armament system using remote-controlled gun turrets sighted by periscopes and first flew on 30 December 1942, although the flight was terminated due to a serious engine fire.

On 18 February 1943, the second prototype, flying out of Boeing Field in Seattle, experienced an engine fire and crashed. The crash killed Boeing test pilot Edmund T. Allen and his 10-man crew, 20 workers at the Frye Meat Packing Plant and a Seattle firefighter. Changes to the production craft came so often and so fast that, in early 1944, B-29s flew from the production lines directly to modification depots for extensive rebuilds to incorporate the latest changes. AAF-contracted modification centers and its own air depot system struggled to handle the scope of the requirements. Some facilities lacked hangars capable of housing the giant B-29, requiring outdoor work in freezing weather, further delaying necessary modification. By the end of 1943, although almost 100 aircraft had been delivered, only 15 were airworthy. This prompted an intervention by General Hap Arnold to resolve the problem, with production personnel being sent from the factories to the modification centers to speed availability of sufficient aircraft to equip the first bomb groups in what became known as the " Battle of Kansas". This resulted in 150 aircraft being modified in the five weeks, between 10 March and 15 April 1944.

The most common cause of maintenance headaches and catastrophic failures was the engines. Although the Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone radial engines later became a trustworthy workhorse in large piston-engined aircraft, early models were beset with dangerous reliability problems. This problem was not fully cured until the aircraft was fitted with the more powerful Pratt & Whitney R-4360 "Wasp Major" in the B-29D/B-50 program, which arrived too late for World War II. Interim measures included cuffs placed on propeller blades to divert a greater flow of cooling air into the intakes, which had baffles installed to direct a stream of air onto the exhaust valves. Oil flow to the valves was also increased, asbestos baffles were installed around rubber push rod fittings to prevent oil loss, thorough pre-flight inspections were made to detect unseated valves, and mechanics frequently replaced the uppermost five cylinders (every 25 hours of engine time) and the entire engines (every 75 hours).

Pilots, including the present-day pilots of the Commemorative Air Force's , one of the last two remaining flying B-29s, describe flight after takeoff as being an urgent struggle for airspeed (generally, flight after takeoff should consist of striving for altitude). Radial engines need airflow to keep them cool, and failure to get up to speed as soon as possible could result in an engine failure and risk of fire. One useful technique was to check the magnetos while already on takeoff roll rather than during a conventional static engine-runup before takeoff.

In wartime, the B-29 was capable of flight at altitudes up to 31,850 feet (9,710 m), at speeds of up to 350 mph (560 km/h; 300 kn) ( true airspeed). This was its best defense because Japanese fighters could barely reach that altitude, and few could catch the B-29 even if they did attain that altitude.

The General Electric Central Fire Control system on the B-29 directed four remotely controlled turrets armed with two .50 Browning M2 machine guns each. All weapons were aimed optically, with targeting computed by analog electrical instrumentation. There were five interconnected sighting stations located in the nose and tail positions and three Plexiglas blisters in the central fuselage. Five General Electric analog computers (one dedicated to each sight) increased the weapons' accuracy by compensating for factors such as airspeed, lead, gravity, temperature and humidity. The computers also allowed a single gunner to operate two or more turrets (including tail guns) simultaneously. The gunner in the upper position acted as fire control officer, managing the distribution of turrets among the other gunners during combat. The tail position initially had two .50 Browning machine guns and a single M2 20 mm cannon. Later aircraft had the 20 mm cannon removed, sometimes replaced by a third machine gun.

In early 1945, Major General Curtis Lemay, commander of XXI Bomber Command-the Marianas-based B-29-equipped bombing force-ordered most of the defensive armament and remote-controlled sighting equipment removed from the B-29s under his command. The affected aircraft had the same reduced defensive firepower as the nuclear weapons-delivery intended Silverplate B-29 airframes and could carry greater fuel and bomb loads as a result of the change. The lighter defensive armament was made possible by a change in mission from high-altitude, daylight bombing with high explosive bombs to low-altitude night raids using incendiary bombs. As a consequence of that requirement, Bell Atlanta (BA) produced a series of 311 B-29Bs that had turrets and sighting equipment omitted, except for the tail position, which was fitted with AN/APG-15 fire-control radar. That version could also have an improved APQ-7 "Eagle" bombing-through-overcast radar fitted in an airfoil-shaped radome under the fuselage. Most of those aircraft were assigned to the 315th Bomb Wing, Northwest Field, Guam.

The crew would enjoy, for the first time in a bomber, full-pressurization comfort. This first-ever cabin pressure system for an Allied production bomber was developed for the B-29 by Garrett AiResearch. Both the forward and rear crew compartments were to be pressurized, but the designers had to decide whether to have bomb bays that were not pressurized or a fully pressurized fuselage that would have to be de-pressurized prior to opening the bomb bay doors. The solution was to have bomb bays that were not pressurized and a long tunnel joining the forward and rear crew compartments. Crews could use the tunnel if necessary to crawl from one pressurized compartment to the other.

In September 1941, the United States Army Air Forces' plans for war against Germany and Japan proposed basing the B-29 in Egypt for operations against Germany, as British airbases were likely to be overcrowded. Air Force planning throughout 1942 and early 1943 continued to have the B-29 deployed initially against Germany, transferring to the Pacific only after the end of the war in Europe. By the end of 1943, plans had changed, partly due to production delays, and the B-29 was dedicated to the Pacific Theater. A new plan implemented at the direction of President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a promise to China, called Operation Matterhorn, deployed the B-29 units to attack Japan from four forward bases in southern China, with five main bases in India, and to attack other targets in the region from China and India as needed. The Chengdu region was eventually chosen over the Guilin region to avoid having to raise, equip, and train 50 Chinese divisions to protect the advanced bases from Japanese ground attack. The XX Bomber Command, initially intended to be two combat wings of four groups each, was reduced to a single wing of four groups because of the lack of availability of aircraft, automatically limiting the effectiveness of any attacks from China.

This was an extremely costly scheme, as there was no overland connection available between India and China, and all supplies had to be flown over the Himalayas, either by transport aircraft or by B-29s themselves, with some aircraft being stripped of armor and guns and used to deliver fuel. B-29s started to arrive in India in early April 1944. The first B-29 flight to airfields in China (over the Himalayas, or " The Hump") took place on 24 April 1944. The first B-29 combat mission was flown on 5 June 1944, with 77 out of 98 B-29s launched from India bombing the railroad shops in Bangkok and elsewhere in Thailand. Five B-29s were lost during the mission, none to hostile fire.

On 5 June 1944, B-29s raided Bangkok, in what is reported as a test before being deployed against the Japanese home islands. Sources do not report from where they launched and vary as to the numbers involved-77, 98, and 114 being claimed. Targets were Bangkok's Memorial Bridge and a major power plant. Bombs fell over two kilometers away, damaged no civilian structures, but destroyed some tram lines, and destroyed both a Japanese military hospital and the Japanese secret police headquarters. On 15 June 1944, 68 B-29s took off from bases around Chengdu, 47 B-29s bombed the Imperial Iron and Steel Works at Yawata, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. This was the first attack on Japanese islands since the Doolittle raid in April 1942. The first B-29 combat losses occurred during this raid, with one B-29 destroyed on the ground by Japanese fighters after an emergency landing in China, one lost to anti-aircraft fire over Yawata, and another, the Stockett's Rocket (after Capt. Marvin M. Stockett, Aircraft Commander) B-29-1-BW 42-6261, disappeared after takeoff from Chakulia, India, over the Himalayas (12 KIA, 11 crew and one passenger). This raid, which did little damage to the target, with only one bomb striking the target factory complex, nearly exhausted fuel stocks at the Chengdu B-29 bases, resulting in a slow-down of operations until the fuel stockpiles could be replenished. Starting in July, the raids against Japan from Chinese airfields continued at relatively low intensity. Japan was bombed on:

B-29s were withdrawn from airfields in China by the end of January 1945. Throughout the prior period, B-29 raids were also launched from China and India against many other targets throughout Southeast Asia, including a series of raids on Singapore and Thailand. On 2 November 1944, 55 B-29s raided Bangkok's Bang Sue marshaling yards in the largest raid of the war. Seven RTAF Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusas from Foong Bin (Air Group) 16 and 14 IJAAF Ki-43s attempted intercept. RTAF Flt Lt Therdsak Worrasap attacked a B-29, damaging it, but was shot down by return fire. One B-29 was lost, possibly the one damaged by Flt Lt Therdsak. On 14 April 1945, a second B-29 raid on Bangkok destroyed two key power plants and was the last major attack conducted against Thai targets. The B-29 effort was gradually shifted to the new bases in the Mariana Islands in the Central Pacific, with the last B-29 combat mission from India flown on 29 March 1945.

In addition to the logistical problems associated with operations from China, the B-29 could reach only a limited part of Japan while flying from Chinese bases. The solution to this problem was to capture the Mariana Islands, which would bring targets such as Tokyo, about 1,500 mi (2,400 km) north of the Marianas within range of B-29 attacks. The Joint Chiefs of Staff agreed in December 1943 to seize the Marianas.

US forces invaded Saipan on 15 June 1944. Despite a Japanese naval counterattack which led to the Battle of the Philippine Sea and heavy fighting on land, Saipan was secured by 9 July. Operations followed against Guam and Tinian, with all three islands secured by August.

Naval construction battalions ( Seabees) began at once to construct air bases suitable for the B-29, commencing even before the end of ground fighting. In all, five major airfields were built: two on the flat island of Tinian, one on Saipan, and two on Guam. Each was large enough to eventually accommodate a bomb wing consisting of four bomb groups, giving a total of 180 B-29s per airfield. These bases could be supplied by ship and, unlike the bases in China, were not vulnerable to attack by Japanese ground forces.

The bases became the launch sites for the large B-29 raids against Japan in the final year of the war. The first B-29 arrived on Saipan on 12 October 1944, and the first combat mission was launched from there on 28 October 1944, with 14 B-29s attacking the Truk atoll. The 73rd Bomb Wing launched the first mission against Japan from bases in the Marianas, on 24 November 1944, sending 111 B-29s to attack Tokyo. For this first attack on the Japanese capital since the Doolittle Raid in April 1942, 73rd Bomb Wing wing commander Brigadier General Emmett O'Donnell Jr. acted as mission command pilot in B-29 Dauntless Dotty.

The campaign of incendiary raids started with the bombardment of Kobe on 4 February 1945, then peaked early with the most destructive bombing raid in history (even when the later Silverplate-flown nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are considered) on the night of 9-10 March 1945 on Tokyo. From then on, the raids intensified, being launched regularly until the end of the war. The attacks succeeded in devastating most large Japanese cities (with the exception of Kyoto and four that were reserved for nuclear attacks), and gravely damaged Japan's war industries. Although less publicly appreciated, the mining of Japanese ports and shipping routes ( Operation Starvation) carried out by B-29s from April 1945 reduced Japan's ability to support its population and move its troops.

The most famous B-29s were the Silverplate series. These aircraft were extensively modified to carry nuclear weapons. Serious consideration was given to using the British Lancaster bomber, as this would require less modification.

The most significant modification was the enlargement of the bomb bay enabling each aircraft to carry either the Thinman or Fatman weapons. These Silverplate bombers differed from other B-29s then in service by having fuel injection and reversible props. Also, to make a lighter aircraft, the Silverplate B-29s were stripped of all guns, except for those on the tail. Pilot Charles Sweeney credits the reversible props for saving Bockscar after making an emergency landing on Okinawa following the Nagasaki bombing.

, flown by Tibbets, dropped the first bomb, called Little Boy, on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. Enola Gay is fully restored and on display at the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, outside Dulles Airport near Washington, D.C. , piloted by Major Charles W. Sweeney, dropped the second bomb, called Fat Man, on Nagasaki three days later. Bockscar is on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

Following the surrender of Japan, called V-J Day, B-29s were used for other purposes. A number supplied POWs with food and other necessities by dropping barrels of rations on Japanese POW camps. In September 1945, a long-distance flight was undertaken for public relations purposes: Generals Barney M. Giles, Curtis LeMay, and Emmett O'Donnell Jr. piloted three specially modified B-29s from Chitose Air Base in Hokkaidō to Chicago Municipal Airport, continuing to Washington, D.C., the farthest nonstop distance (c.6400 miles) to that date flown by U.S. Army Air Forces aircraft and the first-ever nonstop flight from Japan to Chicago. Two months later, Colonel Clarence S. Irvine commanded another modified B-29, Pacusan Dreamboat, in a world-record-breaking long-distance flight from Guam to Washington, D.C., traveling 7,916 miles (12,740 km) in 35 hours, with a gross takeoff weight of 155,000 pounds (70,000 kg). Almost a year later, in October 1946, the same B-29 flew 9,422 miles nonstop from Oahu, Hawaii, to Cairo, Egypt, in less than 40 hours, demonstrating the possibility of routing airlines over the polar ice cap.

Although considered for other theaters, and briefly evaluated in the UK, the B-29 was exclusively used in World War II in the Pacific Theatre. The use of YB-29-BW 41-36393, the so-named Hobo Queen, one of the service test aircraft flown around several British airfields in early 1944, was part of a "disinformation" program from its mention in an American-published Sternenbanner German-language propaganda leaflet from Leap Year Day in 1944, meant to be circulated within the Reich, with the intent to deceive the Germans into believing that the B-29 would be deployed to Europe.

American post-war military assistance programs loaned the RAF enough Superfortresses to equip several RAF Bomber Command squadrons. The aircraft was known as the Washington B.1 in RAF service and served from March 1950 until the last bombers were returned in early 1954. The phase-out was occasioned by deliveries of the English Electric Canberra bombers. Three Washingtons modified for ELINT duties and a standard bomber version used for support by No. 192 Squadron RAF were decommissioned in 1958, being replaced by de Havilland Comet aircraft.

Two British Washington B.1 aircraft were transferred to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in 1952. They were attached to the Aircraft Research and Development Unit and used in trials conducted on behalf of the British Ministry of Supply. Both aircraft were placed in storage in 1956 and were sold for scrap in 1957.

At the end of WWII, Soviet development of modern four-engine heavy bombers lagged behind the west. The Petlyakov Pe-8-the sole heavy bomber operated by the Soviet Air Forces-first flew in 1936. Intended to replace the obsolete Tupolev TB-3, only 93 Pe-8s were built by the end of WWII. During 1944 and 1945, four B-29s made emergency landings in Soviet territory after bombing raids on Japanese Manchuria and Japan. In accordance with Soviet neutrality in the Pacific War, the bombers were interned by the Soviets despite American requests for their return. Rather than return the aircraft, the Soviets reverse engineered the American B-29s and used them as a pattern for the Tupolev Tu-4.

On 31 July 1944, Ramp Tramp ( serial number 42-6256), of the United States Army Air Forces 462nd (Very Heavy) Bomb Group was diverted to Vladivostok, Russia, after an engine failed and the propeller could not be feathered. This B-29 was part of a 100-aircraft raid against the Japanese Showa steel mill in Anshan, Manchuria. On 20 August 1944, Cait Paomat (42-93829), flying from Chengdu, was damaged by anti-aircraft gunfire during a raid on the Yawata Iron Works. Due to the damage it sustained, the crew elected to divert to the Soviet Union. The aircraft crashed in the foothills of Sikhote-Alin mountain range east of Khabarovsk after the crew bailed out.

On 11 November 1944, during a night raid on Omura in Kyushu, Japan, the General H. H. Arnold Special (42-6365) was damaged and forced to divert to Vladivostok in the Soviet Union. The crew was interned. On 21 November 1944, Ding Hao (42-6358) was damaged during a raid on an aircraft factory at Omura and was also forced to divert to Vladivostok.

The interned crews of these four B-29s were allowed to escape into American-occupied Iran in January 1945, but none of the B-29s were returned after Stalin ordered the Tupolev OKB to examine and copy the B-29 and produce a design ready for quantity production as soon as possible.

Because aluminum in the USSR was supplied in different gauges from that available in the US (metric vs imperial), the entire aircraft had to be extensively re-engineered. In addition, Tupolev substituted his own favored airfoil sections for those used by Boeing, with the Soviets themselves already having their own Wright R-1820-derived 18 cylinder radial engine, the Shvetsov ASh-73 of comparable power and displacement to the B-29's Duplex Cyclone radials available to power their design. In 1947, the Soviets debuted both the Tupolev Tu-4 ( NATO ASCC code named Bull), and the Tupolev Tu-70 transport variant. The Soviets used tail-gunner positions similar to the B-29 in many later bombers and transports.

Production of the B-29 was phased out after WWII, with the last example completed by Boeing's Renton factory on 28 May 1946. Many aircraft went into storage, being declared excess inventory, and were ultimately scrapped as surplus. Others remained in the active inventory and equipped the Strategic Air Command when it formed on 21 March 1946. In particular, the "Silverplate" modified aircraft of the 509th Composite Group remained the only aircraft capable of delivering the atomic bomb, and so the unit was involved in the Operation Crossroads series of tests, with B-29 Dave's Dream dropping a "Fat Man"-type bomb in Test Able on 1 July 1946.

Some B-29s, fitted with filtered air sampling scoops, were used to monitor above-ground nuclear weapons testing by the US and the USSR by sampling airborne radioactive contamination. The USAF also used the aircraft for long-range weather reconnaissance (WB-29), for signals intelligence gathering (EB-29) and photographic reconnaissance (RB-29).

The B-29 was used in 1950-53 in the Korean War. At first, the bomber was used in normal strategic day-bombing missions, although North Korea's few strategic targets and industries were quickly destroyed. More importantly, in 1950 numbers of Soviet MiG-15 jet fighters appeared over Korea, and after the loss of 28 aircraft, future B-29 raids were restricted to night missions, largely in a supply-interdiction role.

The B-29 dropped the 1,000-lb VB-3 "Razon" (a range-controllable version of the earlier Azon guided ordnance device) and the 12,000 lb. VB-13 " Tarzon" MCLOS radio-controlled bombs in Korea, mostly for demolishing major bridges, like the ones across the Yalu River, and for attacks on dams. The aircraft also was used for numerous leaflet drops in North Korea, such as those for Operation Moolah.

A Superfortress of the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron flew the last B-29 mission of the war on 27 July 1953.

Over the course of the war, B-29s flew 20,000 sorties and dropped 200,000 tonnes (180,000 tons) of bombs. B-29 gunners were credited with shooting down 27 enemy aircraft. In turn 78 B-29s were lost; 57 B-29 and reconnaissance variants were lost in action and 21 were non-combat losses.

Soviet records show that one MiG-15 jet fighter was shot down by a B-29 during the war. This occurred on 6 December 1950, when a B-29 shot down Lieutenant N. Serikov.

With the arrival of the mammoth Convair B-36, the B-29 was reclassified as a medium bomber by the Air Force. The later B-50 Superfortress variant (initially designated B-29D) was able to handle auxiliary roles such as air-sea rescue, electronic intelligence gathering, air-to-air refueling, and weather reconnaissance.

The B-50D was replaced in its primary role during the early 1950s by the Boeing B-47 Stratojet, which in turn was replaced by the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. The final active-duty KB-50 and WB-50 variants were phased out in the mid-1960s, with the final example retired in 1965. A total of 3,970 B-29s were built.

The variants of the B-29 were outwardly similar in appearance but were built around different wing center sections that affected the wingspan dimensions. The wing of the Renton-built B-29A-BN used a different subassembly process and was a foot longer in span. The Georgia-built B-29B-BA weighed less through armament reduction. A planned C series with more reliable R-3350s was not built.

Moreover, engine packages changed, including the type of propellers and range of the variable pitch. A notable example was the eventual 65 airframes (up to 1947's end) for the Silverplate and successor-name "Saddletree" specifications built for the Manhattan Project with Curtiss Electric reversible pitch propellers.

The other differences came through added equipment for varied mission roles. These roles included cargo carriers (CB); rescue aircraft (SB); weather ships (WB); and trainers (TB); and aerial tankers (KB).

Some were used for odd purposes such as flying relay television transmitters under the name of Stratovision.

The B-29D led progressively to the XB-44, and the family of B-50 Superfortress (which was powered by four 3,500 hp (2,600 kW) Pratt & Whitney R-4360-35 Wasp Major engines).

Another role was as a mothership. This included being rigged for carrying the experimental parasite fighter aircraft, such as the McDonnell XF-85 Goblin and Republic F-84 Thunderjets as in flight lock on and offs. It was also used to develop the Airborne Early Warning program; it was the ancestor of various modern radar picket aircraft. A B-29 with the original Wright Duplex Cyclone powerplants was used to air-launch the Bell X-1 supersonic research rocket aircraft, as well as Cherokee rockets for the testing of ejection seats.

Some B-29s were modified to act as testbeds for various new systems or special conditions, including fire-control systems, cold-weather operations, and various armament configurations. Several converted B-29s were used to experiment with aerial refueling and re-designated as . Perhaps the most important tests were conducted by the XB-29G. It carried prototype jet engines in its bomb bay, and lowered them into the air stream to conduct measurements.

Australia

United Kingdom

United States

Soviet Union

Soviet Air Forces (three USAAF B-29s made emergency landings in the USSR during WWII, and were never returned; they were reverse-engineered to make the Soviet Tupolev Tu-4 "Bull" bomber.)

Twenty-two B-29s are preserved at various museums worldwide, including two flying examples; FIFI, which belongs to the Commemorative Air Force, and Doc, which belongs to Doc's Friends. Doc made its first flight in 60 years from Wichita, Kansas, on 17 July 2016. There are also four complete airframes either in storage or under restoration, eight partial airframes in storage or under restoration, and four known wreck sites.[citation needed ]

Three of the Silverplate B-29s modified to drop nuclear bombs survive. The (nose number 82), which dropped the first atomic bomb, was fully restored and placed on display at the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air & Space Museum near Washington Dulles International Airport in 2003. The B-29 that dropped Fat Man on Nagasaki, (nose number 77), is restored and on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. The third is the 15th Silverplate to be delivered, on the last day of the war in the Pacific. It is on display at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History in Albuquerque, New Mexico, posed with a replica of the Mark-3 "Fat Man" nuclear bomb.

Only two of the 22 museum aircraft are outside the United States: It's Hawg Wild at the Imperial War Museum Duxford and another at the KAI Aerospace Museum in Sachon, South Korea.

Accidents and incidents involving B-29s include:

The Friday evening of 10 November 1944 crash of a B-29 near Clovis, New Mexico. All 15 members of the crew were killed.[citation needed ]

12 June 1946 a B-29 crashed into Clingmans Dome in Tennessee killing the entire crew of twelve.

The 1947 crash of the Kee Bird in Greenland during a flight to the geographic North Pole, and its subsequent destruction in 1995 during a recovery attempt.

The 1948 Lake Mead Boeing B-29 crash.

The 3 November 1948 crash at Bleaklow moor near Glossop, Derbyshire, England. All 13 crew on board were killed. Much of the wreckage is still exposed and can be reached by a 2 mile walk from the summit of Snake Pass, starting along the Pennine Way footpath through Devil's Dyke.

On 11 April 1950 a B-29 departed Kirtland Air Force Base at 9:38 PM and crashed into a mountain on Manzano Base approximately three minutes later, killing the crew. Detonators were installed in the nuclear bomb on the aircraft. The bomb case was demolished and some high-explosive (HE) material burned in the gasoline fire. Other pieces of unburned HE were scattered throughout the wreckage. Four spare detonators in their carrying case were recovered undamaged. There were no contamination or recovery problems. The recovered components were returned to the Atomic Energy Commission. Both the weapon and the capsule of nuclear material were on board the aircraft but the capsule was not inserted in the bomb for safety reasons, so a nuclear detonation was not possible.

On 5 August 1950 a bomb-laden B-29 Superfortress crashed into a residential area in California; 17 were killed and 68 injured

The 1953 "Tip Tow" crash, Peconic Bay, New York State.

General characteristics

Crew: 11 (Pilot, Co-pilot, Bombardier, Flight Engineer, Navigator, Radio Operator, Radar Observer, Right Gunner, Left Gunner, Central Fire Control, Tail Gunner)

Length: 99 ft 0 in (30.18 m)

Wingspan: 141 ft 3 in (43.05 m)

Height: 27 ft 9 in (8.46 m)

Wing area: 1,736 sq ft (161.3 m²)

Aspect ratio: 11.5

Zero-lift drag coefficient: 0.0241

Empty weight: 74,500 lb (33,793 kg)

Gross weight: 120,000 lb (54,431 kg)

Max takeoff weight: 133,500 lb (60,555 kg)

Maximum speed: 357 mph (575 km/h, 310 kn)

Cruise speed: 220 mph (350 km/h, 190 kn)

Stall speed: 105 mph (169 km/h, 91 kn)

Range: 3,250 mi (5,230 km, 2,820 nmi)

Ferry range: 5,600 mi (9,000 km, 4,900 nmi)

Service ceiling: 31,850 ft (9,710 m)

Rate of climb: 900 ft/min (4.6 m/s)

Lift-to-drag: 16.8

Wing loading: 69.12 lb/sq ft (337.5 kg/m²)

Power/mass: 0.073 hp/lb (0.120 kW/kg)

Guns:

Bombs:

5,000 lb (2,300 kg) over 1,600 mi (2,600 km; 1,400 nmi) radius at high altitude

12,000 lb (5,400 kg) over 1,600 mi (2,600 km; 1,400 nmi) radius at medium altitude

20,000 lb (9,100 kg) maximum over short distances at low altitude

Could be modified to carry two 22,000 lb (10,000 kg) Grand Slam bombs externally.

Related development

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era

Related lists

Anderson, C. E. "Bud" (December 1981 - March 1982). "Caught by the Wing-tip". Air Enthusiast. No. 17. pp. 74-80. ISSN 0143-5450.

Clarke, Chris. "The Cannons on the B-29 Bomber Were a Mid-Century Engineering Masterpiece", Popular Mechanics, 30 November 2015.

Craven, Wesley Frank and James Lea Cate, eds. The Army Air Forces In World War II: Volume Five: The Pacific: Matterhorn to Nagasaki June 1944 to August 1945. Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, 1983.

Howlett, Chris. "Washington Times". The history of the Washington

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982-1985). London: Orbis Publishing, 1985.

Johnson, Robert E. "Why the Boeing B-29 Bomber, and Why the Wright R-3350 Engine?" American Aviation Historical Society Journal, 33(3), 1988, pp. 174-189. ISSN 0002-7553.

Mayborn, Mitch. The Boeing B-29 Superfortress (Aircraft in Profile 101). Windsor, Berkshire, UK: Profile Publications Ltd., 1971 (reprint).

Nijboer, Donald. B-29 Superfortress vs Ki-44 "Tojo": Pacific Theater 1944-45 (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017).

Nijboer, Donald, and Steve Pace. B-29 Combat Missions: First-hand Accounts of Superfortress Operations Over the Pacific and Korea (Metro Books, 2011).

Rigmant, Vladimir. B-29, Tу-4 - стратегические близнецы - как это было (Авиация и космонавтика 17 [Крылья 4]) (in Russian). Moscow: 1996.

Toh, Boon Kwan. "Black and Silver: Perceptions and Memories of the B-29 Bomber, American Strategic Bombing and the Longest Bombing Missions of the Second World War on Singapore" War & Society 39#2 (2020) pp. 109-125

White, Jerry. Combat Crew and Unit Training in the AAF 1939-1945. USAF Historical Study No. 61. Washington, D.C.: Center for Air Force History, 1949.

Willis, David. "Boeing B-29 and B-50 Superfortress". International Air Power Review, Volume 22, 2007, pp. 136-169. Westport, Connecticut: AIRtime Publishing. ISSN 1473-9917. ISBN 1-880588-79-X.

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The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Flying Fortress, the Superfortress was designed for high-altitude strategic bombing, but also excelled in low-altitude night incendiary bombing, and in dropping naval mines to blockade Japan.

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He was elected as president in 1945 towards the end of WW2 and served as president for the rest of the 40s.

He was the president who ended up ordering Japan to be bombed.

He was the only president to be born in Missouri.

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/trivia/biographical-sketch-harry-truman

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Biographical Sketch: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States | Harry S. Truman

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m42: It was a paratrooper's attire made later in the war and had 4 pockets and a special pocket meant for a switchblade knife

stalhelm: It was a German bump helmet used in the the 20th century scence 1910s to 1990s but is most known for 1940s

Knochensack: Although made in 1930s, it was mainly used and modified in the forties, and was the outfit of the German Luftwaffe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_II_uniforms_and_clothing

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List of World War II uniforms and clothing - Wikipedia

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America officially joined 2 years after the war started due to Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor

WW2 was the deadliest war of all time, killing 75 to 80 million people total

Although it ended in 1945, germany is still repaying for the war

https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-II

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Home World History Wars, Battles & Armed Conflicts
Table of Contents

Also called:

Second World War

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Date:

September 3, 1939 - September 2, 1945

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What was the cause of World War II?

What countries fought in World War II?

Who were the leaders during World War II?

What were the turning points of World War II?

How did World War II end?

How many people died during World War II?

World War II, conflict that involved virtually every part of the world during the years 1939-45. The principal belligerents were the Axis powers- Germany, Italy, and Japan-and the Allies- France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and, to a lesser extent, China. The war was in many respects a continuation, after an uneasy 20-year hiatus, of the disputes left unsettled by World War I. The 40,000,000-50,000,000 deaths incurred in World War II make it the bloodiest conflict, as well as the largest war, in history.

Along with World War I, World War II was one of the great watersheds of 20th-century geopolitical history. It resulted in the extension of the Soviet Union's power to nations of eastern Europe, enabled a communist movement to eventually achieve power in China, and marked the decisive shift of power in the world away from the states of western Europe and toward the United States and the Soviet Union.
(Read Sir John Keegan's Britannica entry on the Normandy Invasion.)

Axis initiative and Allied reaction

The outbreak of war

By the early part of 1939 the German dictator Adolf Hitler had become determined to invade and occupy Poland. Poland, for its part, had guarantees of French and British military support should it be attacked by Germany. Hitler intended to invade Poland anyway, but first he had to neutralize the possibility that the Soviet Union would resist the invasion of its western neighbour. Secret negotiations led on August 23-24 to the signing of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact in Moscow. In a secret protocol of this pact, the Germans and the Soviets agreed that Poland should be divided between them, with the western third of the country going to Germany and the eastern two-thirds being taken over by the U.S.S.R.

Pop Quiz: 17 Things to Know About World War II

Having achieved this cynical agreement, the other provisions of which stupefied Europe even without divulgence of the secret protocol, Hitler thought that Germany could attack Poland with no danger of Soviet or British intervention and gave orders for the invasion to start on August 26. News of the signing, on August 25, of a formal treaty of mutual assistance between Great Britain and Poland (to supersede a previous though temporary agreement) caused him to postpone the start of hostilities for a few days. He was still determined, however, to ignore the diplomatic efforts of the western powers to restrain him. Finally, at 12:40 pm on August 31, 1939, Hitler ordered hostilities against Poland to start at 4:45 the next morning. The invasion began as ordered. In response, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3, at 11:00 am and at 5:00 pm, respectively. World War II had begun.

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World War II | Facts, Summary, History, Dates, Combatants, & Causes

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World War II was a conflict that involved virtually every part of the world during 1939-45. The main combatants were the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) and the Allies (France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and China). It was the bloodiest conflict, as well as the largest war, in human history.

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Slinky: The slinky was invented the same year as the end of WW2 in 1945

Shoot the moon: The game is actually about timing and precision and has been blowing up recently.

Slinkey putty: It was made in 1943 by a chemical engineer working for General Electric trying to make a rubber substitute but was popularised by someone else.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1940s_toys

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Jhon Lennon: He was a songwriter born in 1940 and was a part of the beatles

Frank Sinatra: Although not born in the forties, he was very popular then

ringo star: He was born in the same year as John Lennon but was the drummer for the beatles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1940s_in_music

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For music from an individual year in the 1940s, go to 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49

This article includes an overview of the major events and trends in popular music in the 1940s.

In the developed world, swing, big band, jazz, Latin and country music dominated and defined the decade's music. After World War II, the big band sounds of the earlier part of the decade had been gradually replaced by crooners and vocal pop.

Ragtime, a genre that first became popular in the 1890s, was popular through about the 1940s. After its best-known exponent, Scott Joplin, died in 1917, the genre faded. As the 1920s unfolded, jazz rapidly took over as the dominant form of popular music in the United States.

In addition, a new form of popular music, crooning, emerged during the early 1930s. Technology played a large part in the development of this style, as electronic sound recording had emerged near the end of the 1920s and replaced the earlier acoustic recording. While singers such as Al Jolson and Billy Murray had recorded songs by yelling into a Victrola horn, as this was the only way to get audible sound with acoustic recording, the new electronic equipment allowed for a softer, more intimate style of singing. Many of the older singers such as Jolson and Murray consequently fell out of favor during the 1930s with changing tastes (although Al Jolson managed a successful career comeback after World War II).

Bing Crosby was the leading figure of the crooner sound as well as its most iconic, defining artist. By the 1940s, he was an entertainment superstar who mastered all of the major media formats of the day, movies, radio, and recorded music. Other popular singers of the day included Cab Calloway and Eddie Cantor.

Bandleaders such as the Dorsey Brothers often helped launch the careers of vocalists who went on to popularity as solo artists, such as Frank Sinatra, who rose to fame as a singer during this time. Sinatra's vast appeal to the " bobby soxers" revealed a whole new audience for popular music, which had generally appealed mainly to adults up to that time, making Sinatra the first teen idol. Sinatra's music mostly attracted young girls to his concerts. This image of a teen idol would also be seen with future artists such as Elvis Presley and The Beatles. Sinatra's massive popularity was also one of the reasons why the big band music declined in popularity; major record companies were looking for crooners and pop singers to attract a youth audience due to his success. Frank Sinatra would go on to become one of the most successful artists of the 1940s and one of the best selling music artists of all time. Sinatra remained relevant through the 1950s and 60s, even with rock music being the dominant form of music in his later years. In the later decades, Sinatra's music would be mostly aimed at an older adult audience. Sinatra became one of the most respected and critically acclaimed music artists of all time.

Big band swing could variably be an instrumental style or accompany a vocalist. In comparison to its loud, brash, rhythmic sound stood the "sweet" bands which played a softer, more melodic style. The most notable of these, in no small part thanks to a long postwar TV career, was the band of Lawrence Welk.

While swing bands could be found in most major cities during the 1930s-1940s, the most popular and famous were the bands of Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, and Artie Shaw, which had national followings and sold huge numbers. World War II brought an end to big band swing as many musicians were conscripted into the armed forces and travel restrictions made it hard for bands to tour. In 1944, Glenn Miller was killed when his plane crashed into the English Channel en route to a USO show in France. His death is widely considered to mark the close of the swing era.

After the war, a combination of factors such as changing demographics and rapid inflation made large bands unprofitable, so that popular music in the US came to be dominated instead by traditional pop and crooners, as well as bebop and jump blues.

Before the Hot100 was implemented in 1958, Billboard magazine measured a record's performance with three charts, "Best-Selling Popular Retail Records", "Records Most Played By Disk Jockeys" and 'Most-Played Juke Box Records': However, since the latter two charts were not implemented until mid-decade, we focus on ' Best-Selling Retail Records of the 1940s.' Since it consisted of ten positions for most of the decade, only ten per week were recognized. Each week fifteen points were awarded to the number one record, then nine points for number two, eight points for number three, and so on, with one point for number ten. This system balances songs that reach the highest positions, as well as those that had the longest chart runs. Calculations are unaffected by year-end cutoffs as with Billboard ( see discussion).

13

Les Brown and his Orchestra (Vocal Chorus by Doris Day)

Columbia 36769

November 20, 1944

January 22, 1945

US Billboard 1945 #1, US Pop #1 for 8 weeks, 28 total weeks, 213 points, Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998, 1,000,000 sales

23

Glenn Miller and his Orchestra

Victor 27934

August 1, 1942

September 12, 1942

US Billboard 1942 #3, US Pop #1 for 7 weeks, 18 total weeks, 181 points, 1,000,000 sales

27

Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra (Vocal Frank Sinatra and Pied Pipers)

Victor 27974

July 1, 1942

July 17, 1942

US Billboard 1943 #3, US Pop #1 for 5 weeks, 26 total weeks, US R&B 1943 #22, Harlem Hit Parade #2 for 1 week, 13 total weeks, 176 points, 1,000,000 sales

36

Bing Crosby

Decca 18595

February 17, 1944

April 1944

US Billboard 1944 #7, US Pop #1 for 4 weeks, 28 total weeks, 168 points

39
The Harmonicats
" Peg o' My Heart"

Vitacoustic 1

March 1947

April 1947

US Billboard 1947 #4, US Pop #1 for 8 weeks, 26 total weeks, 165 points

Benny Goodman performing in Stage Door Canteen (1943)

In the early 1940s, bebop emerged, led by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and others. It helped to shift jazz from danceable popular music towards a more complex "musician's music." Differing greatly from swing, early bebop divorced itself from dance music, establishing itself more as an art form but lessening its potential popular and commercial value. Since bebop was meant to be listened to, not danced to, it used faster tempos.

The swing era lasted until the mid-1940s, and produced popular tunes such as Duke Ellington's " Cotton Tail" (1940) and Billy Strayhorn's " Take the 'A' Train" (1941). When the big bands struggled to keep going during World War II, a shift was happening in jazz in favor of smaller groups. Some swing era musicians, like Louis Jordan, later found popularity in a new kind of music, called " rhythm and blues", that would evolve into rock and roll in the 1950s.

By the end of the 1940s, the nervous energy and tension of bebop was replaced with a tendency towards calm and smoothness, that eventually influenced the birth of cool jazz, which favoured long, linear melodic lines in the 1950s.

By the 1940s, Dixieland jazz revival musicians like Jimmy McPartland, Eddie Condon and Bud Freeman had become well-known and established their own unique style. Most characteristically, players entered solos against riffing by other horns, and were followed by a closing with the drummer playing a four-bar tag that was then answered by the rest of the band.

Some of the most notable Jazz artists of the 1940s include Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and also Nat King Cole.

Vaughn Monroe as a guest star in a 1962 Bonanza episode

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, cowboy songs, or Western music, became widely popular through the romanticization of the cowboy and idealized depictions of the west in Hollywood films. Singing cowboys, such as Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, sang cowboy songs in their films and became popular throughout the United States. Film producers began incorporating fully orchestrated four-part harmonies and sophisticated musical arrangements into their motion pictures.

In the post-war period, country music was called "folk" in the trades, and "hillbilly" within the industry. In 1944, The Billboard replaced the term "hillbilly" with "folk songs and blues", and switched to "country" or "country and western" in 1949.

But while cowboy and western music were the most popular styles, a new style - honky tonk - would take root and define the genre of country music for decades to come. The style meshed Western swing and blues music; featured rough, nasal vocals backed by instruments such as the guitar, fiddle, string bass, and steel guitar; and had lyrics that focused on tragic themes of lost love, adultery, loneliness, alcoholism and self-pity. One of the earliest successful practitioners of this style was Ernest Tubb, a Crisp, Texas native who had perfected his style on several Texas radio stations in the mid- to late-1930s. In 1940, he gained a recording contract with Decca Records, and a year later released his standard " Walking the Floor Over You." The single became a hit and sold over one million copies. Allmusic critic David Vinopal called "Walking the Floor Over You" the first honky tonk song that launched the musical genre itself. As the decade progressed, the style was picked up by Floyd Tillman and Hank Williams, and by the end of the 1940s was the predominant style in country music.

Williams, a Butler County, Alabama native, began earning a reputation as both a songwriter and a performing artist. Using traditional honky-tonk themes, Williams grew to become one of the most important country performers of all time. His recording of " Lovesick Blues" (and its flip side, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry") in 1949 remains a landmark in both country and popular music to this day. But even by the late 1940s, it became well known that Williams drank heavily, and his personal problems would continue to grow as the 1950s dawned. Still, his overall style inspired countless artists in country and other styles of music, including rock music, and his songs would be performed by numerous artists in many styles.

On August 25, 1945 Jenny Lou Carson became the first woman to write a No. 1 country music hit when " You Two-Timed Me One Time Too Often," performed by Tex Ritter, reached the top of the Billboard Most Played Juke Box Folk Records. In 1949 Carson had another No. 1 country music hit as a songwriter when " Don't Rob Another Man's Castle," performed by Eddy Arnold, topped the Billboard Folk Best Seller Charts. From 1945 to 1955 Carson was one of the most prolific songwriters in country music. Women weren't absent from the scene as vocalists; in fact, the No. 1 song on Billboard magazine's very first Most Played Juke Box Folk Records chart, dated January 8, 1944, saw The Andrews Sisters get co-credit along with Bing Crosby on " Pistol Packin' Mama." In 1949, Margaret Whiting teamed with Jimmy Wakely to have a No. 1 country and pop hit, a cover of the Floyd Tillman song " Slippin' Around." Kitty Wells was a popular concert attraction, performing with her husband Johnnie Wright and his duet partner, Jack Anglin; and Wilma Lee Cooper was prominently featured on recordings with her husband, Stoney. Other popular female acts were Patsy Montana, Martha Carson, The Maddox Brothers and Rose, Molly O'Day with the Cumberland Mountain Folks, and Lulu Belle (of Lulu Belle and Scotty), while Mother Maybelle Carter re-formed the Carter Family with her daughters, Anita, June, and Helen and their popularity would only grow in time.

Eddy Arnold, known as "The Tennessee Plowboy," became an innovator of crossover music, or music of one particular genre (in this case, country) that was popular among mainstream audiences. His style combined elements of refined honky tonk with popular music sounds, evident on hits like "That's How Much I Love You," "I'll Hold You In My Heart ('Til I Can Hold You In My Arms)," "Anytime" and "Boquet of Roses," and several of these songs charted on both the Billboard country and pop charts. He was so dominant that by 1948, five of that year's six No. 1 songs on Billboards' country chart bore Arnold's name, a record that Charlie Rich would tie 26 years later but otherwise has been unmatched. Arnold would go on to score more than 150 chart hits during a career that spanned until his death in 2008.

Edith Piaf, Charles Trenet, Tino Rossi, were popular French singers.

The Cuban bolero has traveled to Mexico and the rest of Latin America after its conception, where it became part of their repertoires. Some of the bolero's leading composers have come from nearby countries, most especially the prolific Puerto Rican composer Rafael Hernández, Some Cuban composers of the bolero are listed under Trova. Some successful Mexican bolero composers are María Grever, Gonzalo Curiel Barba, Gabriel Ruiz, and Consuelo Velázquez which song Verdad Amarga (Bitter Truth) was the most popular in Mexico in the year 1948; another example is Mexico's Agustín Lara.

Consuelo Velázquez with Pedro Vargas

Other famous performers include Pedro Vargas, Luis Aguilar, Ana María González, Trío Calaveras, Trío Los Panchos

Mariachi an ensemble that consists of guitarrón, vihuela, guitar, violins and trumpets. Between 1940 mariachi and rancheras originated in the western states of the country.

This folk ensemble performs ranchera, son de mariachi, huapango de mariachi, polka, corrido, and other musical forms. It originated in the southern part of the state of Jalisco during the 19th century. The city of Guadalajara in Jalisco is known as the "Capital of Mariachi". The style is now popular throughout Mexico and the Southwestern United States, and is considered representative of Mexican music and culture.

In China, the 1940s was the golden era of Mandarin pop songs which were collectively termed ' Shidaiqu', literally "songs of the era". Shanghai Pathe Records, then belonging to EMI, emerged to be the leading record company in China and featured a blend of Chinese melodies and western orchestrations as well as Big Band Jazz elements in arrangements of music, leading to their superseding traditional Chinese operas in radio broadcasts. With the help of growing radio audience in the nation, Shidaiqu successfully became prevalent and listening to Mandarin pop songs was regarded as trendy. Among all Chinese contemporary singers, Zhou Xuan, Yao Li (also known as Hue Lee), Wu Yingyin, Bai Guang, Bai Hong, Gong Qiuxia and Li Xianglan were the seven most famous artists (七大歌星), who gained nationwide popularity. Zhou Xuan was the most representative of all, who later became one of the emblematic and legendary figures in the history of Chinese pop songs. In addition, despite the ravages of the Japanese occupation, there saw an immense development and maturation in the Chinese movie industry. Very often, pop songs were intermingled with episodes in films, providing the audience with multiple entertainment at one time. Nonetheless, little attention was paid on the groundbreaking breakthroughs of Chinese Mandarin pop songs in the 1940s, both by the academia and the community in China as well as Western countries. Shidaiqu had its influence even in Hong Kong and Taiwan music in the 1950s and 1960s as well as in Malaysian and Singaporean Chinese communities. Rose, Rose, I Love you, the renowned song presented by Frankie Laine, and An Autumn Melody, were two symbolic Shidaiqu.

In Japan, Nihon Columbia and Nihon Victor were two of the larger record companies. Blues, boogie-woogie and jazz were popular. Ryouichi Hattori was a popular composer, and Shizuko Kasagi was one of the popular singers.

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For music from an individual year in the 1940s, go to 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 This article includes an overview of the major events and trends in popular music in the 1940s .

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The Me 262 was the first ever operational fighter jet made in 1942 by nazi germany

It was mainly used to intercept bombers but also could fight fighter jets because of its cannons

It is actually quite slow when compared to even the 2nd-generation fighter having a max speed of under 600 mph

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_262

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The Messerschmitt Me 262, nicknamed Schwalbe (German: “Swallow”) in fighter versions, or Sturmvogel (German: “Storm Bird”) in fighter-bomber versions, is a fighter aircraft and fighter-bomber that was designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt. It was the world’s first o…

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Pinocchio was the second full length disney movie

Pinocchio Made a whopping 164 million dollars worldwide, which is crazy because its budget was only 1.5% of its profit.

It actually was a initial flop in 1940 but when it was rereleased in 1945, it became massive

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinocchio_(1940_film)

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Pinocchio is a 1940 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on Carlo Collodi's 1883 Italian children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, it is the second Disney animated feature film, and the third animated film overall produced by an American film studio, after Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Fleischer Studios' Gulliver's Travels. With the voices of Cliff Edwards, Dickie Jones, Christian Rub, Walter Catlett, Charles Judels, Evelyn Venable, and Frankie Darro, the film follows a wooden puppet Pinocchio, who is created by an old woodcarver Geppetto and brought to life by a blue fairy. Wishing to become a real boy, Pinocchio must prove himself to be "brave, truthful, and unselfish." Along his journey, Pinocchio encounters several characters representing the temptations and consequences of wrongdoing, as Jiminy Cricket, who takes the role of Pinocchio's conscience, attempts to guide him in matters of right and wrong.

The film was adapted by several storyboard artists from Collodi's book. The production was supervised by Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske, and the film's sequences were directed by Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, and Bill Roberts. Pinocchio was a groundbreaking achievement in the area of effects animation, giving realistic movement to vehicles and machinery as well as natural elements such as rain, water, lightning, smoke, and shadow. After premiering at the Center Theatre in New York City on February 7, 1940, Pinocchio was released in theatres on February 23, 1940.

Although it received critical acclaim and became the first animated feature to win a competitive Academy Award - winning two for Best Music, Original Score and for Best Music, Original Song for " When You Wish Upon a Star" - it was initially a commercial failure, mainly due to World War II cutting off the European and Asian markets. It eventually made a profit after its 1945 rerelease, and is considered one of the greatest animated films ever made, with a 100% rating on the website Rotten Tomatoes. The film and characters are still prevalent in popular culture, featuring at various Disney parks and other forms of entertainment. In 1994, Pinocchio was added to the United States National Film Registry for being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

In 2000, a live-action made-for-television film titled , told from Geppetto's perspective, was released via ABC. A live-action remake of the same title directed by Robert Zemeckis was released in 2022 on Disney+.

Jiminy Cricket addresses the audience as the narrator and begins telling a story.

Jiminy came to a village in Italy sometime in the late 19th century, where he arrived at the shop of a woodworker and toymaker named Geppetto, who creates a puppet he names Pinocchio. As he falls asleep, Geppetto wishes upon a star for Pinocchio to be a real boy. Late that night, the Blue Fairy visits the workshop and brings Pinocchio to life, although he remains a puppet. She informs him that if he proves himself to be brave, truthful, and unselfish, he will become a real boy. When Jiminy reveals himself, the Blue Fairy assigns him to be Pinocchio's conscience. Geppetto awakens upon hearing the commotion from Pinocchio falling, and is overjoyed to discover that he is alive and will become a real boy.

The next morning, while walking to school, Pinocchio is led astray by con artist fox Honest John and his sidekick Gideon the Cat. Honest John convinces him to join Stromboli's puppet show, despite Jiminy's objections. Pinocchio becomes Stromboli's star attraction, but when he tries to go home, Stromboli locks him in a bird cage and leaves to tour the world with Pinocchio. After Jiminy unsuccessfully tries to free his friend, the Blue Fairy appears, and an anxious Pinocchio lies about what happened, causing his nose to grow. The Blue Fairy restores his nose and frees Pinocchio when he promises to make amends, but warns him that she can offer no further help.

Meanwhile, a mysterious Coachman hires Honest John to find disobedient boys for him to take to Pleasure Island. Though the Coachman's implication of what happens to the boys frightens Honest John and Gideon, the former reluctantly accepts the job and finds Pinocchio, convincing him to take a vacation on Pleasure Island. On the way to the island, Pinocchio befriends Lampwick, a delinquent boy. At Pleasure Island, without rules or authority to enforce their activity, Pinocchio, Lampwick, and many other boys soon engage in vices such as vandalism, fighting, smoking and drinking. Jiminy eventually finds Pinocchio in a billiard hall smoking and playing pool with Lampwick, and the two have a falling out after Pinocchio defends Lampwick for his actions. As Jiminy tries to leave Pleasure Island, he discovers that the island hides a horrible curse that turns the boys into donkeys after making "jackasses" of themselves, and they are sold by the Coachman into slave labor. Pinocchio witnesses Lampwick transform into a donkey, and with Jiminy's help, he escapes before he can be fully transformed, though he still has a donkey's ears and tail.

Upon returning home, Pinocchio and Jiminy find Geppetto's workshop deserted and get a letter from the Blue Fairy in the form of a dove, stating that Geppetto had gone out looking for Pinocchio and sailed to Pleasure Island. However, he was swallowed by a gigantic and vicious whale called Monstro and is now trapped in its belly. Determined to rescue his father, Pinocchio jumps into the Mediterranean Sea with Jiminy and is soon swallowed by Monstro, where he reunites with Geppetto. Pinocchio devises a scheme to make Monstro sneeze and allow them to escape, but the whale chases them and smashes their raft with his tail. Pinocchio selflessly pulls Geppetto to safety in a cove just as Monstro crashes into it and Pinocchio is seemingly killed.

Back at home, Geppetto, Jiminy, Figaro, and Cleo mourn Pinocchio. However, having succeeded in proving himself brave, truthful, and unselfish, Pinocchio is revived and turned into a real human boy by the Blue Fairy, much to everyone's joy. As the group celebrates, Jiminy steps outside to thank the Fairy and is rewarded with a solid gold badge that certifies him as an official conscience.

Dick Jones as Pinocchio, an exuberant and endearing wooden puppet carved by Geppetto and brought to life by the Blue Fairy.
Jones also voiced Alexander, a disobedient boy who is turned into a donkey at Pleasure Island, but still talks.

Cliff Edwards as Jiminy Cricket, a cheerful, optimistic, intelligent, and wisecracking cricket, who acts as Pinocchio's "conscience" and is the partial narrator of the story.

Christian Rub as Geppetto, a kind and elderly wood-carver and Pinocchio's creator, who wishes for him to become a real boy. He speaks with an Austrian accent.

Clarence Nash as Figaro, Geppetto's spoiled pet cat who is prone to sulk. Cleo, Geppetto's flirty pet goldfish with a habit of being Figaro's counselor, is unvoiced. Figaro and Cleo were original characters not present in the original story, and were added to the script by the Disney team. Nash also voices the rough house statue and makes the braying sounds for the donkeys on Pleasure Island, after the boys have been transformed into them.

Walter Catlett as "Honest" John Worthington Foulfellow, an anthropomorphic red fox con artist who swindles Pinocchio.
Gideon the Cat, Honest John's mute, dimwitted, and bumbling anthropomorphic feline partner and sidekick who serves as comic relief. He was originally intended to be voiced by Mel Blanc, in his second work for Disney until his final work in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but the filmmakers instead went with a mute performance for the character. However, Gideon's hiccups were provided by Blanc.

Charles Judels as Stromboli, a greedy, sadistic, and abusive puppeteer who intends to force Pinocchio to perform onstage to make money and use as "firewood" once he gets "too old" to perform. He speaks English with an Italian accent, and curses in Italian gibberish when angry. He is called "Gypsy" by Honest John, likely due to his theatre and caravan always travelling, as well as other names like "rascal" and "faker".
Judels also voiced the nefarious and cunning Coachman, the owner and operator of Pleasure Island.

Evelyn Venable as the Blue Fairy, who brings Pinocchio to life and promises to turn him into a real boy if he proves himself brave, truthful, and selfless. Live-action references for the Blue Fairy were provided by Marge Champion, who served as the live-action reference for the titular heroine in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Frankie Darro as Lampwick, a naughty and spoiled boy who Pinocchio befriends on his way to Pleasure Island and is turned into a donkey for his mischief.

Stuart Buchanan as the Carnival Barker, the announcer at Pleasure Island. In a book adaptation of the film, "Barker" is the Coachman's name.

Thurl Ravenscroft as Monstro, the sperm whale. He swallows Pinocchio, Geppetto, Figaro, and Cleo, then tries to kill them after they escape from his belly by making him sneeze.

The voice cast was all uncredited, as was the practice at the time for many animated films.

In September 1937, during the production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, animator Norman Ferguson brought a translated version of Carlo Collodi's 1883 Italian children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio to the attention of Walt Disney. After reading the book, "Walt was busting his guts with enthusiasm," as Ferguson later recalled. Disney then commissioned storyboard artist Bianca Majolie to write a new story outline for the book, but after reading it, he felt her outline was too faithful. Pinocchio was intended to be the studio's third feature, after (1942). However, due to difficulties with Bambi (adapting the story and animating the animals realistically), Disney announced that Bambi would be postponed while Pinocchio would move ahead in production. Ben Sharpsteen was then re-assigned to supervise the production while Jack Kinney was given directional reins.

Unlike Snow White, which was a short story that the writers could expand and experiment with, Pinocchio was based on a novel with a very fixed, although episodic, story. Therefore, the story went through drastic changes before reaching its final incarnation. In the original novel, Pinocchio is a cold, rude, ungrateful, inhuman brat that often repels sympathy and only learns his lessons the hard way. The writers decided to modernize the character and depict him similar to Edgar Bergen's dummy Charlie McCarthy, but equally as rambunctious as the puppet in the book. The story was still being developed in the early stages of animation.

Early scenes animated by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston show that Pinocchio's design was exactly like a real wooden puppet with a long pointed nose, a peaked cap, and bare wooden hands. Disney, however, was not impressed with the work that was being done on the film. He felt that no one could really sympathize with such a character and called for an immediate halt in production. Fred Moore redesigned the character slightly to make him more appealing, but the design still retained a wooden feel.

Young and upcoming animator Milt Kahl felt that Thomas, Johnston, and Moore were "rather obsessed with the idea of this boy being a wooden puppet" and felt that they should "forget that he was a puppet and get a cute little boy; you can always draw the wooden joints and make him a wooden puppet afterwards." Co-supervising director Hamilton Luske suggested to Kahl that he should demonstrate his beliefs by animating a test sequence.

Kahl then showed Disney an animation test scene in which Pinocchio is underwater looking for his father. From this scene, Kahl re-envisioned the character by making him look more like a real boy, with a child's Tyrolean hat and standard cartoon character four-fingered (or three and a thumb) hands with Mickey Mouse-type gloves. The only parts of Pinocchio that still looked more or less like a puppet were his arms, legs, and little button wooden nose. Disney embraced Kahl's scene and immediately urged the writers to evolve Pinocchio into a more innocent, naïve, somewhat coy personality reflecting Kahl's design.

However, Disney discovered that the new Pinocchio was too helpless and was far too often led astray by deceiving characters. Therefore, in the summer of 1938, Disney and his story team established the character of the cricket. Originally, the talking cricket was only a minor character whom Pinocchio abruptly killed by squashing with a mallet and who later returned as a ghost. Disney dubbed the cricket "Jiminy", and made him a character who would try to guide Pinocchio into the right decisions. Once the character was expanded, he was depicted as a realistic cricket with toothed legs and waving antennae, but Disney wanted something more likable. Ward Kimball had spent several months animating two sequences-a soup-eating musical number and a bed-building sequence-in Snow White, which was cut from the film due to pacing reasons. Kimball was about to quit when Disney rewarded him for his work by promoting him to the supervising animator of Jiminy Cricket. Kimball then conjured up the design for Jiminy Cricket, whom he described as a little man with an egg head and no ears. Jiminy "was a cricket because we called him a cricket," Kimball later joked.

Dickie Jones (right, as an adult) voices Pinocchio in the film.

Due to the huge success of Snow White, Walt Disney wanted more famous voices for Pinocchio, which marked the first time an animated film had used celebrities as voice actors. He cast popular singer Cliff Edwards, also known as "Ukulele Ike", as Jiminy Cricket. Disney rejected the idea of having an adult play Pinocchio and insisted that the character be voiced by a real child. He cast 11-year-old child actor Dickie Jones, who had previously been in Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). He also cast Frankie Darro as Lampwick, Walter Catlett as "Honest" John Foulfellow the Fox, Evelyn Venable as the Blue Fairy, Charles Judels as both the villainous Stromboli and the Coachman, and Christian Rub as Geppetto, whose design was even a caricature of Rub. Another actor voiced Geppetto originally, but Disney recast him with Rub after feeling that his voice was "too harsh".

Another voice actor recruited was Mel Blanc, best remembered for voicing many of the characters in Warner Bros. cartoon shorts, including Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. Blanc recorded the voice of Gideon the Cat in sixteen days. However, it was eventually decided that Gideon would be mute, so all of Blanc's recorded dialogue was subsequently deleted except for a solitary hiccup, which was heard three times in the finished film.

Animation on the film began in January 1938, but work on Pinocchio's animation was discontinued as the writers sought to re-work his characterization and the film's narrative structure. However, animation on the film's supporting characters started in April 1938. Animation would not resume again with the revised story until September.

During the production of the film, story artist Joe Grant formed a character model department, which would be responsible for building three-dimensional clay models of the characters in the film, known as maquettes. These models were then given to the staff to observe how a character should be drawn from any given angle desired by the artists. The model makers also built working models of Geppetto's elaborate cuckoo clocks designed by Albert Hurter, as well as Stromboli's gypsy wagon and wooden cage, and the Coachman's carriage. However, owing to the difficulty of animating a realistic moving vehicle, the artists filmed the carriage maquettes on a miniature set using stop motion animation. Then, each frame of the animation was transferred onto animation cels using an early version of a Xerox. The cels were then painted on the back and overlaid on top of background images with the cels of the characters to create the completed shot on the rostrum camera. Like Snow White, live-action footage was shot for Pinocchio with the actors playing the scenes in pantomime, supervised by Luske. Rather than tracing, which would result in stiff unnatural movement, the animators used the footage as a guide for animation by studying human movement and then incorporating some poses into the animation (though slightly exaggerated).

Pinocchio was a groundbreaking achievement in the area of effects animation, led by Joshua Meador. In contrast to the character animators who concentrate on the acting of the characters, effects animators create everything that moves other than the characters---vehicles, machinery, and natural effects such as rain, lightning, snow, smoke, shadows and water, as well as the fantasy or science-fiction type effects like the pixie dust of (1953). The influential abstract animator Oskar Fischinger, who mainly worked on (1940), contributed to the effects animation of the Blue Fairy's wand. Effects animator Sandy Strother kept a diary about his year-long animation of the water effects, which included splashes, ripples, bubbles, waves, and the illusion of being underwater. To help give depth to the ocean, the animators put more detail into the waves on the water surface in the foreground, and put in less detail as the surface moved further back. After the animation was traced onto cels, the assistant animators would trace it once more with blue and black pencil leads to give the waves a sculptured look. To save time and money, the splashes were kept impressionistic. These techniques enabled Pinocchio to be one of the first animated films to have highly realistic effects animation. Ollie Johnston called it "one of the finest things the studio's ever done, as Frank Thomas said, 'The water looks so real a person can drown in it, and they do.'"

The songs in Pinocchio were composed by Leigh Harline with lyrics by Ned Washington. Harline and Paul J. Smith composed the incidental music score. The climactic Whale Chase was co-composed by Edward H. Plumb. The soundtrack was first released on February 9, 1940. Jiminy Cricket's song, " When You Wish Upon A Star", became a major hit and is still identified with the film, and later as the theme song of The Walt Disney Company itself. The soundtrack won an Academy Award for Best Original Score.

Commentator Nicholas Sammond considers Pinocchio to be a metaphor for American child rearing in the mid-20th century.

M. Keith Booker considers the film to be the most down-to-earth of the Disney animated films despite its theme song and magic, and notes that the film's protagonist has to work to prove his worth, which he remarked seemed "more in line with the ethos of capitalism" than most of the Disney films. Claudia Mitchell and Jacqueline Reid-Walsh believe that the male protagonists of films like Pinocchio and Bambi (1942) were purposefully constructed by Disney to appeal to both boys and girls. Mark I. Pinsky said that it is "a simple morality tale-cautionary and schematic-ideal for moral instruction, save for some of its darker moments", and noted that the film is a favorite of parents of young children.

Nicolas Sammond argues that the film is "an apt metaphor for the metaphysics of midcentury American child-rearing" and that the film is "ultimately an assimilationist fable". He considered it to be the central Disney film and the most strongly middle class, intended to relay the message that indulging in "the pleasures of the working class, of vaudeville, or of pool halls and amusement parks, led to a life as a beast of burden". For Sammond, the purpose of Pinocchio is to help convey to children the "middle-class virtues of deferred gratification, self-denial, thrift, and perseverance, naturalized as the experience of the most average American".

Author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, who saw the film in theaters in 1940, called the film superior to Collodi's novel in its depiction of children and growing up. "The Pinocchio in the film is not the unruly, sulking, vicious, devious (albeit still charming) marionette that Collodi created. Neither is he an innately evil, doomed-to-calamity child of sin. He is, rather, both lovable and loved. Therein lies Disney's triumph. His Pinocchio is a mischievous, innocent and very naive little wooden boy. What makes our anxiety over his fate endurable is a reassuring sense that Pinocchio is loved for himself -- and not for what he should or shouldn't be. Disney has corrected a terrible wrong. Pinocchio, he says, is good; his "badness" is only a matter of inexperience," and also that "Pinocchio's wish to be a real boy remains the film's underlying theme, but "becoming a real boy" now signifies the wish to grow up, not the wish to be good."

On July 16, 1985, it was released on VHS, Betamax, CED, and LaserDisc in North America for the first time as part of the Walt Disney Classics label, the second title with the Classics label after (1973) which was released the previous December. It would become the best-selling home video title of the year selling 130-150,000 units at $80 each. It was re-issued on October 14, 1986 to advertise the home video debut of Sleeping Beauty (1959), this release also helped leave out the preview of The Black Cauldron from the original 1985 VHS release due to the preview being too dark and scary for kids. Then, for the first time, it was released on VHS in the US in 1988, 1995, and 2000. The digital restoration that was completed for the 1992 cinema re-issue was released on VHS and Laserdisc on March 26, 1993 and sold 13.5 million copies. Its fourth VHS release and first release on Disney DVD was the 60th Anniversary Edition on October 25, 1999.

The film was re-issued on DVD and one final time on VHS as part of the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection release on March 7, 2000. Along the film, the VHS edition also contained a making-of documentary while the DVD had the film's original theatrical trailer as supplemental features. The Gold Classic Collection release was returned to the Disney Vault on January 31, 2002.

A special edition VHS and DVD of the film was released in the United Kingdom on March 3, 2003. The fourth DVD release and first Blu-ray Disc release (the second Blu-ray in the Walt Disney Platinum Editions series) was released on March 10, 2009. Like the 2008 Sleeping Beauty Blu-ray release, the Pinocchio Blu-ray package featured a new restoration by Lowry Digital in a two-disc Blu-ray set, with a bonus DVD version of the film also included. This set returned to the Disney Vault on April 30, 2011. A Signature Edition was released on Digital HD on January 10, 2017 and was followed by a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack on January 31, 2017.

Pinocchio title card

Frank S. Nugent of The New York Times gave the film five out of five stars, saying " Pinocchio is here at last, is every bit as fine as we had prayed it would be-if not finer-and that it is as gay and clever and delightful a fantasy as any well-behaved youngster or jaded oldster could hope to see." magazine gave the film a positive review, stating "In craftsmanship and delicacy of drawing and coloring, in the articulation of its dozens of characters, in the greater variety and depth of its photographic effects, it tops the high standard Snow White set. The charm, humor and loving care with which it treats its inanimate characters puts it in a class by itself."

praised the animation as superior to Snow White's writing the "[a]nimation is so smooth that cartoon figures carry impression of real persons and settings rather than drawings to onlooker." In summary, they felt Pinocchio "will stand on [its] own as a substantial piece of entertainment for young and old, providing attention through its perfection in animation and photographic effects. The Hollywood Reporter wrote " Pinocchio is entertainment for every one of every age, so completely charming and delightful that there is profound regret when it reaches the final fade-out. Since comparisons will be inevitable, it may as well be said at once that, from a technical standpoint, conception and production, this picture is infinitely superior to Snow White."

Initially, Pinocchio was not a box-office success. The box office returns from the film's initial release were both below Snow White's unprecedented success and below studio expectations. Of the film's $2.6 million negative cost-twice the cost of Snow White-Disney only recouped $1 million by late 1940, with studio reports of the film's final original box office take varying between $1.4 million and $1.9 million. Animation historian Michael Barrier notes that Pinocchio returned rentals of less than one million by September 1940, and in its first public annual report, Walt Disney Productions charged off a $1 million loss to the film. Barrier relays that a 1947 Pinocchio balance sheet listed total receipts to the studio of $1.4 million. This was primarily due to the fact that World War II and its aftermath had cut off the European and Asian markets overseas, and hindered the international success of Pinocchio and other Disney releases during the early and mid-1940s. Joe Grant recalled Walt Disney being "very, very depressed" about Pinocchio's initial returns at the box office. The distributor RKO recorded a loss of $94,000 for the film from worldwide rentals of $3,238,000.

The film was nominated and won two Academy Awards in 1941 for Best Original Score and Best Original Song (for " When You Wish Upon a Star"), the first Disney film to win either category.
To date, only six other Disney films have made this achievement: Mary Poppins ( 1964), The Little Mermaid ( 1989), Beauty and the Beast ( 1991), ( 1992), The Lion King ( 1994), and Pocahontas ( 1995).

With the re-release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1944 came the tradition of re-releasing Disney films every seven to ten years. Pinocchio was theatrically re-released in 1945, 1954, 1962, 1971, 1978, 1984, and 1992. RKO handled the first two reissues in 1945 and 1954, while Disney itself reissued the film from 1962 on through its Buena Vista Distribution division. The 1992 re-issue was digitally restored by cleaning and removing scratches from the original negatives one frame at a time, eliminating soundtrack distortions, and revitalizing the color.

Despite its initial struggles at the box office, a series of reissues in the years after World War II proved more successful and allowed the film to turn a profit. By 1973, the film had earned rentals of $13 million in the United States and Canada from the initial 1940 release and four reissues. After the 1978 reissue, the rentals had increased to $19.9 million from a total gross of $39 million. The 1984 reissue grossed $26.4 million in the U.S. and Canada, bringing its total gross there to $65.4 million and $145 million worldwide. The 1992 reissue grossed $18.9 million in the U.S. and Canada bringing Pinocchio' s lifetime gross to $84.3 million at the U.S. and Canadian box office.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 100%, with an average rating of 9.1/10. The general consensus of the film on the site is "Ambitious, adventurous, and sometimes frightening, Pinocchio arguably represents the pinnacle of Disney's collected works - it's beautifully crafted and emotionally resonant.". On Metacritic, Pinocchio has a weighted score of 99 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". It is currently the highest-rated animated film on the site, as well as the highest-rated Disney animated film.

Many film historians consider this to be the film that most closely approaches technical perfection of all the Disney animated features. Film critic Leonard Maltin said, "with Pinocchio, Disney reached not only the height of his powers, but the apex of what many critics consider to be the realm of the animated cartoon."

In 1994, Pinocchio was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Filmmaker Terry Gilliam selected it as one of the ten best animated films of all time in a 2001 article written for The Guardian and in 2005, magazine named it one of the 100 best films of the last 80 years, and then in June 2011 named it the best animated movie of "The 25 All-TIME Best Animated Films".

In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten top Ten"-the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres-after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Pinocchio was acknowledged as the second best film in the medium of animation, after Snow White. It was nominated for the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies, and received further nominations for their Thrills and Heroes and Villains (Stromboli in the villains category) lists. The song " When You Wish Upon A Star" ranked number 7 on their 100 Songs list, and the film ranked 38th in the 100 Cheers list. The quote "A lie keeps growing and growing until it's as plain as the nose on your face" was nominated for the Movie Quotes list, and the film received further nomination in the AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals list.

On June 29, 2018, Pinocchio was named the 13th best Disney animated film by IGN. Film critic Roger Ebert, adding it to his list of "Great Movies", wrote that the movie "isn't just a concocted fable or a silly fairy tale, but a narrative with deep archetypal reverberations."

Geppetto and Pinocchio at Magic Kingdom

Pinocchio's village, Disneyland, inspired by Gustaf Tenggren paintings

After the film, Jiminy Cricket became an iconic Disney character, making numerous other appearances in a major role, including the film Fun and Fancy Free (1947), educational serials from The Mickey Mouse Club (1955-1977), the featurette Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983), and the video game Disney's Villains' Revenge (1999).

Figaro, Geppetto's kitten, primarily animated by Eric Larson, has been described as a "hit with the audiences", which resulted in him making appearances in several subsequent Disney short films in the 1940s.

Many of Pinocchio's characters are costumed characters at Disney parks. Pinocchio's Daring Journey is a popular ride at the original Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Park in Paris. Pinocchio Village Haus is a quick service restaurant at Walt Disney World that serves pizza and macaroni and cheese. There are similar quick-service restaurants at the Disneyland parks in Anaheim and Paris as well, with almost identical names.

Disney on Ice starring Pinocchio, toured internationally from 1987 to 1992. A shorter version of the story is also presented in the current Disney on Ice production "One Hundred Years of Magic".

Like other Walt Disney Animation Studios characters, the characters from Pinocchio have cameo appearances in the short film Once Upon a Studio (2023).

In the mid-2000s, Disneytoon Studios began development on a direct-to-video sequel to Pinocchio. Robert Reece co-wrote the film's screenplay, which saw Pinocchio on a "strange journey" for the sake of something dear to him. "It's a story that leads Pinocchio to question why life appears unfair sometimes," said Reece. John Lasseter cancelled Pinocchio II soon after being named Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2006.

A Disney's made-for-television movie titled was released in 2000. It was based on a book by David Stern, which was a re-telling of the original 1883 original Pinocchio book but told from Geppetto's perspective. While not a direct adaptation of the 1940 animated film, it features few commons elements such as the character of Figaro, the song " I've Got No Strings", and Pleasure Island. It stars Drew Carey as Geppetto and Seth Adkins as Pinocchio, and features music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz.

The movie was in turn adapted into a musical, Disney's My Son Pinocchio: Geppetto's Musical Tale, which premiered at The Coterie Theatre, Kansas City, Missouri in 2006.

2022 remake

A live-action adaptation directed by Robert Zemeckis who also co-produced and co-written with Chris Weitz, and stars Tom Hanks as Geppetto, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Pinocchio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jiminy Cricket, Cynthia Erivo as the Blue Fairy, Keegan-Michael Key as Honest John, Luke Evans as the Coachman and Lorraine Bracco as a new character named Sofia the Seagull. The film was released to the streaming service Disney+ on September 8, 2022.

The Silly Symphony Sunday comic strip published an adaptation of Pinocchio from December 24, 1939 to April 7, 1940. The sequences were scripted by Merrill De Maris and drawn by Hank Porter.

Video games

Aside from the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, Game Boy, and SNES games based on the animated film, the characters appear in several Disney video games.

Jiminy Cricket appears as a main character in Disney's Villains' Revenge, being player's guide during the progress of the game.

In the Kingdom Hearts series, Jiminy Cricket appears acting as a recorder, keeping a journal of the game's progress in Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts II, and Kingdom Hearts III. Pinocchio, Geppetto and Cleo also appear as characters in Kingdom Hearts. and the inside of Monstro is also featured as one of the worlds. Pinocchio's home world was slated to appear in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, but was omitted due to time restrictions, although talk-sprites of Pinocchio, Geppetto, Honest John and Gideon have been revealed. As compensation, this world appears in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, under the name "Prankster's Paradise", with Dream world versions of Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket, Geppetto, Monstro and the Blue Fairy appearing.

Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket, Geppetto, Figaro, the Blue Fairy, Honest John and Stromboli appear as playable characters in the video game Disney Magic Kingdoms, along with some attractions based on locations of the film. Monstro also appeared temporarily as a non-player character for a Boss Battle during the limited time " Pinocchio Event" in which the characters and material related to the film were included. In the game, the characters are involved in new storylines that serve as a continuation of the film.

1. ^ "Pinocchio (1940)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Archived from the original on April 4, 2023.

2. ^ Cryer, Max (February 1, 2015). The Cat's Out of the Bag: Truth and lies about cats. Exisle Publishing. p. 134. ISBN 978-1-77559-207-5.

3. ^ No Strings Attached: The Making of Pinocchio (DVD, Blu-Ray). Pinocchio Platinum Edition: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. 2009. Archived from the original on October 17, 2020.

4. ^ Beck, Jerry (October 28, 2005). The Animated Movie Guide. Chicago Review Press. p. 198. ISBN 978-1-56976-222-6.

5. ^ Blanc, Mel; Bashe, Philip (1988). That's Not All Folks: My Life in the Golden Age of Cartoons and Radio. New York: Warner Books. p. 60. ISBN 0446512443 - via Internet Archive.

6. ^

7. ^ Sendak, Maurice (October 7, 1988). "Walt Disney's Triumph - The Art of Pinocchio". The Washington Post.

8. Bierbaum, Tom (May 9, 1985). "Disney Goes To Vault For Its 'Pinocchio' HV". Variety. p. 1.

9. ^ "Disney Vid Points 'Sword' At March Release Schedule". Variety. January 29, 1986. p. 10.

10. ^ "International pace-setter". Screen International. October 22, 1993. p. 16.

11. ^ "Time Is Running Out ... Four of Disney's Greatest Animated Classics Are Disappearing into the Vault" (Press release). Walt Disney Press Release. PR Newswire. January 23, 2002. Archived from the original on March 15, 2016 - via TheFreeLibrary.com.

12. ^ Sharpsteen, Ben; Luske, Hamilton (supervising directors) (March 3, 2003). Pinocchio Special Edition (Animated film). Lebanon: Disney.

13. ^ Sedgwick, John (1994). "Richard B. Jewell's RKO film grosses, 1929-51: The C. J. Trevlin Ledger: A comment". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 14 (1): 51-58. doi:10.1080/01439689400260041 - via Taylor & Francis.

14. ^ "Updated All-Time Film Rental Champs". Variety. January 9, 1974. p. 23.

15. ^ "All-Time Film Rental Champs". Variety. January 11, 1983. p. 16.

16. ^

17. "Pinocchio (1940)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. February 9, 1940.

18. ^ "Pinocchio - Disney Movies History". Disney.go.com. August 4, 2003. Archived from the original on August 4, 2003.

19. ^ Maltin, Leonard (1973). "Pinocchio". The Disney Films. New York: Crown Publishers. p. 37. ISBN 978-0517177419.

20. ^ Corliss, Richard (June 21, 2011). "Pinocchio | The 25 All-TIME Best Animated Films". Time. Archived from the original on October 22, 2011.

21. ^ Ebert, Roger (November 22, 1998). "Pinocchio movie review". RogerEbert.com.

22. ^ Max Cryer (February 1, 2015). The Cat's Out of the Bag: Truth and lies about cats. Exisle Publishing. pp. 134-. ISBN 978-1-77559-207-5.

23. ^ Armstrong, Josh (April 22, 2013). "From Snow Queen to Pinocchio II: Robert Reece's animated adventures in screenwriting". Animated Views.

24. ^ "Disney's My Son Pinocchio: Geppetto's Musical Tale - Share Photos, Videos, Costume, and Sets, Theatrical Advice". MTIShowspace.

25. "Disney's My Son Pinocchio: Geppetto's Musical Tale". www.musicalschwartz.com.

26. ^ "Home Coterie Theatre".

27. ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (April 8, 2015). "'Pinocchio'-Inspired Live-Action Pic in the Works at Disney". Deadline Hollywood.

28. ^ "Robert Zemeckis in Talks to Direct Live-Action 'Pinocchio' for Disney (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. October 18, 2019.

29. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (January 24, 2020). "Robert Zemeckis Closes Deal To Direct & Co-Write Disney's Live-Action 'Pinocchio'". Deadline Hollywood.

30. ^ Karp, Hubie; Grant, Bob; De Maris, Merrill; Taliaferro, Al; Porter, Hank (2018). Silly Symphonies: The Complete Disney Classics, vol 3. San Diego: IDW Publishing. ISBN 978-1631409882.

31. ^ "Update 55: Pinocchio | Livestream". YouTube. December 10, 2021.

"Threads of Melody: Evolution of a Major Film Score" by Ross B. Care in the Library of Congress book, Wonderful Inventions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Pinocchio is a 1940 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on Carlo Collodi's 1883 Italian children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio , it is the second Disney animated feature film, and the third animated film overall produced by an American film studio, after Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Fleischer Studios' Gulliver's Travels .

# data[].attributes.body
Since his birth in 1948 He has been in at least 150 future-length movies and 12 Marvel movies

Samuel Jackson originally wanted to play Iron Man in the mcu buthe ended up being Nick Fury

He actually joined the US Navy for five months.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Samuel-L-Jackson

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Samuel L. Jackson, in full Samuel Leroy Jackson, (born December 21, 1948, Washington, D.C., U.S.), American actor who was especially known for his work in action blockbusters and his films with directors Spike Lee (notably Do the Right Thing [1989] and Jungle Fever [1991]) and Quentin Tarantino ( Pulp Fiction [1994] and Django Unchained [2012]).

Jackson was raised by his grandparents in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He attended the historically Black Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he became involved in the Black Power movement. He was expelled in 1969 for having locked several school board members in a building for two days to protest the composition of the mostly white board. After he spent two years in Los Angeles as a social worker, Jackson returned to Morehouse to study acting, having been inspired by a Negro Ensemble Company production. He graduated in 1972 and then joined the Black Image Theatre Company, touring the country and performing in politically charged skits, primarily to white audiences.

In 1976 Jackson moved to New York City and began working in the theatre there. In 1981, while appearing in Charles Fuller's Pulitzer Prize-winning A Soldier's Play, Jackson met actor Morgan Freeman and aspiring film student Spike Lee. Both offered Jackson encouragement, and Lee cast Jackson in some of his early films, including School Daze (1988), Do the Right Thing (1989), Mo' Better Blues (1990), and Jungle Fever (1991), for which Jackson garnered the first best supporting actor award ever bestowed by the Cannes film festival judges for his riveting performance as a hard-core drug addict. That role prompted Jackson, who had just come out of rehab, to permanently end his own personal drug addiction.

Jackson's breakthrough came in Tarantino's cult classic Pulp Fiction, in which Jackson portrayed a loquacious Bible-verse-spewing killer. For that part he earned an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor. His other credits in the 1990s included Jurassic Park (1993), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), A Time to Kill (1996), The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996), Tarantino's Jackie Brown (1997), The Negotiator (1998), and Star Wars: Episode I-The Phantom Menace (1999), as Mace Windu. He reprised that role in Star Wars: Episode II-Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars: Episode III-Revenge of the Sith (2005). In addition, he provided the voice of that character in Star Wars: Episode IX-The Rise of Skywalker (2019).

In the 21st century Jackson showed his versatility, appearing as a colonel in the military in Rules of Engagement (2000), a police detective in John Singleton's blaxploitation movie remake Shaft (2000), an angry motorist in Changing Lanes (2002), an FBI agent in Snakes on a Plane (2006), and an outspoken but devoted white slaver's butler in Tarantino's blood-drenched Django Unchained (2012). After Jackson allowed Marvel Comics to use his features for the character Nick Fury, he signed (2009) a nine-movie deal that included Iron Man 2 (2010), Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), The Avengers (2012), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).

In 2015 Jackson gained accolades for his roles in Lee's Chi-Raq, a satire on gang violence in Chicago, and Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, in which Jackson starred as a Black bounty hunter encountering racism and extreme violence in the aftermath of the American Civil War. The following year he starred as a villain seeking immortality in Tim Burton's Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, a fantastical adventure based on a popular young adult series by Ransom Riggs. Jackson's films in 2017 included Kong: Skull Island and The Hitman's Bodyguard; in 2021 he appeared in the latter's sequel, The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard.

In 2019 Jackson reprised two roles from 2000: in Glass he played a comic book dealer/villain from M. Night Shyamalan's supernatural thriller Unbreakable, and in Shaft he resumed the role of John Shaft. That year he also starred in The Last Full Measure, about a U.S. soldier's bravery during the Vietnam War and the conspiracy that delayed his being awarded the Medal of Honor. Jackson's credits from 2020 included The Banker, a drama set in the 1950s about two African American businessmen who use a white man as their front. The following year he appeared in Spiral, an installment in the Saw horror film series.

Jackson's sonorous voice also provided the narration for numerous films, and he frequently appeared on TV as a spokesperson for various products and services. He could be heard in the animated films The Incredibles (2004) and Incredibles 2 (2018).

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Samuel L. Jackson | Biography, Movies, Star Wars, & Facts

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Samuel L. Jackson, American actor who was known for such action films as Shaft (2000) and The Avengers (2012). He frequently worked with directors Spike Lee (notably on Do the Right Thing [1989] and Jungle Fever [1991]) and Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction [1994] and Django Unchained [2012]).

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The Lone Ranger has been changed many times Johnny Depp even played by johnny depp at one point

The Lone Ranger was originally an African American but was changed

The lone ranger has never once been scene without his mask on or some sort of disguise

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lone_Ranger_(TV_series)

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The Lone Ranger is an American Western television series that aired on the ABC Television network from 1949 to 1957, with Clayton Moore in the starring role. Jay Silverheels, a member of the Mohawk Aboriginal people in Canada, played the Lone Ranger's Indian companion Tonto.

John Hart replaced Moore in the title role from 1952 to 1953 owing to a contract dispute. Fred Foy, who had been both narrator and announcer of the radio series from 1948 until its ending, was the announcer. Gerald Mohr was originally employed as the narrator for the television series, but story narration was dropped after 16 episodes. The Lone Ranger was the highest-rated television program on ABC in the early 1950s and its first true "hit". The series finished number 7 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1950-1951 season, number 18 for 1951-1952, and number 29 for 1952-1953.

A group of six Texas Rangers is ambushed and all are shot, apparently dead. In the hot sun, one lives and crawls to a pool of cool water which saves his life. He is found by a native Indian, Tonto, who buries the five other rangers, one of whom is the survivor's brother. Tonto tends to the survivor's health and complies with his wish to make him a mask from his brother's clothes and to create an empty sixth grave to appear that he is dead.

The "lone" surviving ranger thereafter disguises himself with the black mask Tonto made and travels with Tonto throughout Texas and the American West to assist those challenged by the lawless elements. In the first episode they are attacked from above just after he recovers and Tonto distracts the attacker from above as the Lone Ranger first shoots the attacker then tries to climb the cliff he is on. The episode ends with him on the cliff but slipping.

A silver mine in the second episode supplies The Lone Ranger with the funds required to finance his wandering lifestyle and the raw material for his signature bullets. Also in Season One, Episode Two, The Lone Ranger and Tonto come upon a prone white horse severely injured by an American Bison. The Lone Ranger shoots the buffalo before it can kill the horse. They then attend to the stricken horse. When, after some days, he is healed, they contemplate his name. Tonto says that he is "Like a mountain with snow - silver white". The Lone Ranger states that "Silver" will be his name. At the end of most episodes, after The Lone Ranger and Tonto leave, someone asks the sheriff or other person of authority who the masked man was. The person then responds that it was The Lone Ranger, who is then heard yelling "Hi-Yo Silver, away!" as he and Tonto ride away on their horses at full run.

George W. Trendle retained the title of producer, although he recognized that his experience in radio was not adequate for producing the television series. For this, he hired veteran MGM film producer Jack Chertok. Chertok served as the producer for the first 182 episodes.

The first 78 episodes were produced and broadcast for 78 consecutive weeks without any breaks or reruns. Then the entire 78 episodes were shown again before any new episodes were produced. All were shot in Kanab, Utah and California. Much of the series was filmed on the former Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, California, including the opening sequence to each episode, in which the cry of "Hi-yo Silver" is heard before the Lone Ranger and Silver gallop to a distinctive rock and Silver rears up on his hind legs. The rock seen next to Silver is known as Lone Ranger Rock and remains in place today near the site of the Iverson movie ranch.

When it came time to produce another batch of 52 episodes, there is speculation of a wage dispute with Clayton Moore (although he stated in his autobiography I Was That Masked Man that he never really knew exactly why he was dismissed), and John Hart was hired to play the role of the Lone Ranger. Once again, the 52 new episodes were aired in sequence followed by 52 weeks rerunning them. Despite expectations that the mask would make the switch workable, Hart was not accepted in the role, and his episodes were not seen again until the 1980s.

At the end of the fifth year of the television series, Trendle sold the Lone Ranger rights to Jack Wrather, who bought them on August 3, 1954. Wrather immediately rehired Clayton Moore to play the Lone Ranger, and another 52 episodes were produced. Once again, they were broadcast as a full year of new episodes followed by a full year of reruns.

The final season saw a number of changes, including an episode count of 39, which had become the industry standard. Wrather invested money from his own pocket to film in color, although ABC telecast only in black and white. Wrather also went outdoors for action footage. Otherwise, the series was mostly filmed on a studio sound stage. Another big change, not readily detectable by the viewers, was replacing Jack Chertok with producer Sherman A. Harris. By this time, Chertok had established his own television production company and was busy producing other programs.

Wrather decided not to negotiate further with the network and took the property to the big screen and canceled television production. The last new episode of the color series was broadcast on June 6, 1957, and the series ended September 12, 1957, although ABC reaped the benefits of daytime reruns for several more years. Wrather's company produced two modestly budgeted theatrical features, The Lone Ranger (1956) and The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1958). The cast included former child actress Bonita Granville, who had married Wrather after his divorce from a daughter of former Texas Governor W. Lee O'Daniel.

Clayton Moore astride Silver and Jay Silverheels astride Scout in 1956

In 2003, Rhino Retro Vision, working with Classic Media, released a box set of the first 19 episodes of the 5th season, in color as originally filmed.

On March 31, 2009, Mill Creek Entertainment released the box set Gun Justice featuring The Lone Ranger with other Westerns, including Annie Oakley, The Adventures of Kit Carson, The Cisco Kid, Cowboy G-Men, Judge Roy Bean, The Gabby Hayes Show, and The Roy Rogers Show.

On November 11, 2009, Classic Media released The Lone Ranger: 75th Anniversary Edition to commemorate the show. On June 4, 2013, Classic Media released The Lone Ranger: Collector's Edition, a 30-disc set featuring all 221 episodes of the series on DVD, though many of the episodes are the syndicated edits missing two to three minutes.

There were two animated cartoon series starring the Lone Ranger:

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The Lone Ranger is an American Western television series that aired on the ABC Television network from 1949 to 1957, with Clayton Moore in the starring role. Jay Silverheels, a member of the Mohawk Aboriginal people in Canada, played the Lone Ranger's Indian companion Tonto.

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Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest boxers of all time, winning 56 and only losing 5 matches, compared to Mike Tyson, who was 50 and 7

Muhammad Ali is the only person with a gold star on a wall he did this because in the muslim culture it's rude to step on the name Muhammed

Muhammed ali retired in 1981

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Muhammad-Ali-boxer

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Muhammad Ali | Biography, Bouts, Record, & Facts

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Muhammad Ali was a charismatic and fearless boxing legend who fascinated the world with his unmatched skills in the ring and unwavering commitment to social justice.