When Walt Disney died in 1966, his office at the Disney Studios in Burbank, California, was closed off, except for some activity by his secretaries in the first year who needed material located there, and later by the maintenance staff that went in to dust and vacuum occasionally. It was re-opened in 1971 for Disney archivist Dave Smith to document the room before things were removed.
Smith made some unexpected discoveries, including the original illustrated story script for the cartoon Steamboat Willie (1928) in the bottom drawer of Walt's desk. Another unexpected discovery was a plush doll in mint condition that Charlotte Clark had made in 1945 of the character of Gremlin Gus for an unmade Disney animation project.
It had been in Walt's office for more than two decades and no one had noticed.
Clark had also made dolls of female gremlins called Fifinellas that disappeared quickly, so quickly in fact that Gremlins author Roald Dahl was unable to get a few to give to his friends, despite his fervent requests. It was no surprise that one of those female figures was not extant in Walt's office.
When Dark Horse Publishing created a new series of Disney gremlin merchandise in 2006, it used the doll found in Walt's office for the re-creation of its plush doll of Gremlin Gus.
What is a Fifinella?
Dahl had created an entire mythology about creatures of the air that bedeviled Royal Air Force pilots during World War II. The term “gremlin” referred to the entire species, as well as just the males, who were short and stout and very much in a similar spirit to the famous Seven Dwarfs, with individual personalities but a common goal.
The young children were called Widgets.
The female gremlins, who were tall and slender and as attractive as fashion models, were called Fifinellas.
The word “fifinella” came from Fifinella (1913-1931) a British Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare who won both the Epsom Derby and the Epson Oaks races in 1916, the year Dahl was born. She was nicknamed the “flying filly” and rated the eighth-best British-trained filly of the 20th century. So when Dahl thought of a female that flew, the name of the horse immediately came to mind.
The Disney gremlin, Fifinella took on a life of her own when she became the patron saint and mascot for the The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). Artwork for the character had appeared from Disney in an effort to copyright and trademark the design and it had caught the attention of some brave and talented women pilots.
WASP was a a group of civilian female pilots, between the ages of 18 and 34, who were employed to fly military aircraft under the supervision of the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. Their role included ferrying aircraft from factories to military bases, transporting cargo, testing newly overhauled planes and towing drones and aerial targets for anti-aircraft practice.
At one point 1,074 women had earned their wings and were the first women to fly American military aircraft. Using them for such duties freed up male pilots for combat service. The women all had prior flying experience and received the same instruction as male aviation cadets. However, they were not trained for combat and did not have gunnery training.
In 1943, the Women's Training Detachment and the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron were merged to create the WASP organization. The women were stationed at 120 air bases across the United States and, during the war years, they delivered 12,650 aircraft of 78 different types. They paid for their own uniforms, lodging, and personal travel to and from home. And, of course, they were paid significantly less than their male counterparts.
Thirty-eight WASPs died during the war from accidents, and their families had to pay for their funerals. They were considered civil service employees and so did not receive military benefits and honors. They were not granted veteran status until after a hard fought battle in 1977.
The female gremlins, known as Fininellas, became a mascot for the Women Airforce Service Pilots.
Byrd Howell Granger, a member of WASP class 43-1 was the editor of the group's newsletter. The first issue of The Fifinella Gazette mimeographed newsletter to help with morale was published February 10, 1943.
In November of 1942 Granger sent a request to Walt Disney, a connection made possible by her brother Frank Howell, asking permission to use Fifinella as the mascot for the WASPs.
This is the copy of the permission telegram from Walt Disney Productions' top Legal executive Gunther Lessing:
“WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS
January 29, 1943
Miss Byrd Granger
c/o Fifinella Gazette-Army Forces
319 Flying Training Detachment
Municipal Airport
Houston, Texas“Dear Madam:
“In compliance with your telegram of the 22nd. inst., we are sending you under separate cover design of insignia which we trust will meet with your approval.
“You have permission to use this design and the name 'Fifinella' as an insignia for the Womens Flying Training Detachment, and you may also incorporate the same at your discretion in any issue of your Fifinella Gazette published at your station.
“This permission shall be construed in the nature of a license from us to you in behalf of the 319th Flying Training Detachment. It is specifically provided, however, unless specifically agreed to by us in writing, this design and the name 'Fifinella' must be confined to non-commercial and non-profit making purposes.
“Of course, we shall be glad to cooperate with you in the event your Detachment shall desire to use the design and name on stationery, pins, and similar merchandise. Naturally, such use must be confined to your outfit, unless we give you permission to the contrary.
“Please be assured of our pleasure in cooperating with you and we trust that this little contribution on our part may be of assistance in building morale.
Yours very truly,
WALT DISNEY PRODUCTIONS
By Gunther R. Lessing
Vice-President”
Granger later wrote, “Permission granted for two years to use without charge, the name and design of Fifinella. The cheers which greeted the [news] when it was announced at mess are an indication of the group's thanks to Mr. Disney and his staff.”
Walt had a crew of five artists under the supervision of artist Hank Porter who did most of the designs, which totaled more than 1,200. Since Bill Justice was part of that crew and was the designer of the Gremlins, it may be assumed that he was the one who came up with the Fifinella insignia.
The original design had the smiling small-winged figure coming in for a landing with a red circle in the background; she is portrayed with curled horns, a yellow flight cap with goggles, a red top, yellow slacks, long black gloves, and red high-top boots.
The official permission was printed in the first issue of the newsletter, but the female pilots had already started creating homemade patches featuring the character. Some were leather, some were cloth, and they were worn on WASP flight jackets. Since these patches were homemade and never commercially produced, there were many different variations from the official design.
In a letter to Disney historian David Lesjak, who specializes in Disney during World War II and was kind enough to allow me to use his research in my exploration of the history of Disney Gremlins, a former WASP Shutsy-Reynolds wrote:
“Fifinella was worn while in training…on A-2 jackets and on the white blouse. The patch was not available commercially.
“They were handmade by both trainees and instructors. To get a patch made at Sweetwater [Texas Avenger Air Field] we made our own. I remember buying a large side of leather and with lacquer from the field paint shop made up about 50 which I sold. Money was always in short supply and the venture made for a fine weekend.”
If you are interested in Disney during World War II, be sure to pick up a copy of David's well-researched book: Service With Character: The Disney Studios and World War II.
During the war, not only patches but the letterhead, matchbook covers, stickers, decals and more featured the Fifinella mascot.
In the second issue of The Fifinella Gazette (March 1, 1943), Jacqueline Cochran wrote an essay titled Origin of the Fifinellas, that was approved by neither Walt nor Dahl, but gives some insight into these female pilots' view of Fifinellas.
Cochran was a well-known and respected pioneer in aviation and was the director of the WASPs and responsible for their formation. She oversaw the training of hundreds of women pilots at the Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas.
Here is her essay:
“There is a fallacy going the rounds that the Fifinellas have taken to riding the air waves only recently. I knew their mother well. In fact, I think it was their grandmother, for one generation could not make such a change in any species. Where the intermediate generation has been, is a mystery, but I'm sure they have been hiding out in some center of fashion and culture to ring the evident present-day results.
“I first met up with that irascible and dangerous female Gremlin over the Rocky Mountains in 1932. She pulled my compass off by some 45 degrees and held it there until I was about to crash-land. She practically trailed me from then on, until the fall of 1936, when she disappeared from sight. In the London-Australia race in 1934, she changed the signs of my fuel controls from 'off' to 'on,' locked my cockpit hood so I could not get it open, and froze the flaps so as to give me a hair-raising landing. Thenceforth, I called her 'Lady Borzia' and I suspected on that day that she had obtained help, although I never saw a Gremlin until some time later, and then only sketchily.
“In fact, I suspect that the meeting between Lady Borzia and the Gremlin, which blossomed into romance and gave the harvest of Fifinellas, occurred in 1936, right in my Northrup plane before my very eyes. I can't be sure because these mystic creatures have a Chameleon-like quality of changing their color to make the background a perfect camouflage. Lady Borzia had started a fire in my ship, the week before, while I was 16,000 feet up, but definitely it was without malice, for she allowed me to get down safely.
“Then, on this particular day, I noticed her hanging over a wingtip, gathering colors from a passing rainbow and storing them in what looked to me to be a cosmetics kit. Constantly, she glanced towards the cockpit with a coy 'come-hither' look which caused me to suspect additional company and trouble. Suddenly, while approaching for a landing, the engine quit and the flaps froze and a few seconds later when I picked myself up from the pieces of what was once a plane, I momentarily noticed Borzia and a very handsome-looking Gremlin dancing off across the field together. He was certainly a Gremlin of the finer type, for the Fifinellas have many rare qualities that could not have been inherited on their mother's side.
“I look for the Fifinellas to be a good influence on the whole. I somehow feel that they symbolize a change in convention, just as the Fifinellas are a change in the Gremlin species, and to help rather than hinder their excursions into the blue. They will have their moments, it is true, but it is evident that they will not try to be just Gremlins or try to do the ordinary things that Gremlins usually do. They will be themselves, and I am convinced will even, on occasion, by their example shame the more abandoned Gremlins into better habits. These new folk of the air waves are certainly with us to stay. And, incidentally, they can be bribed. I've noticed they are particularly fond of applesauce, and for a whiff of perfume, the Fifinellas will practically do your navigating for you.”
In that same issue, Granger wrote: “The original design of Fifi arrived in time to become part of the masthead…the…issue also contained a surprise for the girls, for as a slip-in, we had inserted color repro's of our emblem.”
That color insert also appeared in The Log Book pamphlet for the 319th AAFFTD (Army Air Forces Flying Training Division) in Houston, Texas, that included the following text:
“Members of 43-W-2 will recall that in their early days at Houston a warning was posted that all students must carry used postage stamps to feed and pacify 'Them Gremlins'. Not long thereafter female Gremlins, or Fifinellas, were seen shoving ships off the runways into tenacious Texas mud. However, no male or female Gremlins were seen in the air.
“The first student to see a Fifinella on board in flight was Sidney Miller, whose phenomenal practically on-the-back spin recovery during a check ride was definitely due to three Fifinellas visibly (1) swinging on the throttle, (2) holding the stick firmly forward, and (3) throwing dust into the Lt.'s eyes so he failed to note the goings-on.
“Those familiar with Them Gremlins will recognize that something new has been added. Formerly only Gremlins and male children, or Widgets rode the airwaves, it being claimed that the diminutive Fifinellas lacked the ability to undertake such hazardous Gremlintrix as (1) playing see-saw on the artificial horizon, (2) using the compass as a merry-go-round, (3) drinking gasoline and, (4) sliding down the beam and rolling up the runway, thus making planes undershoot.
“Like members of the 318th, Fifinellas needed only training in order to turn in a good job. When the 319th was formed, a squadron of pioneering Fifinellas arrived with the first Gremlins, forcing Them to undertake specialists jobs such as that of the big-stomached Puff Gremlin who sucks air from under a plane, making it jounce.
“At Houston, Gremlins and Fifinellas are breeding at a rate sufficient to supply each cubstaff flier with a Flipperty-Gibbet, or young Fifinella, which reaches Fifineallahood upon the student's graduation to PI's. For the benefit of those students who have not been adopted to date (by the way, Them Gremlins take the name of their pilot, as Fifinella Richards) we present left, the best Fifinella to arrive at the Houston Municipal. Fifinellas are about a foot high. Whereas Gremlins have stubby horns, Them Fifinellas are delicate and curled.
“Them Gremlins have come a long way from their original homes of a 1000 years ago in the quiets shadows of river pools, thence to the mountain crags and finally taking to the air. Now Them have taken another step. Them Fifinellas, like the gals of the 319th, are taking the air.
“Watch out fellas! They're dillies!
“It is a grave social error to refer to Gremlins as anything but Them.”
One B-17G Flying Fortress, Fifinella (Serial No. 42-107030) of the 91st Bomb Group, was named after the female gremlin mascot. Fifinella was lost on August 13, 1944 on a bombing raid of a railway bridge at Le Manoir, France when it took flak and a fire started in the plane. It had flown 54 missions.
In April 1944, Airman Tony Starcer, famed for his paintings on planes, drew a “nose design” painting on the Fifenella based on the patches worn by the WASPs. A large bomb was added so that it looked like the characters dressed in a red coat and purple trousers, was sitting astride it rather than just leaping from the sky, and the dark blue Starcer circle around the image added extra impact.
During the Korean War, there was also a B-29 Superfortress (Serial No. 42-6569) of the 19th Bomb Group named Fifinella.
The WASP group was officially disbanded by December 20, 1944, as being no longer necessary. All records of the WASP group were classified and sealed for 35 years, so their contributions to the war effort were little known and inaccessible.
On July 1, 2009, President Barack Obama and the United States Congress awarded the WASP organization the Congressional Gold Medal. Roughly 300 surviving WASPs were able to personally receive the honor with the rest going to family members.
In December 1944, Gunther Lessing sent another telegram to the WASPs:
“This will serve as your authorization to use the name and insignia of Fifinella in connection with the post inactivation organization of the WASPs which is tentatively titled the Order of Fifinella. The name and insignia may not be used for commercial purposes or in connection with any merchandising endeavors from which profit is derived without our specific permission in writing. Also, you will be obligated to append copyright notice to all publications.
“Walt deems it an honor to be numbered among your members with the understanding that because of his many commitments he will be unable to take advice or assume any obligations unless specifically agreed to in each instance. I trust you will understand the valid reasons for these reservations.
“We regret your organizations' inactivation but you are entitled to rest on your laurels with the consciousness of a wonderful work wonderfully and efficiently performed during times of great stress.”
Today, Dark Horse Publishing is attempting to revive Disney's Gremlins and has produced some merchandise featuring the lovely Fifinellas.
