Come on fellows! The USO's for the U.S.A. is a black-and-white fund appeal for the United Service Organizations, with art copyrighted by Walt Disney and produced and distributed by W.L. Stensgaard and Associates. Donald Duck in a sailor suit waves four smiling servicemen toward a USO door. The archive dates it 1941 (NAID 514069).
The duck at the door
Disney's duck is dressed as a sailor and plays doorman. Four smiling servicemen walk arm in arm toward a doorway under a USO sign, and a mat at the door reads WELCOME. The sheet is printed in black and white. Its words are few.
Come On Fellows!
THE USO's FOR THE U.S.A.
USO
Give Your Support to the USO
WELCOME
[imprint:] © WALT DISNEY PRODUCED & DISTRIBUTED BY W.L. STENSGAARD & ASSOCIATES, INC.
Two audiences on one sheet
The poster speaks in two directions. "Come On Fellows!" is addressed to men in uniform, inviting them in. "Give Your Support to the USO" is addressed to everyone else, asking for money. The FRAME catalog lists the purpose as "Fundraise" and the audience as "Domestic public," so the second line is the one that pays.
The catalog tags transfer and bandwagon. The transfer is Donald Duck himself: a character people already liked lends his warmth to a charity. The bandwagon is the column of four friends, arm in arm, already on their way in. Neither device is hidden, and neither asks for anything but a gift.
That is worth saying because the same years produced harder sheets. A USO appeal with a cartoon duck and a doormat is about as gentle as home-front persuasion gets. The giving was voluntary, the sponsor is named, and the studio signed its copyright. If there is a fair criticism, it is that the sheet tells the donor nothing about what the money buys. It relies on the picture of a welcome to stand in for an account.
Who made it
The archive names three parties: the USO as issuer, Walt Disney for the art, and W.L. Stensgaard and Associates as producer and distributor. It types the issuer as mixed. The rights line records the sheet as a public-domain U.S. government work.
The same character appears on this site in a 1941 Appreciate America sheet, "I get exasperated at people who squawk", and in the studio's 1942 short, Der Fuehrer's Face. A Douglas Aircraft poster that asks riders to squeeze in one more prints "Hi Ho! Hi Ho! It's off to work we go!"
Sources
- FRAME object record, Come on fellows! The USO's for the U.S.A., dated 1941. United Service Organizations (USO); art by Walt Disney; distributed by W.L. Stensgaard & Associates.
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, 44-PA-589, NAID 514069, retrieved by the archive 4 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).
