Want a cultural reference that Steve and Bucky would, 100% be familiar with? Kilroy is it — A long-nosed, bald figure, peeking over a wall accompanied by the words “Kilroy was here.”
This little doodle and quote is associated with World War II GIs, and over the course of the war could be found everywhere US soldiers passed through. Building walls, weaponry, bombed out ruins, barracks, canvases, vehicles and aircraft...any flat surface was fair game. To millions of military personal throughout the war, it was a legendary sight.
In the simplest terms, it was cheap and easy entertainment in the face of war. It was a morale booster, an emblem of pride, a challenge, an Allied rally cry, and a mark of progress. “When you saw that ‘Kilroy was here’, then you knew the operation was bound to be a success.”
This strange little calling card did not spring up fully formed from nothing, it in-fact had two key forerunners.
“Foo was here”
During World War I, the First Australian Imperial Force (1st AIF) left “Foo was here” along with a familiar long-nosed figure peering over a wall, chalked on the side of railway carriages. “Foo” is assumed to have been an acronym for Forward Observation Officer (officer responsible for directing artillery and mortar ).
Mr Chad
A similar doodle could be found through Britain from 1938, as a commentary on wartime rationing and shortages. Mr Chad would be accompanied by messages following the template of “Wot? No [blank]?” — “Wot? No Tea?” “Wot? No Bread?”. The figure itself was potentially based on the Greek Omega symbol, or a simplified impression of a circuit diagram.
I have no doubt that the boys, along with the Howling Commandos would have been familiar with the imagery. I personally love the headcanon of defrosted Steve or Post-WS Bucky absently doodling Kilroy on paperwork, napkins, or scrap-paper, the same way kids in the 90′s drew than dang “Cool S” on everything.
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Still from film “Kilroy Was Here”, 1947 | Source
Kilroy Was Here Marker, Neilsville, Wisconsin, 1993 | Source
Kilroy engraving on the National WWII Memorial, Washington, D.C. | Source
Kilroy on aircraft, c.1944-45 | Source — Photographer: Dick Bastasch
Brooklyn Daily Eagle Article, 3 Nov 1946, page 3 | Source
This post has been sponsored by my much loved and long-time Patreon supporter Joanna Daniels. She and I would like to dedicate the post to the loving memory of her mother Joan Daniels. She will be sorely missed.
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