This year’s 1940s’ event will be even bigger, with funding from Boston Big Local, and, as part of the 1940s weekend celebrations, there will be an outdoor cinema showing of Disney’s original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
On release the first Disney full-length animated film blew audiences away. Walt Disney received an Oscar for the film – in fact eight Oscars; one normal sized one and seven dwarf-sized ones presented by child star Shirley Temple. The film includes such musical classics as “Heigh-Ho” and “Whistle While You Work”.
This film will be shown in Central Park on Friday, June 21, gates open at 5pm, film starts at 6.15pm.
The Dam Busters will also be shown in Central Park on Saturday, June 22, gates open from 3pm and the film starts at 4pm.
Operation Chastise was carried out by the specially-formed Dam Busters 617 squadron of 19 Lancaster bombers, flying out of RAF Scampton on the night of May 16/17, 1943, to destroy strategically-important dams in the industrial Ruhr valley in Germany using specially-developed bouncing bombs.
The dams and surrounding target area housed two hydroelectric power stations and facilities crucial to the German war effort. Main characters in the film, made in the 1950s, are Barnes Wallis, the genius who developed the bouncing bombs needed to enable a low-level over-the-water attack which could also skip over protective anti-torpedo nets, and Wing Commander Guy Gibson, who led the attack.
The heroes included Guy Gibson, who took his aircraft round a second time at just 60 feet to draw enemy fire and lived to tell the tale, and the 53 aircrew who gave their lives. Of the 19 Lancasters which went, eight were shot down. The perilous mission was a success with two dams breached.
The Operations Room for the mission was at 5 Group Headquarters in St Vincents Hall, Grantham.
Tickets for both films are available at www.visitbostonuk.com
