During the early days of World War 2, the phrase ‘Keep ‘Em Flyin'” was used on propoganda posters to encourage voluntary enlistment in the Army Air Corps. So popular was the phrase that it became the title of a 1941 Abbott and Costello vehicle. Above is a strange hybrid of wartime enlistment movie with occasional scenes from the aforementioned Abbott and Costello movie ‘Keep ‘Em Flying’. It’s disorienting to say the least–the gung-ho ‘enlist-and-become-a-hero’ footage mixed with the ‘enlist-and-become Abbott& Costello’ routines deliver a mixed message at best. But A&C help the medicine go down, taking away some of the obnoxious propoganda tropes that recruitment films wallowed in. A Youtube comment posits that the Air Corps agreed to help supply the movie with planes, troops etc. in return for Universal Pictures supplying them with footage from the film’s comedy routines. I’ve also posted the entire film which is worth a scrub-through to see the A&C moments. For those of you who enjoy self-inflicted torture, there are also songs by the always dreadful Martha Raye, including a very 1940s boogie-woogie ditty that couldn’t be more annoying. Sorry about that…