SourceLab
Vol. 1, No. 1 (2018)
10.21900/j.sourcelab.v1.397

Walt Disney Productions faced a critical challenge in the late 1940s. Economic conditions during World War II brought financial hardship to the company, so Disney decided to expand its cinematic scope in hopes of turning a profit. In 1944, it established an Educational and Industrial Film Division and began making films for companies such as General Motors and Johnson & Johnson.

One of Disney’s new clients was the International Cellucotton Products Company, a branch of the Kimberly-Clark Corporation. The company wanted to market its Kotex products to young women. Working with the advertising agency Foote, Cone and Belding, Kimberly-Clark approached Walt Disney Productions with an idea for an educational film aimed at American schools.

As a result, Disney and Kimberly-Clark worked together to produce the 1946 educational film The Story of Menstruation along with its accompanying pamphlet, Very Personally Yours. The animated film has a running time of ten minutes and explains the anatomy of the female body and basic practices of menstrual care.

This edition presents both The Story of Menstruation (1946) and the first-known edition of Very Personally Yours (1948) in their historical context. The accompanying commentary traces the lifecycle of the materials from how they were produced to their use in classrooms. In addition, this edition addresses the film’s wide distribution in the digital era and clears up some misconceptions about its copyright status.

With contributions by Gianna Bendinelli, Emma Kelley, and Gerard Puczek

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