Fifinella

: "For the Thoroughbred horse see: Fifinella (horse)"

Fifinella was a female gremlin designed by Walt Disney for a proposed film from Roald Dahl's book, "The Gremlins". During World War II, the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) asked permission to use the image as their official mascot and the Disney Company granted them the rights.

Dahl took the name from the great "flying" filly, Fifinella who won the Epsom Derby and Epsom Oaks in 1916, the year Dahl was born.

The original design had the small winged figure coming in for a landing with a red circle in the background; she is portrayed with horns, a yellow flight cap, a red top, yellow slacks, long black gloves, red high-top boots, and goggles. The WASPs, however, rather than having the figure in a landing pose, added a large bomb astride which the figure sat. They dressed her in a red coat and purple trousers and added a dark blue circle for extra impact. Still, there were many custom patches made, so form and color varied from patch to patch.

Gremlins were imaginary beings endowed with potent magical powers. According to the lore, these mischievous, elf-like creatures were responsible for all kinds of mechanical failures and other problems. They would also be there to tickle the pilots and bombardiers right at the moment they were lined up for a good run, threatening them with last-second errors of judgment. At first, these "gremlins" were seen as enemy agents, but it was realized that they played their terrible pranks anywhere, anytime, on anyone — regardless of nationality. Although gremlins predated Murphy's Law that "whatever can go wrong, will", they were obviously motivated by the same principles.

The story of Fifinella began in 1942 when Roald Dahl, an ex-RAF-pilot, wrote "The Gremlins", a fairy tale about the hazards of combat flying; in this incarnation, the word "fifinella" only refers to female gremlins as opposed to any specific one. The book was published by Walt Disney and serialized in "Cosmopolitan". The story was quite popular, and even Eleanor Roosevelt was known to have read the book to her grandchildren.

Disney wanted to make a film based on the book, but could not figure out how to make creatures who destroyed Allied aircraft lovable enough for a cartoon. However, Dahl's gremlins were subsequently used by Warner Bros. in several WWII cartoons, some involving Bugs Bunny, and another called "Russian Rhapsody", which featured scores of Russian-accented "Gremlins from the Kremlin" attacking a plane piloted by Adolf Hitler.

Fifinella put in appearances on WASP flight jackets and in many variations on the noses of bombers. One B-17G Flying Fortress "Fifinella" (Serial #42-107030) of the 91st Bomb Group, was named after her. "Fifinella" was lost on August 13, 1944 on a bombing raid at Le Manoir, France. During the Korean War there was also a B-29 Superfortress (Serial #42-6569) of the 19th Bomb Group [http://mywebpages.comcast.net/b29sinthekoreanwar/0-b29MasterList.htm] [http://home.comcast.net/~noseart/fifinella.jpg] .

References

* [http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=1541| Description of Fifinella from USAF website]
* [http://www.wasp-wwii.org/wasp/fifi.htm All about Fifinella]
* [http://www.91stbombgroup.com/fifinella.html 91st Bomb Group (H): Fifinella factoid]
* [http://americanhistory.si.edu/militaryhistory/collection/object.asp?ID=347 National Museum of American History: Women's Pilot Training Patch]

ee also

*Femlins — female gremlins featured in "Playboy" magazine

External links

* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/flygirls/filmmore/reference/primary/officialcorr04.html Letter from Walt Disney with a design for the WASP insignia]