James Montgomery Flagg created the original Uncle Sam
"I WANT YOU". Although most researches will refer to JMF as the model
of the original Uncle Sam, nothing could be farther from the truth.
In 1916, JMF reluctantly accepted a 4th of July project by Leslie
Magazine, and eventually found his Uncle Sam one rainy night on a train
bound for Parris Island, on his way to unveil a portrait of the
Commandant.
His "symbol of our country" was a young, roughly 17 year old, Marine,
which he considered the finest branch of our armed forces. He was able
to acquire a 24 hour pass for this "boot" not normally allowed off
base, and he aged his model's adolescent face by forty years and turned
a circus clown's costume into symbolic dignity.
This cover was eventually made into a recruiting poster, at the request
of the State Dept, and is now recognized as the most famous war poster
of our time.
By WWII, JMF had ironically begun to look remarkably like his original
Uncle Sam, and he did indeed use his self image in several new posters.
When FDR is quoted as saying "saving model hire" in a personal letter
to JMF, he is referring to the 2nd World War posters.
