World War Ⅱ had a galvanising effect in the United States' arts and entertainment world. Yank magazine invented the pin-up, a centrefold poster showing a scantily-clad woman, which many a GI languishing in Europe used to adorn his locker.
Hollywood was firmly committed to bolstering the war effort. With the encouragement of the Office of War Information, major studios turned out propaganda films like Why We Fight or Hitler's Children.
By 1945, films were reflecting the harsh realities of war. In Pride of the Marines, for example, a war hero returns home blinded. Yet few wartime films could match the impact of The Great Dictator, Chaplin's satire on Hitler, released in 1940.
第二次世界大戰，激起了美國的藝術和娛樂界。《揚基》雜誌始創壁上艷女圖，即以中央摺頁作海報，可釘在壁上，圖中艷女衣着暴露。當時很多美軍滯留歐洲，苦悶之餘，都用這艷女圖裝飾其牀腳櫃。
好萊塢也大力支持戰事。大電影公司獲戰爭情報辦公室鼓勵，製作宣傳電影，例如《我們為何而戰》、《希特勒的孩子》等。
到了一九四五年，電影不少描寫戰爭的殘酷現實，例如《海軍陸戰隊之光》，敍述一戰爭英雄雙目失明，回到故園。但戰時電影的影響力，很少比得上《大獨裁者》。那是卓別林諷刺希特勒的作品，一九四零年初次放映。