The Fabulous Forties

Laurie ChristolearCeondre Colvin

Irwin Corpuz

National Headlines• From June 11 to June 13,

Congress passes both the Naval Supply Act and the Military Supply Act, authorizing $3.3 billion for defense projects

• On June 10, President Roosevelt declares that U.S. policy is changing from "neutrality" to "non-belligerency." Isolationists predict that this shift will lead to America's entrance into the war

• On January 26, the 1911 U.S.-Japan Treaty of Commerce expires, and Secretary of State Cordell Hull informs the Japanese government that trade will continue only on a day-to-day basis.

• On June 3, the War Department agrees to sell Britain millions of dollars' worth of outdated munitions and aircraft.

Hiroshima

• Manhattan Project– Harry S. Truman– Atom bomb– Potsdam Conference

• Monday, August 6, 1945– Hirohito’s refusal – Little Boy

• Hiroshima– Military HQ– Key center for shipping

Nagasaki• Included Large Seaports• Industries

– Ships– Equipment– Other military goods

• August 9, 1945– Fat Man

Pop Culture• Radio

– Became a mass medium– 80 percent of households owned

a radio– Became in high demand for the

need for war updates• Movies

– Motion pictures were extremely popular

– 90 million Americans went to the movies during the war

– The war was its own genre during that period

• Music– Songs captured the emotions of

the war– Jazz was still the most popular

form of music

• Fads– Rosie the Riveter

• Working women– The Jitter Bug

• Dance– Teenagers

• Jobs• Seventeen Magazine

• Clothes– Zoot Suit- Men– Convertible Suit (Jacket, Short Skirt,

Blouse)- Women

Entertainment in the Movies

• Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman starred in Casablanca.

• Oklahoma was released. • Cannes Film Festival kicked

off in ’46. • The first Superman movie

was released in ’41 as a cartoon.

• ’44—Meet Me in St. Louis• ’45—State Fair and Yankee

Doodle Dandy• In 1942, Disney released

Bambi, spending ninety percent of the money earned on war efforts.

Sports News• Most professional athletes were

affected by the war– Men ages 18-26

• Boxing was very popular during the forties and blacks were able to fight during this time.

• The NBA did not suffer from the war due to the height regulations on soldiers

• Byron Nelson dominated golf at the time

• Jack Kramer dominated tennis

Sports in the 1940’s

Breaking the Color Barrier• The 1940’s was a great

decade for baseball• Jackie Robinson was a

coming up baseball star from the Negro leagues

• Branch Rickey was an established General Manager

• Breaking the color line was Rickey’s “Great Experiment”

• Jackie Robinson broke the major league color line in April 1947

Communication• Telephones were already popular

in the United States by the forties– The calls per day, which was

already 82,000,000, increased by over 100% when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor

• The first toll crossbar was put into service in Pennsylvania– First step toward toll dialing

• Radio was America’s lifeline during the war– Gave first hand news from the

war• Television did not become

popular until the late forties crossing into the fifties.

Inventions• During the 1940’s there were

many inventions and technology formed in the economy. Some of these inventions are as follows:

• Jet Engines, Radar and Nuclear Fission

• Colossus, the world's first totally electronic and digital computer

• First Supersonic, it was faster than sound Flight ( Chuck Yager )

• First Transistor developed

Other important inventions• 45 rpm Record ----- 1949 USA • Artificial Intelligence ----- 1947

England by Alan Turing • Atomic Bomb ----- 1945 USA by

Robert Oppenheimer's team • Atomic Power ----- 1942 USA by

Enrico Fermi's team creating first self-sustaining chain reaction

• Aqualung ----- 1943 France by J Cousteau and E Gagnon Automation ----- 1946 USA by Henry Ford

• Computer ----- 1948 England by Freddie William's team

• Guided Missile ----- 1942 Germany by Werner von Braun

• Hologram ----- 1947 Hungary by Denis Gabor

• Kidney Dialysis ----- 1944 Netherlands by Willem Kolff

• Microwave Oven ----- 1946 USA by Percy L Spencer

• Napalm ----- 1942 USA from Harvard University

• Transistor ----- 1947 USA from Bell Laboratories

• Velcro ----- 1948 Switzerland by George deMestral

Entertainment

• TV shows– Bugs Bunny made his

debut! His voice was given by Mel Blanc, who was ironically allergic to carrots.

– Lassie and Shirley Temple became popular.

– Howdy Doody

• Radio– Was called the

“Theatre of the mind.”

– Shows were hosted by people like Bob Hope, Jack Benny, and Edgar Bergen.

– They had soap operas, mysteries, shows and Fireside Chats

More Entertainment• ‘Scientist’ Albert Hofmann

experimented with LSD.• Betty Grable, whose legs

were insured for a quarter of a millions dollars, was a popular actress among men.

• Marlene Dietrich toured army bases, singing and talking with soldiers.

• Board games• Jackson Pollock’s new form

of art.

Music

• Big Stars– Bing Cosby– Frank Sinatra– Glenn Miller

• Music development– Country, blues, jazz,

classical, bebop.

Forties MusicForties Music

Literature

• Say “hello” to paperbacks.

• Many books had political meanings behind them. – Animal Farm by George

Orwell served as a satire for Soviet Communism.

– Upton Sinclair published an eleven volume series that gave an insider’s view of the government up to 1949 called World’s End.

Children’s Literature • Pippilotta Viktualia

Rullgardina Krusmynta Efraim yolk Långstrump. A.K.A. Pippi Longstocking. Written by Astrid Lindgren.

• Antoine de Saint-Exupery wrote The Little Prince. It was a children’s book aimed to show adults that the most important things in life are the simplest.

• Not for children, but by a child, The Diary of Anne Frank.

Natural Disasters• June 1944: tornados hit

Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland. 154 killed

• April 1947: tornados hit Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas. 181 killed and 970 injured.

• Sept. 1947: a hurricane came through Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

• 1949: 2,720 people died of Polio. 42,173 cases were reported.

Changing Roles of individuals and families

• Women– Up to 19 million served in the workforce– Worked in every aspect of the war industry– Propaganda was heavily used to entice women to work

• Men– Went to war– College after war– GI Bill

• Baby Boom– “Explosion of Births”