Scroll Down to 1937-1949 RHS Alumni for names and contact information...
The 1940's were dominated by World War II, ending the era of the Great Depression. Rationing of food supplies began in 1943 and Victory Gardens produced 40% of USA vegetables. Scrap drives for steel, tin, paper and rubber began to support the war effort, and Women replaced men in the workplace.
The Jitterbug was the first dance in two centuries allowing for individual expression, and GI's took it overseas when they went to war. Rosie the Riveter was the symbol of the working woman. GIs invented the pin-up girl, with Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable, and Kilroy was Here.
Modern refrigerators led to the invention of frozen dinners, and television later in the decade made the TV Dinner popular. Tupperware and aluminum foil eased the postwar housewives' burden; the Slinky was invented by a ship inspector in 1945 and with fathers away and mothers at work, and another new phenomenon arose - the juvenile delinquent.
The Office of War declared movies an essential industry for morale and propaganda, and live theater turned to abstractionism with Thornton Wilder's The Skin of our Teeth (1942), Tennessee Williams the Glass Menagerie (1945) and Streetcar named Desire (1947). Musical Theater was reborn with Agnes de Mille's in Oklahoma (1943), Carousel (1945), and Annie get your Gun (1946).
Hollywood produced war movies; Casablanca, Mrs. Miniver, Lifeboat, Notorious, and the Best Years of our Lives, Wake Island, Battle of Midway, Guadalcanal Diary, Destination Tokyo, and, not fitting the template Citizen Cane, one of the masterpieces of the time. Leading actors were Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, Ginger Rogers, Jimmy Stewart, Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, and Lana Turner. Walt Disney began producing classic animated cartoons such as Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942), but the boom years of movies faded with the advent of television in 1948.
At the end of the war, only 5,000 television sets, with five inch black & white screens, were in American homes. By 1951, 17 million had been sold. Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour, a revival of a popular radio show, was the first top-rated show in 1948, and Milton Berle's Texaco Star Theater, was credited with creating the demand for televisions. Its greatest rival was Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town, and the sitcom made its appearance in January, 1949, with The Goldbergs. Kukla, Fran & Ollie kicked off children's television as Junior Jamboree in 1947, followed by the Howdy Doody Show.
FACTS about the 1940’s
Population 132,122,000
Unemployed in 1940 - 8,120,000
National Debt $43 Billion
Average Salary $1,299. Teacher's salary $1,441
Minimum Wage $.43 per hour
55% of U.S. homes have indoor plumbing
Antarctica is discovered to be a continent
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |