During the war years, “real toys” were out of reach for many. Because of rationing and lack of money to spend on such luxury items, many children throughout the USA had to “make do and mend” which meant going without many of the items they may have wanted. Many even voluntarily sacrificed treasured things to the war effort, as things like rayon, rubber, and steel were desperately needed. However, it wasn’t a dreary, barren, life, by no means! It only meant that parents, kids, and toymakers had to get creative.
Dolls were of course among the first to fall. With many of the finest dolls made in countries that were now the enemy (Germany, Austria, Japan) girls would have to do without the lovely porcelain, bisque, and celluloid dolls popular at that time. Materials to make such dolls were now prohibitively expensive here in the USA, which had people turning to materials that were widely available. Paper dolls were printed by the millions and sold or given away free in magazines, newspapers, and sold in sheets for as little as a nickel. Often modeled after comic characters like Little Lulu, and Betsey McCall, or glamorous actresses and women in uniform, these entertained little girls for hours. Cuddly toys were also popular. Stuffed animals could be made cheaply, out of recycled materials, and were loved by children and often treasured for years. Raggedy Ann and Andy were popular stars, both of them starring in short films, along with their popular picture book series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hezi0ur8b4 One of America’s great minds in the toy world began making cloth dolls that were meant to be loved and played with. Her name? Madame Alexander. Her company still makes dolls that are treasured to this day and considered some of the finest in the world. Toys for boys included lead soldiers (we didn’t know how dangerous lead was at the time), wooden planes, trucks, wagons and more. These toys were modeled after the heroes of the time, our men in uniform, like the girl’s paper dolls. Many of these toys were made from heavy paper or cardboard. Lionel, the famous electric train maker, even made a toy train from cardboard! https://www.museumofplay.org/blog/play-stuff/2013/06/the-home-front-toy-production-during-world-war-ii World War Two gave us many of our favorites too. Board games like Monopoly and Candyland became widely popular, as board games could be made inexpensively and encouraged cooperative play. Another popular toy born from the war years was G.I. Joe. After the war, and with the popularity of World War Two movies, G.I. Joe was manufactured to capitalize on the fascination of the American Boy with the military. In 1963, a total of four different Joes were made, one for each branch of the military, including an African-American variation in the army uniform. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/now-you-know-the-history-of-gi-joe-and-knowing-is-half-the-battle-11506463/ Another popular toy born from the war was the View Master. Originally created by a Nazi sympathizer (who, in his defense, was just out to create an educatonal tool), the View Master was used by the US government to teach our boys how to identify planes with just a few celuloid prints and a bright light. The legend of the View Master travelled home with the soldiers, and it was turned into a popular toy by the end of the 1950s. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/84549/chakka-chhh-hidden-history-view-master If you want to learn about the handmade toys of the war era, you can check out this US issue pamphlet, courtesy of the Ohio State Library System: https://cdm16007.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15005coll2/id/872
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This was never more celebrated than the time during The Great Recession of 1937-1938 through the end of WWII.
I am unabashedly a history nerd, old movie collector, and a believer in the fact that America and her allies (when we aren’t bickering) can get through just about anything. History proves this as fact. Additionally, I’m one of those odd people who check and double check everything but also optimistically believe that truth, and justice will, in time, prevail. It’s my gift to see things rationally and also impractically believe deeply in grace, mercy, and humility, as my family before me has done. As I present today’s blog I’m going to tap into a bit of that impractically, practical, nerdly movie buff and present you with a great flick to watch. I’m also going to share some fun facts about books, radio, comics and movies. Settle back, find a comfy chair, grab a family member (human or your pets LOL), and enjoy this classic movie from 1938. It assembles all my favorite movie ingredients, mystery, humor, sarcasm, a dash of romance and catching the bad guys before they get away! (time 1 hour 5 minutes) Danger on the Air stars Nan Gray, Donald Woods, Lee J. Cobb, William Lundigan, and was directed by Otis Garrett. It’s plot shows the behind the scenes at a radio studio where the murder of a rather important sponsor takes place. Who dunnit, why, and how will they solve the muder before time runs out…
As many of you already know, the rest of the team of Tabitha’s Mountain Rhapsody Family artists are also very big entertainment “nerds… or is it geeks” LOL? They love movies and books, old and new. We've been known to listen to old time radio shows! Many of the movies or movie series produced before and during WWII had been based on books whose popularity made them instant box office hits. Before we get into the lists of books that became radio shows and then movies, allow me to introduce you to two resources (besides youtube) for some entertainment gold. First, Comic Book Plus a veritable cornucopia of vintage comic books, comic strips, radio programs and general trivia about some of our favorite iconic characters. The second is the trusty Internet Archive. (Please don’t take my review of these website as a 100% approval of all that is on these sites, obviously with thousands of entries I cannot vouch for all of the content)
It is hard to choose between iconic stories that made both wonderful radio shows and also great movies. In fact the movie Danger on the Air was one of the “Crime Club” series from Universal in conjunction with Doubleday Publishing house. A series of 10 films about which you can learn more here: The Crime Club Books that became radio serials and then made it to the big screen: Dr. Kildare: Originally in pulp fiction written under the name Max Brand, Dr. Kildare went on to become a popular radio serial and eventually a film series by MGM. The Saint: Leslie Charteris, created this wildly popular, smooth talking, devilishly handsome character in 1928. The books became a very popular radio show and then on to delight audiences in movie theaters. The Saint Strikes Back from 1939 is available for purchase on YouTube.
Though the “pulp novel’ market had just about run its course by the end of the war, that didn’t stop the American public from enjoying the adventures of larger than life heroes. Authors whose work is now very well respected, Agatha Christie, H. Rider Haggard, P.G. Wodehouse, O. Henry, and many more wrote, and often got their start in the pages of pulp magazines. In fact, many of the heroes then are still spoken of today!
Closely related to pulp novels were comic books. Comic books portrayed the same types of stories as pulp novels (and often with the same characters) in a visual format that both the young and old could appreciate. While they are most famous for superheroes today, in the ‘40’s, comic books covered a wide variety of genres and characters; science fiction, fantasy, crime, humor, and romance comics were extremely popular. They were a cheap form of entertainment that common folk could get their hands on; television was in its infancy, and radios were expensive, but you could pick comics off of any newsstand for just a few cents. For just a dime, you could escape our often drab, boring reality into a world of color and adventure.
One of the more popular comic book characters in the 1940s was Flash Gordon, created in 1934 by writer and artist Alex Raymond. Flash was a Yale graduate and an accomplished polo player, until he was informed by Dr. Zakoff of an imminent threat to the safety of Earth. Zarkoff, Flash, and his love interest, Dale, took off in a rocket ship for the planet Mongo. Flash battled numerous alien creatures in his never-ending quest to protect the peoples of Earth and Mongo from the evil emperor Ming the merciless. You can listen to the complete radio serial from 1935 by clicking below
A little closer to Earth was the Shadow. Street & Smith, a pulp magazine publisher, sponsored the Detective Story Hour radio series, which featured a sinister sounding narrator known only as the Shadow. The character proved so popular that Street & Smith decided to give him his own pulp series. Street & Smith hired Walter Gibson, author and illusionist, to write the first story featuring the character in April of 1931. The shadow was a crimefighter, and a master of the mystic arts, able to make himself seem invisible to his enemies. The Shadow prefigured the era of masked vigilantes, and was a prototype for characters such as Batman. The Shadow was eventually given his own comic book series, a daily newspaper strip and even a 15-part movie serial. Enjoy this playlist of the original Shadow radio series below:
And last, but not least, is a character whose popularity has rarely waned since his original appearance in Action Comics #1 in 1938: Superman! Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster back in 1935; the first character that can be properly called a superhero. The two shopped the story around to several publishers, until the company that would become DC Comics picked up the character. Superman has since enjoyed broad popularity and wide influence ever since then, and has appeared in television, movies, and radio. You can listen to the original Superman radio series from 1940 below:
I want to thank Ian Thomas Wilson and T.k. Wilson of Tabitha's Mountain Rhapsody Family Artists for their help in today's blog. All of us really enjoyed the experience. I do realize that it is a bit late however, it was my intention to share some family entertainment for this weekend. Since we all are learning to function in a way similar to our WWII grandparents, it is my hope we can deepen our resolve to carry on in a way that will leave an important legacy.
During World War II rationing was just a fact of life. It was no simple thing to create the traditional family holiday. Regardless of social status, economic status, or what your faith traditions were, rationing was the same for all. Food, clothes, shoes, soap, just about everything we take for granted daily life was carefully used, shared, saved or collected. We thought we’d look a bit at how this affected the holiday plans. Inspiring us to perhaps look at how we can change our own outlook on the Holiday Season of 2020. What, exactly, was rationing and why did government ration essentials? Good question!
The answer comes from the National World War 2 Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana. “Rationing involved setting limits on purchasing certain high-demand items. The government issued a number of “points” to each person, even babies, which had to be turned in along with money to purchase goods made with restricted items. In 1943 for example, a pound of bacon cost about 30 cents, but a shopper would also have to turn in seven ration points to buy the meat. These points came in the form of stamps that were distributed to citizens in books throughout the war. The Office of Price Administration (OPA) was in charge of this program, but it relied heavily on volunteers to hand out the ration books and explain the system to consumers and merchants. By the end of the war, about 5,600 local rationing boards staffed by over 100,000 citizen volunteers were administering the program.” www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/rationing The rationing program began in 1942, in part to prevent hoarding. (sound familiar?) Naturally the program wasn’t perfect but it did keep the troops supplied with what they needed and the homefront, while struggling to find alternatives did their bit. I don’t remember hearing any of my relatives who were alive at the time, complain about what they had to do to win the war. I remember hearing one of my aunts say “we just got on with it” referring to the life on the homefront. If they needed to work around the lack of sugar or coffee they did so. I didn’t realize when I was young that some of my favorite things to eat at the holidays came about because of the rationing during World War 2. Then, like now in our current predicament with COVID-19, there are a lot of people learning to think outside the proverbial box with regard to the holidays. One thing is true of the WW2 era cooking and baking, nothing went to waste. For more information on rationing see www.history.com/news/food-rationing-in-wartime-america I will get to the gift giving at another time but first I wanted to toss the blog to my daughter to discuss holiday recipes that were popular during the World War 2 era. As happened in the Depression, the Christmas holiday was celebrated as a welcome respite from the grim world of the war. But with the shortages and staples like meats and sugar, Christmas looked very very different than it had in the past. What they were able to buy, they made it last for as long as possible. This resulted in what we would consider very odd foods, such as ham salad made with Jello. They did a lot of things with Jello… would’ve been a good time to take out stock! One of the most popular recipes of course was cake. “War Cake” could be made with the smallest amount of ingredients, and in such a way that nobody would be the wiser. I first uncovered a recipe for war cake in the pages of “My Secret War: The World War II Diary of Madeline Beck”, a historical fiction book by Mary Pope Osborne as part of the Dear America series. Similar to American Girl, these books examined the lives and times of girls in significant points in American history, only aimed at a slightly older audience. This cake is similar to a rich, dark fruitcake, and only requires a handful of ingredients. You can find that recipe here: https://www.food.com/recipe/ww2-war-cake-1881 Another common cake recipe was one that has been enjoyed in my family for generations: Dump cake! A dump cake is a cake made from minimal ingredients, no eggs, no butter, no milk, and turns out SO GOOD. It is my birthday cake of choice (spread with some nice coconut frosting to make German chocolate cake) to this day. You can find that recipe here: https://cookpad.com/us/recipes/329242-wwii-ration-chocolate-cake When fruits and vegetables were rationed, folks had to find new ways of getting a square meal, one of which was planting a victory garden. The US government issued several books and pamphlets to help people unaccustomed to gardening learn to provide for themselves. There were local victory garden committees to organize community gardening efforts and share resources. In addition to the nutrition gained from growing food, gardeners got the satisfaction of having grown the food themselves and taking pride in their work. Most of what was on the table at Thanksgiving and Christmas during the war years was grown in victory gardens and canned, pickled or otherwise preserved by dutiful citizens. You can read up on victory gardens in this World War II era handbook: https://archive.org/details/victorygardensha00mack/page/10/mode/2up?q=1943+victory+garden First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was a great influence and encouragement to the country during the Second World War. She created an entirely new attitude at the White House. A great proponent of what we now call recycling and upcycling. In the people’s house. Nothing was thrown away if it could be used to assist the war effort. No fancy lunches, just basic fare like the rest of America. According to History.com ““Eleanor wasn’t just choosing a cuisine; she was defining her role in the White House, and the food had to deliver the right message,” writes historian Laura Shapiro in the New Yorker. The First Lady wanted her kitchen to be a showcase for American foods and modern American ways of cooking them.” https://www.history.com/news/eleanor-roosevelt-white-house-menu-bad-food In an America where COVID-19 is changing how we Holiday we can certainly look to history for inspiration. For more on Eleanor Roosevelt check out https://www.history.com/topics/first-ladies/eleanor-roosevelt A big thanks to T.k. Wilson and Ian Wilson for their input into this article. |
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