The Impact of World War II

Popular Culture in WWII America [Mr Lads]

The War took over popular culture in America to such an extent, and with such lasting impact, that it is easy to forget that America's war lasted only three years, 1942-45.

During that time, most of America's popular culture was controlled by the Office of War Information, formed in June 1942.  Due to clever presentation, even though propaganda, the productions it oversaw became extremely popular.

Going Deeper

The following links will help you widen your knowledge:

A collection of Primary Sources

Axis Sally: World War II traitor who broadcast for the Nazis  - BBC Witness History

Movies

• The government’s Bureau of Motion Pictures (BMP) worked with Hollywood’s War Activities Committee (WAC) – both formed in 1941 – to censor and produce films which would help the war effort.  The BMP head, Robert Riskin, believed that American movies – hitherto full of gangsters and the wild west – needed to change to present an image of an America worth fighting for.

• Films always started with newsreels (heavy-censored – e.g. no footage was shown of Pearl Habor for a year) = an opportunity for propaganda. 

• Hollywood turned out movies set in the war (e.g. Atlantic Convoy (1942)/ Guadalcanal Diary (1943), or about civilians caught up in it (such as Casablanca, 1942). 

• Some films were explicit propaganda: e.g. Frank Capra’s series Why We Fight. 

• Some were documentaries – e.g. John Ford's The Battle of Midway (1942) / William Wyler’s Memphis Belle (1944). 

• The Three Stooges lampooned the Nazis (e.g. You Nazty Spy!, 1940). 

• The Warner brothers, committed anti-fascists, released the Private Snafu cartoons, which humorously encouraged service personnel about staying alert, taking care, security, proper sanitation habits, booby traps etc..

• Walt Disney’s Out of the Frying Pan starred Minnie Mouse as a housewife who saved bacon grease for the war effort. 

• The Tom and Jerry cartoons date from 1942. 

• The Hollywood Victory Committee organized 7,700 public events featuring 4,147 promoting war bond sales, scrap collection, and military recruitment, plus shows to boost troop morale . 

Norman Rockwell's four artworks portrayed visually President Roosevelt's 'Four Freedoms' speech of 1941 - ideas eventually incorporated into the Charter of the United Nations.

Radio

• Radio shows brought the war home to the American people, with full days’ broadcasts of major events. 

• It’s Maritime, Wings to Victory, The Man Behind the Gun and The Doctor Fights were programs dramatizing the experiences of the Navy, Air Force, Army and Medical Corps. 

• United Press sponsored Soldiers of the Press detailing the experiences of their front-line correspondents

• Dick Tracy was a children’s radio detective adventure program; listeners were encouraged to take a pledge vowing to "to save water, gas and electricity; to save fuel oil and coal; to save my clothes; to save Mom's furniture; to save my playthings."

• Comedy programmes such as The Jack Benny Show were used to build up support and morale.  Sometimes whole episodes of the comedy show Fibber McGee and Molly were devoted to an OWI message about such as saving gas, meat rationing or buying war bonds. 

• The Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) broadcast light entertainment to the troops, including servicemen’s requests. 

• Some US servicemen tuned in to listen to Axis Sally and Tokyo Rose – German and Japanese English-language radio programmes which tried to undermine US morale. 

Literature

• The Writer’s War Board, funded by the OWI, created pro-American, anti-fascist propaganda.

• In 1942 the WWB, asked to help a recruitment drive, created 52 nonfiction articles, 12 fictional stories, a novel, and a song: I Wanna Marry a Bombardier … which was so successful it had to be withdrawn. 

• Authors like John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway set their stories in war-torn Europe. 

• Bill Mauldin – a decorated US infantryman – showed the real side of military life through his cartoons of Willie and Joe for the soldiers’ newspaper, Stars & Stripes; when General Patton threatened to throw him in jail, General Eisenhower overruled him; it was a soldiers’ paper. 

• In 1943 The Council on Books in Wartime launched its Armed Services reprints of popular books and sold over 122 million copies to the military at an average cost of about six cents each. 

• Comic books were not OWI-controlled, but heroes like Superman caught the national mood, fighting the Axis powers on the front whilst supporting rationing and victory gardens at home. 

Art & Fashion

• Much of the popular art of the war depicted the soldier as hero. 

• Rockwell's art depicted a romantic image of an America worth fighting for.

• Powerful posters promoted war bonds, scrap drives and rationing. 

• ‘Rosie the Riveter’ – originally coined in a 1942 song – became a cultural icon, glamorising/celebrating the role women in the war industries.

• Women's fashions changed to include ‘utility clothing’ which saved on material, and practical clothes such as one-piece ‘siren suits’, and washable cottons pinafore dresses that could be worn with different cotton blouses or sweaters for different looks. 

Rosie the Riveter - the original poster by J Howard Miller (1942)

Dance & Music

• These were the days of Jazz (e.g.  Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and Ella Fitzgerald), ‘Swing’ and ‘Boogie Woogie’ – e.g. the Andrews Sisters’ Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. 

• People Jived and Jitterbugged to Glenn Miller’s 50-piece Army Air Force Band. 

• Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and were popular ‘crooners’, and Bing Crosby’s White Christmas idealised what the nation was fighting for. 

• During the war the United Service Organisations (USO) put on more than a quarter of a million performances in the United States and abroad, featuring celebrities of the time. 

Stopped, abandoned or curtailed

  Meanwhile, a number of previously popular events stopped or were curtailed:

• Local fairs, parades, festivals, circuses and carnivals were scaled down – many were cancelled altogether.

• Baseball continued at the express request of Roosevelt – the place of men called up was taken by disabled and older players; the National Baseball League played 61 of its games on military bases raising $2million.  To fill out the reduced fixtures, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was founded in 1943 by Philip K.  Wrigley, the gum magnate and Chicago Cubs owner. 

• American Football also continued at a reduced level; a new rule of free substitutions took account of the fact that the players who had replaced men called up had reduced fitness levels.