American Economy during World War II
1. Labor Unions in the 1940’s
Labor unions cannot prosper in a competitive environment. Like other successful cartels, they depend on government patronage and protection. Worker cartels grew in surges during the two world wars and the Great Depression of the 1930’s.
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/LaborUnions.html
2. Pearl Harbor
On an otherwise calm Sunday morning on December 7, 1941, the Japanese shocked the world by bombing the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This “dastardly attack’ was the turning point for America and for the War. On December 8, the nation was gathered around its radios to hear President Roosevelt deliver his Day of Infamy speech. That same day, congress declared war on Japan. On December 11, Congress declared war on Germany.
3. FDR’s Death
At 1 PM on April 12, Roosevelt sat in the living room of his cottage surrounded by friends and family. As he signed letters and documents, an artist stood painting his portrait at an easel nearby. The conversation was lively, the atmosphere congenial. The president turned to the artist and reminded her that they had only fifteen minutes left in the session. Suddenly, he grabbed his head complaining of a sharp pain. The president was suffering a massive cerebral hemorrhage that would end his life. America’s longest serving president who had led the nation through the Great Depression and World War II was dead.
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/fdrdeath.htm
4. Labor strikes in 1946
- The 1946 steelworker strike was the first major steel strike since the bloody disastrous steel strike of 1919. The two strikes were a study in contrast. In 1946 strike was peaceful and President Truman even put pressure on the companies to settle. In the end the steel companies folded. In April 1946, Lewis called out a strike for 350, 000 miners, joining the hundreds of thousands already on strike. In May, railroad workers joined the coal miners, threatening to bring the entire nation to a halt.
http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/6638/
5. The Taft-Hartley Labor Act
- Passed in 1947 by the U.S. Congress, officially known as the Labor-Management
Relations Act. The act established control of labor disputes on a new basis by
enlarging the National Labor Relations Board and providing that the union or the
employer must, before terminating a collective-bargaining agreement, serve notice on the other party and on a government mediation service.
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/bus/A0847620.html
6. The Cold War
The Cold War was a period of East-West competition, tension, and conflict short of full-scale war, characterized by mutual perceptions of hostile intention between military-political alliances or blocs. There were real wars, sometimes called “proxy wars” because they were fought by Soviet allies rather than the USSR itself – along with competition for influence in the Third World, and a major superpower arms race.
http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/soviet.exhibit/coldwar.html
7. Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan
During World War II, the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan were destroyed by atomic bombs dropped by the United States military on August 6 and August 9, 1945, respectively killing at least 100,000 civilians outright and many more over time. It was done to force Japan to surrender unconditionally.
http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/travel/hiroshima_bombing.htm
8. Nuremberg Trials
Twenty-four major political and military leaders of Nazi Germany, indicted for aggressive war, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, were brought to trial before the International Military Tribunal. More than 100 additional defendants, representing many sectors of German society, were tried before the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals in a series of 12 trials known as “Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings.”
http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/Nuremberg_trials.html
9. The Dead Sea Scrolls
Ancient Hebrew scrolls accidentally discovered in 1947 by a Bedouin boy have kindled popular enthusiasm as well as serious scholarly interest over the past half century. The source of this excitement is what these Dead Sea Scrolls reveal about the history of the Second Temple period, particularly from the second century B.C.E. until the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E.—a time of crucial developments in the crystallization of the monotheistic religions.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/deadsea.html
10. Marshall plan
The Marshall Plan was the primary program, 1947-51, of the United States for rebuilding and creating a stronger economic foundation for the countries of Europe. The initiative was named for Secretary of State George Marshall and was largely the creation of State Department officials. George Marshall spoke of the administration’s desire to help they European recovery in his address at Harvard University in June 1947.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan
Micro View
1. Engineer Corp.
The primary mission of combat engineers is to keep the armies moving to attack and impeding the enemy.
http://www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/history.htm
2. Polish Americans
Polish Immigration happened in three different waves in America. The largest group came before 1929, mostly 1900l-1914, and comprised peasant farmers who immigrated for economic reasons; the second group consisted of post-World War II displaced persons and was more likely to be urban and educated. The third group contained more recent urban, educated immigrants who were escaping a Communist government. The first generation became unskilled industrial laborers.
http://www.conservapedia.com/Polish_Americans
3. Fort Lauderdale Hurricane
Also known as the Pompano Beach Hurricane, the 1947 Fort Lauderdale Hurricane was one of the most intense and devastating hurricanes of the 1947 Atlantic Hurricane season. While the main area struck was, of course, Florida and specifically Fort Lauderdale, the effects of the 1947 Fort Lauderdale Hurricane were felt from the Bahamas to Louisiana, and into Mississippi.
http://hubpages.com/hub/1947-Fort-Lauderdale-Hurricane
4. New Orleans dialects
There is a certain New Orleans city accent…associated with downtown New Orleans, particularly with the German and Irish Third Ward, that is hard to distinguish from the accent of Hoboken, New Jersey, and Astoria, Long Island, where the Al Smith inflection, extinct in Manhattan, has taken refuge. The reason, as you might expect is that the same stocks that brought the accent to Manhattan imposed it on New Orleans. – John Kennedy O’Toole
http://everything2.com/title/New+Orleans+dialect
5. Min wage.
Minimum wage in 1947 was at $3.00. Some think that is a very interesting fact to come by seeing as how minimum wage in Texas was the same for 9 years even though the price of living has gone up. Hard to understand how they made it with such a small pay in the forties.
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=635
6. 1940’s radio
In the early 1940’s, radio programs reflected America’s involvement in World War II. As the number of news and human-interest programs grew, evening variety, musical, quiz, and audience participation programs shrunk. As a result of the country’s involvement in the war, the number of hours per week devoted to new broadcasts nearly doubled. It was probably this abundance of war news that propelled the spectacular growth of evening dramatic programs.
http://www.balancepublishing.com/golden.htm
7. Tupperware and aluminum
Aluminum Foil, a staple in most households, came to the attention of the American housewife in 1947. It started off as an important protection from moisture for cigarettes and candy. Non-toxic, paper thin, and resistant to moisture, the product conducted heat rapidly, and kept foods odor proof. Today the foil has an almost unimaginable number of uses.
http://americanhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/the-history-of-kitchen-gadgets
Tupperware’s success stems from the combined genius of Earl Tupper, the self-styled Yankee inventor and entrepreneur and Brownie Wise, the consummate saleswoman and motivator. If Tupper personified reverence for the product, Wise personified respect for the sales force. “If we build the people,” she was fond of saying, “they’ll build the business.” Almost half a century later, their legacy remains an important part of Tupperware’s continuing success.
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/tupper.htm
8. Food
The 1940’s were all about rationing, protein stretching, substitutions, rediscovering “grandma’s foods,” and making do with less. Cookbooks, magazines, government pamphlets, and food company brochures were full of creative ideas for stretching food supplies. Food was needed to feed soldiers fighting World War II. Farmers and food manufacturers were tapped to supply growing military needs, thus creating a shortage of foods available for domestic civilian consumers.
http://www.foodtimeline.org/fooddecades.html#1940s
9. Jazz music in the 1940’s
While the big bands struggled to keep going during World War II, a revolution in jazz music was occurring. Starting in the mid-1930’s, 52nd Street in New York City became “Swing Street” where small combo jazz was featured. By the 1940’s these groups, spearheaded by musicians like Art Tatum, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and Coleman Hawkins, were exploring the harmonic frontiers of popular song.
http://www.jazzstandards.com/history/history-4.htm
10. The French Quarter
The French Quarter is a unique neighborhood in New Orleans that reminds many of cities in Europe. With its history evident everywhere, the French Quarter is a festive and charming place. Also known as the Vieux Carre.
http://www.gnocdc.org/orleans/1/48/snapshot.html
Sounds and Images
These pictures are some examples of the French Quarter. (Where the Kowalski's would live.)
The World of the Play
1947 is a time in America’s History where things were going a bit crazy with war and the American economy. Although some may not know what was going on with the war at this time it is important to know it’s effects on the American people. You have to remember that not only was America coming out of World War II and the Great Depression, but also 1947 was the first year we went into the Cold War.
I really wanted to concentrate on the economic crisis that America was going through during this time. War and economic struggle was all people knew. Labor Unions were making it difficult for men and some women to find jobs that they could work and survive in. Working conditions were horrible and pay was even worse. Pearl Harbor was a shock for so many Americans because they thought that the war was past them. America really didn’t know much about war until radio’s started to come into the picture. That and the newspapers were the only thing that American’s could rely on…not that they were always true. Roosevelt’s death was yet another shock that America had to go through and it was so unexpected that many didn’t even know how to handle such a thing.
Due to some of the struggles that America was going through in 1946 steelworkers went on strike and it included about 350,000 miners joining hundreds of thousands of already upset workers. This caused the steel industry to come to a screeching halt. Luckily Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Labor Act, which controlled the labor disputes by making more work for American’s. It didn’t solve everything but it definitely calmed down some of the commotion. After Pearl Harbor the military started to experiment more and more with Atomic and Nuclear bombs preparing themselves for any other unexpected attacks on America. When America bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan it sort of brought back some of the American Pride back into America’s lives much like going to war after 9-11 did for some of us.
My main goal was to find some of the facts that directly affected the characters from A Streetcar Named Desire but some of the things Tennessee Williams gives in his script are very non-descriptive. I wanted to look into the Polish American immigration during this time, but it’s never been said in the scrip of when Stanley’s family made their way to America but I’m guessing he came in either the first or second group since the script is always referring to how uneducated Stanley is. I realized also geologically that the Hurricane that mainly hit Fort Lauderdale, Florida could have been a huge factor for the people in my play. It was never mentioned or referred to in the script but New Orleans was definitely a target for this hurricane that caused much damage.
One of the things about this script that makes it difficult for actors is the dialect with these characters. It’s important to know the history of these dialects so that the actors can better develop their characters and the director can make the show more convincing. I also included what the pay was like during the 1940’s so you can get more of a sense to the financial struggle that the married couple are going through in the play and also more about the radio programs during the time. I thing I didn’t know before is that Tupperware and Aluminum Foil were invented during this time…which would make Stella’s life a whole lot easier when trying to store food for her “ape” of a husband.
I think besides living during this great jazz age I would hate to live during this time. Financially it would have been a burden for the average working class American. Food was short due to the farmers sending food to the soldiers fighting in the wars but also how pivotal it was to have these new inventions in storing food. I wanted to get a feel of how living in the 40’s really was and I think I found out plenty of stuff to give to a director who may be doing this show so that the design team and everyone involved could come together to produce a convincing and historically correct show. The way Williams intended it to be.
