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Welcome to Retroville! It’s 1940!
IN THE NEWS:
- Hitler invades Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France
- Hitler invades Luxembourg
- Churchill becomes British Prime Minister
- Trotsky is assassinated in Mexico
- Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania annexed by U.S.S.R.
- U.S. trades 50 destroyers to Britain for leases on British bases in the Western Hemisphere
- First official network television broadcast by NBC
ON THE RADIO:
- Abbott and Costello
- Amos and Andy
- Author’s Playhouse
- Avengers
- Bing Crosby Show
- Blue Beetle
- Bob Hope Show
- Burns and Allen
ON TELEVISION:
- News and weather information
- Republican National Convention televised from Philadelphia
FADS & FASHION:
- Seamed silk stockings
- Mid-calf dresses with full skirts
- 25-cent movie matinees
WHAT THINGS COST:
- Car: $800
- Gasoline: 18 cents per gallon
- House: $6,550
- Bread: 8 cents per loaf
- Milk: 34 cents per gallon
- Postage Stamp: 3 cents
- Average Annual Salary: $1,900
- Minimum Wage: 30 cents per hour
ACADEMY AWARD – BEST PICTURE:
- Rebecca – a romantic thriller by Alfred Hitchcock starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine
TONY AWARD – BEST MUSICAL:
- The Tony Awards begin in 1947 (look ahead to 1949 to see the first winner)
PULITZER PRIZES:
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (novel)
- The Time of Your Life by William Saroyan (drama)
- Abraham Lincoln: The War Years by Carl Sandberg (history)
- Woodrow Wilson Life and Letters by Ray Stannard Baker (biography)
- Collected Poems by Mark Van Doren (poetry)
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE:
- none awarded
TOP SONGS:
- When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano by the Ink Spots
- I’ll Never Smile Again by Tommy Dorsey
- Body and Soul by Coleman Hawkins
- Tuxedo Junction by Glenn Miller