1940

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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