“Forgotten Hollywood”- US World War II Inspiration has Died
Manny P. here…
A fundamental reason Americans focused on the creation of a military arsenal during World War II had a lot to do with a government campaign encouraging civilians to work in munitions factories. This effort would ultimately help the nation out of the grips of the Depression for good.
According to the History.Com website:
At 17, a young factory worker named Geraldine Doyle unwittingly inspired J. Howard Miller’s “WE CAN DO IT!” poster, an image that later became a powerful symbol of American women’s contributions during World War II, and of female empowerment. More than four decades would go by before she learned that she had become the face of ROSIE THE RIVETER. Doyle died on December 26th in Lansing, Michigan, at the age of 86.
In 1942, the UPI photographer visited the metal pressing factory outside Detroit and took a snapshot of the slim, fresh-faced brunette leaning over a machine. This led to the poster that achieved iconic status, and became associated with the domestic war effort.
The original ROSIE THE RIVETER, who inspired Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb to write the 1942 song of the same name, was Rosalind P. Walter. She came from a wealthy New York family and worked as a riveter building fighter planes on the night shift.
————————————————————-
Powell’s City of Books, based out of Oregon, has obtained copies of Forgotten Hollywood Forgotten History to be sold in their Portland location. Their address is 1005 W. Burnside.
My paperback has actually been available On Demand from Powell’s over the past year.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Sunday, January 2nd, 2011 at 1:14 am and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
You must be logged in to post a comment.