Posts Tagged ‘Kim Guise’
The December 1943 issue of the Higgins Industries newsletter, The Eureka News Bulletin, included this warning, perhaps a reference to the excesses of the holiday season.
Gift of Edward R. Williams Sr., 0000.048
Post by Curator Kimberly Guise.
The National WWII Museum, 2008.026.013
The Roosevelt Hotel was a popular New Orleans spot during WWII. Opened in 1893 as The Grunewald, the grand hotel was renamed in 1923 in honor of the late President Theodore Roosevelt. The Roosevelt was home to some of the liveliest wartime venues New Orleans had to offer: the Blue Room, the Fountain Lounge and the Sazerac Bar. Renamed The Fairmont in 1965, the hotel closed in 2005 only to be reopened as The Roosevelt in 2009.
Seventy years ago today, Sgt. E.A. Murphy wrote his sister in Maryland this very succinct note on the lovely Roosevelt postcard: “Having a very fine time and enjoying myself. Brother.”
Post by Curator Kimberly Guise.
Seventy years ago, on 10 November 1943, in New Orleans Motor Torpedo Squadron (Ron22) was commissioned in New Orleans.
http://www.nationalww2museum.org/see-hear/collections/artifacts/pt-305.html
Post by Curator Kimberly Guise.
70 years ago today, John H. Thornton wrote from New Caledonia to his sweetheart, Miss Nell Fagan in East Point, Georgia. He gently provides some very useful information to Miss Fagan regarding the composition of his eagerly-awaited Christmas package. Servicemen being scattered across the globe during WWII and the need to send packages months in advance is sometimes cited as the origin of the early Christmas shopping season.
Gift of M.A. Thornton, 2009.531.018
Thornton writes on page 2 of his letter:
“Darling, about the candy you want to send me, I would like very much to have some but I’m afraid it would ruin getting here, worms get in most of the candy that’s sent out—they were in several pieces of that you sent for my birthday so I’d hate to see things like that ruin. I hate to say don’t send it, because you might think I don’t appreciate what you are trying to do. I appreciate it more than you can ever imagine also think you are very thoughtful and it make me proud to know that a girl like you loves me. I think it’s best not to send the candy but I still want to thank you.”
Post by Curator Kimberly Guise
Gift of James Junot, Jr., 2012.582.006
On this first day of the World Series, our installment of the Worker Wednesday series adds another New Orleans production facility (and a baseball connection) into the mix. We recently received the donation of newsletters from Todd-Johnson Dry Docks Inc., an affiliate of the Todd Shipyards Corporation. Todd-Johnson’s publication was called the Todd-Johnson Keel. Todd-Johnson was a smaller operation than others in New Orleans, including Delta Shipyards and Higgins Industries. What’s the baseball connection? In this issue of the Todd-Johnson Keel, employees learn about their famous coworker, baseball great and future hall of fame right fielder Mel Ott. The native of Gretna, Louisiana, was 34 when he began work in the personnel department at Todd-Johnson for a “winter war job,” while off-season as manager of the New York Giants. Ott, a World Series champion with the Giants in 1933, was the first National League Player ever to hit over 500 home runs.
Post by Curator Kimberly Guise.
Seventy years ago today, on 6 March 1943, Norman Rockwell’s painting Freedom from Want appeared in the Saturday Evening Post. The third in his series on The Four Freedoms featured a family sitting down to a plentiful Thanksgiving meal. It would become one of Rockwell’s most popular images.
Rockwell’s Freedom from Want as seen in the Museum’s exhibition presented from September-November 2011, Roosevelt, Rockwell and the Four Freedoms: America’s Slow March from Isolation to Action.
Post by Curator Kimberly Guise
On January 7, 1943, it was a big day for Delta Shipbuilding Co. They launched the Liberty Ship, SS Leonidas Polk and received the Maritime Commission’s “M” pennant for outstanding achievement in production.
The National WWII Museum holds a unique item related to this event—the scrapbook of a six year old boy, Billy Michal. Billy and two other rural Louisiana schoolchildren were chosen to attend the launch in New Orleans as representatives of the winning schools in a statewide per-capita school scrap contest sponsored by the local newspaper. The children were all selected for the trip by their classmates. Billy’s entire one-room schoolhouse in Zimmerman, Louisiana numbered twelve children in all. The three children chosen for the trip, all traveling to New Orleans for the first time, were treated to an “inspection tour” of the city in a jeep, which included a stop at the Audubon Zoo and a luncheon at the Delta plant where they were shown how Liberty ships were constructed. Billy’s mother assembled mementos from this trip in a scrapbook, donated to the Museum by Mr. Michal in 2002.
All images: Gift of Dr. Billy Michal, 2002.479
Post by Curator Kimberly Guise.
Seventy years ago, on Thanksgiving Day, 26 November 1942, one of the most popular films of all-time, Casablanca premiered at the Hollywood Theater in New York City. Initially scheduled for release in June 1943, the premiere was hastily moved up to capitalize on publicity gained by the Allied landings in North Africa and eventual capture of Casablanca in November. The nationwide release wouldn’t be until 23 January, during the Casablanca Conference. Demonstrating the popularity and power of the film, Roosevelt’s Headquarters during the conference was referred to in code as “Rick’s Place.”
The classic film, which features a number of exiled and refugee European actors and crew, is in essence an anti-fascist propaganda piece in which Casablanca is portrayed as a waiting room for the safe haven of American shores. Casablanca exemplifies themes of romance, intrigue, internationalism, and ambiguity of character. As the 1942 trailer declares, the film is the “saga of six desperate people, each in Casablanca to keep an appointment with destiny.”
Post by Curator Kimberly Guise.
In the years 1939-1941, at the behest of President Franklin Roosevelt upon urging from retailers, Thanksgiving was celebrated a week earlier, on the third Thursday in November rather than the fourth. As a result, some referred to the earlier celebration not as Thanksgiving, but as Franksgiving. The week change was intended as an economic stimulus measure that would create a longer Christmas shopping season and increase retail in the time of the Great Depression. Some states refused the change and celebrated at the usual time, while a few states celebrated both dates.
For the first Thanksgiving during WWII, in 1942, Roosevelt returned the holiday to its traditional week. The hit 1942 film, Holiday Inn, remarked on the confusion surrounding the date of that year’s Thanksgiving—even the turkey is confused. Happy Thanksgiving!
Click here to watch the Thanksgiving scene from Holiday Inn.
Post by Curator Kimberly Guise.
After the U-boat slaughter of May 1942, a convoy system was put in place for Allied merchant vessels in the Gulf of Mexico in an attempt to bring an end to the German offensive known as Operation Paukenschlag (Drumbeat). Although the threats on Allied vessels were lessening towards the end of July 1942, U-boats were still active in the Gulf. One of at least ten U-boats still on the prowl in the summer of 1942 was U-166, under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Günther Kuhlmann. After laying mines near the mouth of the Mississippi River and sinking three American vessels (the SS Carmen, SS Oneida, and SS Gertrude on June 11th, 13th, and 16th respectively), U-166 had an encounter with American vessels seventy years ago today, on 30 July 1942, that ended in tragedy.
On 30 July 1942, the SS Robert E. Lee was en route from Trinidad to New Orleans with 270 passengers escorted by the naval vessel, PC-566. Near Tampa, the captain tried to bring the ship into harbor, but was forced to continue on to New Orleans because of the lack of a harbor pilot. The Robert E. Lee was carrying additional passengers, survivors of U-boat attacks on the Norwegian motor tanker, Andrea Brøvig and the Panamanian steam tanker, Stanvac Palembang. Only twenty-five miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River, the Robert E. Lee was hit by a single torpedo from U-166. Most of the passengers were able to squeeze onto the sixteen life rafts and six lifeboats. As the ship went down, Kuhlmann surfaced U-166 and shouted to the survivors, apologizing and wishing them luck (a practice that had been seen before). As the U-166 dove under the surface, PC-566 dropped depth charges, in hopes of hitting the U-boat. Ten crewmen and 15 passengers were lost aboard the SS Robert E. Lee. One of the crew killed aboard the Robert E. Lee was a female mariner from New Orleans, Winifred Grey.
Although it was not immediately clear if U-166 had been hit by the depth charges, indeed the retaliatory attack by PC-566 was successful; U-166 was lost, resulting in the deaths of all 52 members of the submarine crew. The location of the wreckage of the Robert E. Lee had long been identified, close to the site of the U-boat attack, 45 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi. But it wasn’t until 2001 that BP and Shell discovered the wreckage of the U-166, close to that of the Robert E. Lee. After the vessel was located, a film crew documenting the discovery of the U-boat learned from Kuhlmann’s widow of the existence of a large collection of images from Kuhlmann’s service. She subsequently donated this material to The National WWII Museum through the PAST Foundation. More information can be found here. A selection from the material gifted by Kuhlmann’s widow can be seen below. It provides a rare and fascinating glimpse into the private life of an often demonized enemy.
Post by Curator Kimberly Guise.
The National WWII Museum tells the story of the American Experience in the war that changed the world - why it was fought, how it was won, and what it means today - so that all generations will understand the price of freedom and be inspired by what they learn.
945 Magazine Street New Orleans, LA 70130, Entrance on Andrew Higgins Drive
PHONE: (504) 528-1944 - EMAIL: info@nationalww2museum.org | Directions
The National WWII Museum Blog is proudly powered by WordPress 4.1.40 Entries (RSS) Comments (RSS).