Period of Adjustment: Autumn 1946
- Episode aired Apr 23, 1987
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Our World: Period of Adjustment: Fall 1946
Adjustment was the name of the game in the autumn of 1946. At the end of World War II there were about 12 million members in the Armed Forces, but a year later in 1946 about ten million were civilians again. For them, the first period of adjustment was from entering the military, and the second adjustment was becoming a civilian again. William Wyler's film "Best Year Of Our Lives" dealt with the realism of three veterans returning home and returning to civilian life. Dana Andrews played an Air Force veteran who had gotten married before his leaving and returned home to a wife who felt cheated because of his absence. Frederick March was an army Sergeant who came home to work in a bank. There was a difficult kind of adjustment for Harold Russell, who was a double amputee. Russell was not an actor who played a sailor who lost his hands. Russell was a soldier who lost his hands in an accident in North Carolina on D-Day. The army made a training film about Russell and his learning to use his "hooks". He said nothing in the film. The film "Best Years" won eight academy awards, and Russell won an award for best supporting actor.
Once back home, 800 thousand vets enrolled in college on the G.I. Bill. Enrollment at Indiana Universidy doubled in one year. Frank Jones, a sophomore at the time, and his wife recount the makeshift living conditions and financial difficulties of a young couple with a small child going to school on the G.I. Bill. Single G.I.'s got $65 a month, married G.I.'s got $90 a month, and they received free tuition.
Getting adjusted to peacetime took the women out of the factories and returned them to the home to become housewives and homemakers as the vets replaced them. Binay Venuta, a singer/actress at the Stork Club, noted that the music was live and people danced. "It was a gentler time," she said. She described the women as dressing nicely, wearing hats and gloves. Jeans were a rarity unless on the farm.
War brought inflation, then price controls which caused shortages. The black market made meat available. Butchers would put meat into a bag for a customer who didn't ask questions. If the person asked too many questions, no meat would be available to them. When the controls were lifted, prices skyrocketed.
At White Sand Proving Ground in New Mexico, German scientists were building V-2 rockets from parts brought back from Germany at the end of the war. They had enough parts to build 100 rockets. Konrad Dannenburg and the others recognized that the rockets could be very useful machines without a bomb at the top. It would allow the study of the upper atmosphere as well as a possible means of transportation and exploration. James Fagan recalled that the scientists only got off base if chaperoned and for science. Otherwise their activities were generally to walk in the desert, drink beer, or launch rockets. He said that there was not official countdown back then, just a "Hey, Albert! Is that thing ready to go?" In October, the St. Louis Cardinals made an adjustment to the Boston Athletics in Game Seven of the World Series. Enos Slaughter got on first with a single. Harry Walker hit a ball to left center, and the ball was thrown to Jerry Pesky. When Pesky got the ball, he looked to see where Slaughter was, and in doing so, he didn't get enough drive on the throw to home and Slaughter scored.
In politics, Richard Nixon and John Kennedy were both running for Congress, and Joe McCarthy was running for the senate. Being a vet seemed to be a plus for a candidate, but Nixon chose not to use that fact because he said that there were more enlisted men than officers, so a better chance. Nixon exploited his opponent Jerry Voorhis endorsement by a PAC. It was not a PAC of the C.I.O., which was thought to have communist influences, but only a citizen's PAC. McCarthy was known as "tailgunner Joe" and had a photo of himself in an pilot's seat wearing a flight suit, but he only had a desk job.
In Europe the Nuremburg Trials were held, the first war crimes trials in history. Seven men were convicted, three were acquitted, and eleven were sentenced to hang. Joseph Kingsbury-Smith of the International News Service was the only American to cover the trial. He was allowed to visit the prison the night before the hangings and saw Hermann Georing lying on the bed reading. Goering was found dead an hour later from an overdose of cyanide. Kingsbury-Smith is shown in a film clip reading is report of the hanging. In an interview, he said that Julius Striker was the only one who groaned when he was hanged. He later asked the G.I. Sergeant in charge why this was so. The reply was, "It is simple. I strangled the bastard." Kingsbury-Smith went on to say that if the noose is put to the side of the neck rather than at the back of the neck, the person strangles.
Also: The hit song was "Ole Buttermilk Sky" by Hoagy Carmichael. The first network TV soap opera was "Faraway Hill" on the Dumont Network. The box office hit was "Notorious" by Alfred Hitchcock. Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh" premiered on Broadway,and "Animal Farm" by Geroge Orwell was the best selling book. Britain's biggest troop ship became the biggest luxury liner went he Queen Mary sailed to New York. Eversharp sold a retractable ball point pen for $25 and a 14 carat gold model for $100. Phillip Morris advertised a cigarette which was pasteurized for purity. The U.N. General Assembly met for the first time in New York. General Vinegar Joe Stillwell, former Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot, and race car driver Barney Oldfield died.
Once back home, 800 thousand vets enrolled in college on the G.I. Bill. Enrollment at Indiana Universidy doubled in one year. Frank Jones, a sophomore at the time, and his wife recount the makeshift living conditions and financial difficulties of a young couple with a small child going to school on the G.I. Bill. Single G.I.'s got $65 a month, married G.I.'s got $90 a month, and they received free tuition.
Getting adjusted to peacetime took the women out of the factories and returned them to the home to become housewives and homemakers as the vets replaced them. Binay Venuta, a singer/actress at the Stork Club, noted that the music was live and people danced. "It was a gentler time," she said. She described the women as dressing nicely, wearing hats and gloves. Jeans were a rarity unless on the farm.
War brought inflation, then price controls which caused shortages. The black market made meat available. Butchers would put meat into a bag for a customer who didn't ask questions. If the person asked too many questions, no meat would be available to them. When the controls were lifted, prices skyrocketed.
At White Sand Proving Ground in New Mexico, German scientists were building V-2 rockets from parts brought back from Germany at the end of the war. They had enough parts to build 100 rockets. Konrad Dannenburg and the others recognized that the rockets could be very useful machines without a bomb at the top. It would allow the study of the upper atmosphere as well as a possible means of transportation and exploration. James Fagan recalled that the scientists only got off base if chaperoned and for science. Otherwise their activities were generally to walk in the desert, drink beer, or launch rockets. He said that there was not official countdown back then, just a "Hey, Albert! Is that thing ready to go?" In October, the St. Louis Cardinals made an adjustment to the Boston Athletics in Game Seven of the World Series. Enos Slaughter got on first with a single. Harry Walker hit a ball to left center, and the ball was thrown to Jerry Pesky. When Pesky got the ball, he looked to see where Slaughter was, and in doing so, he didn't get enough drive on the throw to home and Slaughter scored.
In politics, Richard Nixon and John Kennedy were both running for Congress, and Joe McCarthy was running for the senate. Being a vet seemed to be a plus for a candidate, but Nixon chose not to use that fact because he said that there were more enlisted men than officers, so a better chance. Nixon exploited his opponent Jerry Voorhis endorsement by a PAC. It was not a PAC of the C.I.O., which was thought to have communist influences, but only a citizen's PAC. McCarthy was known as "tailgunner Joe" and had a photo of himself in an pilot's seat wearing a flight suit, but he only had a desk job.
In Europe the Nuremburg Trials were held, the first war crimes trials in history. Seven men were convicted, three were acquitted, and eleven were sentenced to hang. Joseph Kingsbury-Smith of the International News Service was the only American to cover the trial. He was allowed to visit the prison the night before the hangings and saw Hermann Georing lying on the bed reading. Goering was found dead an hour later from an overdose of cyanide. Kingsbury-Smith is shown in a film clip reading is report of the hanging. In an interview, he said that Julius Striker was the only one who groaned when he was hanged. He later asked the G.I. Sergeant in charge why this was so. The reply was, "It is simple. I strangled the bastard." Kingsbury-Smith went on to say that if the noose is put to the side of the neck rather than at the back of the neck, the person strangles.
Also: The hit song was "Ole Buttermilk Sky" by Hoagy Carmichael. The first network TV soap opera was "Faraway Hill" on the Dumont Network. The box office hit was "Notorious" by Alfred Hitchcock. Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh" premiered on Broadway,and "Animal Farm" by Geroge Orwell was the best selling book. Britain's biggest troop ship became the biggest luxury liner went he Queen Mary sailed to New York. Eversharp sold a retractable ball point pen for $25 and a 14 carat gold model for $100. Phillip Morris advertised a cigarette which was pasteurized for purity. The U.N. General Assembly met for the first time in New York. General Vinegar Joe Stillwell, former Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot, and race car driver Barney Oldfield died.
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