December 1941

by Craig Shirley

  For American amateur and professional painters, it was another scene. Because so many of their canvases and brushes were imported from Ireland, Belgium, and Russia (there, brushes were made from Russian squirrels) they faced a shortage, and because so many of their paints contained precious metals such as zinc and cadmium—rare earth metals possibly needed for the war effort—they faced a possible confiscation of the metals by the government. “Manhattan’s American Artists’ Professional League recently petitioned Washington for cooperation in keeping artists supplied with their annual ration of paint (about a gallon apiece.)”44

  America’s parents and educators worried about the low reading proficiency of pupils. There were “16,000,000 illiterates in the United States—they cannot read beyond the fourth grade reading level.” Of all places, Harvard found that incoming freshmen had low reading acumen, and the school was forced to “start a course in reading fundamentals.” Professor Reed Smith, sixty, of the University of South Carolina thought he knew the problem. “The old principle . . . that you can’t sharpen an ax on a velvet grindstone has given place to the view that if the pupils don’t like it, they shouldn’t be required to do it . . . the underlying assumption seems to be . . . that students will write clearly and correctly by some sort of blessed intuition if only the teacher does not depress them with such inconvenient and unprofitable matters as spelling, paragraphing, punctuation, sentence structure, grammar and the choice and order of words.”45

  On American campuses, there was growing agitation for war with Germany. At the University of Chicago, Professor Bernadette Schmitt said that “western civilization would not be safe until the German people were crushed on their own soil.” She made her comments at the twenty-first annual meeting of the National Council for the Social Studies, gathering in Indianapolis.46

  FDR had passed through Atlanta on his way to Warm Springs, but did not get off the train, though he did have his window open so he could be seen. On the way back to Washington, the curtains to his private car were closed. Had he stayed there, he might have tuned in to WGST to hear Aunt Hattie or Man I Married. The station was turned on at 6:00 a.m. and turned off at midnight. On 750AM, WSB, he might have heard the Dixie Farm Hour, or later, the soap opera Guiding Light, or later still, Fred Waring, a popular band leader. Like WGST, the station WSB also came on at 6:00 a.m. and “signed off” at midnight.47

  One region where the economy—at least for the “nobility” there—was doing well was Hollywood. It was raking in millions each week, mostly for the top four studios: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros. Fifty-four actors made over $100,000 per year, but 50 percent of all the actors there had never made more than $10,500 per year. Indeed, the average annual income for over seven thousand extras “was $350.00.”

  Two-thirds of the producers in Hollywood made over $150,000, including the shy and retiring Orson Welles, for whom it was said, “There but for the grace of God, goes God.” The “colony” was described as “nouveau riche, thriving . . . lacks lineage and decorum” whose power players “came from vaudeville, flea circuses, petty trade, other shabby zones of enterprise.”48 Hollywood did have to make some concessions to the world situation, including canceling the banquet at which the 1942 Academy Awards would be presented. Also, Los Angeles proclaimed “Medical Aid to Russia” day to raise money for Mother Russia and “Uncle Joe” Stalin.49

  Welles’s Citizen Kane’s release was bitterly fought by the subject of the movie, William Randolph Hearst, and many movie houses in America did not show it for months—or show it at all. Hearst controlled a vast media empire and with it, enormous power. Deeply offended by Orson Welles’s critical portrait of him, Hearst even made a brazen offer to the movie studio that produced the film, RKO: he would buy the film from RKO, at a price that guaranteed a small profit, if in return he had the right to destroy the print. Thankfully, RKO turned him down, and the movie that is consistently voted by critics as the Best American Film Ever Made lived on for posterity, to be endlessly explicated by intellectuals and studied in film class ever after.

  Citizen Kane debuted—“long-awaited” and “Nothing Censored!” said the Birmingham News—at the Empire theater in Birmingham, Alabama, yet a local column panned not the movie but Welles himself, comparing him to Hitler. “Certainly he has applied almost Hitlerian policies in his approach to fame.”50 Admission was 30 cents. Another racy movie airing was Honky Tonk, starring Lana Turner and Clark Gable.

  The power of movies in 1941 could not be underestimated. They enthralled all in America, were affordable, and theaters across the country were often the hub of social activity for families, boys and girls, children, social clubs, and fan clubs. One of the biggest stars of the era, Gable, took off his shirt in the movie It Happened One Night to reveal his bare and masculine chest. Unlike most men in America, he did not wear a T-shirt and as a result, T-shirt sales dropped 40 to 50 percent in one year. The power of movies was such that Pope Pius XI devoted “a special papal encyclical to it.” When classic novels such as David Copperfield and Wuthering Heights were made into movies, copies of the books flew off the shelves at public libraries and bookstores.51

  Hitler remained a fascinating (if also feared, loathed, and later hated figure) for many Americans, and one of the most popular books of the time was Total Espionage, published by Putnam. The book detailed the rise of the Third Reich and the men behind it and especially about how they had perfected the art of spying and intelligence gathering.52 But Americans were also reading novels such as Grim Grow the Lilacs, Forty Whacks, and Prescription for Murder.53

  News reports said the British had mounted a counteroffensive using American-made army tanks against the Germans in North Africa and that Russia was pushing back the German advance on Moscow, aided by the harsh Russian winter, just as it had aided Russia once before against Napoleon. But many of the news reports of Russian successes came from the Soviets own state-controlled news agencies including the Soviet Information Bureau, so it was difficult to know fact from fiction.

  Double-talk from the Russians was the rule, rather than the exception. As they were claiming their hold on the port city of Rostov; it was reported that German troops had secured the town. The Russians had evacuated because of “unnecessary losses,” but the Germans had taken “more favorable positions to meet the Russian assaults.”54 Of course, when it came to disinformation, the Germans were no pikers, and they matched the Russians lie for lie in describing the Russian Front. A spokesman claimed German troops could see Moscow “with the aid of good field glasses.”55 All in all, reports from the winter battle were a mishmash of lies, distortions, half-truths, and prevarications. It was clear, though, that both sides had suffered horrific losses of men, many simply due to the bitterly cold weather, especially the Germans, who were underprepared for the Russian winter.

  The battle could be heard in London, live, via radio. “The guns never cease. . . . The battle is fierce. The Germans are continually throwing in new troops,” said an announcer on the scene.56

  Meanwhile Roosevelt spoke before the State Chairmen of Birthday Ball Committees, who were planning festive celebrations in each state for FDR’s birthday in January, when he would turn sixty on the 30th.57

  The birthday was celebrated in part to raise money for the March of Dimes, whose purpose was to cure infantile paralysis, and while nobody mentioned the president’s affliction, many knew about it.

  At home the debate continued over the America First Committee and its stances. Most of the debate focused on their high profile members, especially Charles Lindbergh, but the membership also included former president Herbert Hoover, retired gen. Robert E. Wood, and 1936 GOP nominee Alf Landon, as well as Norman Thomas, a nationally known leader of socialism in America. Other prominent members included Walt Disney, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, and famed writers and liberals Sinclair Lewis and E. E. Cummings.

  The GOP’s 1940 nominee, Wendell Willkie, was a vicious opponent of the “Firsters.” O
nly formed one year earlier, the organization had gained national prominence because if its mission and the people involved. Wood was a highly decorated veteran of the Great War and by 1941 was the chairman of the Sears & Roebuck Co.

  The East and West Coast papers were generally more internationalist, while the periodicals down the center of the country generally opposed any U.S. involvement in the European war. As a result, America First was more popular in middle and rural America, less so in the metropolises of New York, Washington, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

  The America Firsters announced their intention to have as much influence over the 1942 off-year elections as possible by supporting candidates who “have kept faith with the people’s mandate to avoid participation in the war.” They would support any Republican or Democrat who opposed entry into the European war.58

  If Henry Luce’s Life and Time magazines could be reasonably described as pro-FDR and pro-intervention, the weekly magazine Look was a downright “pap” sheet for FDR, the Democrats, and the New Deal while ripping Republicans and anybody who stood in the way of the sophisticates of Washington and New York.

  As with the Luce publications, nary a woman was found in the masthead of Look magazine, though women were often the most enthusiastic readers. The magazine was loaded with ads for Ipana Tooth Paste, Kleenex, Sal Hepatica (yet another laxative), movies such as The Men in Her Life starring Loretta Young, Listerine Tooth Paste, General Electric clocks, Chevrolet trucks (with the “Load-Master” engine), Colgate Dental Crème (“Scientific tests prove conclusively that in 7 out of 10 cases, Colgate Dental Crème instantly stops oral bad breath.”)59 Zenith radios, Pond’s Vanishing Cream, Sanka Coffee, Ovaltine, General Electric vacuum cleaners, the U.S. Army Recruiting Service, and of course, cigarettes. Chesterfield cigarettes featured the beautiful actress Maureen O’Hara pitching them in the obliging carton size, which displayed photos of handsome young men in navy and army uniforms. The copy helpfully suggested, “[D]on’t forget to mail them to the boys in the Service.”60 She was also found in the newspapers hawking Lux soap.61

  One feature story in Look magazine was written by a “friendly critic of the New Deal” who nudged Roosevelt for not doing more to ramp up Americans’ fears to help push them into the war as soon as possible.62 Another was a profile of the many “dollar a year men” who had gone to Washington to man the New Deal. A survey was made, and some “288 Men, 1 Woman” were listed in the “dollar-a-year class.”63 Having made millions in other lines of work, they now stepped forward to “donate” their administrative and leadership skills to help Roosevelt implement the New Deal. This article was about Floyd Odlum, who’d made millions on Wall Street, cashing out before the crash in 1929. He made his fortune by “pyramiding.” The article said he cashed out because he’d been “expecting a crash.”64

  The ubiquitous celebrity story, this time covering the “Café Society” of New York socialites, appeared in Look with plenty of pictures of both the hoity-toity and the hoi polloi. Radio personalities such as Bob Hope and Jack Benny, showgirls such as Patricia Lee, gossip columnists, publicists, debutantes, leftist columnist Walter Winchell, Betty Grable, and actor George Raft all made appearances in the fawning story.65 It was harmless, but far more dangerous was an article that could only be labeled as propaganda, disinformation, and half-truths.

  Under the appalling headline “Meet the Men and Women of Russia Whom Hitler Will Never Enslave,” the article mentioned not one of the purges of the 1930s in which “Uncle Joe” Stalin put millions to death. It contained some of the most dreadful lies ever to appear in an American publication. “Russians Don’t Like Slavery,” said one subheading. The article claimed instead, “Only two decades ago they fought one of the bloodiest civil wars in history to free themselves from slavery to the Czar. They have not grown so used to the joys and dignities of freedom as to surrender them with apathy.” And, “There are only 2,000,000 Communists in Russia.” And, “These are people who have been living in a new world—suddenly given . . . a voice in their government.”66 It was atrocious.

  Another article berated conservatives in England, containing one self-serving and arrogant quote after another attacking the conservatives, but never with attribution. The “article” was clearly made up out of whole cloth by Samuel Spewack, a dramatist.67 He and his wife, Bella, were successful as Hollywood playwrights, but their politics were hopelessly leftist.

  More disinformation was forthcoming from Look when they did a long feature on how women now preferred cotton stockings to silk stockings. Because of the war effort, silk was in short supply. Silk was needed for parachutes and was regulated by the Supply Priorities and Allocations Board.68 Cotton stockings were being churned out by experimental mills with the Department of Agriculture. To buttress the point of the article, actresses Rita Hayworth, Ann Sheridan, Dorothy Lamour, and Linda Darnell sported their “gams” in the hideous cotton covering for the benefit of photographers. Of course, these women’s legs were so beautiful, they could have been wearing cow hides and their legs still would have looked gorgeous. Unfortunately, also showing his legs for the article was Vice President Henry Wallace, who should have worn cow hide for the photograph.

  In Washington, the chairman of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Martin Dies of Texas, a Democrat, charged that “Communists and Criminals” had infiltrated the leadership of the American labor movement, specifically the Congress of Industrial Organizations, the principal umbrella group for organized labor.69 The labor movement and the Roosevelt administration hated Dies. But railroad workers at the last minute gained huge concessions from the railroad companies, courtesy of a “compromise” hammered out by the government. The strike that had been set for December 7 was averted.

  However, the army did discover a plot involving at least eighteen members of the Socialist Workers Party who were conspiring “to create insubordination in the armed forces of the Government.” They were convicted in a trial in Minneapolis and faced up to ten years in prison. These were the first ever “convictions under the Smith amendment to the Sedition Act of 1861,”70 which made it against the law to advocate overthrowing the government.

  In the Mediterranean, the British government announced it had sunk three Italian naval ships headed for Libya where the Axis powers were fighting a furious tank battle with the British. The British ships suffered no damage or casualties in the battle.71 Still, the Germans won a major victory in North Africa by cutting through British forces and “joining their two panzer divisions,” and in the process the Brits were compelled to retreat from Rezegh and Bir El Hamed. The British forces, as a result of the maneuver, were encircled, with their backs to the sea. “A British spokesman . . . said the joining of the 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions had not in any way impaired British confidence.” He said, “It could be termed a local German success.”72 The Germans accomplished this even as two Italian tank divisions fled the fight. Hitler’s favorite general, Erwin Rommel, had engineered the counteroffensive. An embedded American journalist with the Boston Globe traveled for ten days with the British forces in Libya, noting that he had to get by on only two cups of tea per day, like everybody else, but “no other liquid.”73 The journalist Matthew Halton captured well the dangers and deprivations of war in the desert. It was not pretty or desirable. Roosevelt had already received several worried memos from the British ambassador Lord Halifax—Edward Wood—apprising him on the bleak situation in North Africa.74

  With British forces spread across the world, Winston Churchill proposed an expanded draft of civilian men. Now, men from the ages of “181/2 to 50” would be drafted for military service, but the British government hinted that men as old as sixty might soon be drafted. Previously, the draft had been of men from nineteen to forty-one years of age. The prime minister called it a “crisis of man power and woman power.” The plan was also to draft unmarried women between the ages of twenty and thirty. The prime minister, what’s more, warned of a possible invasion by the
Nazis.75

  On December 2, much of the public concern of the afternoon before over war with Japan had waned a bit. Maybe cooler heads were thinking. But some in Washington were mulling over the explosive statement by the Japanese: “The United States does not understand the real situation in East Asia. It is trying to forcibly apply to East Asiatic countries fantastic principles and rules not adapted to the actual situation in the world and thereby tending to obstruct the construction of the New Order. This is extremely regrettable.”76

  Franklin Roosevelt “politely asked” the Japanese government for an explanation on its intentions in Southeast Asia, specifically on new troop movements into Indochina and whether this was a prelude to an invasion of Thailand.77 There were also reports that the Japanese army was practicing drills using parachutes in Kwangtung.78 Furthermore, Japan was seizing private ships to use for their navy, and there were worries that if they seized Thailand, Japan could cut of the trade routes to the Indian Ocean.79

  FDR’s request was given to the Japanese consulate in Washington via Undersecretary of State Sumner Wells, who was filling in for Cordell Hull, whom the New York Times said was “indisposed.”80 As Wells entered the room for their thirty-five-minute meeting, Ambassador Nomura blurted out, “Nobody wants war.” Wells later told reporters he could not disclose anything that had been discussed, but Nomura did. He said he told Wells, “War would not settle the issues anyway. Issues that cannot be settled by diplomacy cannot be settled by war.”81 Yet a huge chasm divided the two countries, and not just over their policies of talking to reporters. Some speculated that FDR was about to take control of the negotiations, personally.82 The meeting with Wells was inconclusive, as they had not yet answered the president’s question. But the Washington Post reported that FDR “assumed direct command of diplomatic and military moves relating to Japan and the lights of peace flickered low in the Orient.”83 “Mr. Roosevelt recalled that this Government had been somewhat surprised in June when Japan had sent troops into Indo-China, while discussions were going on here in an effort to reach an understanding for a permanent peace in the Pacific area.”84 As of December, the Japanese already had amassed a huge army, navy, and air force in the region, but was still adding to it. Roosevelt met with Henry Stimson, his secretary of war, and Frank Knox, the secretary of the navy. In a separate meeting, he met with Adm. Harold Stark, the chief of Naval Operations, and Hull in the second floor oval study of the private residence in the White House at noon, to discuss yet again the situation in Thailand. These meetings had not previously been disclosed to the press, with whom he met at 4:00 p.m.85