WWII Period Piece advice?

[Darla_Darling]

.....

 

[Weird Harold]

I'm over sixty, so I have no direct knowledge of that time frame, either -- plus I'm from the west coast which was and is an entirely different cultural standard.

If I was looking for strict period realism, I'd start with an internet search for diaries and social commentary books from that time period.

A lot of what I know about pop culture and slang from that period, I learned from Bugs Bunny. The cartoons from that period poked fun at and used period slang that didn't make it into the big budget hollywood movies of the same period.

If you can track them down on the internet, newspaper comics made humor out of everyday events; newspapers and magazines of the day are good sources as well. Since you're looking at writing about the life of a prositute, see what you can find of pulp magazines like "True Crime"and other similar popular magazines.

http://www.pulpinternational.com/pulp/keyword/true+crime+magazine.html has some examples of the kind of magazines you'd want -- they were popular from the 20's into the 60's and the 40's and 50's versions my uncle kept hidden in the attic bordered on pornography to an impressionable -- and nosy -- young bookworm.

Film noir movies from that time frame will help with the technology and some of the slang acceptable in mixed company as will pulp detective novels like Sam spade and his ilk.

 

[favoritesgoddess]

If you can find magazines from the era, that would be a good resource. I used to have a bunch of WWII Life magazines that my mother found at an auction. You spend a day with those and you start to feel a little like you've gone back in time. I thought the ads really tapped into the popular slang, much like they do today.

For real life reference, you could ask older folks other than grandma. Check with the VFW or retirement communities. See if anyone is willing to be interviewed about what life in the 40's was like. They don't really need to know what kind of a story, really. Grandma might ask a lot of questions. Strangers, probably not.

Plus, I bet the people that lived it who are now in their 80's and 90's would be happy to talk about their lives. You would have living history to pass on someday. And sometimes you find that their distant past is more vivid to them than their recent past.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Read some Raymond Chandler or Erle Stanley Gardner or maybe William Styron.

 

[Weird Harold]

If you can find magazines from the era, that would be a good resource. I used to have a bunch of WWII Life magazines...

Saturday Evening Post and Reader's Digest were both in newstands throughout the 40's (and before and after the 40's, too) I'm not sure when Better Homes and Gardens and similar magazines for "homemakers" appeared, but at least the post-war 40's were definitely included.

The Post would be an excellent resource because it featured short contemporary fiction in addition to non-fiction articles.

Reader's Digest -- at least for as long as I've known it -- has included a lot of human interest filler bits; humorous and inspirational shorts about a paragraph or two long. Some of them, like "Humor In Uniform" have been running almost as long as the magazine has been in existance.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

My guess is she dont wanna do the work.

 

[oggbashan]

Early 40's?

I would think that there would have been significant differences for 1940 and 1941 up to Pearl Harbor, and from then to the defeat of Japan.

My view from this side of the Atlantic - the major events affecting the East Coast of the US in the 1940s are the U-Boat campaign 'Happy Time' when German U-Boats could attack US coastal shipping silhouetted against the shoreline lights, followed by a blackout which would make a prostitute's life more difficult; the massive ship-building of Liberty ships and warships; and the preparations for the invasions of North Africa and France.

All three events would have been likely to impact on the life of a 'working girl' as torpedoed sailors were brought ashore, as men began to have more disposable money, and from the transient population of troops heading East.

Og

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I would go rent the "Summer of '42".

During his summer vacation on Nantucket Island in 1942, a youth eagerly awaiting his first sexual encounter finds himself developing a contradictorily innocent love for a young woman awaiting news on her soldier husband's fate in WWII.

It may give you a hint of how things were back then on the east coast.

 

[estragon]

World War II

Newspaper files from the locale you're writing about. Magazines, esp. Sat Eve Post and Life. If you want some feeling about what the GIs were going through, Ernie Pyle.

 

[Darla_Darling]

.....

 

[xssve]

You really want to know, head down the senior citizens center, and start listening.

1940 was 70 years ago now, so I'd start with the octogenarians.

 

[Darla_Darling]

.....

 

[Edward Teach]

Some things I recall my parents telling me that you may want to research:

Most food staples, butter, sugar, flour, etc. were rationed. Ration coupons were issued.
New cars were not available to the public.
Tires and rubber were scarce.
Things made with green dye were scarce. Lucky Strike Cigarettes changed the color of their packs from green and red to white and red, for example.
Everyone was encouraged to buy “War Bonds.” Bonds issued by the US Government to finance the war.
The east coast had periodic practice “blackouts,” where the citizenry would turn off their lights at night in anticipation of enemy air attacks.
Women went to work in large numbers as factory laborers.
Changes were made to the work week to accommodate the influx of women. I think the morning and afternoon “coffee break” was one such innovation.
German submarines patroled the east coast and sunk ships.

 

[Darla_Darling]

If you can find magazines from the era, that would be a good resource. I used to have a bunch of WWII Life magazines that my mother found at an auction. You spend a day with those and you start to feel a little like you've gone back in time. I thought the ads really tapped into the popular slang, much like they do today.

For real life reference, you could ask older folks other than grandma. Check with the VFW or retirement communities. See if anyone is willing to be interviewed about what life in the 40's was like. They don't really need to know what kind of a story, really. Grandma might ask a lot of questions. Strangers, probably not.

Plus, I bet the people that lived it who are now in their 80's and 90's would be happy to talk about their lives. You would have living history to pass on someday. And sometimes you find that their distant past is more vivid to them than their recent past.

Of course, this is always the best kind of primary resource - straight from the mouths of the people who lived it.

I'm not sure if I'm ready for that kind of commitment, though! I mean, hours of library research I'm fine with, but to approach people who lived through the time seems kind of scary and exploitative for the purposes of a short smut story.

If I was writing a novel, sure, I'd do that, but for now, I'm just going to stick with reading letters & diaries for my primary sources.

 

[Darla_Darling]

.....

 

[Weird Harold]

Thanks, WH. I'm looking at the Pulp International website now. I'm looking forward to exploring it more. It seems like an excellent resource.

I didn't even think of Bugs Bunny! Good old Loony Tunes.

There are probably online archives of other ephemeral sources; I didn't go looking for Reader's Digest or Saturday Evening Post archives, for example, but it would be seriously surprised if there were at least incomplete archives online somewhere.

Another resource is Project Gutenburg and other archival projects; For example, I am having a lot of fun re-reading the original Tom Swift series and being immersed in pre-WWI Americana (with a sci-fi/steampunk touch.)

The early Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books were written and set in the time frame you're looking for. It would be best for your purposes to find unexpurgated, pre-1959 editions that haven't been revised to eliminate racial stereotypes and other "outmoded ideas." The revised versions essentially attempted moved the stories "into modern times" so some of the slang and background detail would be wrong.

The original Boxcar Children series was reissued and updated in 1942, but the series was still available at Barnes & Noble the last time I wandered into the "early reader"/young adult section.

Only the first 19 stories were written by creator Warner. Other books in the series have been written by other writers, but always feature the byline "Created by Gertrude Chandler Warner". The recent books in the series are set in the present day, whereas the original books were set in the 1940s and 1950s.

The Bobbsey Twins juvenile mystery series also spans the 40's, but also has the problem of being rewritten in the early 60's so you'd need to find the unexpurgated versions. If you can find the right versions, the Bobbsey Twins series evolved into almost a travelogue for children with well researched details of real places -- although mostly later than you need when they were the most accurate.

Project Gutenberg apparently does have some of the Bobbsey Twins, FWIW.

 

[amicus]

Depending upon how much mood and background you want, Oggbashan's & Edward Teach's suggestions are excellent....but...if accuracy is a factor, then the date of the 'Happy Days' of the Uboats in the Gulf and off the East Coast, the date of Pearl Harbor and when the first blackouts and rationing began in America....well, hell, not one in a million readers would be aware anyways...

good luck on your story....


amicus

 

[Boxlicker101]

Read some Raymond Chandler or Erle Stanley Gardner or maybe William Styron.

Mickey Spillane also. Some of us were around back then, but very young, so we wouldn't have many memories of the time.

 

[ishtat]

History research.

Don't take the slightest notice of anything a very elderly person tells you...unless you can verify it independently from contemporaneous accounts. Elderly people are like us, they remember the most interesting bits, they enhance their own role, the story 'improves' over time.

If you must interview old people never ever interview them as a group. They will compete to tell the best story and tend to out- exagerate each other.

If you feel you must ask such people questions ensure that you already know the answer to at least 75% of the questions. You may be surprised at how often they make errors. Then go back a month later and see if you get the same answer to the same questions.

Oral history without documentary backup is an oxymoron.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I would go rent the "Summer of '42".



It may give you a hint of how things were back then on the east coast.

SUMMER OF 42 is NOT appropriate for LIT. Its pedophilia.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Mickey Spillane also. Some of us were around back then, but very young, so we wouldn't have many memories of the time.

Yes! Spillane!

Truman Capote wrote memoirs of those times, too, though he was too young to experience the war.

James Agee's LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN is good.

My old man enlisted at 13 years old, and was 15 when the war ended. He fought in the Philippines. I imagine its impossible for modern Americans to imagine the attitudes of the Old Timers to be part of that crusade.

GOOD BYE DARKNESS by William Manchester is a must.

 

[colddiesel]

My old man enlisted at 13 years old, and was 15 when the war ended.

So he was about 6 when you were born!

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

So he was about 6 when you were born!

He was 6 about the time your old man showed up for the war in a dress.