1940

Welcome to Retroville! It's 1940!

IN THE NEWS:

• Hitler invades Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France
• Hitler invades Luxembourg
• Churchill becomes British Prime Minister
• Trotsky is assassinated in Mexico
• Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania annexed by U.S.S.R.
• U.S. trades 50 destroyers to Britain for leases on British bases in the Western Hemisphere
• First official network television broadcast by NBC

ON THE RADIO:

• Abbott and Costello
• Amos and Andy
• Author's Playhouse
• Avengers
• Bing Crosby Show
• Blue Beetle
• Bob Hope Show
• Burns and Allen

ON TELEVISION:

• News and weather information
• Republican National Convention televised from Philadelphia

FADS & FASHION:

• Seamed silk stockings
• Mid-calf dresses with full skirts
• 25-cent movie matinees

WHAT THINGS COST:

• Car: $800
• Gasoline: 18 cents per gallon
• House: $6,550
• Bread: 8 cents per loaf
• Milk: 34 cents per gallon
• Postage Stamp: 3 cents
• Average Annual Salary: $1,900
• Minimum Wage: 30 cents per hour

ACADEMY AWARD - BEST PICTURE:

• Rebecca - a romantic thriller by Alfred Hitchcock starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine

TONY AWARD - BEST MUSICAL:

• The Tony Awards begin in 1947 (look ahead to 1949 to see the first winner)

PULITZER PRIZES:

• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (novel)
• The Time of Your Life by William Saroyan (drama)
• Abraham Lincoln: The War Years by Carl Sandberg (history)
• Woodrow Wilson Life and Letters by Ray Stannard Baker (biography)
• Collected Poems by Mark Van Doren (poetry)

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE:

• none awarded

TOP SONGS:

• When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano by the Ink Spots
• I'll Never Smile Again by Tommy Dorsey
• Body and Soul by Coleman Hawkins
• Tuxedo Junction by Glenn Miller