Category: Learn History Through Fiction

The 1950s were a seminal era for Rock ‘n Roll. Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed, who popularized term, debuted his radio show in 1951. Bill Haley and the Comets released “Rock Around the Clock” in 1954; it became a hit the following year. Elvis Presley scored a hit with “Jailhouse Rock” in 1957. Other recording artists of the 1950s: The Everly Brothers, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Fats Domino. Read more about music history in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

Margaret Hamilton, who played the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 Hollywood classic The Wizard of Oz, said that whenever she appeared at children’s events they always asked her to laugh like the witch. Her line, “I’ll get you, my pretty . . . and your little dog, too!” was ranked 99th in the 2005 American Film Institute survey of the most memorable movie quotes. Her son said his mother enjoyed the line so much, she used it in her real life too. Read more about the movie and Margaret Hamilton in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

Andy Warhol had a sweet tooth. His favorite place to satisfy it was Serendipity 3, an antique-filled café on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where his indulgence of choice was Frrrozen Hot Chocolate. The sweet confection was made of 14 different kinds of chocolate melted and blended with ice, topped with whipped cream and chocolate curls, and served with a straw in a footed cut-glass bowl. Sixty-five years after opening and still popular with celebrities, tourists, and everyday folks looking to splurge, Serendipity 3 is now considered a New York landmark. Read more about Andy Warhol and New York City in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

During WWII, Ford Motor Company opened a plant in Willow Run, Michigan to build B-24 bombers. The factory was 1.25 miles long and occupied 3.5 million square feet. Workers used bikes and scooters to get from one end to other. Charles Lindbergh called it “the Grand Canyon of the mechanized world.” Initial production was slow, only 56 in the first year, and the plant was dubbed “Will It Run?” By 1944, workers produced one bomber per hour. By the end of the war, Willow Run had manufactured 8,600 planes. Read more about the bomber plant and WWII in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

Following the influx of Catholic immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe to Chicago, many churches were built from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. Reflecting the city’s population distribution, there were 15 Italian churches compared to over 40 Polish houses of worship. Among the Italian immigrants were master stonemasons who built the churches. Read about an Italian immigrant and her Polish friend in Chicago 100 years ago in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

L. Frank Baum wrote his classic book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, in Chicago in 1900. In 1928, under pressure from educators and ministers, the Chicago Public Library banned the book for its “ungodly influence” depicting women, including witches, as leaders. The book was also banned by libraries in Florida and Detroit in the 1950s, and in 2004 Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson conspired to get the movie banned from broadcast on public television because of “moral turpitude.” Read more about the making of the movie based on the home book in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

Candy manufacturers began using corn syrup during WWI when sugar was rationed. Popular “war candies” were Amalkaka (chocolate-covered animal crackers) and the Goo-Goo Cluster (a mound of caramel, marshmallow nougat, fresh roasted peanuts, and milk chocolate). Labels told consumers “You are performing a patriotic duty in conserving sugar.” Corn syrup was so cheap that they never stopped using it after rationing ended. Today, high-fructose corn syrup is not only found in candy and soda but in scores of other products including flavored yogurt, salad dressing, bread and crackers, frozen pizza, peanut butter, and pickles. The sweetener is even found in sour cream! Read more about food and popular culture during WWI in On the Shore (see NOVELS).

When Prince Harry married American divorcee Meghan Markle, commentators harked back to the Duke of Windsor (the former King Edward VIII) giving up the crown for “the woman I love.” That woman was Wallis Simpson of Summit, Pennsylvania, who met the then prince during her second marriage, through his then mistress. After the King’s abdication in December 1936, they lived in France and were believed to be Nazi sympathizers. She was suspected of spying by passing along British and French naval secrets to the Germans. When the couple visited http://viabestbuyreviews.com/ Hitler, he declared the Duchess would have made a great queen, but the new King George VI decreed she could not be called “Her Royal Highness.” The Duke died in 1972, the Duchess in 1986. Read more about British history in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

Hitler, he declared the Duchess would have made a great queen, but the new King George VI decreed she could not be called “Her Royal Highness.” The Duke died in 1972, the Duchess in 1986. Read more about British history in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

In the early 1900s, tragedies such as the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and Sinclair Lewis’s exposé The Jungle about the meat-packing industry, contributed to the growth of labor unions. Over the next several decades, unions won shorter hours, higher wages, and better conditions for laborers, many of them immigrants and minorities. The number of people in the middle class rose. But, since the mid-1950s, as union membership has declined from a peak of 33% to less than 7% today, income inequality has risen to levels not seen since the era of the “robber barons.” Read more about the exploitation of workers and early labor laws in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

The taboo against wearing white when summer ends is rooted in social class snobbery at the turn of the twentieth century. As more people entered the ranks of the wealthy, those who inherited money wanted to distinguish themselves from those who acquired it. One way was to establish strict dress codes on the assumption that the nouveau riche would commit fashion faux pas. Hence arose the rule to pack away white dresses and suits after lawn parties and beach vacations were over. When Labor Day was declared a national holiday in 1894, it became a convenient date for the seasonal shift. Although the rule was observed primarily among the elite (poorer people, whose wardrobes were limited, shunned white year-round simply because it got dirty), by the 1950s women’s magazines also made it clear to the middle class that whites were out between Labor Day and Memorial Day. Fashions have changed — “winter white” is in style — but many people still think twice before donning white clothes from early September to late May. Read more about fashion rules and trends over the past century in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).