Movies and the Movie-going Experience of the 1940s
World War II dominated film, much like every aspect of American life, in the 1940s. With the world at war, the medium of film was used to address a wide variety of interpretations ranging from comedic to patriotic, or propagandistic to commentaries on contemporary postwar life. Such films include: Casablanca (1942), Mrs. Miniver (1942), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and I Was a Male War Bride (1949), among others.
Following the 1930s “Golden Age” of cinema, notable early films of the 1940s included Citizen Kane (1941) and The Maltese Falcon (1941). But, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, America’s global outlook and identity changed. And so did the films.
Hollywood Steps Up
One day after being attacked at Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war on Japan, thus entering into World War II. Shortly thereafter, members of the Screen Actors Guild, along with the industry’s other trade guilds, created the Hollywood Victory Caravan. The organization’s purpose was to support American servicemen and women around the world. Actors involved with the Hollywood Victory Caravan included Desi Arnaz, James Cagney, Claudette Colbert, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Cary Grant, Laurel and Hardy, Joan Blondell, and Eleanor Powell, among others.
To help raise morale and money for the army and navy relief funds, the Victory Caravan embarked on a three-week-coast-to-coast trip across the country. With Bob Hope as the master of ceremonies, the celebrities entertained full auditoriums with skits, songs, comedic performances, and dialogues from the popular film and radio characters they portrayed.
The Hollywood Victory Caravan stopped in the Twin Cities on May 9 of 1942 and played two shows to sold-out crowds, with one celebrity commenting, “It’s the biggest crowd we’ve ever seen!” Of the event, the Minneapolis Sunday Tribune and Star Journal had this to say,
Hollywood’s troupe of touring benefit stars in two shows set up box office records for indoor events in the Twin Cities…playing before packed houses at St. Paul auditorium in the afternoon and in Minneapolis auditorium at night.
…Superlatives are weak things in describing such a show of this kind. On the score of names alone, it’s THE BIGGEST THING OF ITS KIND EVER DONE (emphasis theirs).
The two shows in St. Paul and Minneapolis generated over $65,000 for the army and navy relief funds.
Minnesota’s own Andrews Sisters stepped up to help the war effort as well. As the nation’s most popular female singing group of the 1940s, the Andrews Sisters were in high demand, but were “very active in their patriotic duty of wartime entertainment.” The three sisters—Patty, Maxene, and LaVerne—volunteered their free time to entertain both enlisted and wounded troops overseas and at home by singing, dancing, and signing autographs. They also participated in an eight-week USO tour in June of 1945, performing for thousands of servicemen.
Some of Hollywood’s most famous and talented directors aided the war effort at home as well by making training films and documentaries. Frank Capra created the Why We Fight documentary series in 1943 and William Wyler made Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944). Others in the film industry either enlisted for service or performed at military bases around the country and world. Actresses like Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth would become two of the more popular G.I. “pin-up” girls, with their pictures in the men’s barracks and on airplanes as well.
Simply going to the movies was a way for American citizens to help support the war effort at home. Nearly 20% of all the war bonds sold in the United States were purchased at movie theaters across the country. The propaganda found in most of the films also made movie-going a patriotic past time for Americans.
The Films
With the United States at war, the film industry, like most other industries, responded to the national war effort, by making movies. The U.S. Government’s Office of War Information (OWI) closely coordinated its efforts with the film industry to help encourage patriotism and to reach as many viewers as possible.
One of Hollywood’s most memorable wartime films was Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca (1942). The film’s subtle message of heroism and self-sacrifice was precisely the kind of commitment required of Americans on the home front and those fighting the war overseas.
The majority of the films released in the United States during World War II contained direct patriotic messages. For example, William Wyler’s Mrs. Miniver (1942) chronicled the account of courage and bravery exemplified by British citizens in war-ravaged Dunkirk. The film’s message of survival and the necessity of victory over the Axis powers were not lost on Americans at home, who were working for the same victorious outcome as the British. It was a straightforward reminder of why American soldiers were fighting overseas.
Films such as This is the Army (1943) provided the patriotic soundtrack of the era, introducing the song “God Bless America.” The song would quickly become the United States’ alternate national anthem, and was again a reminder of what the soldiers overseas and the workers at home were fighting to protect.
The Postwar Years
The 1940s saw an explosion in the popularity of film stars. This was due mostly to the seemingly personal availability of movie stars to the American citizens through events like the Hollywood Victory Caravan. Another reason for the increase in popularity had to do with newsreels. Film audiences increased from 54.6 million weekly viewers in 1940 to 70 million by 1945, with many being informed about the war’s progress by the newsreels airing prior to a film’s screening.
Theater reconstruction also occurred following the end of World War II. Many of the nation’s movie houses were constructed in the 1920s and 1930s to accommodate upwards of 5,000 moviegoers. In 1945 Minneapolis’ Pantages Theater was renovated, decreasing the seating capacity to 1,400. The newly renovated theater re-opened on April 14, 1946, with a screening of Gilda, starring pin-up queen Rita Hayworth.
The increasing popularity of drive-in movie theaters of the late 1940s resulted in theaters like the Pantages being forced to renovate. In 1939, only six drive-in movie theaters existed in the United States, by 1945 there were five hundred. In 1949, the number of drive-ins in the United Sates tripled to more than 1,500. Two Twin Cities’ drive-in theaters—The Rose Drive-In (Roseville) and the Corral Drive-In (West St. Paul)—were built in the 1940s to accommodate this rapidly growing familial activity.
Men of this generation, who fought and “came of age” during the World War II, had now come home to again be the head of their families. Going to the drive-in to see a film became a family activity. According to film historian Lary May, “55 percent of the cars [at the drive-ins] contained groups who went to movies for a ‘family outing, a sort of holiday’ removed from the city and the cares of the day.” If the family’s children were not interested in the film, the playgrounds or gymnastic equipment located on the drive-in grounds could easily entertain them.
Several films released after the end of World War II—such as William Wyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)—dealt with the return of the American soldier to their home and family. Wyler’s film portrayed three soldiers returning home from the war and the conflicts of entering back into the civilian society that awaited them. In the film, a non-professional actor—and disabled World War II veteran—named Harold Russell (who was awarded a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in the film) played one of the returning veterans who had lost both his hands while in combat. In one of the film’s more memorable scenes, Hoagy Carmichael taught Russell to play chopsticks on the piano. It is a perfect example of the veteran’s slow return to a conventional life after living in a highly intensive wartime environment.
Other postwar films, such as Howard Hawks’ I Was a Male War Bride (1949) took a more comedic approach to the return to civilian life. In the film, Cary Grant plays a French army officer who falls in love with an American female lieutenant, played by Ann Sheridan. When Sheridan’s unit is called back to the States, Grant must dress as a woman in order to enter the country under the War Bride’s Act. The film is a farcical look at an issue affecting many servicemen who fell in love and married while overseas, and brought their spouses back to the United States with them. This comical film symbolically ended a decade that experienced a horrific war, perhaps signifying this generation’s decision to move forward with their lives. 
Members of the “Greatest Generation,” who were children during the Great Depression, made up the majority of the moviegoers during the 1930s. Half-a-decade later, with the onset of World War II, these children were forced into early adulthood, with many going overseas to fight or do their part at home. Movies were one constant in their lives during these tumultuous times. After returning home from the war, movies helped create family activities, and helped with this unique generation’s return to normalcy afterwards.
Rickard, Earl. “The Hollywood Victory Caravan.” 26 Oct. 2006, http://www.suite101.com/print_article.cfm/us_history_1929_1945/103716.
“Colossal—Stupendous.” Saint Paul Pioneer Press. 9 May 1942, page 11.
“Receipts in Twin Cities Hit $65,000.” Minneapolis Sunday Tribune and Star Journal. 10 May 1942, page 4.
“America’s Favorite Singing Sisters.” 20 Jun 2007, http://www.cmgworldwide.com/music/andrews/about/bio2.htm.
“America’s Favorite Singing Sisters.” 20 Jun 2007, http://www.cmgworldwide.com/music/andrews/about/bio2.htm.
May, Lary. The Big Tomorrow. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. Page, 143.
“Film History of the 1940s.” 19 Oct 2006. http://www.filmsite.org/40sintro.html
May, Lary. The Big Tomorrow. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. Page, 123.
17 May 2007, http://www.drive-ins.com/dbdisrch.htm/built=194/skip=175.
May, Lary. The Big Tomorrow. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. Page, 171.
