The Victory Home: 
Radio--Entertainment

Poster: Help Bring Them Back to You! Make Yours a Victory Home!
With travel restrictions keeping people at home, radio became even more important than it had been during the Depression. Entertainment shows frequently had a war theme. Comedians joked about rationing, adventure shows featured stories about spies and saboteurs, celebrities pitched war bonds. Radio made listeners feel part of a larger community.
 
 
Stories Photos Audio Ads

 

Poster image is courtesy of the Northwestern University Library poster database .

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Updated 11/12/04.
Page created by Midge Coates
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Stories

I haven't been able to locate any materials for this section yet, but I'm still looking.
 

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Photos

These photos are in the American Memory collection, America from the Great Depression to World War II:  Photographs from the FSA/OWI, 1935-1945 . Click on the small image to see a larger one.

Blue Island, IL. Listening to a radio program in the Senise home.

Blue Island, IL. Before going out on a date, Jerry Senise and his friend Mary Lou Grubles dance awhile to the music of the radio.

John Frost and daughter listening to radio in their home. Tehama County, CA.

Buffalo, NY. Beverly Ann, eleven, the oldest of the six Grimm children, pausing to listen to a radio program in the midst of sweeping the front room. Her mother, a twenty-six year old widow, is a crane operator at Pratt and Letchworth.
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Arlington, VA. An older resident reading the paper and listening to the radio in her room at Idaho Hall, Arlington Farms, a residence for women who work in the U.S. government for the duration of the war.

Washington, D.C. This employee of the U.S. Navy Department listens to the radio and studies drafting in his boardinghouse room.

Washington, D.C. A radio is company for this girl in her boardinghouse room.
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Washington, D.C. Listening to a murder mystery on the radio in a boardinghouse room.
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This photo is in the National Archives ARC Digital Copies collection.

A mother and grandmother listening to News Broadcasts and Bing Crosby.
 

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Audio

You'll need audio player software to hear these programs.

Click for a free download of  RealPlayer (the free "basic" version is in the upper corner on the far right) or Windows Media Player  or WinAmp .

(The programs available through these sites are not all from the WWII period.)

Radio Free Jack  

Old Time Radio (listing of online "broadcasts")

WWII Christmas broadcasts 

Listening Room

Unofficial Fibber McGee and Molly Homepage

Captain Midnight Sound Vault

Terry and the Pirates

One Man’s Family

I Love a Mystery

Radio Theme Songs (WAV; click on the little TV screens to hear the clips)
 

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Ads

These ads are in the Ad*Access collection of Duke University. Click on the small image to see a larger one.

Music to drown the silence (Stromberg-Carlson radios)

Fighters at home need fun, too (Motorola radios)

Wired for sound (Motorola)

Their song (Sonora)
 

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