• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • Event Calendar
    • Submit Event
  • About Us
    • Our Contributors
    • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Arts & Entertainment
    • Comedy
    • On Screen Dayton
    • On Screen Dayton Reviews
    • Road Trippin’
      • Cincinnati
      • Columbus
      • Indianapolis
    • Spectator Sports
    • Street-Level Art
    • Visual Arts
  • Dayton Dining
    • DMM’s Brunch Guide
    • Restaurants with Private Dining Rooms
    • Dayton Food Trucks
    • Quest
    • Ten Questions
  • Dayton Music
    • Music Calendar
  • On Stage Dayton
    • On Stage Dayton Reviews
  • Active Living
    • Canoeing/Kayaking
    • Cycling
    • Hiking/Backpacking
    • Runners
  • How to Support Dayton Businesses, Nonprofits During COVID-19

Dayton Most Metro

Things to do in Dayton | Restaurants, Theatre, Music and More

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

DPO Travels Back to a Musical Christmas Past – in 1941

November 18, 2011 By Joe Aiello Leave a Comment

Travel through time with the DPO to what was perhaps the most poignant Christmas ever

Five by Design

Hear the phrase “Christmas Past,” and you might think of Charles Dickens and the likes of Ebenezer Scrooge, Jacob Marley, Bob Cratchet, and Tiny Tim (the one with a cane, not a ukulele).

Talk about an emotional Christmas!

But that story took place 168 years ago. And those were names of fictional characters, not real people.

If you want to spend what was probably the most poignant Christmas ever with real people who actually lived, you need go back in time only 70 years.

In 1941, America had a population of only 132 million people, compared to 308 million today.

AM radio was the average home’s contact with the outside world; that and the newspaper. The first American commercial TV, the DuMont 180, debuted in 1938, but few could afford one. People listened to 78-rpm shellac recordings of music, which they played on turntables; some electric, some hand-cranked.

Open the hood of the average car, and – regardless the size of the engine – you could still get a great view of the ground. There were no electronic devices, no catalytic converters. Most cars had manual transmissions; in 1940 GM developed the first automatic transmission, the Oldsmobile’s Hydra-Matic drive, followed in 1941 by Chrysler’s Fluid Drive. But few could afford them.

We all know what things cost today; in 1941 they were much, much less costly. The average price of a new car was $925. Gas cost 19 cents a gallon, a new house $6,900, bread 8 cents a loaf, milk 34 cents a gallon, first class postage stamps 3 cents.

Sounds heavenly, doesn’t it? Yes, until you consider that the stock market Dow Jones
Average was only 111, the average annual salary $2,050 (that’s $40 a week or $1 an hour), and the minimum wage per hour was 30 cents. That means an hour’s worth of work at minimum wage earned you enough to buy one gallon of gas, one loaf of bread, and one postage stamp. But not enough to buy you a gallon of milk.

Why?

Radio Holly Days
with 5 by Design
Friday 12/2 & Saturday 12/3
Schuster Center, 8pm
Click for Tickets

The US was coming out of the economic effects of over 11 years of the Great Depression, but slowly. Things had been bleak for a long, long time at home. Abroad, they had turned ugly. The Nazis invaded Poland in 1939 and begun what would become, on the European Continent at least, the Second World War. Diplomatic relations between the US and Japan were deteriorating, due to an oil embargo the US levied in August against Japan to make it withdraw troops it had sent into China.

There was no polyester, Dacron®, or moisture-wicking material. Orlon® was just hitting the market. Trucks (and some horse-drawn wagons) delivered milk in glass bottles to your doorstep. Doctors made house calls. Privately owned businesses were the rule; national chains were the exception. There were no big box stores. Most neighborhoods had a walk-in movie theater. There were no shopping centers, malls, theme parks. People rode buses and trolleys more than they drove their cars. There were few suburbs.

Now, in this simpler world and time the American people were preparing to celebrate Christmas. They either went out in the country and, with permission obtained from a farmer or landowner, cut down a small tree to place in their living room and decorate, or they visited a corner Christmas tree lot and bought one. Kids wrote letters to Santa Claus and listed what they wanted most for Christmas. Department stores created miniature winter wonderlands in the front windows to attract shoppers.

Christmas was coming!

But one December Sunday morning, the world awoke to learn that Japan had perpetrated a surprise attack on the Hawaiian Islands, virtually destroying the US Navy fleet at anchor in Pearl Harbor and killing 2,403 Americans.

Suddenly, the ecstasy of the forthcoming Christmas seemed an agony. Peace on earth? Where? Good will toward men? Where? What kind of Christmas would it be when brothers, fathers, uncles, and sisters would be leaving, if they hadn’t already by Christmas, to go to war and perhaps never return. Never.

But these Americans were members of what Tom Brokaw has called The Greatest Generation. They believed in themselves, in one another, and in their country. And, armed with a steely resolve, they faced the future with courage and determination. And marched off to fight in Europe and the Pacific or give their sweat and productivity on the home front and make a crucial, significant contribution to the war effort.

With a song in their heart.

On Friday, December 2 and Saturday, December 3 at 8pm ­in the Schuster Center, you can travel back in time to Christmas, 1941, with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and the amazing musical group Five By Design as they present Radio Holly Days, a musical re-creation of a radio studio setting of the 1940s big-band era.

Radio Holly Days  is a live radio drama, complete with sound effects, to the heartwarming music that made Christmas special for the boys overseas and the folks at home, with all the great music, newsy inserts, commercials, and comedic antics of radio that provided comfort and relief to a beleaguered nation. And Christmas music we all know and love: I’ll Be Home for Christmas, White Christmas, Winter Wonderland, and Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride.

So, come on. Remember Pearl Harbor, Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition, and take a Sentimental Journey to a time when Americans had to Kiss The Boys Goodbye, Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive, and throw everything they had right in Der Fuehrer’s Face. When a Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy played that G.I. Jive.

And America was Comin’ In On A Wing And A Prayer.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1bAc-bJlWg’]

Filed Under: The Featured Articles

About Joe Aiello

A member of the Writers Guild of America, East, Inc., native Daytonian Joe Aiello is the author of numerous screenplays, non-fiction books, novels, TV sitcom pilots, news features, and documentaries. Of all his professional pursuits, he enjoys freelance writing the most and has written for such papers, websites, and magazines as Impact Weekly, NewsMax, Greentree Gazette, Best Kitchens & Baths, Examiner.com (covering baseball in Southwest Florida), Housetrends, Daytonian Style, Modern Plastics, and Life with Style. He fills his spare time coaching College, A, AA amateur and semi-pro baseball teams; answering trivia quizzes; and denigrating himself attempting to play golf.

Reader Interactions


Comments

Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Featured Events

  • Wed
    27
  • Thu
    28
  • Fri
    29
  • Sat
    30
  • Sun
    31
  • Mon
    01
  • Tue
    02

Winter Restaurant Week

| tba

Young’s annual “Do Your Moo” Event

| Young’s Jersey Dairy

Women 4 Technology: Meaningful Mentoring

11:30 am | Virtual Event

Grand Opening

2:00 pm | Wiley’s Wings Tenders Fries

Beginning Cake Decorating

6:00 pm | online event

Trivia w/ DagaTrivia

6:00 pm | Eudora Brewing Company

Write It Like You Mean It

6:30 pm | ZOOM

Masthead Brewing Beer Tasting

6:30 pm | The Caroline

Wednesday Trivia

6:30 pm | Troll Pub at the Wheelhouse

Open Mic with Blues Breakdown Band

7:00 pm | Hank’s Local

Gem City Market Walking Warriors

7:00 pm | Gem City Market

Wednesday Night Trivia w/ Dan Profitt

7:00 pm | Oinkadoodlemoo & Brew

Winter Restaurant Week

| tba

Young’s annual “Do Your Moo” Event

| Young’s Jersey Dairy

Covid-19 and the LGBTQ+ Community

12:00 pm | Facebook Live

Johnnie Walker Seminar + Dinner

6:00 pm | Salar

Beginning Beekeeping Virtual Class

7:00 pm | ZOOM

Dayton Literary Peace Prize Virtual Book Club

7:00 pm | Virtual Event

Bingo

8:00 pm | Trolley Stop

Winter Restaurant Week

| tba

Young’s annual “Do Your Moo” Event

| Young’s Jersey Dairy

Latin Dance Party

5:30 pm | The Salvation Army Kroc Center

Route 88 Full Band

6:00 pm | Wings Sports Bar and Grille- Dixie

Heath Bowling Live

6:30 pm | Heroes Pizza House

Full Wolf Moon Hike

7:00 pm | Glen Helen

Winter Restaurant Week

| tba

Young’s annual “Do Your Moo” Event

| Young’s Jersey Dairy

RiverScape Virtual Winter Yoga

9:30 am |

Introducing…Carole Staples and Fiber Arts

10:00 am | 621519

Open Call for Models

2:00 pm | The House of (DE-FI)ance: A Fashion & Design Co-working Experience

St. Vincent DePaul – Emmanuel Fish or Sausage Dinner Carryout

5:00 pm | Bainbridge Hall

A Virtual tour of the Grand Canyon National Park

5:00 pm | Facebook Live

TRUK

6:00 pm | The Phone Booth Lounge

Winter Restaurant Week

| tba

Young’s annual “Do Your Moo” Event

| Young’s Jersey Dairy

Wiley’s Sunday Comics

7:15 pm | Wiley’s Comedy Club

Free Boot Camp Workout

5:30 am | The Park at Austin Landing Miamisburg OH

Dog’s Nite Out

10:00 am | Ritter’s Frozen Custard

25% off Pizza Monday

11:30 am | Oregon Express

US Open Beer Championship Winner’s Week

4:00 pm | Big Ash Brewing

Jazz with Gail and Larry

5:00 pm | Spirited Goat Coffee House

PubLit at Home

7:00 pm | Virtual Event

More Events…

DMM E-Newsletter


Give us your email address and we'll send you our DMM E-Newsletters
Email:  
For Email Marketing you can trust
Back to Top

Copyright © 2021 Dayton Most Metro · Terms & Conditions · Log in