Observations — 1942, Dark Days of World War II Continued

The Nazis meet to discuss “the final solution,” the genocide known as the holocaust.  In the U.S., 120,000 Japanese Americans were moved to “relocation centers.  Japan occupied Manila, invaded Kuala Lumpur. U.S. bombed Tokyo. The Manhattan Project began. Napalm was invented. Women were welcomed into the military.  Boston’s Coconut Grove caught fire, 492 died.  Henry Ford patented plastic automobiles. Joe Lewis knocked out Buddy Baer. Abbott and Costello go on radio.  Tweety Bird makes movie cartoon debut. The popular movies this year include Bambi, Casablanca, Cat People, The Magnificent Ambersons, Kings Row, The Man Who Came To Dinner, This Gun For Hire, The Talk of the Town and Now Voyager.  We heard Bing Crosby sing “White Christmas” for the first time.  “Chattanooga Choo Choo” sold one million copies. It became the first Gold record. Count Basie recorded “One O’clock Jump.”  We also listened to “Moonlight Cocktail” by Glenn Miller, “Tangerine” by Jimmy Dorsey, “Sleepy Lagoon” by Harry James, “Jingle, Jangle Jingle” by Kay Kyser and I’ve Got A Girl in Kalamazoo, also by Glenn Miller. The Pulitzer Prize for literature went to Ellen Glasgow for In This Our Life.  Other books in the spotlight were Dragon Seed by Pearl S. Buck, Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier, The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck, The Song of Bernadette by Franz Werfel and Now Tomorrow by Rachel Field.  Carole Lombard, John Barrymore and George M. Cohan passed on. Joining the living were Harrison Ford, Martin Scorsese, Werner Herzog, Muhammad Ali, Bob Hoskins, Stephen Hawking, Paul McCartney, Roger Ebert and Michael Crichton.  If you were around during this year of the water horse, what were you doing?