Vigo County Historical Society

Music helped ease war fears

Just 10 days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, "Good-Bye Mama, I’m Off to Yokahama" was written, published and on the sales rack in the music stores and on the air waves.

And just a few months later, Frank Loesser’s "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" had been published and had achieved top ratings.

World War II had a profound effect on the popular music of the 1940s. Overnight, these popular songs and scores of others became the "smooth music" played by Glenn Miller, Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. Vocalists such as Frank Sinatra, the Andrews Sisters, Dick Haymes, and Dinah Shore quickly became "the rage" and audiences flocked to hear them sing.

War bond rallies, dances, movies, radio shows and social gatherings were all held against the background of the fabulous music that was born as a result of the war years. Irving Berlin wrote "Any Bonds Today," which was the official song of the U.S. Treasury Department’s National Defense Program.

"Cash for Trash" and "Get Out and Dig, Dig, Dig" urged Americans to support salvage drives and plant victory gardens.

The movies of the ‘40s left a legacy of such wonderful songs as "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," "I Left My Heart at the Stage Door Canteen," "Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree," and "This is the Army." Anyone over the age of 55 will get nostalgic when they hear a rendition of "As Time Goes By" or "I’ll Be Seeing You."

A song existed for almost every aspect of the war. "Rosie the Riveter" romanticized all those women defense workers who replaced men who were drafted to serve in the Armed Forces. "We Did It Before and We’ll Do It Again" sent the message to Americans to have confidence in all that was being done in the war effort both on the home front and in the theaters of war.

Fifty years ago, all these and many other songs were causing everyone to sing and dance and whistle and hum his or her way through one of the most difficult times in our history. The music of the era was part of the glue that held Americans together.

The songs of the 1940s will be featured in the Summer Celebration on July 8 at Shook Fieldhouse on the Rose-Hulman Campus. "On the Go With the USO" celebrates the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II.