Evansville in World War II by James Lachlan MacLeod

Author:James Lachlan MacLeod
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2015-03-01T16:00:00+00:00

A sign at the Evansville Shipyard shows impressive progress toward the established goals for the sixth war loan fundraising effort, 1944. Evansville Museum/EVPL.

Most famously of all, perhaps, the movie megastars Abbott and Costello appeared in Evansville in August 1942 on a day of events that raised over half a million dollars and climaxed with a $1,000 war bond dinner at the McCurdy Hotel. It was reported that “Evansville bought $653,475 worth of war savings bonds and stamps Friday from two crackerjack, if zany, salesmen—Bud Abbott and Lou Costello…[who] said the total was the largest raised in one day for a city of this size. They were only in Evansville for six hours.” The two comedians drove a ten-mile tour of the city and entertained at the Coliseum, including a version of perhaps their best-known skit—the “baseball rookie.” For at least one Evansville family, it was an unforgettable day. Jeweler Jack Friedman was standing outside his store watching the parade when Costello beckoned him and, as he jogged beside the car, asked him if he could repair his broken watch. He said that he could, and Costello asked him to bring it to the McCurdy that night, later inviting his son Jimmy, too, who received an autographed photo of the duo.198

Outside the glamor of movie stars visiting Evansville was an almost daily grind of propaganda aimed at persuading people to part with their money for war bonds. A fairly typical example—a delightful piece of doggerel written by W.L. Miller of the shipyard fire department, entitled “Doing Our Part”—appeared in the shipyard newspaper of December 1942:

United we stand, divided we fall,

If Japan wins the war

It will be hell for us all.

So buy bonds and stamps, make it a habit each day

And help put Germany and Japan away.

Let’s rid the world of these troublesome pests,

Make our’s a country of peace and rest.

Honor our boys on the battlefronts,

Sailors on the sea; submarines on the hunt.

Buying bonds and stamps will do this thing;

Let’s all do our part. Let Freedom ring.199

Despite W.L. Miller’s many inadequacies as a poet, material like this clearly helped set the scene for prodigious fundraising. The shipyard was a conspicuous center of almost incredible levels of employee contribution—a payroll deduction plan led to 99 percent participation by October 1942. As James and Patricia Kellar have observed, “In 1943 shipyard employees purchased $3,500,000 in war bonds, equivalent to the cost of three LSTs. With the majority of shipyard workers earning no more than $1.20 per hour, this level of subscription is all the more remarkable.”200 Much the same could be said of Evansville workers in every other industry, as well as those who volunteered.

CONCLUSION

While it is important not to overstate the positive and paint over the negative, it is clear that Evansville really did make a series of remarkable contributions to the war, raising vast amounts of money and elevating the position of women. The contribution of female volunteers alone was extraordinary, even if many of them had not also been going to their “day jobs” in the war effort.

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