Author: annsepstein@att.net

During the last century, Pentecostals defied norms calling for racial segregation and enforcement of Jim Crow laws. Women were also vital to the early Pentecostal movement, believing baptism in the Holy Spirit empowered them to engage in activities traditionally denied them. The Pentecostal Church was one of the first religious groups to ordain women. Their progressive attitudes put Pentecostals at odds with their conservative Kansas neighbors, often leading to violent clashes. Read about religious tensions in America’s heartland 100 years ago in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

During WWII, Henry Ford hired little people (then called “midgets”) to build B-24 bombers on the assembly line at his plants in Ypsilanti, Michigan and Tulsa, Oklahoma. They were recruited from circus sideshows and the entertainment industry, and had the advantage of being small enough to crawl into the wings and buck rivets from inside. Each B-24 required 313,237 rivets so there was plenty of work for them to do. Read more about WWII and little people in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

Although Nevada’s anti-gambling laws went into effect soon after Las Vegas incorporated in 1911, the city’s diversified economy and stable business base allowed it to grow until 1917. However, when the war effort diverted railroad activity and a national rail strike followed in 1922, the city’s finances suffered. Compounded by prohibition (1920-1933), Las Vegas became fertile territory for illegal activity. Jim Ferguson, a.k.a “King of the Tenderloin,” was the state’s first organized crime boss, who easily bootlegged moonshine by paying off local politicians. Read more Las Vegas history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

Women’s hats went wild in the late 1930s. Tall toques were made even higher with extra feathers. On occasion they were decorated with velvet petals or a mass of roses, violets, or clusters of lilies of the valley. One of the most useful styles to emerge was the cache-misère turban which enabled the wearer to hide her tresses on a bad hair day while still appearing immaculately groomed and elegant. Read more about fashion trends in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

The Norris–La Guardia Act (a.k.a. Anti-Injunction Bill) of 1932 banned yellow-dog contracts whereby employers forced workers to sign agreements promising not to join unions. The U.S. law also barred courts from issuing injunctions against nonviolent labor disputes, and protected workers’ rights of self-organization and collective bargaining. Read more about the exploitation of workers and resulting labor laws over the last century in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

After attending the School of Fine Arts at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), Andy Warhol moved to NYC in 1949, where he did magazine illustration and advertising. He gained fame in the 1950s for his whimsical ink drawings in an ad campaign for shoes, and was hired by RCA to design record album covers. Warhol was an early adopter of silk screen printmaking. He combined hand drawing and photography with “ink-blotted images” that deliberately incorporated chance and mistakes. He said, “When you do something exactly wrong, you always turn up something interesting.” Read more about Andy Warhol in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve. (see NOVELS).

In 1941, construction began on San Diego’s Linda Vista housing for defense workers (Navy and Marine Corps). Contractors McNeil & Zoss put up 3,000 units in 300 days for $9 million (nearly $160 million today), the biggest military building project in the nation’s history. Residents were younger, more diverse, and more integrated than any other area of the city. Discover more San Diego history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

As medicine became professionalized, physicians pushed to abolish midwifery and home birth in favor of obstetrics in hospitals. Doctors falsely portrayed midwives as dirty, illiterate, and ignorant women. Midwives went from assisting at 50% of all births in 1900 to 12.5% in 1935. Current U.S. estimates range from 5% to 10%. Read more about pregnancy and childbirth 100 years ago in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

In 1932, Hallmark signed a licensing agreement with Walt Disney to display their cards on racks so customers could browse on their own. Before then, greeting cards were kept inside drawers and only pulled out by shopkeepers. The slogan “When you care enough to send the very best” appeared in 1944. In 1951, the company sponsored the opera “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” shown on NBC on Christmas Eve, which later became television’s “Hallmark Hall of Fame” and continues to be broadcast today. Read about how other greeting card manufacturers tried to compete with Hallmark’s dominance in the last century in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).