in old movies they always dress up for dinner at home?

[LizzieMaine]

"C'mon Pop, don't hog the gravy!"

 

[Fading Fast]

Radio writers did pretty well after they banded together to form the Radio Writer's Guild. The work could be brutal if you worked in a production-line shop like the Hummerts ran, but the money was still decent....

I'm assuming that you've seen the movie as those scenes on Douglas' wife's job writing for radio are dripping with sarcasm and even outright anger at radio - what it puts on, what it wants from its writers, what it views as "good" writing. Douglas' character does a pretty good job of putting all of it in its place.

While I enjoyed that, I'm always a bit put off by the "I'm above that commercialism" attitude from a guy willing to live nicer on the money it brings in. He's a hypocrite, but at least he's willing to admit it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Trailer living in a Farm Services Administration war workers' encampment, Miller Springs, Md. August 1943. (OWI-FSA Photo)

 

[Fading Fast]

Away form the main point of the picture ⇧, there's much Fedora Lounge candy in her dress, his spear-point-collared shirt, both their shoes, that fan and that oven-range.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Away form the main point of the picture ⇧, there's much Fedora Lounge candy in her dress, his spear-point-collared shirt, both their shoes, that fan and that oven-range.

All I can think of is "Ed and Trixie Norton: The Newlywed Years."

 

[St. Louis]

"Farm family meal, 1940."

Love this photo! Interesting -- so grandma (I assume?) has NOT removed her apron!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Grandma's probably running back and forth between the stove and the table to keep everybody's dishes filled. Note also in a number of these photos the way the bread is served, stacked on plates after being cut from loaves that were obviously not pre-sliced. Either they were home-baked or they were unsliced store loaves, which were often cheaper than the sliced variety. Pre-sliced store bread was banned during the war -- you could only get unsliced loaves.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

Dressing for dinner make me think of Downton Abbey's dress-like-you're-going-to-your-coronation dinnertimes, but I can remember my family get-togethers at Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, etc., where the men wore suits and ties (little guys at least a dressy shirt and clip on tie), and the ladies dressed up nicely. It's a practice I miss now that I'm the grandpa and the grown-up kids come to Big Dinners dressed like they're going work in the garage. Ah, well...

 

[Fading Fast]

...Pre-sliced store bread was banned during the war -- you could only get unsliced loaves.

Why and, really, the entire war? This is the first time I remember reading this is why I'm asking. I'm surprised I missed it all these years that I've read about rationing, etc.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It was a way of ensuring efficiency of supply and increasing production. Eliminating the sliced variety allowed the production workers who would otherwise be operating that machinery to instead concentrate on actually baking more loaves, and would also save on the production of different wrappers. There were similar moves toward standardized production in other industries -- eliminating "luxury" varieties of products in favor of more production of the standard variety.

The ban was revoked after a couple of months, though. People were willing to sacrifice *only so much* for the sake of the war effort. I'm sure the population of Stalingrad would have understood.

 

[Fading Fast]

Dressing for dinner make me think of Downton Abbey's dress-like-you're-going-to-your-coronation dinnertimes, but I can remember my family get-togethers at Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, etc., where the men wore suits and ties (little guys at least a dressy shirt and clip on tie), and the ladies dressed up nicely. It's a practice I miss now that I'm the grandpa and the grown-up kids come to Big Dinners dressed like they're going work in the garage. Ah, well...

We, too, dressed for holiday meals and it did make it feel more special. Now it feels odd to me as everyone under 50 dresses, as you implied, in T-shirts, jeans, sweats, etc. I'm not ranting or even complaining about a breakdown of society, culture or any of that - topic for another day, it's a complex one IMHO - but I do miss the memorable feeling it gave and the way it looked nicer and made the day / meal feel special when everyone was dressed up.

We usually go to my girlfriend's brother's house for Christmas dinner and they have the house decorated, the dinning room nicely set up - it all looks elegant - but IMHO (I've never, ever said or even hinted at this) the effect is diminished by almost everyone looking like they just rolled out of bed and tossed on whatever was on the floor.

It was a way of ensuring efficiency of supply and increasing production. Eliminating the sliced variety allowed the production workers who would otherwise be operating that machinery to instead concentrate on actually baking more loaves. There were similar moves toward standardized production in other industries -- eliminating "luxury" varieties of products in favor of more production of the standard variety.

Wow, thank you. I missed that one all these years. Was it a rule, guideline or just accepted practice? Was it enforced the entire war?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Just for part of 1943. It was part of a series of regulations passed relating to bread that year -- it was also at that time that a law was passed banning the commercial sale of bread made with unenriched white flour, and another regulation prohibited the sale of wrapped loaves to restaurants -- this latter relating to the need to conserve waxed paper.

The ban on unenriched white bread, by the way, remains in force in much of the US to this day. All commercial bread baked with white flour must, by law in 36 states, be "enriched."

 

[Fading Fast]

Just for part of 1943. It was part of a series of regulations passed relating to bread that year -- it was also at that time that a law was passed banning the commercial sale of bread made with unenriched white flour, and another regulation prohibited the sale of wrapped loaves to restaurants -- this latter relating to the need to conserve waxed paper.

The ban on unenriched white bread, by the way, remains in force in much of the US to this day. All commercial bread baked with white flour must, by law in 36 states, be "enriched."

Odder still - any idea why for only such a short time? Pushback for the bakeries I'm guessing?

 

[LizzieMaine]

There were a *lot* of public complaints. The early months of 1943 were the point where rationing was really kicking in in the US: point rationing of meat and processed foods had just begun, and the bread thing was taken by many as being a case of "NOW WHAT!"

A lot of people have this idealized picture of war-era America as being a place where everybody willingly chipped in 100 percent for the war effort. But the first half of 1943 was consumed by mass wailing, moaning, and whining about the "inconveniences" that people were being put thru. YOU MEAN I CAN"T HAVE CLING PEACHES, I HAVE TO TAKE THE OTHER KIND? DON'T YOU KNOW MY HUSBAND'S A T-5 RUNNING A MIMEOGRAPH AT FORT DIX? HOW MUCH MORE DO I HAVE TO SACRIFICE? The inconveniences Americans suffered during the war were, of course, sub-atomic compared to the very real terror and deprivation faced by most other combatant nations, but you'd never know that listening to the rampaging crybabyism that filled the letter columns of the daily press during 1943.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Since the sandwich was the mainstay of the workingman's lunch pail and the kids' school lunch boxes, I can understand the outrage at no more sliced loaves. If you don't have a proper bread knife and good technique with it, it is all but impossible to make even slices from a whole loaf. Often as not, you just get squished-down bread.

 

[MisterCairo]

Since the sandwich was the mainstay of the workingman's lunch pail and the kids' school lunch boxes, I can understand the outrage at no more sliced loaves. If you don't have a proper bread knife and good technique with it, it is all but impossible to make even slices from a whole loaf. Often as not, you just get squished-down bread.

I just about steamrolled a loaf the other day - a good crusty whole wheat, yet it would not yield to the bread knife...

 

[LizzieMaine]

The irony, of course, was that pre-sliced bread had only been widely sold in the US for about thirteen years at that point. How quickly they forgot.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Everyone thrilled to the beautiful movie star in her diamonds and furs, the handsome leading man with his sixteen cylinder roadster, the imperious director and his cast of thousands. I would pay to see that movie myself. Who would pay to see a typical dowdy working class family? You could stay home and look at your wife, and save fifty cents.

Don't pretend today is any different. The phantasies may be different but they are still phantasies. We may be so prosperous watching rich people being rich is no longer a thrill. But maybe misery and mayhem are now rare enough the public will pay good money to see shows about blowing shit up, even though it is the 5000th remake of the same old script, or a show about some psychopath finding new ways to be an all star stinker.

 

[tonyb]

Since the sandwich was the mainstay of the workingman's lunch pail and the kids' school lunch boxes, I can understand the outrage at no more sliced loaves. If you don't have a proper bread knife and good technique with it, it is all but impossible to make even slices from a whole loaf. Often as not, you just get squished-down bread.

As a youngster I wondered if moms had some special power that left them able to spread cold butter upon slices of soft white bread without ripping those slices into pieces and/or punching holes in them. Only moms, it seemed, could spread that butter evenly and not shred the bread.

But I have no trouble evenly slicing whole loaves of bread. But I wouldn't attempt it without a proper bread knife, of which I have at least three.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Dressing for dinner was really an English upper class thing. In the 19th and early 20th century they took it very seriously. The world was run by the British Empire which covered 1/4 of the globe, and the empire was run by a few thousand men who took the responsibility of governing and running the business and social affairs of the nation and by extension, the world.

Dressing for dinner was one of the symbols of the governing class. There was a feeling that if they let standards slip in one regard, in time there would be nothing left. They may have had a point.

This idea made its way to America, at least the Anglophile upper crust who copied British styles, possibly without comprehending what made them so important to the Brits.