Christopher Columbus High School - Anchor Yearbook (Bronx, NY)

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lfffjfaife ,MA ere eniord IOURNAL written in the year 1940 will undoubtedly be of immeasurable value to the future historian. For 1940 is an important, a crucial year, whichever way you look at it. For us, the graduating class, it marks the end of a period in our lives: it marks our first attempt at trying to keep our own balance on the tight rope ahead of us. See it as a whole, in its full significance, now, we cannot. But what we can do now, is make a record of things, small and big, to help us look back upon it through the perspective of later years. Scattered facts about this tumultuous twelve months stretch are here submitted and their only purpose is to betray something fhowever littlel of its peculiar flavor. The verdict of eye-witnesses was, that of all things happening toward the end of anno Domini 1940, two were of greatest magni- tude: The battle of Britain-slowly developing into thebattle of Europe-and the American Presidential elections. If Britain consisted of -47 million Churchills, said Adolf Hitler, there would be no mean! of bringing her to her knees. And his implica- tion was clear. But through tens of long, discouraging nights,-the people of Britginkjnrho for more than a century had led a free and tranquil life, were grimly defending their island home against death poured down on them by Nazi airmen, Of the heavily outnumbered R.A.F., the most inspired of the 47 million Churchills said: Never in the field of conflict was so much owed by so mgny to so few. On the home fromt, Franklin D. Roosevelt-symbblizing in the oils of a frightened vforld the new, fresh forces' of Democracy-was elected to an unprecedented third consecutive term as President, of the United States against his Republican opponent, Wendell L. Willkie. Culminating a bitter campaign, the President, in a few major addresses, defended his record and belittled the oppition, dwelling mainly on foreign issues. When the smoke of the political battle cleared away, however, there emerged the picture of a country and its leaders agreed on thitparamount issue of the day: the necessity 'of sending aid to britain while going on .at full speed with our own defense program. And as part of that program, axresigned' nation accepted-with characteristic good humorr-its first peace-time mili- tary conscription. The spreqd of dictatorship and its aggressive nature also brought the 21 American Republics and Canada closer and closer together in an atmosphere of mutual help. Symbolic? of this united we stand attitude, were: the presence of United States Vice-President-elect Henry Agard Wallace at the inauguration of Mexican President Manuel Avila Camacho as well as the estab- lishment of a U. S.-Canadian Ioint Defense ward. '7 The war and ' the elections and their repercussions elsewhere, naturally overshadowed everything else. But it takes more U10 make an adequate appraisal of a period than a record of the two over- . Q

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I I I CLASS OFFICERS ARISTA YEARBOOK ART STAEI' OUTSTANDING MEMBERS YEAREOOK LITERARY sTAI'I' PROM COMMITTEE OV SENIOR CLASS SOCIAL COMMITTEE BLUE LETTER DAY COMMI'l l'EE CLASS REPS

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whelmingly important happenings of that period. What did we read, what movies did we see, what music did we listen to, what radio- programs, what humor did we enjoy, what dances did we do, what were our moods? Well, it was a political year and so we read books analyzing cur- rent events. Records of the journalistic experiences of Pierre Van Paassen and Iohn'Gunther had many a buyer. Books with titles as intriguing as Why France Fell were nervouslybought. To satisfy the public clamor for the clarification of bewildering events, popular magazines published frequent articles by political and military ex- perts. As for fiction-rsorne of the popular novels were cruelly real- istic, like Iohn Steinbeck's Grapes of W-rath or Richard Wright's Native Son. Ernest Hemingway wrote Por Whom the Bell Tolls, a powerful story about the recent Spanish Civil War. In the New York Times Magazine, Edna St. Vincent Millay plblished a series of sonnets inspired by modern war. 5 Events here and abroad had an impact not only'5'h literature, how- ever. Music, too, was influenced by them. Thus, God Bless America, a song written by Irving Berlin 'and made famous by Kate Smith, fit right into our patriotic mood, while nothing could better cryiQa1lize ous pan-American-tseiings than Carmen Mirand and Don Ameche riding across the continent on a wave of Soni -American music twtth Harlem flavorl, accompanied by the Conga Cone, two, three- kickl and other adventures in rhythm. Hot swing music, on the other hand, was still going strong with young jitterbugs who danced to it vwh spasmodic fury, but who-with the rhumba against them-:were now almost termed conservatives. fSame did not go for their pegged pants, however, nor the Indian feathers of their partners.J qi In the intervalrbetween Glenn Miller and Benn, Goodman, Amen! ica let the good-natured smiles of well-meaning comedians such as Fred Allen, Eddie Cantor and lack Benny flow into their homes via the air waves. More serious radio entertainment included Arturo Taoanini, Helen Hayes and a host of commentators, among whom mah like Raymond Gram Swing spoke to audiences reaching the nine million mark. ln moments of great tension news broadcasts took priority over almost anything else radio had to offer. And, indeed, so did the conventions ofrthe two major parties held in Chicagb and in Phildelphia, as well as the avalanche of campaign oratory which followed. In its own way, this testified-refreshingly enoughTto the interest of the American public in its destiny. At the same time there was developing a taste for wit, supple, refined, a