WAS A VERY GOOD
YEAR TO BE A TEEN
The Great Depression was long gone. Anyone who had a warm body could get a job if they wanted to work. The war in Europe ended in May and the war with Japan in the Pacific ended in July. I had just turned 18 in March of 1945 and registered for the draft. Now they were beginning to discharge soldiers right and left and I would probably miss out the army. Of course I couldn't see 7 years into the future and the world didn't even dream of a war in Korea.
One of the biggest news stories, besides the war, was a foggy morning on July 28 when a B 25 Bomber crashed into the Empire State Building and became lodged between the 78th and 79th floor. 13 people were killed, but the building survived without major damage.
Corky At 18...........Nellie at 15
"Wait 'Til The Sun Shines Nellie"After 50 years of waiting, the sun peeks out from
between the clouds every once in awhile.
I wouldn't meet Nellie for 3 more years. In 1945 I would have laughed at anyone who suggested I would someday marry, let alone go on a date with her. Shoot, she was just a shy little thirteen year old kid then, but three more years made a big difference. Well, she was still shy when our friends arranged a suprise blind date for us in 1948.
Nellie and I both were big fans of the popular music that was being broadcast over the radio in 1945. I was the Bing Crosby type and she was the Hank Williams type. Some people liked that new guy, Frank Sinatra.
Most people liked the Andrew Sisters, LaVerne, Maxene and Patti's new radio show called "Eight To The Bar Ranch" with Gabby Hayes as the ranch foreman. The show also featured Foy Willing and The Riders Of The Purple Sage
The top song hits in 1945 were,
June Is Bursting Out
���All Over
On The Atchison, Topeka
��� And The Santa Fe
Autumn Serenade
If I Loved You
Laura
Let It Snow
Cruising Down The River
I Love You For
Sentimental Reasons
Dig You Later-A-Hubba-
���Hubba-Hubba
|
There were a lot of popular singers and groups in 1945 because music was an important part of our lives. Movies almost always had music in the script and theaters usually had an orchestra for plays. Radio and phonographs were the main forms of home enertainment with lots of music. Then of course many homes had a piano or a pump organ and made their own music,
1945's top singers and groups were,
The Ames Brothers
Phill Harris
Sammy Kaye
Peggy Lee
Dinah Shore
Bing Crosby
The Andrew Sisters
Jo Stafford
Perry Como
The Mills Brothers
Frankie Laine
Red Foley
Hank Williams
Debbie Reynolds
|
We were also big movie fans. I was old enough to go when I wanted to and see what I wanted to. Nellie, of course, had to depend on going when an older sister wanted to go and see what the older sister wanted to see.
1945's top movies were,
The Valley Of Decision
The Bells Of Saint Mary's
Spellbound
The Story Of GI Joe
The Body Snatchers
|
I don't understand why Abbot and Costello's
movies weren't on the list???
The most popular movie stars of 1945 were,
Bing Crosby
Van Johnson
Greer Garson
Betty Grable
Spencer Tracy
Humphrey Bogart
Gary Cooper
Bob Hope
Judy Garland
Margaret O'Brien
Roy Rogers
|
Once again, I don't understand why Abbot and Costello weren't on the list???
Of course we didn't have Television in 1945, but we had Soap Operas. On the radio of course. Most women listened to them in 1945, because most of them didn't work outside the home and you could listen while you did the house work.
The top Soap Operas were,
One Man's Family
Helen Trent
Pepper Young's Family
Portia Faces Life
Young Widow Brown
Stella Dallas
Our Gal Sunday
Backstage Wife
Ma Perkins
Guiding Light
Right To Happiness
Larenzo Jones
|
One Man's Family was the first prime time "Soap Opera" that came on once a week, on Sunday evenings.
Reading was one of the other main pastimes in 1945. Even almost every drugstore had a magazine stand in one corner and most had a rental library next to it. That was a bookcase full of hardback books that you rented for, I think, ten cents a week. Of course paperback books at twenty five cents each Were the newest thing. When they came out in large numbers, they ruined the book rental business.
The top selling new books of 1945 were,
A Lion In The Streets
Captain From Castile
Cass Timberlane
Earth and High Heaven
Forever Amber
Immortal Wife
So Well Remembered
The Black Rose
The Robe
The White Tower
|
SPORTS IN 1945Baseball
The Detroit Tigers defeated the Chicago Cubs 4 games to 3 in the World Series. The Cub's Phil Cavarretta had the highest batting average in the National League at .355 The New York Yankee's Snuffy Stirnweiss held the highest average in The American League with .309.
The All-Star Game was canceled in 1945 because of the wartime travel restrictions that were still in effect.
Golf
In professional golf, Byron Nelson was the top money winner of the year with $63,335 in winnings.
Boxing
In boxing, Rocky Graziano, a newcommer scored 5 knockouts in 1945.
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