So glad to be alive – cooks, clerks, barbers keep German tanks out of Hotton
By W. C. Heinz, North American Newspaper Alliance
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One area manned by elite troops
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Russia aims for security of borders
By Phil Ault, United Press staff writer
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Army withholds names because men are given chance to redeem themselves
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Production exceeds war needs in 1944
By L. W. Wilson, Aluminum Company of American vice president
(UP) – The aluminum industry in 1944 went far enough “over the top” in supplying war needs to permit WPB to close down entirely a number of government-owned aluminum plants, releasing thousands of workers to shell plants and other critical industries which need them badly.
Even with substantial reduction in Alcoa’s production, aluminum is still being made in this country at a rate three times that of the peacetime peak.
During 1944, ever-increasing quantities of the metal poured into new military applications. Because of its availability, aluminum was not only returned to these military uses for which other materials had been substituted in many cases for other materials less plentiful in supply.
The new year should see growing amounts of aluminum going into the semi-military and civilian uses which must be expanded as rapidly as manpower may be safely diverted to their development.
Aluminum cars built
Prime examples of semi-military uses are airplane building mats weighing about half as much as the older steel type, and aluminum gasoline drums weighing 21 pounds each, compared with 52 pounds for those of other materials. typical of civilian uses are aluminum boxcar.
Wherever possible, surplus aluminum stock left in military stores, has been utilized. A quantity of aluminum sheet belonging to the Army was recently turned over to the Navy for use as siding and roofing in the construction of Navy warehouses thereby saving other more critical materials.
Aluminum manufacturers during 1944 developed a number of new alloys of military importance and of far-reaching peacetime significance. A new Alcoa alloy, 75S, has a yield strength about twice that of the strong aluminum alloys used only a few years ago, and an ultimate strength exceeding 80,000 pounds per square inch.
To meet urgent civilian demands for aluminum, WPB issued during the latter half of 1944, a series of authorizations for the use of the metal in cases where manpower would not be taken from essential war work and where other more critical materials could be replaced. Whenever the manufacture of a particular item was authorized, permission to use aluminum was granted.
Metal’s use approved
Aluminum truck and trailer bodies are now being built under WPB authorizations. Among such authorized uses of aluminum during the past year were collapsible tubes, metal containers including cans, tank bodies, motorcycles, electrical wiring devices, domestic laundry equipment, automatic phonographs, caskets, burial vaults, furniture and furniture parts, aluminum paint, light power-driven tools, cooking utensils, food processing machinery, engineering instruments and industrial type lighting equipment.
Although military demands for aluminum continue to create a manpower problem in many localities where fabricating plants are located, the facilities for producing the metal in all its forms in this country have stimulated a vast interest in the peacetime prospects for this light, versatile material.
The lowered price of aluminum ingot, now 25 percent below pre-war levels, and the fact that many thousands of additional workers are familiar with the characteristics and advantages of aluminum through its widespread use in the manufacture of war materials, give indication of a greatly enlarged civilian market after the war.
Many new uses for aluminum, as well as the expansion of markets already established, are in the offing.
Dancing tonight, football Monday
By Si Steinhauser
If you are inclined to dance the old year out, all you need do is turn on your radio about 11:30 ET tonight and dance until you are so tired you can’t dance any longer.
WJAS will join the CBS dance across the country and sign off at 3:00 a.m.
KQV will string along until 2:00 a.m.
KDKA goes along until 3:00, and WCAE until 4:00 a.m.
There will be prayerful farewells to 1944 on WCAE at 10:30 with Bishop Oxnam, president of the Council of Churches of Christ in America, as speaker.
Tomorrow is “football day” with four games on local stations and a fifth, the Rose Bowl, daddy of them all, avoided by KDKA. Manager Joe Baudino felt last year and still feels that local interest in the Rose Bowl is below par so he won’t broadcast it. But he will give scores at the end of each quarter.
Here’s the lineup:
| 1:45 | WJAS | Orange Bowl, Georgia Tech-Tulsa. Ted Husing at the mike. |
| 2:00 | WCAE | Cotton Bowl, Texas Christian-Oklahoma. Bill Slater at mike. |
| 2:45 | KQV | Sugar Bowl, Duke-Alabama. Harry Wismer at mike. |
| 4:45 | WCAE | East-West, Ernie Smith at mike. |
| 4:45 | NBC (but not KDKA) | Rose Bowl. S. California-Tennessee. Bill Stern working his eight consecutive and NBC’s 18th consecutive description of this game. |
If you have an all-wave set you will find the Rose Bowl game all over the shortwave dial since it will be broadcast around the world to servicemen. On standard dials you may find the game on WTAM Cleveland, or WLW Cincinnati. Key station for the network is WEAF New York.
Rose Bowl broadcasts are taken as a matter of routine by radio-sports fans and probably only those in radio recall that the broadcast of this game on Jan. 1, 1927, was the first broadcast on the Pacific Coast to the Eastern Seaboard. The Rose Bowl game is not sponsored. The other four are, all by one firm, using 1,460 stations during the day. The games will be different, the ad blurbs the same.
Other important events of the New Year’s first day:
| 7:00 | WJAS | Jack Kirkwood launches his own madcap show. Lillian Leigh (Mrs. Kirkwood) will co-star. |
| 8:30 | WJAS | Gracie Allen and George Burns move to Monday night. Charles Boyer will be their guest. |
| 9:00 | WJAS | Cecil B. DeMille presents Laraine Day, John Hodiak and Marsha Hunt in Bride by Mistake. |
| 10:00 | WJAS | Guy Lombardo moves from Saturday to Monday in a new series. |
Andrews Sisters fans will celebrate today when the trio launches their own commercial with Bing Crosby, their first guest. KQV is the station, 4:30 the time. George “Gabby” Hayes will be their permanent foil and Vic Shoen, who has accompanied the girls on all the recordings, will lead the orchestra.
Bill Goodwin is off the Burns and Allen shows for keeps. Harry von Zell will replace him. Goodwin becomes the comedy star of Frank Sinatra broadcasts.
Pittsburgh’s Dr. Fritz Reiner will conduct the Cleveland Orchestra broadcast of Brahm’s Symphony No. 2 in D Major over WCAE at 7:00 tonight.
Quentin Reynolds takes over as air editor of Radio Digest on WJAS at 9 o’clock.
At 6:00, Paul Whiteman will present an hour-long version of Show Boat with Charles Winninger in his original stage role of “Cap’n Andy.” Helen Forrest will sing the late Helen Morgan’s role of “Julie” and Kathryn Grayson will be “Magnolia.” Allan Jones will be “Gaylord Ravenal.”
As a special feature for music lovers, the Telephone Hour will present Fritz Kreisler in his third broadcast Monday night at 9:00 via KDKA.
The year had its high-spot laughs and its tragic moments on the air. Funniest laugh, we think was provided by Charlie “Finnegan” Cantor of Duffy’s Tavern when he kissed Dorothy Lamour then mumbled, “I wasn’t impressed” and on second trial commentated. “Just confirmed my opinion in the first place.”
A lot of people said a lot of words on the air, millions and millions of them. Bob Hope touched the hearts of everyone who heard him on D-Day Plus One and for those who didn’t hear him, we had his words copied from a recording. Bob adlibbed on that fateful Tuesday night as American boys scrambled up the shores of France:
What’s happened during these last few hours not one of us will ever forget – how could we forget. We sat up all night by the radio and heard the bulletins, the flashes, and voices coming across from England, the commentators, the pilots returning from their greatest of all missions, newsboys yelling in the streets and it seemed that one world was wending and a new world beginning – that history was closing one book and opening a new one, and somehow, we knew it had to be a better one.
You sat there and dawn began to sneak in and you thought of the hundreds of thousands of kids you’d seen at camps in the past two or three years. The kids who screamed and whistled when they heard a gag and a song, and now you could see all of them in 4,000 ships on the English Channel, tumbling out of thousands of planes over Normandy and the occupied coast in countless landing barges crashing the Nazi gate and going on through to do the job that’s the job of all of us.
The sun came up and you sat there looking at that huge black headline: that one great black word with the exclamation point, INVASION! The one word that the whole world has waited for – that all of us have worked for. We knew we would wake up one morning and have to meet it face to face, the word in which America has invested everything these 30 long months, the efforts of millions of Americans building planes and weapons, the shipyards and the men who took the stuff across, little kids buying war stamps and housewives straining bacon grease, farmers working around the clock, millions of young men sweating it out in camps and fighting the battles that paved the way for that headline that morning.
Now the investment must pay for this generation and all generations to come. And folks, what a wonderful thing it is that no matter the price, the reward will be greater than the sacrifice. We hope that thought can go along with a prayer tonight – the prayer of a whole nation – “GOD BLESS THOSE KIDS ACROSS THE ENGLISH CHANNEL.”
Now to steal from Fibber McGee: “May your ’45 really be loaded.”
Nevertheless, it is very funny, so Jack Gaver gives it his approval
By Jack Gaver, United Press drama editor
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Lanky, Pouty, Lauren Bacall is good example of the procedure
By Maxine Garrison
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January 1:
January 4: Soviets cross Polish border.
January 13: Allied planes bomb Bangkok.
January 18: Fourth War Loan opens with $14 billion quota.
January 19: 100,000 planes set for year’s production goal.
January 20: Russians retake Novgorod.
January 22: Allies land at Anzio.
January 27: Leningrad breaks Nazi siege; Liberia declares war on Axis.
January 29:
January 30: Army releases 70 colleges from air force training.
January 31: Allies land on Roi and Kwajalein in Marshall, Jap territory.
February 4: U.S. warships shell Paramushiru.
February 8: Russians clear last Germans from Dnieper east bank.
February 9: Senate rejects food subsidy plan.
February 14: Nation’s farm income for 1943 rose to $19,009,000,000.
February 15: Allies bomb German-fortified Mount Cassino abbey.
February 16:
February 22: President vetoes tax bill.
February 24:
February 25:
February 27: Announce ship loss slashed to 1% on way to Russia.
February 29: Yanks land on Admiralty Island.
March 8: 2,000 U.S. planes attack Berlin in greatest daylight raid.
March 12: U.S. paratroops drop behind Jap lines in Burma to hold Ledo Road.
March 13: Russians take Kherson.
March 15: Congress adopts states’ rights soldier vote bill.
March 17: G.I. “Bill of Rights” voted by Senate group.
March 18: War chiefs agree to defer 40,000 key men under 26.
March 19:
March 27: Supreme Court upholds constitutionality of price control, portal pay for miners.
March 29: U.S. participation in UNRRA authorized.
March 30: Russians enter Romania.
March 31: Wayne Lonergan judged guilty of second-degree murder of his wife.
April 5: Willkie leaves presidential race after defeat in Wisconsin primaries.
April 10: Russians win Odessa.
April 16: Tornado kills 40, injures 500 in Georgia, South Carolina.
April 17: Sedition trial of 30 opens.
April 18: House group drafts proposal to draft 4-Fs for war jobs.
April 19:
April 20: Allied carrier force attacks Sumatra.
April 22: Yanks land in northern New Guinea.
April 26: U.S. troops seize Ward’s after Avery defies Roosevelt order.
April 28: Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox dies.
May 2: U.S. ships sink 17 Jap ships, down 126 planes off Truk.
May 3: Synthetic quinine is produced, ending century search.
May 5: Tax simplification bill voted by House.
May 8:
May 10: Public debt increase from $210 billion to $240 billion voted by House.
May 18:
May 19: James V. Forrestal takes oath as Secretary of the Navy.
May 20: Senate passes tax simplification bill.
May 22: Suspension power of OPA is upheld by Supreme Court.
May 27: Yanks invade Biak Island, in the Schoutens.
June 2:
June 4: Rome falls to Allies.
June 6: ALLIES INVADE EUROPE.
June 12: Fifth War Loan opens, with goal of $16 billion.
June 13: House passes compromise version of “G.I. Bill of Rights.”
June 14: Yanks land on Saipan.
June 15:
June 19:
June 22: President signs “G.I. Bill of Rights.”
June 26: Reds take Vitebsk, Zlobin.
June 27: Allies take Cherbourg.
June 28: Republicans nominate Dewey, Bricker.
June 30: AAF terminates aircrew-training programs in 81 colleges.
July 1: World monetary conference opens.
July 3:
July 6:
July 8: Caen, Saipan fall to Allies.
July 11: Roosevelt announces fourth-term candidacy.**
July 16: Russian take Grodno.
July 18:
July 19: Allies take Livorno.
July 20:
July 21: Truman named Democratic vice-presidential candidate.
July 22: 44 nations approve fund, bank pacts as world monetary parley ends.
July 23:
July 24:
July 26-29: Roosevelt, MacArthur, Nimitz confer in Hawaii.
July 28: Soviets take Brest-Litovsk.
July 29:
July 30: Allies invade Sansapor, 600 miles from the Philippines.
July 31: Allies begin aerial blitz on Nazi supply routes and transport lines in France and Germany.
August 1:
August 2: Turkey breaks with Germany.
August 4: Allies take: Rennes, France – Florence, Italy – Myitkyina, Burma.
August 6:
August 6-8: B-29s hit Davao, in the first attack on the Philippines since Corregidor.
August 8:
August 10:
August 15:
August 17:
August 21: U.S., Britain, Russia open peace talks at Dumbarton Oaks.
August 22:
August 23:
August 24: Allies take Bordeaux.
August 25:
August 27: Allies take Toulon.
August 28:
August 30: Soviets take Ploesti oil fields.
September 1:
September 2:
September 4:
September 5:
September 6:
September 7:
September 8:
September 9-12: Huge Allied task force shells Mindanao, the Philippines.
September 10: Allies shell German soil, take Luxembourg.
September 11:
September 17:
September 19:
September 20: Allies take Boulogne, Brest.
September 20-21: U.S. Third Fleet smashes 103 Jap ships, 405 planes, in Manila assault.
September 22:
September 24: Survey shows 6,500,000 women took jobs since Pearl Harbor.
September 25:
September 27: Allies invade Albania, islands of Yugoslavia.
September 29: China enters Dumbarton Oaks talks as Russian phase ends.
October 1: Allies take Calais.
October 2: Allies start offensive drive through Siegfried Line.
October 3:
October 4:
October 7: Japs take Foochow.
October 8:
October 9: St. Louis Cardinals win World Series.
October 10:
October 12-13: Allied carrier force strikes Formosa.
October 13:
October 14: New “super-fuel” is developed for carrier-based planes.
October 15:
October 18: Soviets drive into Czechoslovakia.
October 19:
October 20:
October 22-27: Allies sink 24 Jap ships, damage 33, down 150 Jap planes in air-sea battle off the Philippines.
October 25: Soviets drive into Norway.
October 28:
November 2:
November 4: Last German forces driven from Greece.
November 4-5: Allies destroy 440 Jap planes, sink or damage 30 Jap ships in Manila-Southern Luzon area.
November 5: B-29s raid Singapore.
November 7:
November 9: U.S. battle casualties pass 500,000 mark.
November 11: Allies sink Jap convoy of 8,000 troops.
November 12:
November 15: Allies land on Mapia Island, above New Guinea.
November 16: Byrnes named Reconversion Director.
November 17: Lt. Gen. Raymond A. Wheeler succeeds Gen. Stilwell as deputy commander in Southeast Asia.
November 19: Allies enter Saar Basin.
November 20:
November 21: President names Nelson “personal representative” to China.
November 22: Allies drive to Roer River.
November 24: B-29s attack Tokyo for the first time.
November 27: Stettinius named Secretary of State as Hull resigns.
December 2: Allies take Antwerp.
December 5:
December 7: Mass sedition trial ends in mistrial after the death of Judge Eicher.
December 10: Allies take Ormoc.
December 11: Allies seize Sarreguemines, Haguenau.
December 12: Cold wave grips nation.
December 14: U.S. casualties for World War II rise to 562,468.
December 15: Seventh Army invades Reich. Patch’s troops cross border from Alsace.
December 16:
December 20:
December 26:
December 27:
December 28: Army seizes Montgomery Ward & Company stores in seven cities.
December 30: Germans thrown back by Gen. Patton’s Third Army.
Willis Lamont taught natives – Limitations may hinder peace plans
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Tulsa vs. Tech shapes hottest of six holiday grid battles carded
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