New Orleans in the Forties

An autobiographical history of New Orleans by a Louisiana native who came of age during the Second World War.

New Orleans in the Forties delightfully documents a time when, though the war raged in Europe, high school girls could still flirt on the streetcar with high school boys, and one made a trip to the movies to see Mary Martin, Lana Turner, or William Holden. Author Mary Lou Widmer recalls such youthful, frivolous events as slurping sodas and wolfing down cake at Woolworth's on Canal Street, spending Friday nights at O’Shaugnessy’s Bowling Alley on Airline Highway, or frolicking at Pontchartrain Beach Amusement Park.

This volume in the series explores the many changes that New Orleanians and their city went through before, during, and after the trying times of World War II. Widmer fondly remembers the forties as she examines the city socially, politically, and architecturally, and includes a look at popular fads, sports, and other entertainment that boomed during this period in history. She takes a look at the expanding suburbs of New Orleans, and the effects that the end of the war had on growth and development in areas such as Gentilly Woods and the lakefront. The book also surveys the fashions of the day, and discusses developments in science and technology, with particular attention given to television and its effect upon society.