{"id":6984,"date":"2009-02-20T02:44:22","date_gmt":"2009-02-20T07:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=6984"},"modified":"2010-12-23T03:34:36","modified_gmt":"2010-12-23T08:34:36","slug":"world-war-ii-propaganda-to-stay-off-the-phones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2009\/02\/20\/world-war-ii-propaganda-to-stay-off-the-phones\/","title":{"rendered":"World War II Propaganda to Stay Off the Phones"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve previously blogged about how, during World War II, Americans were expected to sacrifice in ways that we simply do not expect Americans to sacrifice today.\u00a0 Specifically,\u00a0my post addresses how people were encouraged to\u00a0save gas and carpool <\/a>(“Hitler rides in the empty seat!”), but people made all sorts of sacrifices: from going to work, to victory gardens, to eschewing panty hose.<\/p>\n

Penny R. sent in another example that I found really interesting, staying off of phone lines during the hours when soldiers were likely to call home.\u00a0 These government-sponsored ads were found in a 1944 Southern California Telephone Company phone books for West Los Angeles (found at This Book Is for You<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\"7_to_101\"<\/p>\n

Text:\u00a0 “Night-time is about the best time a service man has to call home.\u00a0 That’s a good point to remember when you feel the urge to make a Long Distance call between 7 and 10 P.M.\u00a0 If it isn’t important, we hope you won’t make it.\u00a0\u00a0 Let the men in service have first call on the wires.”<\/p>\n

\"he_needs_phone_lines\"<\/p>\n

Text:\u00a0 “We appreciate the help you are giving us in keeping the Long Distance lines open for war calls.\u00a0 The production of munitions . . . the movement of troops . . . the building of ships and bombers . . . have put the Long Distance lines squarely up against their biggest task.\u00a0 Materials for building telephone lines are no longer available — they are needed on the fighting fronts.\u00a0 That is why we ask that only really necessary calls be made to war-busy centers.\u00a0 Thank you for your fine co-operation.”<\/p>\n

\"war_and_long_distance\"<\/p>\n

Text: “This year, war<\/em> is on the wires.\u00a0 And the Long Distance lines to war-busy centers must be kept open for calls that help to build planes and ships and move supplies and troops.\u00a0 We cannot add to the lines–that would require the use of materials needed by our armed forces.\u00a0 That is why we ask that only really necessary calls be made to war-busy centers.\u00a0 Your co-operation means that we can do a better war job for you and for the Nation. Thank you.”<\/p>\n

\"wartime_scarcity\"<\/p>\n

Text:\u00a0 “The trained eyes and fingers of telephone operators are needed, these days, at the switchboards that are heavily loaded with war calls.\u00a0 Telephone equipment of every kind is deep in the war task.\u00a0 Will you help us to make every bit of equipment count?\u00a0 Here is one way: Please look in the Directory for any number you are not sure of.\u00a0 Please look there first before you call ‘Information.’\u00a0 Thousands of calls daily, in which ‘Information’ is asked\u00a0to help, are for numbers that are IN the Directory.\u00a0 Our foremost job is the war job. It just is not feasible to do all the things for our customers that we were able to do in peace time.\u00a0 We appreciate your understanding and your friendly cooperation.”<\/p>\n

Can you imagine being asked to stay off the internet every evening?\u00a0 Impossible!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve previously blogged about how, during World War II, Americans were expected to sacrifice in ways that we simply do not expect Americans to sacrifice today.\u00a0 Specifically,\u00a0my post addresses how people were encouraged to\u00a0save gas and carpool (“Hitler rides in the empty seat!”), but people made all sorts of sacrifices: from going to work, to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[253,23704,290,309],"class_list":["post-6984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-history","tag-public-service-announcements","tag-sciencetechnology","tag-warmilitary"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6984"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31328,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6984\/revisions\/31328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}