The decade of the 1940s can be divided into two periods, the war years and post-war years.
The world was at war during World War II and this dominated the lives of the men and women in Henderson County and throughout the nation and world.
The post-war years saw the rise of the Soviet Union, the beginnings of the Cold War and an economic and population boom. New technologies developed during the war were now used in daily life.
During the war years and the post-war years dozens of classic films were produced. Several were about the war. Films produced during the 1940s include the Great Dictator with Charlie Chaplin, Casablanca, Going My Way, All the King’s Men, the Maltese Falcon, It’s A Wonderful Life, Meet Me In St. Louis, Citizen Kane, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Pinocchio, Dumbo and Bambi. Some of the entertainers, actresses and actors include Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable, Clark Gable, Lauren Bacall, Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart, Walter Brennan, Gary Cooper, Olivia de Havilland, Doris Day, Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, Joan Fontaine, Judy Garland, Ava Gardner, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Bob Hope, Burt Lancaster, Marilyn Monroe, Maureen O’Hara, Gregory Peck, Roy Rogers, Mickey Rooney, Barbara Stanwyck, James Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor, Spencer Tracy, John Wayne, Jane Wyman, Loretta Young and Fred MacMurray.
The most popular music style during the 1940s was swing with musicians such as Glenn Miller, Les Brown, Jimmy Dorsey and Benny Goodman. During the post-war years, “crooners” emerged such as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Perry Como and Nat King Cole. The blues was still popular, and the post-war years saw the rise of bebop and the earliest traces of rock and roll. Other notable musicians included the Andrew Sisters, Duke Ellington, B.B. King, Gene Autry, Ray Charles, Pearl Bailey, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Dean Martin, Cole Porter, Dinah Shore and Muddy Waters.
Some of the notable authors during this decade were Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Arthur Miller and George Orwell . And one of the most noteworthy books was the Diary of Anne Frank. The Captain America comic book began in this decade.
During the 1940s sporting events were disrupted. The 1940 and 1944 Olympics were cancelled. The Olympics resumed in 1948. Many sports figures from baseball players to boxers served in the military. It was in 1945 that the Brooklyn Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson to a player’s contract. This was the beginning of racial integration in professional sports.

World War II

Post-War Boom