Time Marches on into 1943

Hollywood, despite wartime restrictions, managed to put out some excellent films across all the genres, movie making continued at a slower pace in Europe, and Akira Kurosawa made his first movie in Japan.

In Hollywood, 20th Century Fox began distributing three million pinups of leggy actress Betty Grable mostly to GIs serving in armed forces overseas. She was declared their favorite pinup and by 1946-47 she was the highest-salaried American woman. Clark Gable as a US Army Air Corps Lieutenant was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal after participating in five combat missions in 1943.

50 year-old British actor Leslie Howard was killed when onboard a DC-3 plane that was shot down by German Luftwaffe fighters over the Bay of Biscay near Lisbon, Portugal (considered by the Nazis a war zone).  There are numerous theories, never proven and later denied by Germany, that the plane was specifically targeted a) in the mistaken belief that Churchill was aboard or 2) to assassinate Howard who was active in anti-Nazi propaganda and suspected of being a British intelligence agent.

Supported by the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG), Olivia de Havilland filed a far-reaching lawsuit against her studio, Warner Bros, eventually winning in a 1945 ruling called the DeHavilland Law. It declared that a studio could not indefinitely extend a performer’s contract past the time stated due to suspensions.

In U.S. news, President Roosevelt froze prices, salaries, and wages to prevent inflation caused by booming war production.  Income tax withholding on wages was introduced. The Chinese Exclusion Acts of 1888 and 1902 were repealed allowing the free immigration of Chinese to the U.S.  Construction of the Pentagon was completed, making it the largest office building in the world.  Dragon’s Teeth by Upton Sinclair won the Pulitzer Prize.  “Paper Doll” by the Mills Brothers spent the most time on the top of the charts.

While heavy fighting continued everywhere, 1943 proved to be the beginning of the end for Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo.  The German 6th Army surrendered to the Soviets at Stalingrad in early February.  The public announcement of the defeat marked the first time the Nazis had acknowledged a failure during the war.  The United States VI Corps arrived in North Africa and in May the remaining Axis forces there had surrendered.  Allied forces invaded Sicily in July and advanced northward, reaching Naples by the end of the year.  Mussolini was dismissed and arrested In July.  Germans rescued him from jail in September and made him head of the puppet Italian Social Republic.  In the Pacific Theater, the Japanese defeat on Guadalcanal was followed by a slow American advance through the Solomon Islands and a combined American and Australian campaign in New Guinea.

Montage of stills from the Oscar winners of 1943

Montage of stills from all Oscar nominees of 1943