A Nutty Putty Affair

Silly Putty was introduced to the public in 1950. Initially, the substance was an attempt to create a synthetic rubber substitute during World War II. While working for General Electric in 1943, James Wright combined boric acid and silicone oil in a test tube to create a new rubbery substance, an intriguing “nutty putty.” As he began to play with it, his accidental discovery bounced higher than rubber, stretched to great distances, snapped with sharp tugs, and could pick up ink from any printed matter. 

Without a practical purpose, the putty was passed around among friends. In 1949, it eventually found its way into the hands of a toy store owner whose marketing consultant, Peter Hodgson, identified the putty potential and purchased the rights from General Electric to sell the stuff himself. Hodgson packaged it in small plastic eggs and named it Silly Putty. After being featured in a New Yorker article, sales surged to 250,000 in just three days. Since its introduction, more than 300 million Silly Putty eggs have been sold.

More silly details at THOUGHTCO. and how to make it yourself.

From Bullets to Ice Cubes

The Norge Appliance Company manufactured window iceboxes and later moved to motorized refrigeration units. The Norge brand began making home appliances in the early 1940s. Norge appliances were considered solid and reliable, perhaps built like a tank, Norge's military involvement in producing bullets, gun turrets, and airplane parts during WW2 was just as impressive. The Norge refrigeration line has a complicated history of corporate buy-outs. The company was originally a division of BorgWarner, manufacturing refrigerators made by the Ranney Refrigeration Company. The Norge refrigerator line was eventually sold in 1970 to the Fedders Corporation and approximately four years later was acquired by Magic Chef, which in turn was absorbed by Maytag in 1986. Since 2005, the Whirlpool Corporation took over any Maytag brands. 

Broadcast Pioneers

 

Eric Sevareid (1912-1992) was an American author and CBS news journalist, one of a group of elite war correspondents who were hired by CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow and nicknamed "Murrow's Boys." Sevareid was the first to report the Fall of Paris in 1940 after the city was captured by German forces during World War II. Severeid had pointed views away from the reporting microphones, especially during his later personal commentary segments, that sometimes divided his viewers into two camps.

Blessed with an old-school vocal delivery, Sevareid's work during World War II was at the forefront of broadcasting. He was a commentator on the CBS Evening News for thirteen years, winning Emmy and Peabody Awards. Sevareid's demeanor was one of authority and trustworthiness, all brought to the airwaves with intelligence. From 1959 to 1961, Sevareid was CBS's roving European correspondent, contributing stories to CBS Reports during that time. Sevareid joined Walter Cronkite on CBS television with a commentary about the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the road ahead for the new president, Lyndon Johnson. He retired from the CBS network in 1977 but continued to contribute with independent projects, even playing himself on an episode of the sitcom Taxi in 1980.

16,000 Hours of Flight Time

 

Lieutenant Colonel Fitzhugh Lee "Fitz" Fulton, Jr. (1925-2015) stands next to fellow test pilot, Colonel Joseph Cotton, with the North American Aviation XB-70A Valkyrie in the background at Edwards AFB, California in the Sixties. Upon his retirement from NASA, Fulton had flown more than 16,000 hours in 235 aircraft types. But his flying days started much earlier during World War II. 

In 1946 Fulton participated in Operation Crossroads, the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. He made 225 sorties flying a Douglas C-54 Skymaster four-engine transport during the Berlin Airlift, and then the Douglas B-26 Invader light attack bomber during the Korean War. Fulton graduated from the Air Force Test Pilot School in 1952. He served as project test pilot for the Convair B-58 Hustler supersonic bomber and flew it to a World Record Altitude of 85,360.66 feet during 1962. He flew the B-52 “mother ships” for the X-15 Program from Edwards, AFB.

Fulton continued as a research test pilot for NASA, flying as project pilot for the YF-12A and YF-12C research program. He flew all the early test flights of the NASA/Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft that carried the space shuttle prototype, Enterprise.  

From Tennessee to New Mexico

 

On this date in 1945, the Trinity Site, Alamogordo, New Mexico, became the location for the first detonation of a nuclear weapon. The Manhattan Project was the codename for the American effort to develop and test nuclear weapons during World War II. Run by General Leslie Groves, the construction of the actual bomb was overseen by Robert Oppenheimer, who was head of the Los Alamos Laboratory where it was developed. In 1939 a letter written by Leo Szilard and signed by Albert Einstein was delivered to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The letter urged the United States to develop uranium stockpiles and commence research efforts, especially as Nazi Germany might do the same.

The work was carried out with extreme secrecy with many of those working on the project having no idea what they were working towards. Despite the security, Soviet spies managed to penetrate the project and were aware that the US had developed the bomb. Less than a month later, President Harry Truman authorized the use of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Unwilling to surrender, Japan did not acknowledge the singular bomb. However, the second bomb brought about a swift end to World War II without the need for a catastrophic invasion of Japan.

Note: The "Calutron Girls" are shown monitoring a mass spectrometer, used for separating the isotopes of uranium, during the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The women were mostly high school graduates. In the foreground is Gladys Owens. Almost difficult to comprehend, she did not know what she was involved with until seeing this picture on a tour fifty years later.

The Memphis Belle

 

On this day in 1943, after completing twenty-five combat missions over Western Europe from its base at RAF Bassingbourne, Cambridgeshire, England, Memphis Belle, a U.S. Army Air Forces Boeing B-17F-10-BO Flying Fortress, was flown home by Captain Robert K. Morgan and Captain James A. Verinis. Memphis Belle was only the second B-17 to survive twenty-five missions and was subsequently withdrawn from combat and sent back to the United States for a publicity tour. It is one of only three B-17F models remaining in existence. After a complete restoration in 2018, the plane was put on permanent display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.

Note: The B-17’s name was a reference to Captain Morgan’s girlfriend, Miss Margaret Polk, who lived in Memphis, Tennessee. The artwork painted on the airplane’s nose was a “Petty Girl” based on the work of pin-up artist George Petty of Esquire magazine. 

The Black Widow

 

On this date in 1942, The prototype Northrop XP-61-NO, 41-19509, made its first flight at Northrop Field, Hawthorne, California, with freelance test pilot Vance Breese at the controls. Similar in overall layout to Lockheed's twin-boom P-38 Lightning, the XP-61 was the first American airplane designed specifically as a night fighter. The same size as a medium bomber, it was crewed by a pilot, a gunner, and a radar operator in a center “gondola” pod.

The P-61 got its eventual nickname, Black Widow, from the glossy paint scheme that scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology determined [brilliantly] black to be the best camouflage at night. Over 700 P-61s were built, serving in both the Pacific and European campaigns.

Red Ball Express (1952)

 

On this day in 1952, the World War II war film, Red Ball Express, premiered in Los Angeles, California. Directed by Budd Boetticher, it starred Jeff Chandler and Alex Nicol, with early screen appearances by Sidney Poitier Jack Kelly, and Hugh O'Brian. The film, typically not entirely an accurate depiction, is based on the real Red Ball Express convoys that took place after the D-Day landings in Normandy, June 1944. The film picks up in August of that year when Patton's Third Army advanced so far toward Paris that it could not be supplied. Allied Headquarters established an elite military truck route to keep the momentum rolling.

After Hours at the Library

 

This 1942 release, Quiet Please, Murder, is an enjoyable yet routine detective mystery with art forger George Sanders at his condescending best. His partner in crime is Gail Patrick, playing a phony art expert. They tolerate each other only for their monetary rewards. This unknown film was a World War II encourager in defeating the Nazis. Film vacillates between serious and humorous, making it a fast seventy minutes. Richard Denning is a standout with plenty of quips as is Byron Foulger as the nervous head librarian during an air raid. My full assessment at FORGOTTEN CINEMA.

Lee's Post-War Planning

 

After World War Two, winning at home was a priority for Lee Tire and Rubber Corporation of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, and their Republic Rubber division in Youngstown, Ohio on puncture-proof pneumatic tires for trucks and passenger cars.

J. Ellwood Lee opened his first factory in 1887 selling medical supplies. In 1905 Lee believed automobiles would become popular and merged his medical supply company with Johnson & Johnson, leading to the creation of the Lee Tire and Rubber Company which opened in 1914. The company fell on hard times in the 1960s and was taken over by a New York firm before being sold in 1965 to Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. The sale helped delay the company’s demise until 1980. The main building of the Lee Tire and Rubber Company, now known as Lee Park, is a historic factory complex built in 1909 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.