# Is the late 1940s ignored in American pop-culture history? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 30, 2023, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-late-1940s-ignored-in-american-pop-culture-history/992283 "2023-10-30T01:57:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2023, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-late-1940s-ignored-in-american-pop-culture-history/992283/81 "2023-11-05T19:09:19Z")
Thanks. It occurs to me that one reason that the late forties might be less discussed in American popculture is that they are too early for boomers to remember but too recent for boomers to have studied in history class. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2023, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-late-1940s-ignored-in-american-pop-culture-history/992283/82 "2023-11-05T20:10:17Z")
Ineresting! I’d never heard of a teenage comic from my grandmother’s era (graduated 1919).thanks. ---
**Author:** ![martyg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f475e1/32.png) [@martyg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/martyg)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2023, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-late-1940s-ignored-in-american-pop-culture-history/992283/83 "2023-11-05T20:14:55Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > too early for boomers to remember but too recent for boomers to have studied in history class. Hmmph. Interesting idea. It’s hard for me though to believe that boomers in general don’t have anything about it to weigh in on. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2023, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-late-1940s-ignored-in-american-pop-culture-history/992283/84 "2023-11-05T20:27:53Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Nitpick: the word was spelled teen-ager before that. And it’s still spelled that way in _The New Yorker_. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2023, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-late-1940s-ignored-in-american-pop-culture-history/992283/85 "2023-11-05T20:28:45Z")
Do they also still spell today as to-day? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2023, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-late-1940s-ignored-in-american-pop-culture-history/992283/86 "2023-11-05T20:41:53Z")
The New Yorker is weird on some spelling, like spelling cooperate as coöperate. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2023, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-late-1940s-ignored-in-american-pop-culture-history/992283/87 "2023-11-05T20:47:55Z")
_The New Yorker_ still uses diereses. I hate them. > **[The Curse of the Diaeresis](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-curse-of-the-diaeresis)** > > The special tool we use here at The New Yorker for punching out the two dots that we then center carefully over the second vowel in such words as … ETA: I swear the previous post was not there when I started this. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2023, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-late-1940s-ignored-in-american-pop-culture-history/992283/88 "2023-11-05T20:58:04Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > The New Yorker is weird on some spelling, like spelling cooperate as coöperate. Well, Coöperate Sound could make for a great heavy metal band name… ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2023, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-late-1940s-ignored-in-american-pop-culture-history/992283/89 "2023-11-05T21:19:28Z")
Last year or so, I heard about someone who wanted his online name to look really kewl, so he called himself ßilly ßadass, which did not make people who know German respect him ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2023, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-late-1940s-ignored-in-american-pop-culture-history/992283/90 "2023-11-05T21:24:17Z")
So, Silly Sadass? 😁 ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2023, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-late-1940s-ignored-in-american-pop-culture-history/992283/91 "2023-11-05T21:28:06Z")
Fun with research! Here’s some magazines pre-1959 that clearly recognized that teens were a potentially profitable consumer group. 1932 - _Compact_ (for teens) [can’t confirm the date but the December 1953 issue was #168] 1941 - _Calling All Girls_ (for tweens) [both later merged into _Young Miss_] 1944 - _Seventeen_ 1947 - _Girl’s Own_ 1954 - _Teen_ 1956 - _16_ And general magazines made sure to cover them. I love this article from the Dec. 11, 1944 _Life_, [Teen-Age Girls: They Live in a Wonderful World of Their Ow](https://books.google.com/books?id=10EEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA91&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false)n. Teen-age and teen-ager are used profusely. No fashion magazines for teen boys. Then or ever. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2023, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-late-1940s-ignored-in-american-pop-culture-history/992283/92 "2023-11-05T23:52:13Z")
Yep. That’s him ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2023, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-late-1940s-ignored-in-american-pop-culture-history/992283/93 "2023-11-06T00:45:16Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > And general magazines made sure to cover them. I love this article from the Dec. 11, 1944 _Life_, [Teen-Age Girls: They Live in a Wonderful World of Their Ow](https://books.google.com/books?id=10EEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA91&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false) Did someone hit the editor with a shovel while he was dictating the headline? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2023, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-late-1940s-ignored-in-american-pop-culture-history/992283/94 "2023-11-06T00:52:58Z")
I found myself inspired by a [recent thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-hope-for-the-us/992627) from Guapo. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2023, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-late-1940s-ignored-in-american-pop-culture-history/992283/95 "2023-11-06T01:05:03Z")
"Look, if he was dying, he wouldn’t bother to carve ‘aarrggh’: ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2023, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-late-1940s-ignored-in-american-pop-culture-history/992283/96 "2023-11-06T02:12:19Z")
Those last two references being a manifestation of the general boomerhood of this Board… ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2023, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-late-1940s-ignored-in-american-pop-culture-history/992283/97 "2023-11-06T02:33:48Z")
We didn’t need them. We had _ **Boys’ Life** _. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2023, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-late-1940s-ignored-in-american-pop-culture-history/992283/98 "2023-11-06T23:32:09Z")
Yes indeed ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2024, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-late-1940s-ignored-in-american-pop-culture-history/992283/99 "2024-04-07T12:27:09Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > one reason that the late forties might be less discussed in American popculture is that they are too early for boomers to remember but too recent for boomers to have studied in history class. What I learned about the late 1940’s I learned from my parents. Dad was into Hank Williams Sr., gambling and heavy drinking. Mom was experiencing racism against Mexicans in Texas, the Klan was a thing back then in the south. They desribe the times as being more lawless than today, as returning soldiers came back with attitudes that killing and violently assaulting people was the answer to disagreements. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2024, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-late-1940s-ignored-in-american-pop-culture-history/992283/100 "2024-04-07T13:26:03Z")
> [@gnarator](#): > > Sure, but Glenn Miller died in 1944 when his plane disappeared. At least that’s what he wanted people to think. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-late-1940s-ignored-in-american-pop-culture-history/992283.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-late-1940s-ignored-in-american-pop-culture-history/992283.md?page=6)