Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.
Kenneth Hall, a Tennessee Valley Authority worker, eating lunch. Photograph by Arthur Rothstein, June 1942. View full size.
1942 War Production Board poster by artist Fred Ludekens.
He's a fighting fool
give him the best you've got
MORE PRODUCTION
It looks to be some sort of water-cooled heavy machine gun in a fixed position or a vehicle - possibly used as an anti-aircraft gun, but that part is just a guess. The hoses would carry the cooling liquid into and out of the jacket surrounding the barrel of the gun. Over heating would distort the barrel so water cooling was one way of dealing with it. The hoses and the nature of the mount suggest a fixed position or even a ship, while the planes in the background of the poster suggest that it was used as some sort of anti-aircraft gun. Of course whether such a gun ever existed outside of the mind of the artist is questionable.
What is that object in the poster? He does look a little like Macy but I think it would be his grandpa.
Thanks Ken, another great image by my father that I haven't seen. He liked to use words with pictures and actually has a book by the same name. This is a great example of that technique. Eve
I didn't know that William H Macy was that old!
I didn't know William H Macy was that old!
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5