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January 1943. Washington, D.C. "Listening to a murder mystery on the radio in a boardinghouse." This is one of the photos in the new Ken Burns documentary "The War," with the narrator talking about people listening to war news. Photo by Esther Bubley. View full size. Two other photos used in "The War" are here and here, even though the latter picture was taken in 1936, three years before WWII began, and is in Tennessee, not Alabama, as implied by the voiceover.
The radio seems to be a Philco model 42-321T.
Does anybody know what is that kind of dispenser mounted on the wall? I couldn't find out any reference to "dabs" brand related to this item on the Internet.
I am having a wonderful time looking at all these photos on this amazing site, some of which I have only seen in much smaller versions online. For those of you who would like to listen to these murder mysteries and hundreds of other old radio programs, check out this site:
This August 1942 photo of Ella Watson and two of her grandchildren, taken by Gordon Parks, is also shown in "The War," with the narrator talking about how people were anxious for some good news from the fighting front. Library of Congress caption: "Mrs. Ella Watson, who has been a government charwoman for twenty-six years, with three of the five children she supports on her salary of one thousand eighty dollars per year."
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