Kay and folk music

Kay seems to have been a tolerant person overall, but her dislike of country-western music was known far and wide. That was more of an aesthetic issue, coupled with pressure from an employer who insisted Kay include singing-cowboy records on her morning radio program about 1949 or 1950.

But before that, Kay had taken a general stand against the folk-song movement. As she worked at Scott Air Field, first as a member of the Women's Auxillary Army Corps and then as a civilian, and then during the time she was producing shows to promote the sale of defense bonds, Kay was irked by the anti-war stand taken by some "folkies." In particular, she disliked The Almanac Singers, who made a number of recordings objecting to men being drafted into the Army.

"The Ballad of October 16" refers to the date in 1940 when the Selective Service Act passed in September went into effect and men had to sign up with their draft boards:

"Billy Boy" honed the familar folk song into a general statement against war:

And the lyrics of "Washington Breakdown" talk about serving in the armed forces in the opposite of the morale-boosting manner Kay favored: "Wendell Willkie and Franklin D./ seems to me /they both agree/ on killin' me. . . "

Kay was in no sense a warmonger, but she lumped folksingers in general in with the pro-German "America First" crowd, based on a few records by the singing group which included Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Sis Cunningham among others. Kay didn't display many prejudices in general, but she certainly had no use for this type of social commentator, especially in a time of war. 

Three sleds?

Recently I saw this photo on an online sharing site and someone wondered if the children had shovels to make a path for their sled. 

I don't think so! The shovels are the kind used for shoveling coal into a scuttle or furnace -- not the flat flat bottoms and rims down the sides. 

In a letter to her sister, Kay wrote about the two of them as young children, taking turns sliding down a hill on the family's coal shovel. Apparently, kids turned the shovels around backwsards and sat on the shovel blade and then tried to steer with the handle. 

How well this went is revealed in Kay's letter: "You remember when we went "sledding" and that old sled handle came up and bopped you and your tooth came out? Good thing for you it was a baby tooth but I remember you cried because the white tooth got lost in the snow so the Tooth Fairy couldn't come. Our folks said never mind but we know they didn't want to spare the nickel, ha ha. And then Paw Paw gave you some sticky taffy and it pulled another loose tooth out and you were so happy. I think it was Paw Paw, anyway."

A good one from Kay's era

Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians offer some excellent advice. 

A favorite tune used in Kay's "morale medleys"

In between war-bond rallies during and just after the Second World War, Kay organized community concerts in which local glee clubs, church choirs, and other singing groups would stand on risers at the conclusion of the show and sing a medley of morale-boosting songs. The Marilyn Miller favorite  "Look for the Silver Lining," from the 1920s, was revived by Judy Garland and other singers.

The song was the title number for the Hollywood biopic about Miller:

Pop hits that made Kay glad she'd quit show buiness, #3, 422

In public, Kay was tactful and diplomatic. At home, and in privately-written notes, she experessed her disdain for a culture which once embraced swing music enthusiastically and jazz music with some doubt, and which now wanted the soulful sounds erased from its radio airwaves. 

The Four Preps appear on a television variety show to lip-sync "26 Miles."

Kay-era nutritional supplement