As Memorial Day approaches, we look to scenes of World War II on the home front in Boston and New Bedford. Bostonians bought and sold bonds to help finance the war, and Hollywood film actress Dorothy Lamour even auctioned off items in downtown New Bedford for the war effort. The streets filled with celebrants when the war ended first in Europe, and then in Japan.
From the archives | Photos
WWII on the home front
Boston Globe archive
July 2, 1942: “Drop your personal calling card on the Axis” was the pitch in a war bond drive. Jays, on Temple Place, opened the “Retailers for Victory” campaign with the sale of a $1,000 war bond and the first autograph made on the shell of a 100-pound bomb, which Navy Secretary Frank Knox had delivered there that morning. President Arthur P. Schier bought a $1,000 war bond to be first to autograph the bomb. From left, Mrs. Marion Meyer, vice president of Jays; Mrs. Jeremiah Hurley, of Brookline, second signer on the bomb; Ruth E. Broome, of Cambridge; and Schier and Kay Zetruer of Boston all signed the bomb, to be dropped somewhere on an Axis target.