Cards and vintage things: April 14-17, 1942

 When the American Management Association was planning their April 1942 packaging exposition they probably did not realize just how vital the event would become. This matchbook might have been printed before the US entered World War II in December 1941, and probably before the February 1942 order restricting steel, tin, rubber, and other materials. Other materials like cork came from areas where the supply line was disrupted or cut off entirely. This article from the April 15, 1942 Emporia Gazette illustrates some of the difficulties manufacturers faced, and the ingenious solutions they were already coming up with. Larger packages that used less materials, greater use of paper, and some innovative packaging concepts for food, medicine, and other products were on display. (Click on "OCR" to read the full text of the article.) An April 4, 1942 Billboard article provides further detail on the issues big companies like Coca-Cola and Wrigley were attempting to solve at the convention.

While the packaging pros gathered at the Hotel Astor in Times Square (torn down in 1967 and replaced by a generic office building), war continued to engulf the world, as American and British ships sunk German U-Boats on both sides of the Atlantic, and the Japanese pushed deeper into Burma and the Philippines.

This particular matchbook was issued for the Pneumatic Scale Corp. of North Quincy, MA. Pneumatic Scale produced ammunition belts for the war effort as well as packaging for a wide variety of food and other essential products. See a 1943 ad for the company below.

The representatives of Pneumatic might well have had a bit of their attention diverted by the Red Sox, who along with the rest of Major League Baseball opened the same day as the convention. President Franklin Roosevelt was insistent that the baseball season occur, but changes included foul balls being saved for servicemen, radio announcers forbidden to discuss the weather, and the start of a new patriotic tradition - The Star Spangled Banner was played at the start of each game. (Read more at this article from ThisGreatGame.com.)

The Red Sox swept the opening series at Boston against the Philadelphia A's, but were shut out at Yankee Stadium on the 17th. Ted Williams, who was the subject of severe criticism after fighting to get his draft status reclassified in January, started off the season like a man with something to prove, driving in five runs on opening day and four more on the 16th. Overall in the four games Williams went seven-for-twelve with six walks, 9 RBI and six runs scored, and two home runs. Williams would continue his hot hitting all season, earning his first Triple Crown. Off the field, Williams enlisted in the Naval Reserve in May, going on active duty in 1943 and eventually becoming arguably the most prominent baseball star to serve in the military, most notably for flying 39 combat missions during the Korean War.

A baseball season disrupted by current events; massive disruptions in supply chain; the nation called to make sacrifices for the greater good . . . sounds familiar, unfortunately.