History Main / The40s

* ''Film/XMenFilmSeries''(2000-):

The cinemas of several countries managed to produce influential films. UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood was still ongoing, and hit films such as ''Film/CitizenKane'', ''Film/TheMalteseFalcon1941'', and ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'' were arguably among its best products. The FilmNoir genre rose to particular prominence. British cinema had some major hits in the adaptation of Shakespearean works by Creator/LaurenceOlivier and the exemplary noir ''Film/TheThirdMan''. In France, influential directors such as Marcel Carné, Robert Bresson, and René Clément scored major hits in the aftermath of the War. Italian neorealism was developed in this decade, with major directors in the genre including Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, and Giuseppe De Santis. In the Soviet Union, ''Film/IvanTheTerrible'' by Creator/SergeiEisenstein was arguably the most notable film of its decade. Meanwhile, a new generation of directors managed to produce their own hits. In Japan, new director Creator/AkiraKurosawa began his career.

* UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks was still ongoing.

* A 1941 decision of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allows UsefulNotes/AmericanTelevisionStations to broadcast [[AdvertisingTropes Commercials]]. On 1 July, 1941, ten stations incorporate commercials to their programs. The first known television commercial was one for Bulova watches. Broadcast during a UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} game between the [[UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueBaseball Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies]].

[[AC:Film]]

The Fighting Forties was a memorably turbulent era, forever linked in the public consciousness with UsefulNotes/WorldWarII (1937/1939-1945), the development of the first atomic weapons and subsequent UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki. This also marked the start of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar and the UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict. But this era also brought many other changes on the world's political map. The [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]] annexed UsefulNotes/{{Estonia}}, UsefulNotes/{{Latvia}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Lithuania}}, while [[UsefulNotes/{{Myanmar}} Burma]], UsefulNotes/{{Iceland}}, UsefulNotes/{{India}}, UsefulNotes/{{Indonesia}}, UsefulNotes/{{Israel}}, UsefulNotes/{{Lebanon}}, UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Syria}}, and the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}} gained independence from various European and American colonial empires. New regimes also emerged in existing countries; UsefulNotes/RepublicanItaly, UsefulNotes/WestGermany, RedChina, and UsefulNotes/EastGermany all emerged in the second half of the decade.

** ComicBook/{{Cheetah}}/Priscilla Rich. First appeared in September, 1943.

** ''Film/ItRunsInTheFamily'' (1994). The sequel, set in 1941.

** ComicBook/{{Ares|DC}}. First appeared in October, 1942.

* Comicbook/TheShadeDCComics. First appeared in September, 1942.

* ComicBook/KatyKeene. First appeared in Summer, 1945.

* ComicBook/MillieTheModel. First appeared in Winter, 1945.

During the war, due to fabric rationing and the closing of fashion houses in Paris, many day dresses were American-made, strictly knee-length and plainly decorated. Nylon stockings suffered shortages due to the need for parachutes, and sportswear was often substituted for casual wear. Many more had innovated themselves in order to be more stylish, even while working on factories. For instance, some women applied makeup on their legs in place of wearing stockings, while other women had the need to borrow their man's trousers and suits while [[WrenchWench joining the workforce]]. And somehow, in a certain {{loophole|Abuse}}, while dresses only used a limited amount of fabric and cutting, accessories such as hats, gloves and jewelry weren't. Hats, while they use fabric, but are considered accessories, can have wide brims and often decorated with fruit as they can get, [[UsefulNotes/OperaGloves gloves can be as high as they can reach the padded shoulders]], and necklaces can go as low as they can hit the dancefloor. After the war, restrictions were still implemented but were gradually relaxed in 1947, when a Parisian designer named UsefulNotes/ChristianDior created a new set of style, which included long full skirts, rounded busts, wide hips and narrow shoulders. Journalists had dubbed it the "New Look" and the innovative style lingered on until the end of TheFifties.

For music, jazz was the main ingredient to swing (the rage of the dance floor), bebop (the cutting edge, characterized by extremely fast tempos and complex improvisation), and Latin dances like samba, mambo, salsa and conga brought by soldiers. And then, before TheFifties popularized teen sensations, Music/FrankSinatra was the teen sensation.

Politically, the Forties encompassed at the very least the entirety of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII (1939-1945) and at the latest stretched until the start of the UsefulNotes/KoreanWar in 1950, and the election of UsefulNotes/DwightEisenhower as President ending two decades of Democrat dominance of Washington in 1952. Culturally, the decade started with the New York World's Fair in 1939 and somewhat ended with the premiere of ''Series/ILoveLucy'' in 1951. Please note that 1945 was a point of inflection, marking the end of WWII and the start of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, as well as the first stages of the postwar boom. Also a nostalgic point during the second half of TheSixties (with many war movies made during this time), as well during TheSeventies and ''especially'' TheEighties (for the exaggerated fashions, of course).

Chunks of forties culture saw a resurgeance in the middle of TheNineties, with their bowling shirts, slicked back hair, and swing dancing making a brief comeback. [[Series/{{Friends}} Chandler Bing]] helped with the shirts on television, and ''Film/{{Swingers}}'' boosted both the fashion sense and the dancing.

* TheFashionista[=/=]IWasQuiteAFashionVictim: While most fashions of the war era are seen today as hideous (such as the zoot suit), these were made out of necessity. And the not-so hideous "New Look" of the later part of the decade became this for many when the rationing got lifted up.

* HighClassGloves: Continuing with [[TheThirties the last decade]]'s trend, a fashionable woman feels completely naked without gloves.

* {{Lobotomy}}: This is when they were relatively common, if controversial even for their day, before psychiatric medication replaced them starting in TheFifties.

* ShouldersOfDoom: From dictators to soldiers to 1890s enthusiasts to Rosie Riveters to savvy women, emphasized and accented shoulders were the fad until 1947. The pads were revived [[TheEighties forty years later]], only [[BiggerIsBetter bigger]].

* ''Series/GoodnightSweetheart'' has its protagonist jumping back and forth between the '40s and his own time of TheNineties.

See Also: TheGayNineties, TheRoaringTwenties, TheGreatDepression, TheFifties, TheSixties, TheSeventies, TheEighties, TheNineties, TurnOfTheMillennium, TheNewTens, and TheNewTwenties.

* DumbBlonde: While the stereotype surged [[TheRoaringTwenties two decades earlier]], the late forties saw the character type of the [[BrainlessBeauty pretty but dim]] blonde woman become really popular.

* TheRoaringTwenties: Due to the turbulence of the Great Depression and Second World War, the 1920s gained a reputation as a more peaceful time and became the decade for nostalgia.
* SharpDressedMan [=/=] BadassInANiceSuit: For the gents, we have the [[PuttingOnTheReich Nazi uniforms]] designed by Hugo Boss, the trenchcoats worn by private detectives, the ration-defying zoot suits, and the ultrafeminine New Look's SpearCounterpart, the savvy Bold Look.