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Tag: 1940s

Swing Out To Victory -1940s Dance

This past weekend I attended one of my most FAVORITE events of the Lindy Hop Season-Swing Out To Victory (below is the 2015 invite).

NOTE: The event is back for 2023! November 18th, 2023. Details HERE

Swing Out to Victory Hamilton Warplane Museum

This dance is held every year at the Canadian Heritage Warplane Museum just outside of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

canadian warplane heritage museum plane
Source: voyagesontario.com

The Event is a marvelous evening of dinner and dance with the superb Toronto All-Star Big Band performing nostalgic tunes from the 1930s and 40s. There is also Swing Dance Lessons, Prizes, Giveaways and even a Best Vintage Dressed Contest (more about that later).

What I love about this event is the atmosphere. I am pretty lucky to be able to dance to a big band on a fairly regular basis if I wanted to so this not the draw for me. The draw is the fact that the Big Band is playing IN an airplane hanger with lots and lots of vintage planes all around it AND the famous Avro Lancaster (last in Canada) is the main focus of the event. Everyone also dresses up in their finest 1940s clothes (and uniforms) to dance the night away and this thrills this vintage loving gal to the bone and just adds that extra something to the evening.

Toronto All-Star Big Band at the Canadian Heritage Warplane Museum playing Big Band music in front of the Lancaster plane.
Toronto All-Star Big Band playing under the Lancaster. Photo Credit: Toronto Allstar Big Band

Interesting Fact: 

Did you know that the Lancaster pictured above actually took a trip to the UK recently and once there, it embarked on a six-week tour of the United Kingdom with the only other airworthy bomber of its kind, a Lancaster belonging to Britain’s Royal Air Force.

I also had a fellow blogger FROM the UK post pictures of the 2 Lancasters flying over her head. It was so amazing to see the picture and know that one of those planes were from a town close to mine (and that I have seen in person). It made the world feel a bit smaller that day.

After the Lancaster came back to Canada, a gramophone from the UK made the trip back as well and was played to open the event on Saturday (seen below). I absolutely adored this part and thought that it was such a fantastic surprise.

Lancaster Canadian Warplane Museum
Photo Credit: Toronto All-Star Big Band

Now let the swing dancing begin!

Lindy Hop / Swing dancing at a 1940s dance at the Canadian Warplane Museum in Hamilton, Ontario Canada.
Source: Erin
Lindy Hop / Swing dancing at a 1940s dance at the Canadian Warplane Museum in Hamilton, Ontario Canada.
Photo Credit: Toronto All-Star Big Band

This year I was excited to have some of the ladies from the Toronto Vintage Society along for this adventure. Some of them have even started taking Lindy Hop lessons which has just made me so happy to be able to pass on my love of the dance with more friends. Of course the ladies dressed to the Nine’s (I actually should say 10’s) for the event as you can see below.

1940s Vintage Dresses at a 1940s dance as seen on the Toronto Vintage Society.
Source: Erin
1940s Vintage Dresses at a 1940s dance as seen on the Toronto Vintage Society.
Source: Erin

TVS member Joy with a veteran that was at the dance.

1940s Vintage Dresses at a 1940s dance as seen on the Toronto Vintage Society. Image features a member with a Canadian war veteran
Source: Toronto All-Star Big Band

TVS members Irene and Erin with fellow swing dancer (and Rock n Roll dancer) David. LOVE the outfit David!

1940s Vintage fashion at a 1940s dance as seen on the Toronto Vintage Society.
Source: Erin

Everyone likes a well dressed Soldier.

1940s Vintage Dresses at a 1940s dance as seen on the Toronto Vintage Society. Image features TVS members with a young man in uniform.
Source: Erin

As per last year I was excited to be asked to help with the Best Dressed Contest again with two fantastically dressed friends, Amanda and Erika.

Here we are with our friend Dean who is normally the MC of the evening and a big part of the organizing team but this year he was called away to a wedding so we took this photo-a traditional “Dean Sandwich”.

1940s Vintage Outfits at a 1940s Lindy Hop Dance
Source: Amanda

Everyone was dressed so GOOD! and I really had a hard time choosing who I wanted to send to the finals, but I think the team did well in the end (sorry for the poor picture there are no really clear photos posted yet of the finalists).

What was exciting was that one of the members of TVS made the finals-Irene of Petite Plus, Meow! and she ended up with second place! YAY Congrats Irene!

1940s Vintage clothing best dressed contest at Swing Out to Victory.
Source: Erin

My choice (Churchill look alike) came in first place and as you can see below I am very very VERY excited about this. hahaha!

Swing out To Victory best dressed contest featuring 1940s fashions.
Source: Erin

After all the prizes and performances were done I was able to get some good quality Lindy Hop time in.

Lindy Hop at a 1940s swing dance -Swing out to Victory in Hamilton ontario Canada
Source: Erin

Outfit Note: My 1940s vintage swing dress was purchased at the Pop Up Store-Jack Lux for only $20. It was such a find and it looked great on the dance floor as well.

Lindy Hop at a 1940s swing dance -Swing out to Victory in Hamilton ontario Canada
Source: Erin

I also got to have a few minutes with my very handsome husband to snap this photo.

1940s Vintage Outfit as seen at Swing Out to Victory in Hamilton, Ontario Canada.
Source: Stephanie

And another photo with friends to end a wonderful evening.

1940s Vintage outfits at a lindy hop dance
Source: Stephanie

Well that is it friends another Swing Out To Victory in the books. Hope you enjoyed this little post and if you are ever in Toronto and want to go to a dance please check out Toronto Lindy Hop as we have a calendar with all the events (and we have lots of dancing) for your dancing pleasure.

Further Reading:

Would you like to own a vintage 1940s fashion item (or a replica of one)? Then take a look at the items for sale in my 1940s Fashion Etsy collection page (updated regularly), found HERE.

Liz 🙂

Disclosure: Some of the links on my blog from Etsy , eBay are Affiliate Links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. 

“WW2 Air Force Uniforms for Canadian Women”-Guest Blog Post

Today’s Guest blogger is Elinor Florence, author of a new Canadian wartime novel calledBird’s Eye View.

Bird's Eye View-1940s Fiction novel

Bird’s Eye View tells the story of a young woman from the prairies whose home town becomes an air training base. Fired with patriotism, she joins the air force herself – one of 50,000 Canadian women who enlisted to support the fighting men.

Rose Jolliffe travels overseas and becomes an interpreter of aerial photographs, spying on the enemy from the sky, searching out bomb targets on the continent.

She keeps in touch with the home front through frequent letters from her mother. And throughout the war, she has a bird’s eye view of the Canadian experience — at Dieppe, in the skies over Germany, on the beaches of Normandy — and finally, when our country shared in the Allied victory.

This novel will appeal to vintage-lovers everywhere, because it’s just loaded with 1940s atmosphere. Since I know that Elinor did masses of research for her novel — gathering data on music, lifestyle, food, speech habits, and clothing — I asked her to describe what her heroine wore which is the bases of today’s post.

Guest Post By Elinor Florence

My heroine Rose Jolliffe is in the Air Force, so she naturally wears a uniform throughout the book.

But not just one uniform. She wears first the British, and then the Canadian air force uniform.

There’s a good reason for that. When war was declared in 1939, the Canadian government didn’t allow women to join the armed forces. It took two long years of lobbying before Parliament finally caved in and allowed women to join up.

But for the purposes of my novel, I wanted Rose to be in England before this happened, so I concocted a way for her to join the British Women’s Auxiliary Air Force instead.

So the first uniform that Rose wears in the book is a WAAF uniform. It looked like this: an air force blue serge jacket and skirt, with a pale blue shirt and black tie. The hat was also made of serge in the same colour.

WAAF uniforms, Royal Air Force Museum
(Photo Credit: Royal Air Force Museum).

Modelled after the men’s Royal Air Force uniforms, they weren’t particularly flattering unless you were tall and slender. You can see from the photo that the wide belt cinched around the waist and the patch pockets made some girls look like a sack of potatoes. If you had money, you could take your uniform to a tailor and have it altered. But most of the women just had to suffer.

Not only was it bulky, but the woollen fabric was thick and scratchy. Some girls sewed silk linings into their uniforms so they wouldn’t chafe.

The women wore blue-grey cotton stockings and black lace-up shoes. And they had to carry their gas mask bag at all times. (Some girls secretly ditched the gas mask after the bombing raids petered out, and used the bags for makeup and cigarettes).

The hat was also an object of derision. It was often called “the old pie crust” and was gathered on the top in full pleats. (I’ve never understood why they would want to waste fabric in this way, when clothing rations were in effect – but perhaps wool didn’t count since it didn’t have to be imported).

1940s vintage photo of a ww2 womens miltary hat, a pie crust
(Photo Credit: The Memory Project)

The underwear was equally unattractive. I couldn’t find a photograph, but it consisted of  a cotton brassiere, a woolen undervest, and a pair of bloomers with elastic legs that the girls labeled “passion-killers,” or “blackouts.” Again many of the girls flouted the rules and wore their own underwear.

As my novel progresses, my heroine Rose transfers into the Royal Canadian Air Force, Women’s Division (called WDs for short).

Here’s how that came about: After Canada agreed to set up dozens of air bases across the country to train Commonwealth air crews, the British government requested permission to send WAAFs to Canada to work in our stations.

At that point the Canadian government reluctantly gave in and agreed that if there were going to be women on air bases, they might as well be Canadian!

So Parliament passed an act in July 1941 to allow women to join the RCAF – the first branch of the armed forces to accept women. (The army followed a month later, and then the navy a year later, in July 1942).

Naturally the Canadian branch modelled their uniforms after their British sisters, meaning at first they had a very similar uniform and hat to the WAAFs.

-Here’s a photograph of the RCAF pie crust, worn by Edna Bryanton in Toronto in January 1942.

1940s vintage photo of Edna Bryanton wearing a RCAF pie crust hat
(Photo Credit: The Memory Project)

And here’s a photograph of Dorothy Chapman (nicknamed “Chappy’) looking elegant in her WD uniform and pie crust hat – only someone so lovely could carry it off!

1940s vintage photo of Dorothy Chapman-WAAF pie crust hat
(Photo Credit: The Memory Project)

Their overshoes were sarcastically called “glamour boots,” because they were nothing more than hideous galoshes. Their shoes were serviceable black leather that had to be kept polished at all times.

One of the Canadian women named Doris Mae “Squeaky” McMullin remembers: “We used to polish the toes of our shoes with the back of our stockings when we were on parade. If there was a little dust, you’d see everybody, first one foot and then the other, go behind their leg to dust off the dust, make sure the polish was there!”

There were no pantyhose in those days, so the women had to wear garter belts to hold up those thick stockings. Since rubber was rationed, people had a hard time keeping their stockings up. I interviewed one veteran from Alberta named Lou Pound, who recalled the time her belt gave way and her stockings slid slowly to her ankles – while she was standing at attention on parade!

1940s vintage photo of ww2 Canadian women in the service-WD's

Since Canada is so cold much of the year, they were issued with some very nice warm greatcoats, like the ones shown here.

1940s vintage photo of Canadian Women in WW2 Uniforms -Greycoats

The women weren’t expected to wear their woollen uniforms all year round, so naturally they were eager to get their summer uniforms. These were not a great improvement – a lightweight cotton shirtwaist dress that had to be ironed, worn with the old pie crust!

-Here’s a photo of Laurie Theobald on the left and friends during basic training in Rockliffe, Ontario, in July 1943.

RCAF WDs in summer uniforms. Here’s a 1940s photo of Laurie Theobald on the left and friends during basic training in Rockliffe, Ontario, in July 1943.
(Photo Credit: The Memory Project)

Fortunately, if they were working outside, they were allowed to wear their teddy bear suits – khaki overalls – like these four photographers heading off with their ridiculously heavy cameras.

1940s photo of RCAF WDS in Teddy Bear Suits -khaki overalls – like these four photographers heading off with their ridiculously heavy cameras.

Finally, the RCAF realized that the women’s morale was being affected by their unappealing uniforms. So they came up with a more stylish version, announced in January 1943: “The new uniform, planned and executed with the aid of Canada’s foremost dress designers, offers pointers in wartime chic, practicality and fabric thrift to every well-dressed woman.”

A pleat was added to the greatcoat, skirts were made in six gores, and the pleated patch pockets on the tunics were replaced by flat patch pockets. Compensating for the storage lost by the smaller pockets was a smart new leatherette shoulder bag.

The skirts allowed for more movement, as shown in this photo of unidentified telephone room personnel at work in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

1940s photo of RCAF WDs in skirts answering phones in WW 2 uniforms for Canadian women
(Photo Credit: Gerald Milne, Library and Archives Canada)

Certainly Beryl McPhee looks a lot more glamorous in this photo taken at No. 6 Bombing and Gunnery School, RCAF Mountain View, near Belleville, Ontario.

WW2 Uniforms for Canadian Women-RCAF WD - lBeryl McPhee ooks a lot more glamorous in this photo taken at No. 6 Bombing and Gunnery School, RCAF Mountain View, near Belleville, Ontario

But best of all was a new hat – smooth and trim, with a deep visor. Here’s a photo of an RCAF member named Louise Soles – you will agree that the hat is a vast improvement!

1940s vintage photo of RCAF member named Louise Soles in a WW2 Uniform for Canadian Women a hat with a smooth & trim and with a deep visor.

Once the Canadian government realized that women in the armed forces were an asset to the war effort, they began to recruit them actively. Altogether, more than seventeen thousand Canadian women served in the air force. Here’s a recruiting poster showing the new hat.

RCAF poster-WW2 / 1940s Vintage Advertising

And after women in uniform became accepted by the general population, magazines like the Toronto Star Weekly began to feature illustrations on their covers, like this one from December 11, 1943. Note the snappy new hat!

1940s Vintage Magazine Cover - Star Weekly December 11th 1943 featuring a Canadian Woman in Uniform on the cover.

When the RCAF first began to send women to England (and there were precious few of them, which was a sore point with Canadian women in uniform), they also allowed Canadians who were serving in the WAAFs overseas to transfer into the RCAF.

So naturally my heroine Rose jumps at the opportunity to serve with her own countrywomen. As an added bonus, she was also able to swap out her WAAF uniform for the smart new Canadian uniform!

And she couldn’t have been prouder – as were all the Canadian women, including this one named Nancy Lee from British Columbia – to wear the Canada badge on her shoulder, with the props underneath.

WW2 Uniforms for Women-RCAF Nancy Lee from British Columbia – wearing the Canada badge on her shoulder, with the props underneath.

My heroine really did earn her props! As for her adventures overseas, both with the British and the Canadian Air Forces, you will just have to read the book to find out more.

*****

To read an excerpt of Elinor’s book, which she published on her own Wartime Wednesdays blog, click here:   Bird’s Eye View Excerpt

About the Author:

Elinor Florence author, Portrait

Elinor Florence grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan, a former World War Two training airfield. She worked as a newspaper and magazine editor, and was a regular writer for Reader’s Digest before turning to fiction. Married with three grown daughters, Elinor lives in the tiny perfect mountain resort of Invermere, British Columbia. She loves village life, thrift stores, antiques, and old houses. You can read more about her at www.elinorflorence.com.

Further Reading: