Radio: One Woman's Family in War and Pieces

Voices of World War II #1

by Alice H. Green, Peter H. Green

THIS EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT of World War II social history, women's progress and the Golden Years of Radio is woven into one woman's humorous and poignant autobiography of her family struggles and attempts to fulfill her creative dreams. This book is richly illustrated with 50 historical photos and sketches.

“When Ben went off to war...It was obvious I had to go to work. But with all these new duties and two small children under my wing, what could I do? There was a labor shortage. Sure. But was it so bad that some desperate employer would pay handsomely for two hours of a frazzled female’s time after a hard day? Shall we say, fifty dollars a week?”

World War II was a tipping point for social change in America. With their men at war, nineteen million women joined the work force. Radio, the first instantaneous mass medium, provided daytime serial drama, entertainment and news, including pronouncements of world leaders and terrifying war reports, as President Roosevelt used the new medium to rally the nation to arms and win the war.

.Alice Green’s lost and recently found eyewitness accounts of her childhood, her own war, the Golden Years of Radio and the postwar housing shortage are told from the light-hearted viewpoint of a shy, youngest child, who learns she can make even the stormy and outrageous characters in her own family laugh. With a little help from her son, who (just barely) escaped this madhouse to finish it, her story stands for unsung American women in war and survives as Alice’s triumph

PRAISE FOR PETER GREEN’S FIRST WORLD WAR II BIOGRAPHY
“Dad's War With The United States Marines is very highly recommended to all general readers and a welcome addition to the growing library of military memoirs and biographies.”
–James A. Cox, Midwest Book Review Re-issued in 2014 as
THE EDITION REFERENCED BELOW

COMPANION VOLUME
BEN’S WAR WITH THE U.S.MARINES By Peter H. Green Greenskills Press, St. Louis, 2014

290 pages, Paperback

First published November 11, 2016

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable memoir about a spirited young woman holding her family together after her husband volunteers to do his part during WWII by joining the Marines. Fortunately for them, he ended up working the Armed Forces radio on Guam, away from battlefields. (That's another memoir, "Dad's War With the US Marines.") Not only is this book about women's lives on the home front as they try to balance their lean budgets and learn to become independent while being a single parent, but Alice's husband was in the advertising and radio business - as was she later - so I was quite fascinated to learn in a fun way how that worked and the interesting changes through war time. Alice's father was a famous builder and quite a strong character, adding yet another dimension. Then when Alice's husband returns home expecting her to be the same housewife as before, well that brings up more stories. The book is based on writings the author found of his mother's, and I commend him for figuring out how to stitch this collection of stories together. There is some overlap and disjointedness since it wasn't written as a start-to-finish memoir, but overall the likeable Alice shines brightly though this delightful read, and I would have loved to have known this spunky, smart lady.

[Cheryl Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Radio: One Woman’s Family in War and Pieces by Alice H. Green & Peter H. Green is a well written and interesting memoir. It tells the story of an Irish woman Alice Green and her experience living in Chicago before, during and after the WW11. Told in her witty voice the story offers a nostalgic dance down memory lane. Alice holds down the home front in the absence of her husband Ben during the war. In the era when families huddled around the radio to listen to their favorite shows, Alice wrote episodes of her own. She sold her pieces to local stations telling the tails of the war from the woman’s perspective. She spoke comically about balancing a life which was often hectic and overwhelming. She tells of bringing up her children and amusing home renovation. The memoir continues with the adjustments that take place after the war ends and Ben returns home. Sprinkled throughout are the chapters are family photos, radio and newspaper advertisements of the time, all adding to my enjoyment of the book. There is even some of Alice’s own poetry within its pages. Yet somehow, after reading it, the things that I wonder most about are the ghostly visitors and the pickle with a peppermint stick in the middle, sound intriguing? Guess you’ll have to pick up a copy and read it for yourself.

[Jonathan Fryer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Radio had its heyday in the 1930s, though its status was prolonged by the Second World War, when families on both sides of the Atlantic listened in to find out what was going on. This fascinating book is a memoir by the wife of a radio producer and ad man, mainly based in Chicago; she was herself a frustrated writer and poet who nonetheless managed to get some stories published while bringing up two children and doing household chores while her husband was away with the Marines in Guam.The real delight in the book, though, is the middle section where she recounts the trials and tribulations of fixing up a large, ramshackle house that is almost falling down on top of her and the kids while the workmen knock large parts of it down. Alice H. Green was a born story-teller and her son Peter has done us all a great service by ensuring that this memoir was finished and published well after his mother's death.