It all happened in a single year, just a half-century ago. The dark days seemed to have ended at last -- the years of the Depression and the dust bowl -- and Americans were regaining their pride and self-confidence. They had touched bottom, but they had pulled themselves up. As the '30s ended, the New York World's Fair summed up the nation's suddenly buoyant mood with its official march, Dawn of a New Day. And who, in the atmosphere of optimism that marked the start of 1939, could have doubted that it was so?
Certainly not Hollywood, which was beginning the...
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