Women turned out in droves to help the national defense effort and see a Cardinals game.
Eighty years ago, on July 24, 1941, the Cardinals’ Thursday afternoon game against the Giants at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis was designated as Aluminum Day. Any woman was admitted to the game for free if she presented an aluminum item for use in the national defense program.
According to team officials, 7,803 women brought a total of 35,235 aluminum articles to the ballpark that day. The paid attendance was 3,284. With 7,803 women admitted free, along with 1,952 boys and 371 girls, the total crowd was 13,410, according to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.
Unlike today, when ballplayers masquerade in camouflage uniforms to boost merchandising revenue while ballclubs accept millions from the military in exchange for hokey tributes, baseball and patriotism were genuine during the World War II years, not a paid business arrangement. In the case of Aluminum Day, the Cardinals gave up ticket revenue to help a national defense cause.
Showing their mettle
In July 1941, World War II was raging in Europe. Though the United States remained neutral, it needed to bolster its defenses. President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed his friend, New York City Mayor Fiorella La Guardia, to be director of the Office of Civilian Defense.
One of La Guardia’s missions was to organize national collections of donated aluminum for conversion into ingots for use in the manufacturing of airplanes, ships, tanks and other military equipment, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
According to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, it was estimated more than 20 million pounds of scrap aluminum, enough for 2,000 fighter planes, would be collected from the national effort. Most of it would come from donated utensils and other kitchen ware.
In St. Louis, a local Civilian Defense Committee, headed by public safety director Harry D. McBride, organized a four-day aluminum collection drive in July 1941. The slogan for the campaign was: “Kitchen Kettles Make Defense Metals.”
Among the recommended items for donations were coffee percolators, sauce pans, cookie trays, cake molds, measuring spoons, ice cube trays and ash trays, the St. Louis Star-Times reported.
Bins were set up around the city for people to deposit items. A total of 51 firehouse stations were collection centers, too.
In addition to Aluminum Day at the Giants-Cardinals game, other highlighted events of the St. Louis collection drive were:
_ A special two-hour matinee at 1 p.m. on July 23 at 68 neighborhood movie theaters. Anyone bringing an aluminum item to donate would be admitted free.
_ An evening vaudeville show on July 23 at Municipal Auditorium. Admission was free to anyone bringing an aluminum article to donate.
_ A two-day door-to-door canvasing of the city and county July 24-25 by 1,500 Boy Scouts, plus telegraph messengers and women volunteers, to collect aluminum and to explain what types of articles were wanted. The Boy Scouts reported “a friendly reception from housewives, some of whom offered them cookies and glasses of milk, as well as aluminum contributions,” the Post-Dispatch noted.
Doing their part
In the days leading to the 3 p.m. Aluminum Day Cardinals game, it was announced autograph baseballs would be given to the women bringing aluminum items deemed most unusual, largest and heaviest.
On game day, “women, carrying aluminum in all shapes and forms, turned out in such large numbers that the Dodier Street entrance was jammed beyond capacity almost an hour before game time,” the St. Louis Star-Times reported.
Most brought pots and pans. “The pans were stacked in large heaps under the club offices,” according to the Star-Times.
The aluminum collected at the Cardinals game was enough to fill eight trucks, the Post-Dispatch reported.
Mrs. E.T. Bradley of Botanical Avenue brought the item declared the most unusual: a set of her husband’s upper and lower false teeth, partly made of aluminum.
Mrs. David Cafferatta of Washington Boulevard brought the heaviest item: a restaurant cooking kettle. Mrs. S. Huber brought the largest article, but it was not identified in the newspapers.
All the aluminum collected in the St. Louis campaign was moved to a scrap mound at 13th and Market streets.
According to the Star-Times, all aluminum collected would be weighed and sold to smelters. After smelting, the metal would be sold to manufacturers of national defense equipment. All money for the aluminum would be deposited in an Office of Civilian Defense fund in the Federal Reserve Bank in Richmond, Va., to finance air raid preparation measures and gas masks, the Globe-Democrat reported.
The Cardinals rewarded the Aluminum Day audience with a gold-medal performance. Trailing 2-1 with two outs and none on in the ninth, the Cardinals rallied to tie the score and then won, 3-2, with a run in the 10th. The winning pitcher was Ernie White, who got the wins in all three games of the series. Boxscore
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