Blackout shades

Hi everyone,

Some of you know that I'm writing a novel set in Phoenix during the years of 1942-1943. You've been marvelous help to me, and I thank you.

A further question about 'blackout shades.' I'm trying to picture what these are. Is it the way it sounds? Maybe just dark window shades? Would they be dark on both sides or just the side facing out?

Might they have been in people's homes or were they mainly for businesses? Might a family in Phoenix have had blackout shades? Would the family pull them at night and possibly eat by candlelight? Would these shades be on all the windows?

Thank you.

I will be interested in the answer to this myself. I have the notion that blackout was only practiced within x miles of a coastline and that Phoenix was much too far inland to be effected. But I really don't know for sure.

The other thing is that I have always heard them referred to as curtains, not shades.

Opaque window shades cut to conver the entire window, without even a crack to allow light out.

They would be made of black cloth, if possible. Unlikely that they would not be the same on both sides. In any case, the color of the outside was not important - what was important was that no light show through.

They were for all buildings - businesses, residences, churches, factories - anything. Lights showing _anywhere_ could give enemy bombers an aiming point.

Absolutely. If they didn't, air raid wardens would swoop down on them.

Of course

No need for candlelight - the point of the blackout curtains was to allow normal light inside without any light showing outside.

One effect, though, was the stifling of ventilation. In Arizona in the summer, this would be a problem. You need to find out when blackout rules were imposed in Arizona, and when they were relaxed.

Would have to be. _Any_ light showing was forbidden.

Commonly made of a rubberized or treated light canvas/cotton pull-down tpe stuff, sort of blinds still used today in that very form of retractable blind. Dark window shades.

Definitely in homes, especially in the UK.

Might a family in Phoenix have had blackout shades?

I doubt it.

Would

Yes, but electricity was well in place in WW2 USA.

Would

Yes. And in the UK, the top 3/4 or more of vehicle headlamps would be painted or taped over, or taped so as to leave just a small slit.

You're welcome, from the boys in the band at

Although that was a real fear, especially early in the war, the actual justification for blackout was that the glow from coastal cities and cities near to the coast was silhouetting ships passing along those coasts and making them observable to U-boats at night.

Used to have a bunch of these in my grandparent's attic; they lived right on the beach in Norfolk. Structurally they were like the standard pull down shades, but the paper was heavier, black on both sides.

I don't think that Phoenix would have had blackout conditions. Maybe just for first few months of the war. Most of the blackouts in the US were on the coasts in order to deny U boats a background from which to sight ships and that did not start until after there had been many sinkings in sight of well lighted beaches.

Anyone who wanted to have lights on at night would have to black out those lights. The shades were typically a little larger than normal so that the covered the whole window. I think most were homemade. In many homes only the rooms most often used at night were blacked out and other rooms like a seldom used formal parlor simply would not be used during blackout.

We had no shades as such. When we had an air raid drill (I can recall only one, probably early in 1942), my father put a blanket over the windows of the living room where we were listening to the radio.

He would have turned out the lights in the rest of the house, but then, we wouldn't have left them burning in any event. We did not waste electricity on unused rooms.

At that, the air raid warden (a neighbor) knocked on the door and pointed out a corner of the window where a chink of light was showing through.

I don't recall another blackout, and I rather doubt that there would have been more than one in Phoenix

We had blackout shades & curtains in Mankato, Southern Minnesota. As I recall they were a dark olive drab canvas that pulled up or dropped down like venetian blinds plus we had dark colored - thick material curtains behind them. When the Air Raid Sirens sounded, lights went out in any room without the curtains. The blackout shades & curtains would be emplaced in the rooms still having electric light and my Dad would go outside and check them. Dad then put on his WW one 'tin plate' helmet with the Civil Defense triangle on the front and checked the neighborhood homes and cited those who had light showing... I don't recall the 'penalty' for having light showing, but I do remember Dad teasing the neighbors about shooting out their lights... He wasn't issued a weapon, just the helmet.. Bill Brown -o- Marrón el Rojinegro ¡Sí me quieres escribir, ya sabes mi paradero!

have had blackout shades?

In the early days of US involvement in the war, nobody really knew how far the enemy could strike. I have no definite information, but I have seen things which indicate that the blackout was imposed just about everywhere. For instance, I've seen several cartoons from the war years in which the blackout was the theme.

One thing I definitely know is that in 1941 (before Pearl Harbor, when the US was still at peace) there was a big civil defence drill in New Mexico, which included blackouts. And New Mexico is about as far inland as one can get.

Dear Kate et al.

Take a look in Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, and like magazines published during WWII. I remember reading an article in one of those magazines about constructing a blackout device for a window that allowed ventilation. Conventional blackout shades discussed in other posts would block the windows and prevent ventilation.

Good luck with your research.

Steve

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