This is the ePub/eBook version of this title. This is not the print edition.

In her new and timely addition of her popular series, Mary Lou Widmer reminds us of turn-of-the-century life in New Orleans. Laundry chores were done on Mondays while the aroma of simmering red beans wafted from the kitchen. Modern conveniences such as electric lighting, indoor plumbing, telephones, and gas for cooking and heating civilized life, while the electric iron proved to be a housewife’s dream come true. In an effort to build affordable housing for disadvantaged European immigrants, New Orleans architecture saw the birth of the shotgun house.

In her third book in the series of volumes describing past decades in New Orleans' history- local author and historian Mary Lou Widmer offers readers unique glimpses into the celebrated decade of the fifties. It was a time of changing values and institutions- of a growing fear of communism and- at the same time- a growing sense of domestic tranquility and the importance of the family. It was a time of great growth and development in the city- and a departure from many of the old traditions and customs that had helped to define what New Orleans was all about. Paperback

New Orleans in the Forties delightfully documents a time when- though the war raged in Europe- high school girls could still flirt on the streetcar with high school boys- and one made a trip to the movies to see Mary Martin- Lana Turner- or William Holden. The author recalls such youthful- frivolous events as slurping sodas and wolfing down cake at Woolworth's on Canal Street- spending Friday nights at O'Shaugnessy's Bowling Alley on Airline Highway- or frolicking at Pontchartrain Beach Amusement Park.

New Orleans in the Thirties offers a nostalgic view of life in New Orleans half a century ago through photographs and reminiscences. It was a time when Robert Maestri was mayor- the St. Charles streetcar made a complete loop- and the Pelicans won the Dixie Series in baseball. Moreover- it was a time when doctors made house calls and women donned gloves to go shopping.

It was a decade of flappers- Prohibition- and unprecedented prosperity that abruptly ended with the crash of '29. In New Orleans- steamships lined the wharves- vaudeville gave way to "talkies-" and William Faulkner's Sherwood Anderson and Other Famous Creoles was the first book produced by a new publisher called Pelican Publishing Company.