Chad Thumann's Blog, page 3

Real-Life Defectors like Karen's Father

Karen's father is fictional, but there were many real-life defectors from the United States to the Soviet Union during the 1930's. Some were invited to help the Soviet government begin industrial projects, others were deported by the United States for their subversive politics, and still others just looking for an escape from America's great depression.

Like Karen's father, the destiny of these defectors was not happily ever after. Most were killed in Stalin's purges; a fate the fictitious Hamiltons escaped by virtue of arriving after the worst of the purges were over. In the nineties the Los Angeles Times wrote a fascinating and sobering article on what happened to 15 of these defectors, whose fate only became clear after the fall of the Soviet Union and the subsequent release of their secret KGB files:

http://articles.latimes.com/1997/nov/...

I've made it past 50 ratings!

The Undesirables now has more than 50 ratings on Goodreads! Thank you everyone!

Moonlight Serenade

I mentioned Glenn Miller in my previous post, and sure enough his famous piece "Moonlight Serenade" was number 2 in 1939. It's definitely not as swingy as "In the Mood". In fact, most of the 1939 hits are a little melancholy like this, almost as if America anticipated the war and uncertainty in its future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6YGT...

If I Didn't Care

I've been conditioned by movies to associate different styles of music to different times in history. Pretty much anything Glen Miller feels like World War 2 to me. But old time crooning feels like the 20's. Today's number 6 hit from 1939 goes to show how incorrect my assumptions can be. To me, "If I Didn't Care" by The Ink Spots feels like it would fit right in on an episode of Boardwalk Empire, but instead it was a big hit at the very end of the thirties. You can hear it here:

https://youtu.be/UC_VzbtRGr0

Swinging Sax

Today's musical piece is "Cherokee" played by Charlie Barnet & His Orchestra. It made number 20 in 1939:

https://youtu.be/YnNUd7NzTMo

Summer of '39

In Chapter 6 Bobby recounts his courtship of Karen, which culminated in their summer romance before she left New York for Leningrad. I thought it would be fun to spend the next few days investigating the songs that would have been the soundtrack of that summer, played on radios and jukeboxes throughout New York.

The first, and most surprising to me, is Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit. It surprised me because it's a protest song against American racism, a subject I wouldn't have suspected to be mainstream in 1939. And yet it both reached number 4 on the charts and eventually sold over a million copies. You can hear it here:

https://youtu.be/h4ZyuULy9zs

Soviet War Painting Gallery Back Online

The Soviet War Paintings Gallery went off line for a few weeks, but it's finally back. You can reach it here:

http://www.allworldwars.com/Soviet%20...

Alaskan Lend-Lease Route

I thought I would share a quick video I found of archival footage of the Lend-Lease route from America to Russia through Alaska:

https://youtu.be/IiANiUsq6mg

The Undesirables is Now Available!

The Undesirables is now available as a paperback, kindle e-book, downloadable audio book, or MP3 audio book from Amazon!
https://www.amazon.com/Undesirables-C...

You can also now read a preview of the first couple of chapters at:
https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin...

Stalin's Organ

Petr's Katyusha rocket was nick-named by the Germans "Stalin's Organ" for the eerie sound it made. If you're curious about what it sounded like, this video features several launches of the weapon:

https://youtu.be/ArSZmPz6dAo