Rosie the Riveter

[HepKitty]

http://waishowdaily.blogspot.com/2010/12/model-for-iconic-poster-dies.html

I have this picture posted in my office at work

 

[Fly Boy]

I had no idea she was based on a real person - An iconic image, RIP.

 

[Tomasso]

The rest of the story.......

Doyle – a cellist – learned that a worker had injured her hands at the factory, and decided to get a safer job at a soda fountain and bookshop in Ann Arbor

“The arched eyebrows, the beautiful lips, the shape of the face – that’s her,” daughter Gregg told the Times. But, she said, “she didn’t have those big muscles. She was busy playing cello.”





http://fieldnotes.msnbc.msn.com/_ne...-inspiration-for-rosie-the-riveter-dies-at-86

 

[Blackjack]

Damn HepKitty, you look a little like her...

 

[Mahagonny Bill]

Based on everything I've read about "Rosie the Riveter", it was a cultural gestalt and not really based on a single woman. It started as a song, became a propaganda program for the U.S, and lived down through the ages. There were several women who were used as "Rosie" models. My favorite is the Norman Rockwell "Rosie" who certainly bears no resemblance to the "We Can Do IT" poster or Ms. Doyle.


Picture linked from rosietheriveter.org

IMHO, saying that Ms. Doyle was the model for "Rosie the Riveter" is a disservice to the many different women who are part of the "Rosie" phenomenon.

 

[Blackjack]

Nonsense Bill, HepKitty the Riveter was based solely upon Rosie, er... something like that

 

[Tomasso]

Norman Rockwell's "Rosie" looks like a gal's head on a guy's body.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The body on Rockwell's Rosie is actually Michaelangelo's Isaiah, as seen on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

All artists use swipes, but some swipe classier than others.

 

[jeep44]

Apparently, the plant she worked at so briefly was Ford's Willow Run plant, making B24 bombers. This place has been in continuous use since 1942, but the last workers left the building about a week ago, and it is now closed. I spent 31 years inside those historic walls.

 

[HepKitty]

Nonsense Bill, HepKitty the Riveter was based solely upon Rosie, er... something like that

lol I'm afraid I'm too blonde for that

Agreed, Rockwell's Rosie looks like she hit the steroids pretty hard and is ready for a Ms Olympia competition. Or Mr Olympia?

 

[HepKitty]

Apparently, the plant she worked at so briefly was Ford's Willow Run plant, making B24 bombers. This place has been in continuous use since 1942, but the last workers left the building about a week ago, and it is now closed. I spent 31 years inside those historic walls.

wow that's really cool. What did they make after B-24s?

 

[Jedburgh OSS]

Good for you! This is my favorite of all wartime posters, and there are a lot of great ones. I bought a repro of this for $5 at Big Lots a few years ago. I even have a postcard-size version of it on the inside of my 1943 footlocker lid to display at living history programs and reenactments.

Different actual war workers were sometimes used as models for the various posters, and over the years I've read stories of women, or their families, coming forward all claiming to be the inspiration for Rosie. Reminds me of a man claiming to be one of Our Gang long after the real Buckwheat had died or several GI's claiming to be Kilroy, who was a civilian shipyard worker in the states.

My maternal grandmother was a Rosie the Riveter in Indianapolis for the duration of the war, then went back to farming with my grandfather. I even worked in the same plant for a number of years that she worked in. It was originally built to last ten years, or less if the war was over before then. She worked on Allison V-1710 engines of which 70,000 (3,000 a month during the plant's war years) were cranked out until the war ended and the jet age came about. The building is still there 68 years later and now owned by Rolls Royce's aircraft division. After the war you could buy one of these engines in the crate for $100, and now they command half a million dollars or more. They're sought after for plane restorations, tractor pulls, and hydroplanes.

 

[jeep44]

wow that's really cool. What did they make after B-24s?

Kaiser-Fraser bought the plant after WW2, and built cars, rototillers, and airplanes in it until about '52-53. GM had a disasterous fire at a nearby transmission plant in '53, and they bought this place and quickly re-established production of automatic transmissions there, which continued until about 2 weeks ago.

 

[Stearmen]

Norma Jeane

Don't forget the most famous Rosie The Riveter of all times, Norma Jeane Dougherty!

 

[Chas]

[video=youtube;2xrfbKTG_xE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xrfbKTG_xE[/video]

[video=youtube;1KGNvtD7sMo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KGNvtD7sMo[/video]

 

[Widebrim]

Based on everything I've read about "Rosie the Riveter", it was a cultural gestalt and not really based on a single woman. It started as a song, became a propaganda program for the U.S, and lived down through the ages. There were several women who were used as "Rosie" models. My favorite is the Norman Rockwell "Rosie" who certainly bears no resemblance to the "We Can Do IT" poster or Ms. Doyle.


Picture linked from rosietheriveter.org


IMHO, saying that Ms. Doyle was the model for "Rosie the Riveter" is a disservice to the many different women who are part of the "Rosie" phenomenon.

You are correct, Bill. The Rosie the Riveter image was based on several models. In fact, the character in the famous "We Can Do It!" poster was not referred to as Rosie the Riveter until many years after the poster was produced. The Rosie in the Rockwell print was based on Shirley Karp Dick, who passed away in 2009.

What actually started the "Rosie" icon going, was a 1942 song of that name, inspired by Rosalind P. Walter, who worked on F4U Corsair fighters. Later, the character became associated with Rose Will Monroe, a riveter at the Willow Run Aircraft Factory in Ypsilanti, Michigan. She even appeared in a promotional film about the war effort.

 

[MikeBravo]

The body on Rockwell's Rosie is actually Michaelangelo's Isaiah, as seen on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

All artists use swipes, but some swipe classier than others.

That is a pretty classy swipe

 

[BoPeep]

Here's another article siting the inspiration for Rosie as Geraldine Doyle. This is the gal that HepKitty referred to, but I think we can agree that she wasn't the only one.

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyl...wii_poster_dead_geraldine_doyle_dead_at_.html

 

[Tiki Tom]

Another likely claimant to the crown of who inspired "Rosie the Riveter" has passed away at age 96. R.I.P. Naomi Parker Fraley.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/22/...-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

 

[Klunk]

If your ever in the San Francisco’s Bay Area, the National Parks Service opened the Rosie the Riveter/Homefront museum in Hayward a few years ago. The museum sits at the site where Liberty ships were built. Very interesting museum on the life of the shipyard builders during WWII.

https://www.nps.gov/rori/index.htm