Our Gang from Custerdale

Date

• 1943

Summary

• Members of a musical ensemble comprised mainly of high school age young people pose with their instruments in front of a large U.S. flag and war bond poster at radio station WOMT in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, in 1943. Also included in the picture are a woman and two men wearing suits and ties. A similar picture was published in the April-May 1943 issue of “Keel Block,” the employee newsletter of the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company under the caption “Our Gang from Custerdale,” but with no further description or identification. Custerdale was a government defense housing project for the families of defense plant employees, many of whom worked at the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company building submarines for the U.S. Navy. Custerdale had its own kindergarten; older children attended Manitowoc Public Schools. It is possible that this photograph documents a performance by this group for the “Happy Family Hour,” a short-lived radio program sponsored the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company. The program aired bi-weekly from April 7 through June 30, 1943. Penciled on the back of this picture are names of some of the individuals. Front row, left to right: Russ [Russell] Wilke, Art [Arthur] Nichols, Florence Teegarden, Esther Grell? [Esther Grell was a teacher at Lincoln High School]. Back row, left to right: __ Bodart, unknown, John Koepke, Howard Vieweger, unknown, Don [Donald] Lomprey.