CINCINNATI – Travel back in time and experience life in the 1940s during Cincinnati Museum Center’s 1940s Weekend on August 15 & 16. From swing dancing and pin curls to classic cars and vintage boxing, 1940s Weekend transports you back in time as Union Terminal once again bustles with jazz bands, swing dancing and World War II soldiers.
Don’t forget to marvel at the largest artifact in our collection, Union Terminal itself. By 1944, more than 34,000 soldiers and civilians passed through the building’s 106-feet-tall Rotunda every day! Join Cincinnati Museum Center for 1940s Weekend on August 15 & 16 to celebrate this pivotal decade in American history and the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Vintage boxing matches
Join boxers from Cincinnati Fitness & Boxing as they lace up the gloves to demonstrate the sweet science with jabs, hooks and uppercuts. And what better place to relive the golden era of boxing than Union Terminal, situated along a street named for the Cincinnati Cobra, former World Heavyweight Champion Ezzard Charles.
6th Annual Cincinnati Lindy Exchange
Cincinnati Museum Center will host the 6th annual Cincinnati Lindy Exchange, an event featuring more than 160 dancers from 18 states. The dancers will showcase their talents in the Rotunda with live music provided by the Jump N Jive Big Band but you can strap on your dancing shoes, too, and learn the Lindy with free lessons from the dancers.
Big band music fills the Rotunda
Enjoy 1940s-era music with live bands including The Sugar Pills, P&G Big Band, The Sweet & Lows, The Boyer Sisters, Jump N Jive Big Band and Daniel Bennett and the Dirty Shirleys.
Classic cars once again park at Union Terminal
Union Terminal’s Art Deco exterior provides the perfect setting for our classic car show, featuring cars from the 1920s, 30s and 40s all weekend.
Lectures feature Holocaust survivors and stories of a Red Cross nurse
Holocaust survivors Dr. Al Miller and Dr. Henry Fenichel will share their incredible stories of resilience and survival, presented by the Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education.
On Sunday, August 16, Kathleen Cox, author of Destination Unknown, Adventures of a WWII American Red Cross Girl, will share stories of her mother’s time as a nurse in World War II.
Fire up the projector for classic films and newsreels
Step into the Newsreel Theater to watch classic cartoons and newsreels. And catch a screening of Rescue in the Philippines, a documentary about the Frieders, five brothers from Cincinnati making two-for-a-nickel cigars in pre-World War II Manila who devised an intricate international plan and saved 1,200 Jews from the Nazis by helping them immigrate to the Philippines.
Hair and makeup styling
From victory rolls and pin curls to that perfect shade of red for your lips, join vintage hairstylists to learn how to do your ‘do with 1940s hair and makeup tutorials.
Treasures of Our Military Past tells the stories of Cincinnati’s rich military history
From pilots to nurses, see uniforms of World War II veterans like Bobbie Sterne, Cincinnati’s first female mayor and a former U.S. Army nurse and fighter pilot Lieutenant Donald Harward, whose leather flight jacket still bears the cracks and wrinkles of two trips into the Mediterranean Sea. Treasures of Our Military Past also features the uniforms, letters, weaponry and equipment of soldiers from the Revolutionary War through the modern wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And be sure to see an original copy of the Declaration of Independence.
D-Day: Normandy 1944 now showing in the OMNIMAX ® Theater
Learn how and why Normandy, France because the most important location in the world over the summer of 1944. Discover just how this pivotal day, and those days before and after, changed the world. D-Day: Normandy 1944 is an immersive experience dedicated to those men and women who fought and sacrificed in one of history’s most incredible operations. Now showing in the Robert D. Lindner Family OMNIMAX® Theater.
Local organizations join in
Activities and displays in the Cincinnati History Museum and throughout Cincinnati Museum Center will share the sights, sounds and tastes of the 1940s. Some of the local organizations presenting displays are:
National Museum of the United States Air Force
The Falcon Theatre
Butler County Warbirds
OH-KY-IN Amateur Radio Society
Lunken Cadet Squadron 078
Cincinnati Aviation Heritage Society
Kentucky Railway Museum
Veterans Memorial Museum
WMKV Radio
Job Corps
Up, Up and Away Comics
General Cable
Transport the entire family to the 1940s with an immersive experience at Cincinnati Museum Center’s 1940s Weekend on August 15 & 16. Tickets include admission to the Cincinnati History Museum and the special exhibit Treasures of Our Military Past.
Tickets
Adults $14.50
Children $12.50
Seniors $13.50
Members $4
World War II Veterans Free
Visit www.cincymuseum.org/events/1940s-weekend for a complete schedule of events.