Word: curfew
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Many a citizen wondered what was happening to Jimmy Byrnes's midnight curfew. Thousands guessed that the 12 o'clock closing order, already sidetracked in New York by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, would soon be completely derailed. But the mayor's attempt to keep Manhattan bars and night clubs open until 1 a.m. had the opposite effect...
President Roosevelt quickly took a stand-he wanted the curfew observed everywhere. And though Jimmy Byrnes had all but admitted that the Government had no way of enforcing his order, the War Department put teeth in it by proclaiming a midnight curfew for soldiers...
...pinch was that folks were still after fun where they could find it. In most parts of the country, even in sportive Chicago, the curfew made no tremendous ripple. Midnight was time to get started home anyhow; only the swing-shifters, who like to drink, dance or bowl after midnight, seemed to have been hurt much...
Next day War Manpower Commission Chairman Paul V. McNutt announced (speaking for Byrnes) that he had been authorized to exempt restaurants from the curfew, provided they sold no liquor, offered no entertainment after midnight...
Puzzled citizens began to wonder if the curfew were being eased out of existence, were still a little puzzled after another Byrnes announcement: "The government does not intend to withdraw its request for a midnight curfew...