Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske’s ‘Rosie the Riveter’ reveals a long-gone Long Beach

PHOTO COURTESY OF ARCADIA PUBLISHING

There’s no who’s who of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration, no declassified maps of Allied supply routes—and unlike in, say, William Shirer’s Berlin Diary, you can’t actually hear the bombs falling in Poland as you read Rosie the Riveter in Long Beach.

But that doesn’t diminish from Fifth District Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske’s new paperback book, the latest entry in Arcadia Publishing’s “Images of America” series.

Schipske relates again the not-unfamiliar story of how women were brought into our airplane factories during World War II as men went off to fight. This time, it’s the illustrated saga of how the Douglas Aircraft Plant on Lakewood Boulevard became so vital to the war that F.D.R. personally dropped in to wish the ladies well and point his cigarette holder to Magnetic North. Couldn’t someone read this to us as a bedtime story every night? It’s a can’t-miss tale with everything in the right place: grinning, curly-haired dames in coveralls; heavy artillery; a visit from the President; and, mostly, a happy ending.

The councilwoman, whose father was a Marine and met her mother at the Pike amusement park, explains all the photos—pretty women posed at their machines; defense plant literature; even pictures of Lakewood Boulevard in camouflage—with an essay and long photo captions.

Schipske also tells how it all ended: “A propaganda campaign, again aimed at women, stressed how important it was for women to return to their homes (and feminine attire) so the men could reclaim their jobs and the role they had left behind.”

Thousands of women across the country did, including my grandmother, Eva Lowe—who’d driven to work in Long Beach every morning from the San Gabriel Valley. But did they all just wind up playing house?

Not exactly. In my grandmother’s case, she built three or four houses herself—and the entire time I knew her, I don’t think I ever saw her in a dress.

ROSIE THE RIVETER IN LONG BEACH BY GERRIE SCHIPSKE | SOFTCOVER | 127 PGS ARCADIAPUBLISHING.COM | $19.99

Tags: arcadia publishing, douglas aircraft, Gerrie Schipske, Long Beach, rosie the riveter