Homefront Heroines: The WAVES of World War II
Click here to ask for more information about this project:
Images
Homefront Heroines: The WAVES of World War II
World War II WAVE descends a ship during a visit to the USS Missouri
Former World War II WAVES at their biennial convention in 2006. Photo courtesy Mel Kangleon.
WAVE Margaret Anderson (right) and friends. Anderson was interviewed for "Homefront Heroines."
Website
http://www.homefrontheroines.com
Topics
Arts & Culture: Advertising, Fashion Design , Graphic Design, Photography
Human Development: Labor, Volunteering
Human Rights: Gender
Information & Media: Communication, Culture, Media
Peace and Conflict: Arms & Military
Politics: Civil Society, Democracy, Ethics & Value Systems
Project Geography
US: National
International: North America
Identity Niches
Budget
Raised to date: $37,426.34
Estimate to complete: $660,000.00
Total Estimated Budget: $697,426.34
The budget numbers above are accurate as of 05/06/2010
Status
Production
Media Type
Video
Project End Use
TV
Key Personnel
Kathleen M. Ryan
Director/Executive Producer
Ryan is an award-winning news and documentary producer with over 20 years of experience in network and local news. She has produced a variety of programming on a wide range of topics, from feature-length documentaries to daily newscasts. Along with her husband, David M. Staton, she founded TaylorCatProductions, which specializes in nonfiction video storytelling. Their 2006 film Backstretch received an award of merit from the Broadcast Education Association and aired on Southern Oregon Public Television in 2007. She won a Chris Award as coproducer of the Discovery Health documentary Saving Faces, which told the story of domestic violence victims who received free facial reconstructive surgery. She also was producer of the Chris Award-winning educational series ABC News Classroom Edition, which used historic footage from the ABC News archives to help teach history and social science lesson. The series is still being played on PBS stations around the country. Ryan was nominated for a New England Emmy Award for her news storytelling, and she has received awards from the Associated Press and the New Mexico Broadcast Association. Ryan was invited to be a fellow at Columbia University’s Summer Institute on Oral History. She has presented the findings from her academic research on the WAVES and SPARs in academic journals and at international conferences. Homefront Heorines developed from this research.
David M. Staton
Producer
Staton with his wife Katheen M. Ryan founded TaylorCatProductions as a way to tell nonfiction stories. As a journalist, Staton has shared stories in a variety of formats with audiences specific and general. But, from web "mini documentaries" to full-length projects, "puff" pieces to breaking news, the narrative of the story has always been central to his work. He has acted as producer and writer on the documentary Backstretch, which followed a season in the life of the smallest horse racetrack recognized by the Daily Racing Forum. And he's produced a series of video biographies on emerging fine arts photographers for his gallery, Staton•Greenberg Gallery. Staton also brought a reportage mindset to his pursuits in the fine arts arena as a curator and gallery director, in these instances, letting the pictures tell the story. From 2000-2002, acting as a liaison for New York's heralded Greenberg Gallery, Staton researched and explored the vast holdings of the vintage archive of the Time-Life Picture Collection, bringing historic photographs to the public through a series of exhibitions. Staton began his career as a print journalist, working for the Albuquerque Journal as a staff arts and feature writer.
Michael Huntsberger
Executive Producer/Radio
Huntsberger is the president of MediaComm Consulting. For nearly a decade, Dr. Huntsberger has provided large and small public media agencies with a broad range of services including organizational analysis, strategic planning, program development, and technology assessment. Dr. Huntsberger has worked in both commercial and public broadcasting as a manager, producer, and engineer since 1980, including five years as chair of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. Dr. Huntsberger is the assistant professor of electronic media in the Mass Communication department at Linfield College.
Funders
| Name | Amount | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Univeristy of Colorado - Kayden Grant | $3,000.00 | 03/08/2011 | |
| UNC Greensboro Library | $1,000.00 | 07/01/2010 | |
| Miami University - Department of Journalism | $585.07 | 06/01/2010 | |
| Private Donations - 2010 | $1,777.00 | 01/01/2010 | |
| Ohio Humanities Council | $15,000.00 | 12/01/2009 | |
| Schlesinger Library - Radcliffe College | $1,500.00 | 07/01/2009 | |
| Miami University - Department of Communication | $5,410.00 | 05/05/2009 | |
| Private Donations - 2009 | $9,154.27 | 01/01/2009 | |
| Center for Study of Women in Society | $3,000.00 | 06/01/2007 |
Location
318 Sherman Street
Longmont, CO, 80501
Short Synopsis
During World War II, the Navy invited women to serve at an equal rank and pay scale to men. The documentary/multimedia project Homefront Heroines follows the stories of these women, revealing a hidden history about America's "greatest generation."
Description/Treatment
Homefront Heroines follows a group of quirky, individual and determined women who decided to go where no woman had gone before -- into the Navy as WAVES. It tells the story of the more than 100,000 women who joined the Navy during World War II. They were Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, or WAVES. This was the first time the military officially welcomed women into jobs other than nursing. Women served in all branches of the military; in the Navy, they took stateside positions, freeing men to head to combat overseas. They served for the duration plus six months. After the war was over, the women were expected to happily return home and their old lives. But instead, when the war was over, they returned home, irrevocably changed by the experience. They may not have realized it at the time, but they were riding on the cusp of the wave of the future. As one woman notes, they were the “hinges of history.” The women who served as WAVES broke the mold of the stereotypical 1950s housewife trapped by the “feminine mystique.” Their experiences laid the groundwork for the social upheavals of the 1960s and ‘70s. Through oral histories, the multimedia project (documentary film, website, radio documentary) reveals a hidden history about a generation which changed the course of American life. That history will be told in Homefront Heroines.Click here to ask for more information about this project: