1940 - Everyday Life

Everyday Life

A fire at the Rhythm Nightclub in Natchez, Miss., April 23 leaves 198 dead (see Cocoanut Grove, 1942).

The first nylon stockings go on sale in the United States May 15 and by year's end somewhere between 35 million and 64 million pairs are sold (figures vary) (see 1937). Competing producers have bought their yarn from E. I. du Pont, which displayed the product last year in hosiery worn by Miss Chemistry at the New York World's Fair but whose nylon production will soon go almost entirely into parachutes (see Britain, 1946).

Cotton fiber constitutes 68 percent of U.S. textile production at the mills, down from 85 percent in 1930 (Source: National Cotton Council of America). Man-made fibers, most of them cellulose fibers such as rayon and acetate, have increased their market share to 10 percent (see 1950).