The Great Philly Mag Semiquincentennial Quiz: Part 9

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1. Which political party dominated our local government during the World War II years?

a. The Democratic Party

b. The Republican Party

c. The Whig Party

d. The Independent Party

2. In August 1944, a strike by Philadelphia Transportation Company workers brought the city to a standstill and seriously affected industrial production for the military. What was the main issue of contention?

a. PTC management’s decision to allow Black workers to fill non-menial positions, such as conductor and motorman

b. The Transport Workers Union’s demand for overtime wage increases

c. Union workers’ refusal to operate buses with automatic transmissions

d. PTC management’s refusal to allow Black workers to fill non-menial positions

3. What local industry swelled during World War II to become the area’s largest employer?

a. Sugar production

b. Steel refining

c. Shipbuilding

d. Cigarette manufacturing

4. Which of the following was accidentally invented at the Cramp shipyard in Kensington?

a. The lithium battery

b. Plastic wrap

c. The shortwave radio

d. The Slinky

5. The football field of what Philly public school, at the time the home field of the city’s Negro League baseball teams, was converted into victory gardens as part of the war effort?

a. West Philadelphia High School

b. Central High School

c. Bartram High School

d. Overbrook High School

6. Manpower shortages during the war also caused the Philadelphia Eagles to merge with another city’s professional football team, resulting in what temporary name?

a. The Geagles

b. The Reagles

c. The Steagles

d. The Beagles

7. What product invented and made by Delaware’s DuPont Company became known as “the fiber that won the war”?

a. Orlon

b. Nylon

c. Rayon

d. Dacron

8. The labor shortages created by the war greatly expanded working opportunities for women despite fears that their participation would lead to social upheaval (which of course it did). By 1945, what percentage of the city’s women were employed outside the home?

a. 15 percent

b. 20 percent

c. 35 percent

d. 45 percent

9. Where did Pennsylvania rank in the order of states suffering the most World War II casualties?

a. Second

b. Fifth

c. Ninth

d. 13th

10. In 1955, a former Naval Shipyard worker caused a stir by claiming to have witnessed what came to be known as “the Philadelphia Experiment” while employed there during the war. What did Carl M. Allen insist he’d seen in October 1943?

a. A UFO landing

b. A failed atomic bomb launch that resulted in radioactive fallout over the city

c. Soldiers wearing jet backpacks and levitating a mile above the ground

d. An experiment in which a U.S. warship was rendered invisible and teleported to Norfolk, Virginia, and then reappeared in Philadelphia


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