Historic Bomber Plant Running out of Time

Palmpilot

Palmpilot

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Speaking of "Hangar Flying," a historic preservation campaign is running out of time to raise the last million dollars needed (out of a total of 8 million) to preserve a portion of the World War II bomber factory in Willow Run, Michigan where "Rosie the Riveter" worked. (They want to use it as the new home for the Yankee Air Museum.) The deadline is May 1st.

http://news.yahoo.com/time-running-short-save-rosies-plant-053515627--finance.html?vp=1
 
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It does not make sense to me, that if they can hand over seven millions dollars, that they only have two days left or it's over with. With seven million dollars, they should at least be able to buy more time if nothing else.

I think what they really need is a new negotiator.

-John
 
John Baker said:
It does not make sense to me, that if they can hand over seven millions dollars, that they only have two days left or it's over with. With seven million dollars, they should at least be able to buy more time if nothing else...
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One would think so.
 
John Baker said:
It does not make sense to me, that if they can hand over seven millions dollars, that they only have two days left or it's over with. With seven million dollars, they should at least be able to buy more time if nothing else.

I think what they really need is a new negotiator.

-John
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Agreed, just a push for more funds IMHO.
 
Do we really need to save 'historic' factories? Seems sad and pathetic to make monuments of everything. Turning a declining empire into a museum won't save the empire.
 
Rosie the Riveter was a government invention to sell war bonds and encourage and honor women to enter the work force while men fought in the war. Sorry, but Rosie the Riveter never existed and therefore cannot be traced back to working at this factory. But hey, if they can raise $7 mil based on a lie who am I to rain on their parade? :dunno:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosie_the_Riveter
 
Geico266 said:
Rosie the Riveter was a government invention to sell war bonds and encourage and honor women to enter the work force while men fought in the war. Sorry, but Rosie the Riveter never existed and therefore cannot be traced back to working at this factory. But hey, if they can raise $7 mil based on a lie who am I to rain on their parade?
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A lot of riveting was done in that factory and women made up a large part of the work force. It's entirely possible that one of them was named Rosie.
 
Geico266 said:
Rosie the Riveter was a government invention to sell war bonds and encourage and honor women to enter the work force while men fought in the war. Sorry, but Rosie the Riveter never existed and therefore cannot be traced back to working at this factory. But hey, if they can raise $7 mil based on a lie who am I to rain on their parade? :dunno:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosie_the_Riveter
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The article at the link in my post says that a specific worker at the plant, Rose Will Monroe, was the inspiration for the character, and goes on to say this:

Although women performed what had been male-dominated roles in plants all over the country during the war, it was Monroe, who was one of an untold number of women in the Willow Run plant's 40,000-person workforce, who caught the eye of Hollywood producers casting a "riveter" for a government film about the war effort at home.

Monroe, a Kentucky native who moved to Michigan during the war, starred as herself in the film and became one of the best-known figures of that era. She represented the thousands of Rosies who took factory jobs making munitions, weaponry and other things while the nation's men were off fighting in Europe and the Pacific.​

I'm not seeing where the "lie" is in that. :dunno:
 
I don't find the story riveting myself. I can see a lot better uses for $7M.
 
Palmpilot said:
The article at the link in my post says that a specific worker at the plant, Rose Will Monroe, was the inspiration for the character
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Monroe was not the original inspiration according to Wikipedia. Before her, there was a song based on a different real Rosie named Rosalind P. Walter, who worked in an F4U Corsair plant elsewhere.

After that song became popular, somebody wanted to make a film about it, and they needed an actress. To make it sort of authentic, they found Rose Will Monroe working in the Willow Run factory and because of her name she was asked to star in that film.

So bottom line: the factory was where an actress came from.
 
If that's true, then the article was at least mistaken on that point, but the claim that it was a "lie" is an assumption.
 
Blatham489 said:
I for one am highly offended that there is an organization by this name. If we can't have a Confederate Air Force, . . . . .
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We can have a Confederate Air Force those losers changed their own name they weren't forced.
 
I've got a "Rosie" poster in my shop and I drink from a "Rosie" coffee cup bought at OSH. It was an important part of my upbringing and is a connection to the war effort my family endured. Building a museum to honor "Rosie" is fine with me. I would fly to MI to see it. :dunno:
 
I am close to Willow Run.
I am as patriotic as the next.
But - an aging industrial metal building is going to be expensive to keep dry, stay ahead of the rust, and keep heated.
Now, having said that - the issue for them is that there is no way in this galaxy they can raise enough funds to put up a new hangar on an airport somewhere for a museum. This building can be had for cheap (cheap is relative) and by tugging at the heart strings they hope to raise the funds. Were this 2006 they would get the money in a heartbeat. It is not and likely they won't.
Time and tide wait for no man - gee, I should copyright that :D
 
Dr. O said:
I am close to Willow Run.
I am as patriotic as the next.
But - an aging industrial metal building is going to be expensive to keep dry, stay ahead of the rust, and keep heated.
Now, having said that - the issue for them is that there is no way in this galaxy they can raise enough funds to put up a new hangar on an airport somewhere for a museum. This building can be had for cheap (cheap is relative) and by tugging at the heart strings they hope to raise the funds. Were this 2006 they would get the money in a heartbeat. It is not and likely they won't.
Time and tide wait for no man - gee, I should copyright that :D
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Nebraska has thousands of abandoned missle bases, missle silos, munition storage bunkers, hangars, airports, military bases, practice bombing areas, etc. I'm sure other states do also.

Too late, I applied for the copyright on line a few mins ago. ;)

:lol:
 
ClimbnSink said:
We can have a Confederate Air Force those losers changed their own name they weren't forced.
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Money talks. When the name change was being voted on, it was stated that the name was hampering fund raising efforts. Corporate support, in particular, was mentioned as drying up because of the name.

Since the education and historic preservation aims of the organization had to do with military aviation, and not The Confederacy, it apparently didn't make sense to a majority for the organization to fall on its sword over it.
 
Dr. O said:
...Were this 2006 they would get the money in a heartbeat. It is not and likely they won't...
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They have already raised 7/8 of it, but they only have one day left now. :dunno:

Time and tide wait for no man - gee, I should copyright that :D
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Yeah, according to the article, they have gotten several extensions of the deadline already, but the site's manager says there won't be any more.
 
"but the site's manager says there won't be any more."


Time for the American way, for Democracy, and the future of Man - a lawsuit :D
 
ClimbnSink said:
We can have a Confederate Air Force those losers changed their own name they weren't forced.
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Yes they were forced to, or lose big money from sponsors like pepsi cola, etc. as for Rosie the riveter, my wife's mother did exactly that at Martin during the war, building martin marauders along with hundreds of other women. Rosie Rosenthal named his B17 after these women ( a play on words of course) . Today we would probably have to have our airplanes, tanks, etc. built in Mexico, Bangladesh, etc. personally, I'd tear the building down. It's a bygone era to be sure.
 
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Maybe the CAF are not losers but definitely sellouts. Nah they are sellouts and losers.
 
ClimbnSink said:
Maybe the CAF are not losers but definitely sellouts. Nah they are sellouts and losers.
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If their purpose had been to honor and commemorate the Confederacy, then they definitely would have been "sellouts," but that's NOT their purpose.
 
Palmpilot said:
If their purpose had been to honor and commemorate the Confederacy, then they definitely would have been "sellouts," but that's NOT their purpose.
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What about their own history? Just because we all like old airplanes doesn't mean the CAF are not sellouts.
 
ClimbnSink said:
What about their own history? Just because we all like old airplanes doesn't mean the CAF are not sellouts.
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The purpose of the CAF is not and was not to commemorate its own history.

The people who objected to the name change had one obvious way of preventing it: coming up with enough money to fund the organization's mission. They didn't and/or couldn't do that.

Talk is cheap.
 
Talk is cheap, changing your name for money is selling out.:yes:
 
ClimbnSink said:
Talk is cheap, changing your name for money is selling out.:yes:
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If you think it's important to have an organization that honors The Confederacy, why don't you start one?
 
Considering the "Confederate"in the name was essentually a joke by a bunch of white Texan guys in the fifties, jettisoning the term is lieu of Commerative was hardly a bad idea for the organization.
 
Palmpilot said:
Money talks. When the name change was being voted on, it was stated that the name was hampering fund raising efforts. Corporate support, in particular, was mentioned as drying up because of the name.



Since the education and historic preservation aims of the organization had to do with military aviation, and not The Confederacy, it apparently didn't make sense to a majority for the organization to fall on its sword over it.
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Impressive how many PC Corporate morons there are, isn't it?
 
Brad Z said:
Considering the "Confederate"in the name was essentually a joke by a bunch of white Texan guys in the fifties, jettisoning the term is lieu of Commerative was hardly a bad idea for the organization.
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I was in the Air Force when it was in its infancy. It was started as a joke and for fun, not to " honor" anything. It grew and became a great organization but due to the tremendous cost of rehabbing the many WW 2 aircraft they eventually saved and flew, they had to rely on donations from large corporations. In order to keep the donations coming they had to change their name or the sponsors would have left. They didn't "sell out" to anyone, rather they used common sense and continue to restore and fly things like "FIFI" which costs tremendous money to operate.
 
Brad Z said:
Considering the "Confederate"in the name was essentually a joke by a bunch of white Texan guys in the fifties, jettisoning the term is lieu of Commerative was hardly a bad idea for the organization.
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Yes, when the CAF was concentrated in Midland.

I vaguely recall that the renaming was done in response to the enticing offer of a new facility at another location, an offer that was contingent on the name change.

Probably the Yankee Air Force would similarly agree to change its name, if enticed with a sufficient reward.
 
If you recall , the country got into a real snit over the confederate flag, flying it on state flag poles, on and on. This is when it happened. Corporations are very sensitive to this type thing ( it's about losing money) so they delivered an ultimatum. The CAF weighed their options , realized they would go broke so they changed their name. At that time Pepsi was a big contributor who , among others, demanded the change. It may have started in Texas but by the 60s people from all over the U.S. Belonged.
 
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A good quote from a friend recently... "We are becoming a Country of museums for a reason."
 
Corporations are not morons by a long shot! They usually pay taxes in the 15 percent range ( after loopholes) and many of the big ones pay no tax to the U.S. Government. They do what we allow them to.
 
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