Empowering Women to join the Crusade for Freedom and help support Radio Free Europe

The second annual Crusade for Freedom in support of Radio Free Europe began in September 1951 and ended in February 1952.  Below is a quick look at some of the developments empowering women to contribute to the national effort to support both the Crusade for Freedom and RFE.

Former First Lady of the United States Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) wrote a syndicated column for American newspapers entitled “My Day” that appeared six days a week from 1936 to 1962. This is her September 1, 1951, “My Day” column:

HYDE PARK, Friday—In the last few weeks I have had a number of letters from women who want to reach all the women of the world and pledge them to do whatever is necessary to preserve peace in the world.

I have to answer that it is practically impossible to reach the women behind the Iron Curtain and that to reach women in other countries would have little value unless one could also get the acceptance of women in the Soviet Union and its satellite countries.

The fact that there is a sincere desire among the women of the United States for peace would be accepted anywhere, I'm sure, and I think the same would be believed of women in any other country. However, to accomplish anything really constructive one would have to have unrestricted discussion and a binding agreement among all the women of the world as to what steps should be taken to try to keep the peace of the world.

From my own point of view one of the most important steps is freedom of communication among the nations, a freedom which allows the use of every means of communication—television, radio, movies, the written and spoken word—and which allows free access to people. At present, citizens of Russia and the satellite countries cannot leave their homelands and visitors from other countries cannot get into these countries except after very careful scrutiny and the granting of visas, which are exceptionally hard to obtain.

Whatever is done in the field of communication is just a drop in the bucket. But drops in the bucket are important, and therefore we must support the Voice of America, for one thing. As private citizens, I think we also must support the Crusade for Freedom, which is carried on not by the government but by private funds and individuals.

The Crusade for Freedom sponsors Radio Free Europe, which has just opened a station powerful enough to reach over into the satellite countries. The opening date of the campaign is September 3 and the Crusade for Freedom will be appealing to all of us in this country for funds. Plans are in the making to expand their radio work and really bombard the Iron Curtain countries with as much truthful information as they can get across. It is felt that the truth will shake the Kremlin and the satellite nations. The Freedom Crusade also launches balloons that carry messages to the satellite nations.

There is hope that Russia will hesitate to risk war if her people are being bombarded with information that shows the mother country to be undependable. The truth from abroad is aimed to convince the Russian people that they are being handed a lot of propaganda by their masters, and this may make them and the peoples of the satellite countries more friendly to us.

The theme of Radio Free Europe in the satellite countries assures captive peoples that they have not been forgotten by the outside world, which sustains the hopes of those who are not Communist and tells them to believe that someday they may be free again.

Eleanor Roosevelt also had allowed her photograph and words to be used in the 1950 Ad Council newspaper campaign: “The Big Truth is the best Answer to the Big Lie of Communism” that included a copy of a coupon to be filled out with the name and address of the Crusade supporter, who was contributing money to the Crusade for Freedom.

Crusade for Freedom National Chairman General Lucius D. Clay gave a nation-wide radio address that was broadcast by radio station WNBC at 10:15 P.M., September 8, 1951. The New York Times headlined the speech on September 9, 1951: “CLAY OPENS APPEAL TO AID RED ‘SLAVES.’” There was also a newspaper appeal, in the best Cold-war rhetoric, to the women of the United States to support the Crusade:

This struggle (against Communism) reaches into every American home. It involves you and me. It affects the way of life of our children and our grandchildren.

The Crusade for Freedom and Radio Free Europe are one of the means, one of the powerful weapons that can be brought into play against the forces of tyranny— powerful because through them American citizens can dispel the chill blackness of evil ideas with the clear warmth and light of truth.

That is the primary reason why it is urgent for every woman to enroll in the Crusade for Freedom.

If we truly want a free world, then each and every one of us must be willing to play a part in bringing it about. It is not our way to leave our problems entirely resolved by government. It is our way as a people to join together in doing those things, which we believe worthwhile. The Crusade for Freedom presents the opportunity to each American to take a personal part in the struggle for freedom.

Sally Victor (1905-1972) was born Sally Josephs in Scranton, Pennsylvania. She started working in Macy’s department store in New York as a “saleswoman“ in 1923, moved into millinery and finally successfully created her own millinery shop. This is fromTime magazine, March 30, 1959:

Sally Victor, 54, is not only the biggest fashion hat maker (more than $500,000 a year) in the multimillion-dollar millinery business (1958 sales: $300 million), but she is a trend setter ... the only milliner to win the Coty award, fashion world "Oscar."

She designed hats for First Ladies Eleanor Roosevelt, Bess Truman, Mamie Eisenhower, Jacqueline Kennedy and Lady Bird Johnson. Queen Elisabeth II also wore hats designed by Sally Victor.

For the second Crusade for Freedom campaign she was asked by Crusade organizers to design, a “Freedom Hat” “to make their cause – and their need for money to carry it on – felt by the women of America.”  Reportedly, Sally Victor was told to, “Make a hat so distinctive and so smart that neither women nor girls could resist it. And at a price that would not collapse the average wardrobe budget.”

Sally Victor reportedly was delighted and was quoted as saying, “It’s about time we did something to make people talk. And there’s nothing that makes a woman much more talkative than a new hat, whether it’s hers or her worst enemy”

The “Freedom Hat” was described in American newspapers as:

The Hat is a tricorne, patterned after the famous jaunty cap of Paul Revere.

It is made of softest velour, in the same color of red we find in the American flag.

It is trimmed with gold braid and gold mesh Liberty bells.

It can be worn straight atop the head or tilted to the right, in the fashionable side-swept mode of 1952.

The “Freedom Hat” is as wearable as an old pair of slippers, as chic as a Dior suit, but is more than that. It’s official as a U.N. document.

The photograph of the “Freedom Hat” showed the 1951 Crusade for Freedom Poster behind a fashion model and had this caption: “Patterned after the chapeau worn by Paul Revere, this hat seems destined to be the most talked about hat in the world.”  The article concluded, “The Crusade for Freedom hopes to make plenty of talk and maybe a little money from the hat.”