1941 bride to wear wedding gown for 1940s fashion show for Dole dedication

LAWRENCE -- A 1941 bride will model her wedding dress in the finale of the 1940s Fashion Show at 2 p.m. Monday, July 21, in the Crafton-Preyer Theatre at the University of Kansas as part of the dedication of the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics.

Polly Bales, 83, Logan, who was married Nov. 29, 1941, will join a group of 17 models, ages 9 months to 70 years, from the Fashion Museum in Abilene in the show, arranged by Lynda Scheele, museum board member.

The nonprofit museum maintains a collection of vintage fashions dedicated to interpreting history through clothing. Scheele and her daughter, Jill Crist, museum director, organize fashion shows laced with historical commentary about fashion and the times. Their shows include clothing, shoes, hats and accessories of the period.

In the 1940s, fashion was rationed along with other goods such as gasoline and butter, Scheele said.

"Fabrics that we have now, the 100 percent cottons, wools and silks, were all needed for military uses -- uniforms, parachutes, tents, blankets, etc.," Scheele said.

With rationing of goods needed for the war effort, women and homemakers who had struggled to make do with very little during the Great Depression had to continue doing so in the 1940s, Scheele said.

The 1940s fashion show will include fashions from the years preceding WWII and the war years through 1950. The set from the University Theatre's June production of "Picnic" by William Inge will remain onstage, providing the illusion of a small town in Kansas in the late 1940s as a backdrop for the fashions. KU Vice Chancellor for University Relations, Janet Murgia, will welcome those attending the fashion show.

The Dole Institute dedication ceremonies will honor World War II veterans -- the "Greatest Generation's Greatest Celebration," in keeping with the spirit of the institute named for the former U.S. senator from Russell.

Fashions have been directly influenced by the social and cultural change of each era, Scheele said.

"The changes that occurred in the 1940s did more to alter how people dressed than any comparable time in the 20th century," she said.

Scheele points out that hemlines became shorter, for example, because natural-fiber fabrics were in short supply and nylon and rayon fabrics were improved.

Scheele learned that Polly Bales and her late husband, Dane Bales, were married 10 days before Pearl Harbor was attacked and that Polly could still wear her wedding dress. Scheele asked that Bales join the show.

Crist, who works with her mother in producing the fashion shows, said, "It's a natural. Each show ends with a display of wedding dresses."

On Dec. 7, 1941, Polly and Dane Bales were returning to Kansas from a honeymoon in New Orleans when they heard that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor that morning. The couple had met in 1940 as KU students. She was working on a degree in music education from Whitewater, and he was completing a bachelor's degree in business. Dane Bales had been in ROTC and was commissioned as a second lieutenant when he graduated in spring 1941.

Polly Bales recollected when the couple knelt during their wedding ceremony in Whitewater that the soles of Dane's shoes were exposed to the congregation.

"He was wearing his only pair of black shoes -- the same ones he used for ROTC marches and had worn a hole in the sole!ú she recalled.

He was called to active duty in August 1942 and served in the Philippines after the Japanese surrendered through May 1946.

The three-day Dole Institute dedication program will include the ConocoPhillips military air parade and the fashion show; a re-created USO-style performance; an evening of dancing to the Glenn Miller Orchestra; and an outdoor concert by the 312th Army Band as well as the formal dedication. Among the dignitaries attending the events are former presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, author of "The Greatest Generation." Events begin at 7 p.m. Saturday, July 19, with the kickoff of the Memory Tent, with "Heroes of Lawrence, Part 1."