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JAZ with and without the bird. "Click" to Login or Register 
Life Achievement
Military Expert
Picture of Greg Crockett
posted
One of my friends over in France collects alarm clocks. We don't see French JAZ alarm clocks in the U.S., so my friend had to explain the significance of the bird. Which is a story of fascist politics in WWII. Prior to the invasion of France in 1940, these little clocks only have the word JAZ on the face. For Nazis this was an issue! They contended that Jaz music was degenerate and the product of racially inferior Americans. So, the French manufacturers of the JAZ alarm clocks placed a bird above the word Jaz to signify that Jaz referred to the short form of the French name for a local species of bird. Issue solved, they could continue manufacturing and selling their clocks. (A little bird told me that many Nazis and Europeans continued to listen and even dance to Jaz music during the war years, but don't tell Himmler.)

To the left is a post-1940 JAZ with bird. To the right is a pre-1940 JAZ without the bird. (Does anyone feel like flipping the bird at the Fascists?)

 
Posts: 2017 | Location: East Lansing, Michigan USA | Registered: November 24, 2002
Life Achievement
Military Expert
Picture of Greg Crockett
posted
This pre-1940 JAZ clock is in remarkably good condition with an original box.

 
Posts: 2017 | Location: East Lansing, Michigan USA | Registered: November 24, 2002
Life Achievement
Military Expert
Picture of Greg Crockett
posted
The reverse side of the clock

 
Posts: 2017 | Location: East Lansing, Michigan USA | Registered: November 24, 2002
Administrative Assistant
Picture of Dr. Debbie Irvine
posted

Interesting tidbit - thanks Greg!

 
Posts: 5371 | Location: Northern Ohio in the U.S.A. | Registered: December 04, 2002
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