Rows of milk bottles were placed on the booth, each marked with a name of a U.S. state; locals and visitors could “vote” with their dimes and see who would come out on top. Daily updates would be given between live music sets as to which state was leading the competition. Photo from January 22, 1942.
As part of an initiative to help cure infant paralysis (often from polio), U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, himself wheelchair bound due to a polio infection at age 39, started a fundraising campaign soon after he was elected president in 1933. In 1938, he founded the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which later became the March of Dimes.
In 1939, a new fundraising effort was introduced: The Mile O’ Dimes, in which the goal was to collect a mile-long line of dimes (which is 89,872 dimes). New Orleans joined the campaign in in 1941.
The Mile O’ Dimes booths were set up on Canal Street, between Bourbon and Dauphine Streets, for a few weeks in January. In true New Orleans fashion, the campaign would start with a parade. The first year was a parade of bottlers and brewery workers, who marched up Canal to Elk’s Place with the NOPD Band, stopping at the booth to drop off 2,000 dimes.
The booths were manned by various civic or fraternal organizations throughout the weeks, and the money collected would be donated both locally and nationally. Local and touring celebrities would spend a few hours at the booth, signing autographs and drawing crowds.
In 1942, a 7-foot wooden soldier figure was placed on the Canal Street neutral ground. The soldier would march half a mile towards Rampart Street and back again to the booth to mark the progress toward the collection of a mile of dimes. On the first day, he moved forward 20 feet, which was $34 worth.
That same year, the New Orleans Master Bakers’ Association arrived at the booth with a 3 1/2-foot, 10-pound loaf of French bread. They really put the dough into dough, and when they cut the loaf open, 623 dimes poured out.
The Mile O’Dimes campaign hit the mile goal the first few years, but for many of the following years, it was averaging about 6 miles of dimes per year. When the polio vaccine arrived in 1955, the fundraising continued but was less pressing. The Mile O’ Dimes booth continued on into the early 1960s and then fundraising efforts were focused elsewhere.
