The "Jody seducing your girlfriend back home" trope is very common in WWII propaganda. Was it effective?

I can't directly answer your question as it relates to the posters, but I know a little bit about "Jody". Jody predates WWII by a couple of decades, and is the notion that another man (Jody) will step in and steal your woman when you are off somewhere against your will (prison, war). Off the top of my head, I don't know the earliest appearances, but if the tangent is of interest, I'm willing to do a little digging. The "Jody" is also sometimes called "Bird Doggin" or "Joe the Grinder" (my thought... Joe the Grinder is sometimes listed as "Joe D. Grinder" = "Jody Grinder" grinder of course being a sexual euphamism) and the concept appears in many prewar songs - the most famous of which doesn't actually use the term, "On the Road Again" as recorded by the Memphis Jug Band (and the best known version recorded some 50+ years later by the Grateful Dead).

After the war**, Alan Lomax visited black prisions throughout Texas and recorded the prison work songs. These were released on an album called Wake Up Dead Man in the 90's (now out of print, but available on Amazon).

Lyrics as follows:

I've been working all day long

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Pickin' this stuff called cotton and corn

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

We raise cotton, cane and a-corn

'Tater and tomatoes and a-that ain't all

Back is weak and I done got tired

Got to tighten up* just to save my hide

Boss on a horse and he's watchin' us all

Better tighten up, [if you] don't we'll catch the hall*

Wonder if the major will go my bail*

[Or] give me twelve hours standing on the rail*

Yeah, yeah

I see the captain sittin' in the shade

He don't do nothin' but a he get paid

We work seven long days in a row

Two sacks a Bull* and a picture show

In the wintertime we don't get no lay*

Cuttin' cane and makin' syrups a-every day

When it get wet in the cane field

All the squads work around the old syrup mill

Yeah, yeah,

Yeah, yeah

Two more months and it won't be long

Gonna catch the chain* 'cause I'm goin' home

Goin' back home to my old gal Sue

My buddy's wife and his sister, too

Ain't no need of you writin' home

Jody's got your girl and gone

Ain't no need of you feelin' blue

Jody's got your sister, too

First thing I'll do when I get a-home

Call my woman on the telephone

Yeah, yeah,

Yeah, yeah

Gonna settle down for the rest of my life

Get myself a job and get myself a wife

Six long years I've been in the pen

Don't want to come to this place again

Captain and the boss is drivin' us on

Makin' us wish we'd a-stayed at home

If we had listened what our mama say

We wouldn't be cuttin' wood a here today

Yeah, yeah

Captain and the boss is drivin' us on

Makin' us wish we'd a stayed at home

We had listened what our mama say

We wouldn't [be] droppin' big timber here today

Yeah, yeah

** Apparently he recorded in a Texas prison in 1933 as well. I'm not sure which recordings "Jody" came from. My CD copy of Wake Up Dead Man with the liner notes is in my office... I can check up and edit this tomorrow. This particular track was a work crew led by "Benny Richardson" in 1966, according to the liner notes.

EDIT: Found an interesting variation from 1939 on the Library of Congress website. Irvin "Gar Mouth" singing a "Joe De Grinder" variation in which he is the "Jody". First line of the song "Whoa, they call me Joe de Grinder". Further research from other sources indicates that his proper name was Irvin Lowry, as recorded by John Lomax (Alan's father).

Another particular good (though later) track is Slim Harpo's Jody Man from the mid-60s, which includes the lyrics "Jody man you better leave my woman alone; you gonna find yourself wasted; these my toes you're steppin' on"