Al Capone: Tax Evader (Chicagoan, 1931)
Preferring not to be found face-down in the Chicago River, this journalist wrote a very middle-of-the-road sort of article about Al Capone following the thug’s 1931 conviction on tax evasion.
1931
Articles from 1931
Saint Peter: An Appreciation (Commonweal, 1931)
The well-loved Christian author Helen Walker Homan wrote this very charming essay about Saint Peter:
Saint Peter knows that the very fact that he, of all the Apostles, has been the most frequent subject of jokes by mankind, is only an added proof that he has been the most beloved of mankind.
The Negro’s Northern Exodus (The Literary Digest, 1931)
Click here to read a second article about the great migration.
Over 15,000 Suicides in 1928 Germany (Pathfinder Magazine, 1931)
A short notice compiled from figures collected at the end of 1928 showed that Germany was the all-time global-champion when it came to suicide:
In that year 16,036 persons in Germany committed suicide. This is an average of 44 a day or 39 for each 100,000 persons in the country…
European Praise for American Silent Comedies (Photoplay Magazine, 1931)
Written at a time when it was widely recognized that the silent film era had finally run it’s course and talking pictures were here to stay, the film critic for the Sunday Express (London) stepped up to the plate and heaped praise on the Hollywood film colony for having produced such an abundance of sorely-needed comedies which allowed Europe to get through some difficult times:
While German films were steeped in menacing morbidity and Russian films wallowed in psychopathic horrors; while Swedish film producers turned to Calvinistic frigidities, and Britain floundered in apologetic ineptitude…Hollywood’s unfailing stream of fun and high spirits has kept the lamp of optimism burning in Europe.
American Spelling Rejected by Canadians (Pathfinder Magazine, 1931)
Heaven knows that the average American had it tough during 1931. The Great Depression was coming down hard on them – but the harshest blow came from our neighbor to the North who rejected our manner of spelling!
Jean Harlow, Star (Photoplay Magazine, 1931)
When this interview appeared on the newsstands, Jean Harlow (1911 – 1937) had fifteen credits under her belt (most of them short films) and only six years left until she would assume room temperature as a result of kidney failure. Written by the PHOTOPLAY reporter Leonard Hall (who would like us to believe that he was a Hollywood studio psychiatrist), this is a light and breezy two page interview conducted at the New Yorker Hotel at a time when that establishment appealed to Hollywood Royalty.
Click here to read articles about Marilyn Monroe.
In The Country Illegally (Pathfinder Magazine, 1931)
[President Hoover’s Secretary of Labor, William N. Doak] placed the number of aliens now illegally residing in the United States at 400,000. Of this number he thought 100,000 were subject to deportation… The illegal entries were made, he said, under the quota laws of 1921 and 1924, the larger part coming through Mexico and Canada, while ship’s deserters amounted to about 11,000>
The News from Talkie Town (Theatre Magazine, 1931)
To a regular cinema-goer in the era of silent films, attendance at the motion-picture playhouse today is a continuously disturbing experience…The discovery that the shadowy images of the screen could be made articulate was as fruitful for exploitation to the captains of the cinema industry as was the realization that women would wear long skirts to the couturiers. …Paramount alone has already announced 243 releases for next season, double the number issued this year, and other companies are following suit.
Click here to read articles about Marilyn Monroe.