1939

Articles from 1939

African-Americans During the Great Depression (Pathfinder Magazine, 1939)

Written during the later years of the Great Depression, these columns summarize the sad lot of America’s Black population – their hardships, ambitions, leadership, and where they tended to live.

When the Depression struck, Negroes were the first to lose their jobs. Today, 1,500,000 colored adults are unemployed.


A 1938 article about the hardships of the Southern States during the Great Depression can be read here…


Click here to learn about the origins of the term Jim Crow.

African-Americans During the Great Depression (Pathfinder Magazine, 1939) Read More »

A Military Genius? (Ken Magazine, 1939)

This is a small segment from a longer article on this site that can be read here.
Just months prior to the start of the Second World War, this anonymous correspondent asked, Is Hitler a strategic genius? For much of the following year many of Europe’s anointed would find themselves asking much the same question; but this reporter was not impressed with the man one jot and wished his readers to keep in mind that throughout the slaughterous environment provided by the Entente Powers of the 1914 – 1918 war, Hitler was entirely unable to rise above the rank of corporal – in spite of the fact that his regiment was losing a sergeant each day.


From Amazon: Hitler’s First Warstyle=border:none.

A Military Genius? (Ken Magazine, 1939) Read More »

The Growth of the German Airforce (Ken Magazine, 1939)

Published four months before Germany’s attack on Poland (September 1, 1939), this article outlines Hermann Goering’s efforts to build the Luftwaffe from scratch, the creation of various flight schools, the Luftwaffe collaboration with the Hitler Youth organization, and his aspirations to out-class the air forces of the United States and Britain. The article also addresses the business dealings of American manufacturers Boeing and Douglas Aircraft had with the German Luftwaffe.


Click here to read about the corrupt American corporations that aided the Nazi war machine during the 1930s.

The Growth of the German Airforce (Ken Magazine, 1939) Read More »

Military Buildup in Germany (Ken Magazine, 1939)

The German Army is the greatest enterprise in the world. It has a million employees on it’s payrolls, the active officers and soldiers, and, at a conservative estimate, feeds another million workers in the munitions industry. Actually the army employs all of Germany. Military needs alone determine the way of life in the besieged fortress into which 80 million Germans have more or less willingly formed themselves.


The German economist who made the rearmament possible was named Hjalmar Schacht, click here to read about him…

Military Buildup in Germany (Ken Magazine, 1939) Read More »

A Cartoonist Slams FDR (Click Magazine, 1939)

Rube Goldberg (1883 – 1970), one of the iconic, Grand Master ink slingers from days of yore, applied his signature thought pattern to presidential politics in the creation of the attached FDR cartoon. Unlike President Roosevelt, Goldberg recognized that the New Deal was naive in their belief they could create and fund numerous government agencies that bedevil small businesses, reduce productivity, and fix prices while expecting the whole time that the national economy would bloom as a result.

A Cartoonist Slams FDR (Click Magazine, 1939) Read More »

1919: United Artists is Formed (Film Cavalcade, 1939)

A printable history of United Artists spanning the years 1919 through 1939 which also outlines why the organization was so original:

[United Artists] introduced a new method into the industry. Heretofore producers and distributors had been the employers, paying salaries and sometimes a share of the profits to the stars. Under the United Artists system, the stars became their own employers. They had to do their own financing, but they received the producer profits that had formerly gone to their employers and each received his share of the profits of the distributing organization.

1919: United Artists is Formed (Film Cavalcade, 1939) Read More »

The Boeing Collaboration (Ken Magazine, 1939)

A 1939 article that concerned the rapid growth of the German Air Force, but also referred to the scandalous business dealings of American manufacturers Boeing and Douglas Aircraft had in this expansion.

It has taken Field Marshall Hermann Wilhelm Goering a little over six years to build the German Air Armada, one of the world’s most formidable offensive forces, out of a magnificent bluff.


A similar article can be read here…

The Boeing Collaboration (Ken Magazine, 1939) Read More »

The Founders of the Hollywood Film Colony Gather Together(Film Daily, 1939)

A notice from the pages of a 1939 Hollywood trade publication announced an organization for the silver-haired alumni of Hollywood’s silent film business:

Early this summer there came into existence a new organization known as Picture Pioneers, consisting of veterans who have been in the industry 25 years.


Click here to read about the movie moguls of 1919.

The Founders of the Hollywood Film Colony Gather Together(Film Daily, 1939) Read More »