Elsa Maxwell: Life of the Party (Pathfinder Magazine, 1940)
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1940
Articles from 1940
Friend of the Allies (The American Magazine, 1940)
Colonel William J. Donovan and Edgar Mower, writing of fifth-column activities at the direction of Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy, charged Fritz Wiedemann [as having been] praised by Hitler for helping to spike American legislation to aid the Allies in 1939.
Numerous nasty remarks were quoted in the attached article concerning the German Consul General in San Francisco, Fritz Wiedemann (1891 – 1970), but the journalist who penned the article could not possibly know that Wiedemann was at that time spilling his guts to the FBI. Having served under Hitler for some time as adjutant, by 1940 Wiedemann had denounced his devotion to the Nazi Party and told Hoover all that he Knew about Hitler and what the world could expect from the man.
In 1940, Japanese spies made the mistake of confiding in Wiedemann – more about this can be read here.
Production Delays (PM Tabloid, 1940)
The week the French Army collapsed was the week Hollywood experienced the greatest number of production delays. Studio wags believed it was an indicator as to just how many European refugees were employed on their stages. Studio bosses banned all radio and newspapers from their properties in hopes that each production would maintain their respective schedules.
The Nazi School System (Click Magazine, 1940)
German school children in Bad Wilsnack as elsewhere look like American kids, study the same arithmetic, discuss the same current events in a regular ‘press period’. But they sneer at democracy and tolerance, deliver serious, bitter impassioned orations in regular Fuhrer style against liberty and freedom…Youth is not youth, but a servant of the state.
The Four Million Dollar Epic (Click Magazine, 1940)
Many a movie of the deep South has come out of Hollywood studded with ‘you-alls’ and trailing jasmine blossoms. Never before, however, has any studio had Gone with the Wind, already the most heavily publicized picture of the era, which, at long last, makes its film debut…For over two and a half years casting difficulties had beset the producers of Gone With The Wind. Most difficult was the part of Scarlet O’hara, green-eyed vixen around whom the 1,307 page novel revolves. With every leading lady in Hollywood under consideration, the studios tested and re-tested Norma Shearer, Miriam Hopkins, and Paulette Goddard. Even the 56,000,000 people reported by the Gallup poll to be waiting to see the picture began to get tired…
Another great Hollywood movie from 1939 was The Grapes of Wrath – click here to read about it…
Behind the Scenes with Clark Gable… (Photoplay Magazine, 1940)
In this article from a 1940 fan magazine, Clark Gable puts to rest some disturbing concerns numerous fans had concerning the human affairs that existed on the set during the production of Gone with the Wind. He additionally expressed some measure of gratitude for having landed the juiciest role in Hollywood at that time:
‘Rhett’ is one of the greatest male characters ever created. I knew that. I’d read the entire book through six times, trying to get his moods. I’ve still got a copy in my dressing room and I still read it once in a while, because I know I’ll probably never get such a terrific role again. But what was worrying me, and still is was that from the moment I was cast as ‘Rhett Butler’ I started out with five million critics.
The Film’s Technical Advisor: Susan Myrick (Coronet Magazine, 1940)
A proud daughter of Georgia, Susan Myrick (1893 – 1978) worked the sixteen hour days in Hollywood policing the Southern accents and manners of every performer who passed before the camera.
Watching American Fascisti (PM Tabloid, 1940)
A year and a-half before Pearl Harbor American law enforcement agencies got serious about the domestic fascist groups. This article pertains to a twenty-five page Federal order instructing the FBI and local authorities to tap phones and monitor the movements of all groups sympathetic to Axis philosophies.
With the French as Their Army Collapsed (American Legion Weekly, 1940)
Attached is an article by the noted war correspondent Frederick Palmer (1873 – 1958) who observed the French and British as they attempted to hold-off the Nazi juggernaut of 1940. In this article, Palmer referred a great deal to walking this same ground with the American Army during the 1914 – 1918 war just twenty-one years earlier; he found the French to be confident of a decisive victory. The column is complemented by this 1940 article which reported on the wonders of Blitzkrieg and the fall of France.
Click here to read the observations of U.S. Army lieutenant Louis L’Amour concerning 1946 Paris.
Shooting Scenes Between Air Raids (Stage Magazine, 1940)
An article about director Gabriel Pascal (1894 – 1954) and all the assorted difficulties set before him, his cast and his crew while filming George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara during the bombing of England in 1940.
Much of the article is composed of diary entries by an anonymous member of the cast:
After dinner we had a script conference off the lot and kept on working through the air raid sirens, relieved to be away from the studio discipline. Tonight the sky was one vast blaze of searchlights, and no sleep for anyone. It’s tough staying up all night and trying to work between raids all day…