1953 – Page 2 – Old Magazine Articles

‘The Windsors in Wonderland” (Coronet Magazine, 1953)

Iles Brody, author of Gone with the Windsors, was no fan of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, but before he began to outline all their various faults in the attached essay, he first wanted to make one aspect of their history quite clear:

The true story of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor cannot be told without clarifying one point right at the beginning: there was only one man who forced Edward VIII off the throne: himself.
Yet millions have been led to believe that Prime Minister and Primate got together with the peers and, with the help of the British press, compelled the King to abandon his hereditary trust.

‘This Is The Life” (People Today Magazine, 1953)

Pretty girl’s pictures help sell toothpaste, cigarettes and magazines, so why shouldn’t they help sell religion? This logic is being applied by churchmen producing the new TV series called, This is the Life.

After all – it’s no sin to be pretty – quoth Reverend R.C. Wuerffel, Chairman of the Lutheran TV Production Committee.

It was indeed divine inspiration that graced the craniums of these producing-churchmen employed by the Lutheran Hour Ministries – this television program was an absolute success – appearing first in 1952 and wrapping in 1988. Some of the pretty faces they employed along the way belonged to Annette O’Toole, Kathy Garver, Angie Dickinson, Lisa Pelikan, Mala Powers and Lynn Whitfield.

Watch Jack Nicholson in an episode of This Is The Life.

Tolerance at the Polls (Pageant Magazine, 1953)

Speaking of thawing ice:

In 1942 Roper Poll found only 42 per cent of Americans saying ‘yes‘ to the question ‘Are Negroes as intelligent as Whites and can they learn just as quickly if given education and training?‘ After W.W. II the number rose to 57 per cent.

Ernest Hemingway of Time Magazine (Coronet Magazine, 1953)

Some wise old wag once opined that by the time W.W. II came along, Hemingway was far too fascinated by his own public image to have ever been an effective war correspondent. However, it should be remembered that he had looked war in the face on many occasions – the Second World War was the seventh conflict that he witnessed as a war reporter. Prior to working as a war correspondent for Time and Collier’s during the Second World War, Hemingway had written for a number of other outlets in six other conflicts.

The War on Capitol Hill (Quick Magazine, 1953)

When General James Van Fleet let it be known that much of the previous two years in Korea had been plagued by a shortage in ammunition, tempers flared in the Senate as both parties talked of convening an investigative committee.

‘My Two Years In The Red Army” (American Magazine, 1953)

Is the average soldier in the USSR eager for war with the United States? Here’s the inside story of Russian morale and military spirit, revealed by the first Soviest fighting man to escape his Communist masters and become an American GI.

Where the Stars Dwell: Beverly Hills, California (Coronet Magazine, 1953)

Times have changed: when this article about Beverly Hills first went to press, that famed little hamlet could support as many as ten bookshops. It is now barely able to support one:

Beverly Hills became famous in 1926 when, in one of the smartest publicity stunts of the century, the movie star Will Rogers was elected honorary mayor. Installed in drizzling rain, Rogers declared that all the budding town needed for progress was a little scandal and a few murders…

This was not a problem.

Beverly Hills Confidential: A Century of Stars, Scandals and Murders

American Civil Defense (Weekly News Review, 1953)

Attached is an article about Val Peterson (1903 – 1983), who had been appointed by President Eisenhower to serve as the director of the Federal Civil Defense Administration between 1953 through 1957. Peterson is remembered as the Washington functionary who mobilized graphic designers, copywriters, cartoonists and filmmakers in an effort to shock America’s youth out of their complacency and recognize that nuclear warfare was a genuine possibility.

America has always depended on its youth. The Atomic Age of nuclear weapons has not changed this – it has intensified it.

Coercing 70,000 ”Reds” to Surrender (People Today, 1953)

Day and night U.S. Psychological Warfare soldiers in Korea risk their lives to talk and write Communists into submission. Their first leaflets hit the Reds just 36 hours after they first crossed the 38th Parallel. Today Pentagon brass praises ‘Psywar’ for influencing 70,000 North Koreans and Chinese Communists to surrender.

The German Who Escaped (Collier’s Magazine, 1953)

Read this unbelievable adventure by a former Afrika Korps Panzer Grenadier who, having been captured and subsequently shipped to the U.S., made good his escape from an Illinois prisoner-of-war camp – whereupon he assumed a fake identity and easily acquired a Social Security number. After having rented an apartment and worked several jobs in Chicago, he started a successful business just two years after his escape, married an American woman, sired a daughter – and he might very well have eluded the FBI entirely if he hadn’t insisted all the while on sending foodstuffs to his mother in war-ravaged Germany.