Quick Magazine

Articles from Quick Magazine

Stalin Dies and Power Changes Hands
(Quick Magazine, 1953)

Stalin’s death on March 5, 1953 generated a tremendous amount of uncertainty in the West, and a good deal of it is reflected in the attached column. A list of possible successors was provided; two of the names played an immediate roll in the governance of the Soviet Union: Georgy Malenkov (1902 – 1988) – who ruled for three days, until he was replaced by Nikolai Bulganin (1895 – 1975). Bulganin ran the shop until he, too, was replaced by Stalin’s right-hand man: Nikita Khrushchev
(1894 – 1971) – who was known in some corners as the hangman of the Ukraine.


Read about the Soviet Congress

Stalin’s Rule Summarized
(Quick Magazine, 1953)

Stalin’s final days, as recalled by his daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva (1926 – 2011), were mired in paranoia; he had imprisoned his one physician (accusing him of being a British spy) and refused all medical attention – preferring to self-medicate with liberal doses of iodine. His hatred of the West had drastically intensified; he rambled on about the natural intelligence of peasants and was displeased that numerous members of his family wished to marry Jews.


(Click here to read another article about the 1953 death of Stalin.)


Read about the Soviet Congress

In Search of a Truce
(Quick Magazine, 1953)

During the final months of the Korean war, when it seemed that both sides were willing to make an arrangement that would bring the hostilities to an agreed upon end, the Chinese diplomats upped the ante

… the Red regime in Peiping [Beijing] wanted a Great Power conference on Korea’s future as a preface to new truce talks… Zhou Enlai, premier in Mao Tse Tung’s government, has secretly proposed tossing all disputes – the prisoner exchange issue as well as the political future of Korea – into a conference of 11 nations.


Watch an informative Christian documentary on Korea in 1953 (- its in color).

Mao and the Death of Stalin
(Quick Magazine, 1953)

Upon hearing that Stalin had died, the official Red Chinese radion spent hours talking of Stalin’s death, paid little heed to Malenkov’s elevation to Russia’s premiership.

Mao has considered himself second only to Stalin in communism.

The Basket Bags
(Quick Magazines, 1952)

They clogged the shelves of every thrift shop, church bazaar and Goodwill outlet throughout all of the 70s and 80s – and during that same period costume designers used them to signify how detached and estranged a feminine antagonist was in dozens of movies and TV productions. We are referring, of course, to the basket bags of the early fifties and their heavy presence in the bric-a-brac shoppes of yore only serve to testify as to how remarkably popular they were as fashion accessories in the land of the free and home of the brave. The attached article from 1952 is illustrated with six images of the various swells of old Palm Beach clinging proudly to their wicker trophies.


(We were delighted to see that basket bags enjoyed a small come-back in the fashion world during the summer of 2017.)

The Importance of Winning
(Quick Magazine, 1950)

Policy makers in Washington were divided into two groups during the early Cold War days: one held that Communist expansion was most dangerous in Asia while the other believed that Europe was the spot most deserving of attention. This short editorial by John Gunther (1901 – 1970) argued that Asia was the vulnerable zone and if Korea was lost to the Reds – the whole world would follow.

Pants in High Fashion
(Quick Magazine, 1953)

1953 was the year that designers from both Paris and New York included pants in their respective evening wear collections – even their homely little sister, Los Angeles – the new fashion capitol of sportswear, provided a pair of pants for dinner occasions.

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