Vanity Fair Magazine – Page 7 – Old Magazine Articles

The Fine Art of Introduction (Vanity Fair, 1917)

Stephen Leacock (1869 – 1944) had some amusing opinions concerning social introductions according to the recognized formulas.

With the approach of the winter season, conversation as an art is again in order. It is a thing that we all need to consider. Some of us are asked out to dinner merely because we talk. Others, chiefly because we do not. It is a matter in which we can help one another. Let us discuss it…

Click here to read about feminine conversations overheard in the best New York bathrooms.

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The Christmas Bullet and Dayton-Wright Biplane (Vanity Fair, 1919)

Photographs of the Christmas Bullet, the flexible-winged strutless bi-plane, and the designer of the craft, Dr. William Christmas (1865 – 1960). Also pictured are the Curtiss two seater, the Dayton-Wright Air Limousine and the Dayton Wright bi-plane.

Click here to read the 1912 obituary of Wilbur Wright.

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Publicity Spot for D.W. Griffith (Vanity Fair, 1919)

A thumbnail biography of the celebrated silent film director,D.W. Griffith, appears on a page from a fashionable magazine paid for by the publicity office of the film studio. Directors back in the teens had to be fluffed and soothed, too.

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Carl Sandburg on Charlie Chaplin (Vanity Fair Magazine, 1922)

This poem was submitted to the Vanity Fair editors by an obscure film critic named Carl Sandburg (1878 – 1967):

The room is dark. The door opens. It is Charlie
playing for his friends after dinner, ‘the marvel-
ous urchin, the little genius of the screen…’

Between the years 1920 – 1928, Sandburg served as the film critic for the Chicago Daily News.

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Fifth Avenue Observations (Vanity Fair, 1922)

This cartoon was drawn by the New York artist Reginald Marsh (1898 – 1954), who had a swell time comparing and contrasting the bio-diversity along 1922 Fifth Avenue; from the free-verse poets on Eighth Avenue up to the narrow-nosed society swanks on Sixty-Eighth Street -and everyone else in between.

Click here to read a 1921 article about the growth of the Jewish population in New York.

Click here to read a magazine article about 1921 Harlem.

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George Jean Nathan (Vanity Fair, 1917)

A witty if dry profile of George Jean Nathan (1882 – 1958), one of the more prolific essayists and reviewers of all things dramatic and literary during the Twenties. At the time of this printing he was serving as the co-editor (along with his friend H.L. Mencken) of the American magazine The Smart Set while contributing occasional drama reviews to Vanity Fair. You’ll read a very long list of Nathan’s likes and dislikes, which, in fact, comprise 99% of the profile.

Later in life, Nathan would wed Mary Pickford – read about her here…

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Jules Romains and THE DEATH OF NOBODY (Vanity Fair, 1915)

This very brief column appeared in Vanity Fair Magazine during the winter of 1915 as one element in the publicity campaign supporting the distribution of The Death of Nobody, Jules Romains’ (1885 – 1972) 1911 novel.

Prior to the First World War Romains was primarily known as a poet and founder (along with fellow poet Georges Chennevière) of Unanimisme, a movement that combined concept of international brotherhood with the psychological ideal involving a shared group consciousness. At the time of this printing, the novelist was serving in the French Army.

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Douglas Fairbanks on Hollywood (Vanity Fair, 1918)

Attached is a very funny article written by the great matinee idol Douglas Fairbanks (1883 – 1939) concerning the predictability of silent films:

Whether eastern or western, the villain is never without a big black cigar. On the screen a big black cigar represents villainy; on the stage it represents General Grant.

Click here to read magazine articles about D.W. Griffith.

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Douglas Fairbanks on the Writers of Silent Movies… (Vanity Fair, 1918)

Yet another article from the dusty, moldy magazines of yore that illustrate how the silent film actor Douglas Fairbanks (1883 – 1939) would, time and again, bite that hand that fed him so generously: this is one more example in which Fairbanks points out the all-too predictable story lines of American silent movies.

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The Rebellion of Theda Bara (Vanity Fair, 1919)

Disgusted with being remembered for only playing the role of vampires, Theda Bara wrote this piece where she listed several sound reasons as to why she would never play such a roll again:

To me, there is nothing so quaintly naive as this inability of the moving picture public to disassociate the screen personality of a star from his or her own personality. I wonder what they think a Mack Sennett bathing girl must be like around the house.

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