Hollywood History – Page 18 – Old Magazine Articles

Is Hollywood Red? (Photoplay Magazine, 1947)

Despite the catchy title, Novelist James M. Cain, did not even attempt to answer the question as to how lousy Hollywood was with dirty Reds, however he did spell out that there were enough of them in the industry to bring production to a halt, if they ever cared to do so. Cain’s article encourages both the executive class and the pinko-wordsmiths to walk the middle path and keep the cameras rolling.

Click here to read a review of James M. Cain’s novel, The Butterfly.

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One Editor’s Obsession (Pic Magazine, 1941)

It seemed to have made no difference to the editors of PIC MAGAZINE how dark and thick the clouds of war were that encircled the United States one month prior to the Pearl Harbor attack – they ran yet another puff piece on Jane Russell five months after they had published their last puff piece on Jane Russell.

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Notes on Her Hair (Pageant Magazine, 1955)

Here is a handy how-to piece by a popular hairdresser of the Fifties explaining how to duplicate Marilyn Monroe’s hairdo on your own head – take a look.

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Back-Handed Compliments for D.W. Griffith (Rob Wagner’s Script Magazine, 1948)

This 1940s Hollywood journalist refrained from using the pejorative white cracker while condemning silent film director D.W. Griffith for his racial views -and yet at the same time did something rather bold in that he put in print his views that the man has been erroneously credited as the creator of various assorted film innovations that were pioneered by other filmmakers.

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The Young Nancy Reagan (Modern Screen, 1951)

Published in a Hollywood fan magazine some months prior to her engagement with Screen Actors Guild President Ronald Reagan (1911 – 2004) was this 1951 profile of the actress Nancy Davis (born Anne Frances Robbins: 1921 – 2016). A gossipy yet informative article that covers her days at Smith College, her relationship with capitol H Hollywood stars Alla Nazimova and Walter Houston, the eight films in which she had acted in up to that time and the various assorted reactions she instilled in such directors as William Wellman and Dore Schary.

A 1942 article by the young Ronald Reagan can be read here…

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Charlie Chaplin and His Popularity (Vanity Fair Magazine, 1921)

The Irish playwright St John Ervine (1883 – 1971) wrote this article for VANITY FAIR in an attempt to understand Charlie Chaplin’s broad appeal; rich and poor, highbrow and lowbrow, all enjoyed his movies.

Mr. Chaplin is the small boy realizing his ambitions.

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The Biz (Pathfinder Magazine, 1940)

Pulled from the business section of a 1940 issue of PATHFINDER MAGAZINE was this list of Hollywood statistics that should be of interest to all you old movie fans. If you’ve ever wondered how the Dream Factory fared following the Great Depression, you can stop scratching your head bone – herein you will learn how many souls were on Hollywood’s payroll, how many movies did the town make each year (give or take), what percentage of global film production was turned out by Hollywood and how many American movie theaters were there in 1940.

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Movie Exhibitors vs Movie Producers (Ken Magazine, 1938)

A 1938 magazine article pertains to a brawl that once existed between movie exhibitors and movie producers involving the Hollywood practice known as block-booking, which required theater owners to commit to movies they have never seen. The article refers to how Hollywood employed their biggest stars to fight legislation in Washington designed to overturn this scheme.

The bill was defeated.

Click here to read about Marilyn Monroe and watch a terrific documentary about her life.

More about the American film business in the 1940s can be read here…

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The Hollywood Leg Gag (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Here is a 1937 article that reminds us that there wasn’t anything left to chance or improvisation under the old studio system:

One of the oldest newspaper publicity devices is the ‘leg display’. Resorted to chiefly by actresses whose press agents want them to break into print, it consists of nothing more than arriving in New York aboard an ocean liner and letting news photographers do the rest.

The adoration of the Feminine Leg began some twenty yeras earlier with the flappers; click here to read more on this topic…

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More Peer Adoration for Walt Disney (Stage Magazine, 1938)

The attached article was first seen during a time when a Palm Award, granted by the editors of Stage Magazine, was a reliable form of social currency and would actually serve the highly favored recipients in such a grand manner as to allow them brief respites at dining tables found at swank watering holes as New York’s Twenty-One Club and El Morocco.

Today, a Palm Award, plus four dollars, will get you a medium-sized cappuccino at Starbucks. Walt Disney was awarded a Palm in 1938 for his achievement in producing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

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