Interviews: 1912 – 1960

Bernard Baruch: Elder Statesman (Yank Magazine, 1945)

Bernard Baruch (1870 – 1965) was a major player in President Franklin Roosevelt’s Brain Trust; during World War Two he served that president as a respected adviser concerning economic matters. Not long after this interview, during the Truman Administration, he was appointed to serve as the first U.S. Representative on the U.N Atomic Energy Commission.


Click here to read a 1945 article about the funeral of FDR.

Bernard Baruch: Elder Statesman (Yank Magazine, 1945) Read More »

Liberace Arrives (Collier’s Magazine, 1954)

Attached is a five page interview with the always demure and introverted pianist Liberace (b. Wladziu Valentino Liberace: 1919 – 1987). When this article first appeared on the pages of COLLIER’S MAGAZINE, no living performer was selling more records than he was, his television program was nearing its second year and American women had not yet figured out that he was gay. Life was good.


From Amazon: Liberace: An American Boystyle=border:nonestyle=border:none

Liberace Arrives (Collier’s Magazine, 1954) Read More »

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Here is a very thorough profile of Mustafa Kamel Atatürk (1881 – 1938), the first president of the Republic of Turkey (1923 – 1938). The article goes into some detail concerning his humble beginnings, his vices and his secret writings for the revolutionary Vatan ve Hürriyet (Motherland and Liberty) underground movement. His rise to power came with his assorted military triumphs in the Italo-Turkish War, the Balkan War, the First World War and most notably, the Greko-Turkish War. He came to power in 1922 and began reforming Turkish society in ways that rocked the nation to its very corps.


Click here to read a 1922 article about the Turkish slaughter of Christians.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937) Read More »

A Profile of H.L. Mencken (The English Review, 1922)

During much of the 20s and 30s satirist H.L. Mencken (1880 – 1956) was widely read and respected for the critic that he was -and as you read this British essay from the arts journal, The English Review, you’ll get a sense that the author/groupie must have been waiting by the docks for several years in anticipation of his arrival.


The historian Henry Steele Commager ranked H.L. Mencken at number 9 insofar as his impact on the American mind was concerned – click here to understand his reasoning…


Click here to read an article about one of New York’s greatest mayors: Fiorello LaGuardia.

A Profile of H.L. Mencken (The English Review, 1922) Read More »

Whatever Happened to Evelyn Nesbit? (People Today, 1952)

She had been a key figure in the most spectacular murder trial of the Gilded Age. An artist’s model, a Broadway chorus girl, the obsession of crazed millionaire and the play thing of one of America’s greatest architects; her beauty was legend – driving men to do the sorts of things that they knew were wrong. Her name was Evelyn Nesbit (1884 – 1967) and when that era faded into obscurity, so did she; until the hard-charging reporters of PEOPLE TODAY found her decades later – in the Land of Fruits and Nuts (Southern California), where the celebrities of yesteryear all go to find themselves.

Whatever Happened to Evelyn Nesbit? (People Today, 1952) Read More »

Teddy Roosevelt, R.I.P. (The Crises, 1919)

Written with a strong spirit of gratitude, this is the obituary of Teddy Roosevelt as it appeared in the N.A.A.C.P. magazine The Crises. Published at a time when the friends of the black man were few, this is a stirring tribute to a man who, although not always an ally, was respected as the world’s greatest protagonist of lofty ideals and principles.


Click here to read a 1945 article about the funeral of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, TR’s nephew.


Click here to read an article about one of New York’s greatest mayors: Fiorello LaGuardia.

Teddy Roosevelt, R.I.P. (The Crises, 1919) Read More »

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…

George Jean Nathan (Vanity Fair, 1917) Read More »

‘The Dictator and his Woman” (Coronet Magazine, 1956)

The article attached herein is oddly titled The Dictator and his Woman; a more apt title would have been The Woman and her Dictator

From the start, the relationship between Peron and Evita was a curious and contradictory liason. It is true that she was still a struggling actress when Peron met her, but she had achieved a considerable reputation for spreading her favors around with a sharp eye to the future,


Read about Fascist Argentina…


Read about the post-war Nazi refuge that was Argentina…

‘The Dictator and his Woman” (Coronet Magazine, 1956) Read More »

The Life and Death of Hank Williams (Coronet Magazine, 1956)

Country Music legend Hank Williams (1923 – 1953)
died just four and a half months after being kicked out of the Grand Ol’ Opry for drunken and erratic behavior. He was at the peak of his fame, earning over $200,000 a year and enjoying the enthusiasm of ten million fans in the U.S. and five million abroad. He was 29 years old and known only for 35 songs. The attached article will let you in on the short and painful life of country music’s fair haired boy.


Like many artists, his creativity was nurtured by an empty stomach. Hank Williams was raised under dreadfully impoverished conditions in Depression era Alabama; suffering from spinal bifida, the illness that eventually overcame him, he sought relief from the pain with liquor and drugs and died in the back of the Caddy that was ferrying him to a gig in Canton Ohio.

The Life and Death of Hank Williams (Coronet Magazine, 1956) Read More »