Interviews: 1912 – 1960

A Profile of Cartoonist Rube Goldberg, Cartoonist and Quack-Inventor (Vanity Fair, 1914)

In the attached 1914 magazine profile, Joseph Edgar Chamberlin (1851 – 1935) asked, Who is Goldberg? and then jumped right in and proceeded to answer that question. However, the reader should understand that in 1914 it simply did not take very long to give the answer. With so much good work yet to come, this article outlined the cartoonist’s earliest employment record while making clear that he was already well known for his invention gags, which had already appeared in many papers across the United States.


If you would like to read a 1930 article written by Rube Goldberg click here.

Click here to see an anti-New Deal cartoon that Goldberg drew in 1939.

A Profile of Cartoonist Rube Goldberg, Cartoonist and Quack-Inventor (Vanity Fair, 1914) Read More »

Leftist Cartoonist Art Young (Direction Magazine, 1938)

Artist Gilbert Wilson conducted this interview with American socialist cartoonist Art Young (1866 – 1943) which appeared in DIRECTION MAGAZINE during the summer of 1938. In the fullness of time, Art Young has come to be recognized as something of a demi-god in the American poison pen pantheon of graphic satirists and no study of Twentieth Century political cartoons is complete without him:

Art Young has never adopted the policy of tearing into his foe (which is capitalism) with tooth and claw. It simply isn’t his way. He just isn’t capable of hating anyone or anything badly enough to get that angry.

Isn’t it rather the duty of a good radical, as Lenin said, ‘patiently to explain’?


In 1887 the NEW YORK TIMES reviewed the first english edition of Das Kapital by Karl Marx, click here to read it…

Leftist Cartoonist Art Young (Direction Magazine, 1938) Read More »

An Interview With P.G. Wodehouse (The American Legion Weekly, 1919)

At the time this magazine profile first appeared in 1919, P.G. Wodehousestyle=border:none (1904-1975) had recently resigned his post as the Drama Critic for VANITY FAIR MAGAZINE in order to pursue his ambition as a novelist and playwright. This article revealed to all Wodehouse’s keen interest in American slang and the language of American comic strips.

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

An Interview With P.G. Wodehouse (The American Legion Weekly, 1919) Read More »

Ronald Reagan in his Own Words (Photoplay Magazine, 1942)

In the attached PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE article, Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911 – 2004), the Hollywood actor who would one day become the fortieth president of the United States (1981–1989), gives a tidy account as to who he was in 1942, and what was dear to him:

My favorite menu is steaks smothered with onions and strawberry short cake. I play bridge adequately and collect guns, always carry a penny as a good luck charm…I’m interested in politics and governmental problems. My favorite books are Turnabout, by Thorne Smith, Babbitt, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the works of Pearl Buck, H.G. Wells, Damon Runyon and Erich Remarque.


A good read and a revealing article by a complicated man.


Click here to read about a Cold War prophet who was much admired by President Reagan…

Ronald Reagan in his Own Words (Photoplay Magazine, 1942) Read More »

Clare Boothe: The Woman Behind ”The Women” (Stage Magazine, 1938)

The following STAGE MAGAZINE article by American playwright Clare Boothe (Clare Boothe Luce 1903 – 1987) appeared in print shortly after the successful opening of her play, The Women:

Of course, writing plays wasn’t exactly a flash of genius. I mean I am shewed in spots…But inspiration or calculation, it was frightfully lucky that I hit on writing plays, wasn’t it? And it was so wonderfully fortunate that quite a lot of people that I’d met socially on Park Avenue, at very exclusive parties, people like cowboys, cooks, manicurists, nurses, hat-check girls, fitters, exchorines, declasses countesses, Westport intellectuals, Hollywood producers Southern girls and radical columnists, gave me such lovely material to write about.

Click here to read about feminine conversations overheard in the best New York nightclubs of 1937.

Clare Boothe: The Woman Behind ”The Women” (Stage Magazine, 1938) Read More »

Ronald Reagan in his Own Words (Photoplay Magazine, 1942)

In the attached PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE article, Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911 – 2004), the Hollywood actor who would one day become the fortieth president of the United States (1981–1989), gives a tidy account as to who he was in 1942, and what was dear to him:

My favorite menu is steaks smothered with onions and strawberry short cake. I play bridge adequately and collect guns, always carry a penny as a good luck charm…I’m interested in politics and governmental problems. My favorite books are Turnabout, by Thorne Smith, Babbitt, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the works of Pearl Buck, H.G. Wells, Damon Runyon and Erich Remarque.


A good read and a revealing article by a complicated man.


Click here to read about a Cold War prophet who was much admired by President Reagan…

Ronald Reagan in his Own Words (Photoplay Magazine, 1942) Read More »

Ronald Reagan in his Own Words (Photoplay Magazine, 1942)

In the attached PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE article, Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911 – 2004), the Hollywood actor who would one day become the fortieth president of the United States (1981–1989), gives a tidy account as to who he was in 1942, and what was dear to him:

My favorite menu is steaks smothered with onions and strawberry short cake. I play bridge adequately and collect guns, always carry a penny as a good luck charm…I’m interested in politics and governmental problems. My favorite books are Turnabout, by Thorne Smith, Babbitt, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the works of Pearl Buck, H.G. Wells, Damon Runyon and Erich Remarque.


A good read and a revealing article by a complicated man.


Click here to read about a Cold War prophet who was much admired by President Reagan…

Ronald Reagan in his Own Words (Photoplay Magazine, 1942) Read More »

Ronald Reagan in his Own Words (Photoplay Magazine, 1942)

In the attached PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE article, Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911 – 2004), the Hollywood actor who would one day become the fortieth president of the United States (1981–1989), gives a tidy account as to who he was in 1942, and what was dear to him:

My favorite menu is steaks smothered with onions and strawberry short cake. I play bridge adequately and collect guns, always carry a penny as a good luck charm…I’m interested in politics and governmental problems. My favorite books are Turnabout, by Thorne Smith, Babbitt, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the works of Pearl Buck, H.G. Wells, Damon Runyon and Erich Remarque.


A good read and a revealing article by a complicated man.


Click here to read about a Cold War prophet who was much admired by President Reagan…

Ronald Reagan in his Own Words (Photoplay Magazine, 1942) Read More »

Dale Carnegie on Winning Friends and Influencing People (Collier’s Magazine, 1949)

Dale Carnegie (1888 – 1955) was a phenomenon unique to American shores; he was a publishing marvel whose book How To Win Friends and Influence People has sold over fifty million copies since it’s first appearance in 1937.
Similar to his contemporary Napoleon Hillstyle=border:none
(1883 – 1970), Carnegie was one the preeminent self-help authors of the last century who recognized that success can be found within all of us if we simply know how to harness those elements properly. He had a strong belief that the powers of self-determination can be mastered in one’s ability to communicate clearly, and his followers are legion.


This article coincided with the printing of his second book, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1948), and explains the author’s philosophy –


… be a good listener, talk in terms of the other man’s interests, and make the other person feel important.

Dale Carnegie on Winning Friends and Influencing People (Collier’s Magazine, 1949) Read More »