Recent Articles – Page 116 – Old Magazine Articles

American Trench Periscopes
(America’s Munitions, 1919)

The U.S Army only ordered two types of trench periscopes during the war. The first kind was a simple wooden box, painted a lovely shade of olive drab and measuring two inches square and 15 inches in length with two inclined mirrors set at both ends (pictured). This type was manufactured by two companies and well over 100,000 were produced.

The second variety was a mirror that was designed to fixed to the end of a bayonet, a total of 100,000 of these were delivered before the end of July, 1918 and 50,000 additional ones before November.

(Until we get the title link fixed, you can read the article by clicking here.)

Allied Aerial Reconnaissance During World War I
(Vanity Fair, 1918)

This article,Photography’s Notable Part in the War was written by an active participant in the aerial reconnaissance arm of the Royal Flying Corps, Captain Henry A. Wildon. He reported that both sides in the conflict recognized early on that intelligence gathering by way of camera and aircraft was a real possibility:

Our first airplanes in France were not supplied with photographic equipment. It was not until the beginning of 1915 that the importance of of photography became apparent, and was made possible by improvements in the type and general stability of the airplane.

An Early Gas Mask
(Magazine Ad, 1915)

At the time when the Entente powers were first exposed to poisonous gas in the spring of 1915, their respective quartermasters scrambled to secure suitable antidotes and precautionary measures that would save the men in the front line trenches. One of the earliest improvisations was a gauze face mask that covered both mouth and nose, drenched in urine. The attached commercial illustration is from the margins of the French news magazine, L’ILLUSTRATION which depicts one of these earlier attempts.

Click here to see an illustration of the German gas shells.

Clicke here to read more articles about W.W. I gas warfare.

A Drawing of a German Trench Latrine
(Royal Engineers, 1915)

Attached, you will find a mechanical drawing made by the industrious souls assigned to the Royal Engineers in order to placate those busy-body brass-hats situated so far in the rear and having little better to do than wonder aloud as to how the Hun tended to deal with his bowel movements.

The author of
The Western Front Companion is very informative on the topic of trench latrines and tells us that as the war progressed, latrines evolved into loitering centers for those wishing to read or enjoy some solitude. In order to remedy the situation officers decided to position their front-line trench latrines at the end of short saps, closer to the enemy; the reason being that a man was less likely to tarry and would return to duty that much quicker.

Carl Sandburg at 70
(’48 Magazine)

Here is a salute to the poet Carl Sandburg (1878 – 1967) written by Louis Untermeyer (1885 – 1977) marking the occasion of Sandburg’s biography of Abraham Lincoln:

At 70 Sandburg is the voice of the common man, and it is only natural that his biography of Abraham Lincoln should express for all time the spirit of that uncommon man who was the common denominator of humanity.

President Roosevelt and the Panay Incident
(Literary Digest, 1937)

Attached, you will find a survey of opinions drawn from diverse corners of the fruited plain regarding the restraint exercised by President Franklin Roosevelt in the wake of Imperial Japan’s sinking of the U.S. gunboat Panay:

[President Franklin Roosevelt] should be sustained in his effort to make Japan realize that she cannot continue a policy of aggression with disregard of treaties and international law. A firm policy now for law and order will save many lives.

-Russell J. Clinchy,Washington Council for International Relations

The Shelley Winters ‘Get Thin Quick’ Diet

We all know that successful film actresses all seem able to drop weight quickly when the rolls call for it. Attached herein is the 1958 diet plan put to use by the Hollywood actress Shelley Winters.

Dashiel Hammett Fights the Fascists
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

Dashiel Hammett (1894 – 1961) had a pretty swell resume by the time World War Two came along. He had a number of celebrated novels and short stories published as well as a few well-paying gigs writing in Hollywood. It was during this period, in the Thirties, that he had created some of the wonderful characters that are still remembered to this day, such as Sam Spade (The Maltese Falcon) and Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man). During the war, it was rare but not unheard of, for an older man with such accomplishments to enlist in the army -and that is just what he did. This one page article clearly spells out Hammett’s period serving on an Alaskan army base; his slow climb from Buck Private to Sergeant; his difficulty with officers and the enjoyment of being anonymous.

Accompanying the article is a black and white image of the writer wearing Uncle Sam’s olive drab, herringbone twill -rather than the tell-tale tweed he was so often photographed wearing.

Big Bandleader Cab Calloway
(Coronet Magazine, 1941)

The attached six page article about Cab Calloway (1907 – 1994) makes no mention whatever of the three movies he had appeared in prior to 1941, but it answers many other questions you might have had about the musician’s first thirty-one years.

Mary Pickford: An Appreciation
(Motion Picture Magazine, 1916)

I haven’t a clue as to whether California lawyers had the Restraining Order as one of the tools in their arsenal back in 1916; but if they had, Mary Pickford might have chosen to deploy just such a legal measure in order to defend herself from this obsessed fan who wrote the following essay for the editors of MOTION PICTURE MAGAZINE:

She is adorably feminine, from her curls to her toes. In Tess, Caprice, the forlorn waif of the desert island in Hearts Adrift, she is feminine in everything she does. She can storm, but she storms like a warm-hearted, human woman, not a virago; she can coquette, but it is never the cold blooded type of flirting; Mary Pickford couldn’t be cold blooded if she tried. Men of all ages, women of all types, children of both sexes respond to this wonderful little girl in a manner no other star is able to arouse. They are all good and have done some wonderful work, but Mary is child, sweetheart and friend of the whole world, and no one can ever take her place in our hearts.

Click here to read a 1923 comparison between Norma Talmadge and Mary Pickford.

The Battle of Chateau-Thierry
(Stars and Stripes, 1918)

The American performance at the battle of Chateau-Thierry proved to General Foche that the Americans had the necessary stuff, and it was widely recognized that the Doughboys played the key roll in keeping the Germans out of Paris.

The attached STARS AND STRIPES article is extremely detailed as to the individual units (both French and American) that participated in rolling back the Germans along the Marne.

German Weapons in Winter
(Yank Magazine, 1943)

The following notes, based on directions issued in 1943 by the German Army High Command, regarding the use and proper care of German infantry weapons during winter campaigns. The instructions in question concern:

• German Luger & Walther P38 pistols,

• the Gewehr 41 rifle, Gewehr 98,

• M.G. 34 light machine gun and the,

• M.G. 42 heavy machine guns.

The article is accompanied by illustrations of the snow sleds used to transport the German machine guns.

Click here to read about the mobile pill boxes of the Nazi army.

The Fashion Group
(Collier’s Magazine, 1948)

At the time this article appeared on the pages of COLLIER’S MAGAZINE, the Fashion Group was already over twenty years old and in need of more office space.

Established in 1928 by the crowned-heads of the American fashion industry, it was decided that the dominate fashionistas ‘needed a forum, a stage, or a force to express and enhance a widening awareness of the American fashion business and of women’s roles in that business. This article points out that there were present in that room on that historic day a smattering of women who toiled in the vineyards as fashion journalists and collectively it was understood that the two groups very much relied upon each other.
The Fashion Group was established in order to:

judge trends by watching sales figures, which indicate which fashions are on the wane and which are gaining favor. They travel around to see what we do, and therefore, what we need.

Today, the Fashion Group has offices in every major American city as well as branches in the fashion capitols of Europe, South America and Asia.

The Making of the Atomic Bomb
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

The Manhattan Project was the code name given to the allied effort to develop the Atomic Bomb during World War Two. The research and development spanned the years 1942 through 1946 and the participating nations behind the effort were the Unites States, Great Britain and Canada. Within the United States, there were as many as three locations where the Manhattan Project was carried out however this article concerns the goings-on at the uranium-enrichment facilities in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The article presents the point of view of your basic PFC on the base; how he had to maintain the necessary secrecy, what was it like living among such a plethora of pointy-headed slide-rule jockeys and how grateful they were to be living the comfortable life, while so many other draftees fared so poorly.

Captured: A Woman Sniper
(Yank Magazine, 1944)

A small notice from a post D-Day YANK announced the capture of a German woman sniper named, Myra.

Click here if you would like to read about women combatants during W.W. I.

Must England Destroy Germany?
(Literary Digest, 1897)

Bismark (1815 – 1898) has long since recognized what at length the people of England are beginning to understand, that England and Germany must come to blows over the right to levy from the whole world the tribute of commerce…

Letter from France
(Tricolor Magazine, 1944)

A British staff officer who was an eyewitness to the Allied breakout from the Normandy hedgerows compiled all the assorted questions that friends and family had written to him in their respective letters and answered them in a public format published in TRICOLOR MAGAZINE:

What do you feel when you see people dead?

Just an urgent desire to get by quickly and a feeling of revulsion which is greater or less according to the length of time the body has been dead… There is no difference in appearance between decomposing men and decomposing animals and the same stench comes from both.

Charlie Chaplin Wanted to be Taken Seriously
(Current Opinion, 1922)

We have all seen it many times before: the well-loved, widely accepted comedian who decides that being adored by the masses is simply not enough. For too many comic talents, sadly, there comes a time when they slip on one banana peel too many and it occurs to them that they want the world to appreciate them for their ability to think. Comics who fill this description might be Al Frankin, Woody Allen or Steve Martin.

This article tries to understand why Chaplin wanted to play a tragic part in a 1921 London stage adaptation of William Thackeray’s ‘Vanity Fair’.
We have seen such behavior in comics many times before, they hadn’t.