Recent Articles – Page 117 – Old Magazine Articles

1914: The Close of an Epoch (The New Republic, 1915)

World War I had only been raging for six months when this article first appeared. As the journalist makes clear, one did not have to have an advanced degree in history to recognize that this war was unique; it involved almost every wealthy, industrialized European nation and their far-flung colonies; thousands of men were killed daily and many more thousands stepped forward to take their places. The writer recognized that this long anticipated war was an epic event and that, like the French Revolution, it would be seen by future generations as a marker which indicated that all changes began at that point:

Those who were but a few months ago assuring us that there never could be another general war are most vociferously informing the same audience that this will be the last.

Click here to read about the W.W. I efforts of Prince Edward, the future Duke of Windsor.

The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914

Angela Lansbury Arrives in Hollywood (Rob Wagner’s Script, 1945)

Those sly dogs at SCRIPT MAGAZINE! They printed the smiling mug of the twenty-five year-old Angela Lansbury (b. 1925) on the cover of their rag, briefly praising her for being the youngest performer to have ever been nominated for an Academy Award (she soon won the 1944 Best Supporting Actress statue for Gaslight), and ran a profile of the lass on a page eight article that was misleadingly titled Our Cover Girl, only to devote 85% of the columns to an illustrious forebear.

The Art of Thomas Hart Benton (Vanity Fair, 1922)

When this profile of the thirty-tree year-old Thomas Hart Benton (1889 – 1975) was published, the painter was not as yet recognized as the eccentric that history remembers him to have been. The anonymous journalist took an enormous interest in understanding Benton’s education and the source of his inspiration.

Click hereto read a 1936 art review regarding the paintings of Grant Wood.

The Frenzy for Rudolph Valentino (Coronet Magazine, 1951)

Even as late as 1951, those eccentric little movie theaters that ran only thirty year-old flicks filled their seats with middle-aged women who still nursed a flame for Rudolph Valentino (1895 – 1926); their beau ideal from the mad Twenties who so many imagined to have been the perfect lover.

The Expansion of the U.S. Army (U.S. Gov. 1931)

Attached is a pie chart illustrating the expansion of the U.S. Army beginning in April of 1917 through 1918, when it reached the zenith of its might. The chart also indicates the shrinkage in National Guard units within the same time frame.

Read about the W.W. I growth of the U.S. Marine Corps…

Click here to read what the young women of France thought about the Doughboys.

Paul Cezanne Gets His American Viewing (Vanity Fair, 1915)

This is a VANITY FAIR art review that was reverently torn from the brittle, yellowing pages of a 1915 issue of VANITY FAIR covering the first Paul Cezanne (1839 – 1906) exhibit on American shores.

W.W. I Poster Artists Criticized (Vanity Fair Magazine, 1918)

VANITY FAIR‘s art critic, James Frederick Gregg, had a good deal to say concerning the art of the World War One American poster campaign:

…Indeed, so ineffective have most of the posters been as art, that it is ridiculous to imagine that they have had any effect whatever in stimulating in us the spiritual side of our share in the war.

Levi Strauss and his Denim (Coronet Magazine, 1956)

The attached piece was written in the shadows of W.W. II – a time when Levi Strauss’ famous blue jean fabric was not simply being woven for the 12,000,000 souls in the U.S. military, but also the civilian war-workers who donned jean overalls and found them ideal for the heavy, industrial labor that they faced each day.

As if this wasn’t enough to keep the factories of Levi Strauss & Co. humming happily, the American teenagers also discovered blue jeans in the around the same time and have been devoted to them ever since. The author of this article could never have known that the social revolution that made the name Levi a household word all across the globe was only nine years away.

Read About the History of the T-Shirt

An article about 1940s denim can be read here…

Rest from Battle (Yank Magazine, 1944)

A 1944 YANK article tells the tale about a quiet little spot behind the front line where American GIs were able to enjoy 24 hours of peace before being returned to the meat-grinder:

Sergeant Carmine Daniello, of Brooklyn, New York, smoked a big cigar during the afternoon…he was taking it easy in his own way. He didn’t want to sleep just now. He said, ‘Just sitting around like this is all I want right now.’On the other side of the river it had been so bad…

CLICK HERE… to read one man’s account of his struggle with shell shock…

Jewish Population Increase in the U.S. (The Outlook, 1922)

Pogroms and other less violent forms of Antisemitism in Eastern Europe had resulted in a large increase of the Jewish migration to the United States by 1922. This growth in the Jewish population swelled from an estimated 1,777,185 in 1907 to an estimated 3,390,301 by 1918. The following one page article includes a map of the continental United States featuring those portions of the U.S. with the largest Jewish populations in 1922.

Click here to read an article about the Warsaw Ghetto.