Recent Articles – Page 126 – Old Magazine Articles

In Defense of Modern Architecture
(Coronet Magazine, 1940)

Living, as he did, at a time when the average American homeowner was more inclined to prefer a ranch house over a machine for living that those vulgar, snail-eating European modernists were capable of creating, American architect George Frederick Keck (1895 – 1980) saw fit to write this spirited defense on behalf of modern design. Playing the part of a modernist missionary seeking to convert the heathens, Keck argued that his tribe of architects – with their understanding of contemporary building materials and respect for simplicity – were suited to create a better standard of living for one and all.

The German Luger
(Yank Magazine, 1943)

Two black and white diagrams illustrating the unique features of the German Luger pistol appear alongside a brief history of the weapon. Additional information included in the article are operating instructions and a table of characteristics which lists assorted fun facts about the weapon; it’s weight, length and range, as well as an explanation as to how the piece compares to the M1911 A1 Colt 45 (the standard issue side arm of the U.S. Army):

Since 1908 the Luger pistol has been the official German military side arm. George Luger of the DWM Arms Company in Germany developed this weapon, known officially as Pistole 08, from the American Borchart pistol invented in 1893

One Austrian’s Fight Against Global Fascism
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

As far as we know, this 1945 page from YANK was the first article to tell the tale of the incredible Herbert Zipper (1904 – 1997); a story that began in Austria during the Anschluss (1938), carried on through two German concentration camps (Dachau and Buchenwald), continued through to Paris, Manila, and an Imperial Japanese detention center after which the story concludes with Dr. Zipper happily conducting his orchestra in a post-war concert before the victorious American Army.

This story was told in the highly celebrated 1995 documentary film, Never Give Up: The 20th-Century Odyssey of Herbert Zipper (American Film Foundation Production). This is a good read; it is a remarkable World War Two story about a rebellious soul with a lot of guts.

The Advantages of Silent Movies Over Theater
(Photoplay Magazine, 1920)

Strong arguments were put to verse by the popular song writer Howard Dietz (1896 – 1983) as to why the up-town theater crowd had it all wrong.

The picture theater is always dark
So things you throw won’t hit the mark.

The actor in the movie play
Can’t hear the things you often say.

The spoken drama’s always longer;
The movie hero’s always stronger.

Click here to read more comparisons between film and stage.

Isadora Duncan in Rye
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1915)

Here is a paragraph about the school of dance that was maintained by Isadora Duncan in Rye, New York; the notice is illustrated by three stunning photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864 – 1952) depicting thirteen young girls in Grecian attire.

Japan’s China Poicy
(Literary Digest, 1935)

What was called a Japanese ‘Monroe Doctrine for Asia’ whereby Japan would wield dominance there, especially in Chinese affairs, was announced last April, and drew the immediate attention of the world’s press.

In the last days of this January a following-up of this intention was seen in a series of talks at Nanking between Chiang Kai-shek, President and Generalissimo of the Nationalist Government of China, and Lieutenant-General Soshiyuki Suzuki, Japanese military representative at Shanghai; and among Akira Ariyoshi, Japanese Minister to China, and General Chiang and Premiere Wang Ching-wei.

Jerome K. Jerome on Books
(Literary Digest, 1906)

Jerome K. Jerome (1859 – 1927) was a British author and playwright from one of the sillier tribes who is best remembered for his humorous travelogue Three Men in a Boat (1889). In the attached interview, the humorist laments that the novels in his day (as opposed to our own) so seldom inspire any real use of the mind:

Books have become the modern narcotic. China has adopted the opium habit for want of fiction. When China obtains each week her ‘Greatest Novel Of The Century’, her ‘Most Thrilling Story Of The Year’, her ‘Best Selling Book Of The Season’ the opium den will be no more needed.

From Amazon: Three Men in a Boat

Jimmy Stewart: Four Years in Hollywood
(Photoplay Magazine, 1939)

Hollywood scribe Wilbur Morse, Jr. wrote this 1939 magazine profile of Jimmy Stewart (1908 – 1997). At the time of this printing, Stewart had dozens of stage credits and had been working in films for only four years; one year later he would be awarded an Oscar for his performance in PHILADELPHIA STORY:

Booth Tarkington might have created Jim Stewart. He’s ‘Little Orvie and Billie Baxter’ grown up ‘Penrod’ with a Princeton diploma.

The appeal of James Stewart, the shy, inarticulate movie actor, is that he reminds every girl in the audience of the date before the last. He’s not a glamorized Gable, a remote Robert Taylor. He’s ‘Jim’, the lackadaisical, easy-going boy from just around the corner.

Military Buildup in the USSR
(Literary Digest, 1935)

Premier Vyacheslav M. Molotov (1890 – 1986) pictured the Soviet Union as a lusty young giant strong enough to defend itself from both the East and the West in the keynote speech of the Seventh All Union Congress of Soviets, the Soviet Parliament.

In proof of this claim it was shown that in the last two years the Soviet Government had increased the strength of the Red Army from 562,000 men in 1932 to 940,000 in 1934.

Read about all the various international treaties that the Soviet Union violated…

Letter from a Canadian Artillerist
(Carry On, 1917)

By the time this letter was written in 1917, Seigfreid Sassoon and Wilfred Owen would have found very little common ground with it’s author. However the letter is remarkable for it’s eloquence and passion in support of the war.

Isaac N. Lewis and the Lewis Machine Gun
(1912)

A 1912 magazine article concerns machine gun inventor Isaac N. Lewis and his machine gun, the Lewis gun. The Lewis Gun played a major roll during the First World War, having been purchased in large quantities by the British/Commonwealth armies. Written just two years prior to the slaughter, this article is about U.S. Army experiments with the Lewis Gun when it is mounted on aircraft. As the article makes clear, the Lewis Gun was the first machine gun to have ever been fixed to a plane.

The Career of Lilian Gish
(Rob Wagner’s Script Magazine, 1942)

Attached is a decidedly pro Lilian Gish (1893 – 1993) article concerning the silent film actresses‘ meteoric rise under the direction of D.W. Griffith, her mediocrity when paired with other directors and her much appreciated march on Broadway.

Lilian Gish is the damozel of Arthurian legend, tendered in terms of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Her heroines perpetually hover in filtered half-lights, linger in attitudes of romantical despair. They forever drift farther from reality than the dream, and no matter how humble their actual origins, the actress invariably weaves them of the dusk-blues, the dawn-golds of medieval tapestries.

Click here if you would like to read an article in which Lillian Gish recalls her part in Birth of a Nation.

Click here to read articles about Marilyn Monroe.

London Society, 1915
(Vanity Fair, 1915)

Five months into the general unpleasantness going on across the Channel had transformed London into a very different city, and sadly, it was the leisured classes that had to shoulder most of the burden:

London is well worth living in these troubled days if only for its contrasts…The gloom of the streets, the sinister play of the searchlights, the abnormal hour at which the theatres open and and the public houses close, the fact that half the male population is in khaki and the other half would like to be, that Society is wearing Noah’s Ark clothes and that to buy a new hat is a crime, that there are no dances, no dinners, no suppers, no premieres, no shooting, no no posing, no frivolity, nor idling, it’s rather quickening, you know. But the searchlights have absolutely killed all practical romance.

Lt. Colonel Fremantle at Gettysburg
(W.C. Storrick, 1951)

Lt. Colonel Frementle (1835 – 1901), a member of the Coldstream Guards, was a guest of the Army of Northern Virginia during the Gettysburg campaign. After the Battle of Gettysburg, he returned to England and published Three months in the Southern States. The following is a vivid extract, describing a part of the battle from the Southern lines:

The position into which the enemy had been driven was evidently a strong one. His right appeared to rest on a cemetery, on the top of a high ridge to the right of Gettysburg, as we looked at it.

General Hill now came up and told me he had been very unwell all day, and in fact he looks very delicate. He said he had had two of his divisions engaged, and had driven the enemy four miles into his present position, capturing a great many prisoners, some cannon, and some colors; he said, however, that the Yankees had fought with a determination unusual to them.

The Career of Lilian Gish
(Rob Wagner’s Script Magazine, 1942)

Click here if you would like to read an article in which Lillian Gish recalls her part in Birth of a Nation.

Click here to read articles about Marilyn Monroe.

Sweet Words for Maestro Toscanini
(Stage Magazine, 1938)

Arturo Toscanini
(1867 – 1957) is believed to have been the greatest conductor of the Twentieth Century. He was bestowed with a ‘Palm Award’ by the well-meaning swells at the now defunct Stage Magazine during the summer of 1938. This article appeared during a time when a Palm Award, granted by such a crew 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 such watering holes as New York’s Stork Club. Nowadays, one Palm Award and one dollar and fifty cents will afford you a ride on the Los Angeles City subway system (one way).
The attached article explains why Maestro Toscanini had met all requirements for this award.

A Mosaic of Marilyn Monroe
(Coronet Magazine, 1961)

The editors of CORONET MAGAZINE approached the five male luminaries who were working alongside Marilyn Monroe during the making of The Misfits and asked each of them to comment on the Monroe character riddle as he alone had come to view it. These men, John Huston, Eli Wallach, Clark Gable, Montgomery Clift and her (soon to be estranged) husband, Arthur Miller, who had written the script, did indeed have unique insights as to who the actress was and what made her tick.

Men’s Clothing for the Spring of 1916
(Strauss Theater Magazine, 1916)

Twelvemonth ago, the war had sobered ‘le monde ou l’on s’amuse’ like an icy douche. Europe rang with the clump of tramping feet. Forked lightening seemed to lurk in the sky. In club cars of limited trains and smoke rooms of trans-Atlantic liners heads were put together and the air was as tense as a fiddle string… Fashion tipsters, with long ears and short sight, said that the world would put on black, and style was knocked in the head, and look for the deluge, and so on ‘ad nauseum’.