An American artillery officer from that famous division recalled the last minute of the war to end all wars…
November 11th With the First Division (American Legion Weekly, 1919) Read More »
Not too long after the end of World War II, the French, British and Americans found that they had to assemble a coalition of nations (NATO) that would be willing to fight the Soviets for what was believed to be an even bigger rumble in the future – but after losing two enormous wars, West Germany refused to join.
‘Don’t Count on Germany to Fight” (Collier’s Magazine, 1951) Read More »
A first-hand account as to the daily goings-on at Hitler’s Plotzensee Prison.
Written by Jan Valtin (alias of Richard Julius Hermann Krebs: 1905 – 1951), one of the few inmates to make his way out of that highly inclusive address and tell the tale. Krebs was a communist in the German resistance movement who later escaped to New York and wrote a book (Out of the Night
) about his experiences in Nazi Germany.
The prisoner who has served his sentence is usually not released; he is surrendered to the Gestapo for an indefinite term in one of the concentration camps, preferably Sachsenhausen or Buchenwald. Incurable hard cases are sent to Dachau…
Richard Julius Hermann Krebs Under the Nazi Boot (Ken Magazine, 1939) Read More »
Assorted quotes addressing some aspects of the 1930 Hollywood and the entertainment industry seated there. Some are prophets who rant-on about the impending failure of talking pictures, others go on about the obscene sums of money generated in the film colony; a few of the wits are well-known to us, like Thomas Edison, George M. Cohan and Walter Winchell but most are unknown – one anonymous sage, remarking about the invention of sound movies, prophesied:
In ten years, most of the good music of the world will be written for sound motion pictures.
Various Remarks About the First Talkies (Photoplay Magazine, 1930) Read More »
Attached are a few words on the W.W. I naval recruiting poster To Arms by illustrator Milton Bancroft.
The article primarily describes what the duties of a ship’s bugler are, what this position represents and why this was such an suitable graphic image for recruiting sailors for the war.
The Navy Call to Arms (Sea Power Magazine, 1918) Read More »
A collection of twelve fashion illustrations depicting the variety of sleeve treatments available during the winter of 1921. Some of the details offered were created by the House of Worth, Captain Molyneux, Martial et Armand and Madeleine and Madeleine.
A Look at the Winter Sleeves of 1921 (Vogue Magazine, 1921) Read More »
This is one of the first profiles of Hollywood beauty and former child star Natalie Wood (1938 – 1981).
The journalist went into some details explaining how she was discovered at the age of five by the director Irving Pichel (1891 – 1954) and how it all steadily snowballed into eighteen years of semi-steady work that provided her with a invaluable Hollywood education (and subsequently creating a thoroughly out-of-control teenager).
At sixteen, Natalie co-starred with the late James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, and the resulting Dean hysteria swept her forward with him… She cannot bear to be alone. She is full of reasonless fears. Of airplanes. Of snakes. Of swimming in the ocean.
Natalie Wood (Coronet Magazine, 1960) Read More »
On the matter of the American fashion designer Adele Simpson (1904 – 1995), it must be remembered that she was a prominent player in American fashion for many decades; a woman who had been awarded both a Coty Award (1949) as well as a Neiman Marcus Award (1946). Her creations were highly sought after by the crowned heads of both Europe and Hollywood.
Click here to read about wartime fabric rationing in the 1940s.
Adele Simpson and Her Fashions (Collier’s Magazine, 1945) Read More »
As a wise, old sage once remarked: You don’t go to war with the army that you want, you go to war with the army that you have -no truer words were ever spoken; which brings us to this news piece from a popular American magazine published in 1910. The reader will be interested to know that just seven years prior to the American entry into World War One, the U.S. Army was lousy with deserters and it was a problem they were ill equipped to handle.
Click here to read some statistical data about the American Doughboys of the First World War.
The U.S. Army: Plagued by Deserters (Review of Reviews, 1910) Read More »
This article refers to a temperate review of Anglo-German relations as understood by Dr. Theodore Schiemann (1847 – 1921), confidant of Kaiser Wilhelm II and professor at the University of Berlin. Interestingly, the professor predicted some aspects of the forth-coming war correctly but, by enlarge, he believed Germany would be victorious:
A German-English war would be a calamity for the whole world, England included; for it may be regarded as a foregone conclusion that simultaneously with such an event every element in Asia and Africa that is hostile to the English would rise up as unbidden allies of Germany.
Rumors of War (Review of Reviews, 1910) Read More »
