Recent Articles – Page 203 – Old Magazine Articles

Stuart Davis: Thirty Years of Evolution
(Art Digest, 1945)

A review of the Stuart Davis (1892 – 1964) retrospective that opened at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in the fall of 1945. The artist referred to his influences:

In my own case I have enjoyed the dynamic American scene for many years, and all my pictures (including the ones I painted in Paris) are referential to it. They all have their originating impulse in the impact of [the]contemporary American environment.

James Beard on Cheese
(Gentry Magazine, 1957)

It can be soft, hard, sweet, sour, hot, cold, pungent or bland.

It comes in various shapes and many colors.

It can be inodorous or effuvious.

It is known in every country, to every tongue.

Whatever its shape, hue, scent or nationality it is one of the most ancient,
most honorable of foods and it is called cheese.

A wise man once said A Meal Without Cheese is Like a Beautiful Woman with One Eye.

Versailles Treaty Conference Spoofed on Stage
(Stage Magazine, 1933)

One of the summer offerings of 1933 was the stage production of ‘Peace Palace’ by Emil Ludwig (1881 – 1948). Posted here is a review of the production along with a black and white photograph of the cast in full costume and recognizable make-up.

Marlon Brando
(Photoplay Magazine, 1955)

This is a three page PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE profile of method actor Marlon Brando (1924 – 2004) regarding the first eight years of his fame. Much of the column space is devoted to Brando’s friendship with Harry Belafonte and all the boyish pranks and general carousing that the two enjoyed during their (thankfully) brief salad days.

Jeweler to the Stars
(Quick Magazine, 1954)

The fabulous jewels worn by the stars in movies look like the real thing, but they are all paste. Most of this fake splendor is produced by Joan Castle Joseff of Hollywood (1912 – 2010) whose factory turns out 90 percent of the jewelry used in pictures. Sometimes an order must be filled in twenty-four hours, to avoid holding up a costly production.

A Pill Box in the Hürtgen Forest
(Yank Magazine, 1944)

During the last miserable days of 1944 came this one page, first person account by a common American soldier marching through a shell-pocked German landscape. The fellow went to great effort to describe the general discomfort experienced by all those GIs privileged enough to be posted at the spearhead of that winter advance through the Hürtgen Forest. Halting in frozen rain and blinding winds, his platoon languished around a liberated Nazi pillbox where it was decided that each of them should enjoy a three hour respite inside to escape the cold. When it was our hero’s turn he explains how nice it was to be surrounded by four walls and a roof.

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

The Kaiser Condemned
(The Literary Digest, 1919)

A brief article published some six months after the Armistice in which the editors collected various opinion pieces from assorted German newspapers that clearly stated the deep hatred many Germans felt for their former king. Also mentioned was the possibility that the dethroned Kaiser could possibly stand trial before the court of Nations.

The rotten branch on the Hohenzollern tree must be broken off, so that the tree may once more bloom and flourish. William II is superficial, frivolous, vain, and and autocratic; a lover of pomp; proud of his money, void of seriousness; a petty worshiper of his own petty self; without one trait of greatness, a poseur, an actor, and worst of all for a ruler: a coward.

Click here to read what the Kaiser thought of Adolf Hitler.

Marriner Stoddard Eccles on Cold War Economics
(The Diamondback, 1950)

While serving as FDR’s Federal Reserve chairman between 1934 and 1948, Marriner Stoddard Eccles (1890 – 1977) put into play numerous policies that allowed the Federal Reserve to be sublimated to the interests of the Treasury; as a result, he is largely remembered as the patron saint of deficit spending. When he left that position during the Truman administration he went on the lecture circuit where he repeatedly condemned both the post-war economic policy as well as the Cold War policies of the State Department. The attached article summarizes a talk he gave at the University of Maryland in February of 1950.

Click here to read a Cold War editorial by Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas.

The Policy Behind the Occupation of Germany
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

In the aftermath of World War II Germany found themselves occupied by four armies; in the attached article General Eisenhower explained what the policy of the German occupation was to be:

‘His idea is that the biggest job for right now is riding herd on the rehabilitation of Germany’s political and economic structure…We are working toward a government of Germany by the Germans under the supervision of the Allied General Control Council,’ he said. The government will pass more and more under German civil control. At first we’ll have to look down the German’s necks in everything they do.’

British Military Campaign Furniture
(Mappin and Webb, 1915)

The furniture made available for private purchase to British officers during World War One was a far cry from that which their Victorian father’s enjoyed; however, the thought of going off to war without camp furniture at all was foreign to them. The page illustrates the simple, collapsible furniture that was approved by the British War Office for use in the field.