Recent Articles

Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey (Photoplay Magazine, 1939)

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.


The above line was pulled from the attached article which was one of the first widely read profiles of Jimmy Stewart (James Maitland Stewart 1908 – 1997). Written four years after his arrival in the California dream factory and printed during the same year as his first encounter with the director Frank Capra in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, this article reveals that Stewart had a small town upbringing and was essentially the same character he played in It’s A Wonderful Life.

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


From Amazon: It’s a Wonderful Life: Favorite Scenes from the Classic Filmstyle=border:none

Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey (Photoplay Magazine, 1939) Read More »

Donna Reed as Mary Bailey (Coronet Magazine, 1960)

A profile of the Hollywood actress Donna Reed (born Donna Belle Mullenger: 1921 – 1986), who will foreve be remembered for her portrayal of the character Mary Bailey in the Frank Capra film, It’s a Wonderful Life(RKO, 1947).


This interview was published as one more publicity element that was created to promote her television program, The Donna Reed Showstyle=border:none (ABC, 1958 – 1966), that was launched a year and a half earlier, and serves as a nice summary of her life and career up until 1960. Reed refers to her earliest days growing up on a family farm in Iowa, her salad years as a maid, librarian and community college student in Los Angeles and her deepest frustrations with pin-headed casting agents who placed her in limited rolls for so many years.

Donna Reed as Mary Bailey (Coronet Magazine, 1960) Read More »

Iceberg Warnings as Early as January (Popular Mechanics, 1912)

The attached two paragraphs appeared in Popular Mechanics some six weeks prior to the maiden voyage of Titanic:

As many as 4,500 different bergs have been actually counted in a run of 2,000 miles; estimated heights of from 800 to 1,700 feet are not uncommon, and bergs with lengths of from 6 to 82 miles are numerous.


The notice indicated that if the Indian Ocean is suffering such a large number then certainly it can be surmised that the North Atlantic will be plagued doubly. It stands to reason that if the editors of this magazine were aware of the heavy presence of South-bound icebergs, then the naval community must also have been in the know.

Iceberg Warnings as Early as January (Popular Mechanics, 1912) Read More »

Sex During the Second World War (Coronet Magazine, 1955)

At the beginning of World War II, our army was a mixture of callow boys and and domesticated men. The older men were homesick for wives and children…There were plenty of lonely wives, too, and it soon became evident that a fair number of them were committed to the belief that continence was bad for women.


Marriage vows were one of the unsung casualties of the Second World War: by 1944 many married women who hadn’t seen their drafted husbands in years began producing babies; you can read about that here…


In 1943 a woman on the home front introduced a sexual component that she believed would bring an end to the problem of industrial absenteeism – click here to read about her idea…

Sex During the Second World War (Coronet Magazine, 1955) Read More »

Japanese Feudalism Overturned (Pathfinder Magazine, 1945)

The reforms that were imposed upon Occupied Japan in the Forties and Fifties did not simply come in the form of death sentences for war criminals – but additionally the Japanese came to know the rights and protections that are guaranteed to All Americans under the United States Constitution. For the first time ever Japanese women were permitted to vote, unions were legalized and equality under the law was mandated. This small notice concerned the overthrow of the feudal laws that governed the Japanese tenant farmers.

Japanese Feudalism Overturned (Pathfinder Magazine, 1945) Read More »