Recent Articles – Page 50 – Old Magazine Articles

The Great Depression Reduced the Number of Marriages
(The Pathfinder, 1933)

We were interested to learn that two of the most semi-popular queries on Google are, 1930s wedding theme decorations and 1930 wedding dress styles – yet to read the attached article is to learn that the most accurate step that any contemporary wedding planner assigned this theme can recommend is that the happy couple forego the nuptial ceremony entirely and simply move in together. During the Great Depression very few couples could afford to get married, much less divorced.

W.W. I and American Women
(Pageant Magazine, 1951)

Here is a segment from a longer article published in 1951 by an anonymous American woman who wished to be known to her readers only as a women who had grown up with the Century (born in 1900). In this column she insisted that it was the First World War that served as the proving ground where American women showed that they were just as capable as their brothers – and thus deserving of a voice in government.

The Aussies Pull It Together
(The American Magazine, 1942)

The attached 1942 article tells the remarkable story of Prime Minister John Curtin (1885 – 1945) and his amazing Australians – together they redefined themselves as a wool-producing agrarian nation and began producing the necessary tools of war.

Killing
(Coronet Magazine, 1944)

A World War Two article by a young Polish guerrilla who graphically explains what it is like to kill a man, an experience he abhors:

…then all at once he gave a shiver and relaxed, I released my grip and he fell to the ground.

An Interview With James Joyce
(Vanity Fair, 1922)

James Joyce (1882 – 1941) refers to many different subjects in this 1922 interview, among them was Ulysses, his recently released book. The interview was written by Djuna Barnes (1892 – 1982); avant-garde writer, illustrator and playwright.

The 1922 New York Times review of Ulysses can be read here…

An Interview With James Joyce
(Vanity Fair, 1922)

The 1922 New York Times review of Ulysses can be read here…

Julian Bond
(Coronet Magazine, 1970)

From time to time, certain young politicians suddenly capture the attention of their fellow Americans. One such individual is 30-year-old Julian Bond (1940 – 2015), a Negro legislator in the state of Georgia House of Representatives.

Fast Facts About Hollywood Silent Movies
(’47 Magazine, 1947)

A really quick, informative read that will let you know a whole bunch about the earliest days of Hollywood silent film production:

• Silent film production companies averaged three movies per week.

• A good salary for an early Hollywood silent film executive was $50.00 per week

• Silent film extras were paid 1.50 per day.

• There were no stunt doubles.

• The average silent film director was paid $150.00 per week.

• A big-budget production was one that cost $500.00.

• Silent film directors would talk continuously during shooting.

– and much more.

Click here to read articles about Marilyn Monroe.

Has Germany Forgotten Anne Frank?
(Coronet Magazine, 1960)

In this article the proud father of Anne Frank, Otto Frank (1889 – 1980), explains that by the late Fifties it seemed more and more teenagers were contacting him to say that very few parents or teachers seemed willing to discuss the Nazi years in Germany. These inquiries were too often dismissed as bothersome or simply brushed away with hasty answers like, The Nazis built the Autobahns.

Otto Frank points out that this was not always the case, and goes on to recall that there existed a more sympathetic and regretful Germany for at least a decade after the war. Yet, in 1960 he sensed that there existed a subtle movement to whitewash Hitler; a battle was being waged for the mind of this teenage generation.

From Amazon: A German Generation

Click here to read about the inmate rebellions that took place at Auschwitz, Sobibor and Triblinka.

Brazil Goes to War
(Click Magazine, 1942)

The government of Brazil declared war on Hitler’s Germany on August 22, 1942, and you’d best believe that the over-paid photographers of CLICK MAGAZINE were Johnny-on-the-spot to document all the joyous mayhem that let loose on those flag-strewn boulevards of the Brazilian capitol:

Brazilians are fighting mad. When Brazil joined the United Nations in war on August 22nd, the formal declaration was a climax to the democratic action of its citizens who began, months ago, to let the world know how they felt about the Axis.

The pent-up rage of a sorely-tried nation burst in earnest when war was declared. With unanimous enthusiasm, the people mobbed the streets, cheering everything that was part of the Allied cause…Day after day, anti-fascist demonstrations, and pageants choked the streets of Rio de Janiero, where the pictures on this page were taken.

On that day, Brazil became the 32nd nation to declare war against Germany.

*Read a 1944 Article About the Brazilian Army in Italy*

The Lampooning of Picasso
(Literary Digest, 1913)

A child could do that has been one of the most common utterances in response to the avant-garde movements of modern art. This short article reflects that view and was written in response to the New York Armory Show, which at that time, was attracting a good deal of attention in the press. The Armory Show is well-remembered today as the first art exhibition to introduce European-style modernism to the people (and artists) of that city. Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973), as the co-creator of Cubism, is among those lampooned, as is Marcel Duchamp (1887 – 1968) for his painting, A Nude Descending the Staircase.

Another Picasso article can be read here…

How Tokyo Learned of Hiroshima
(Coronet Magazine, 1946)

Shortly after Tokyo’s capitulation, an advance team of American Army researchers were dispatched to Hiroshima to study the effects that the Atom Bomb had on that city. What we found most interesting about this reminiscence was the narrative told by a young Japanese Army major as to how Tokyo learned of the city’s destruction:

Again and again the air-raid defense headquarters called the army wireless station at Hiroshima. No answer. Something had happened to Hiroshima…

Nazi Art Plunder
(Click Magazine, 1943)

The attached article tells the story of an organization that was formed by the German Foreign Office in order to steal the treasures of the occupied European nations. It was called the Nazi Art Corps and it was divided into four battalions of SS men; they stole manuscripts, sculpture, paintings, jewels etc, etc, etc. They answered to the Reich Minister of Foreign Affairs, Joachim von Ribbentrop (1893 – 1946).

Click here to read about the inmate rebellions that took place at Auschwitz, Sobibor and Triblinka.

Post-War European Jews Headed to British Palestine
(PM Tabloid, 1945)

Europe’s displaced Jews in camps in Germany do not wish to return to their own countries, said Dr. Israel Goldstein of the American Jewish Conference, at a press conference yesterday.

‘Seventy-five to 90 percent make Palestine their first choice,’ he declared.

The Fifth Column In America
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

Sabotage, The Secret War Against America (Harper, 1942), is as exciting as a Hitchcock movie. It is also a tragic story, for it is the factual , documented narrative of the years when this country was the happy hunting ground for our enemies, foreign and domestic.

How I was Saved
(Coronet Magazine, 1951)

No doubt, the most glam passenger to survive the Titanic disaster was the fashion designer Lady Duff-Gordon (1863 – 1935: a.k.a. Lucile). Attached is the great couturier’s account describing the pandemonium she witnessed on deck, the screams heard as Titanic began her plunge and the sun coming up the next morning:

I shall never forget the beauty of that April dawn, stealing over the cold Atlantic, lighting up the icebergs till they looked like giant opals. As we saw other boats rowing alongside, we imagined that most passengers on the Titanic had been saved, like us; not one of us even guessed the appalling truth…

The Plot to Restore the Corset
(The New Republic, 1922)

A shewed observer of fashion, Mary Alden Hopkins (1856 – 1930) noted how the Victorian dinosaurs who lorded-over the male-dominated, pro-corset fashion industry had attempted (unsuccessfully) to manipulate and coerce the shoppers of the early Twenties to reject the Chanel-inspired revolt that the young flappers were currently enjoying.

How can I sell these styles?…the flappers won’t buy them.

Japanese Spies on the West-Coast
(Ken Magazine, 1939)

A 1939 magazine article that reported on the assorted activities of Japanese spies operating around the Tijuana/San Diego region (their presence was well-documented by the Mexican military in addition to the F.B.I.).

A year and a half before the Pearl Harbor attack, Naval Intelligence sold a Japanese agent some bogus plans of the naval installation – more about this can be read here.