The Taxis of the Marne
(The World Veteran, 1954)
KEY WORDS: Taxis of the Marne Battle 1914,soldiers taken to Marne Battle by Taxi,Taxis cabs in wartime,WW1 French 7th Division […]
An Interview with Suzanne Lenglen
(Literary Digest, 1921)
A magazine interview highlighting the tennis career of Suzanne Lenglen
Mille. Lenglen was a remarkable French tennis player who won 31 Grand Slam titles from 1914 through 1926. She is remembered as the the first high-profile European woman tennis star to go professional: in 1912 she was paid $50,000.00 to play a series of matches against Mary K. Browne (1891 – 1971). This article concentrates on her supreme confidence and overwhelming determination to win.
When prest as to whether she liked a tonic, or say just a
little wine, before her matches, Mile. Lenglen admitted that she
did and that she had been promised that it would be obtained
for her in the United States. Despite the fact that she is in an
arid land Suzanne praised the effect of this stimulant on her
game.
‘Nothing, she said, is so fine for the nerve, for the strength
for the morale. A little wine tones up the system just right.
One can not always be serious. There must be some sparkle, too.’
Styling the Fifties
(Gentry Magazine, 1956)
A one page essay by automobile-stylist William H. Graves, a former Vice President and Director of Engineering at the Studebaker-Packard Corporation.
Two years ago a new product philosophy was approved at Packard which gave the engineering department a green light that had not been on since 1935. This enabled us to set up a program to style future cars for the luxury field…The Packard program was launched in October, 1952, with the formation of a new styling group of young men, whose average age was 28. An advanced design section and a special section to experiment with plastics as a possible material for both parts and dies were established.
Click here to read the obituary of J.M. Studebaker.
Four Reporters Killed
(Stars and Stripes, 1919)
This short column appeared three months after the war listing the names of the paper’s staff who were killed while in the course of getting the news.
1947, 47 Magazine, MiscellaneousVincent Sheean Covered the Spanish Civil War Alongside Robert Capa
Vincent Sheean Covered the Spanish Civil War Alongside Robert Capa
(’47 Magazine, 1947)
New York-based journalist Vincent Sheean (1899 – 1975) remembered a funny anecdote told to him by the iconic combat photographer Robert Capa (1913 – 1954). The story took place during the Spanish Civil War when Capa was diving for cover amidst the panic of a Luftwaffe bombardment in Bilboa or Guernica…
The Year of Sound
(Theatre Arts Magazine, 1929)
The oddballs who read old Hollywood magazines from the year 1929 seem to all be in agreement that these magazines all shared the same frenzied, enthusiastic energy; something new and wonderful and unpredictable had been introduced and it was going to cause an enormous shake up in every movie capitol under the sun: sound.
But it was in the past year that the newest art, that of the silent drama, like prehistoric Man, stood up on it’s hind legs and began to talk. Like prehistoric man, it talked badly at first. But soon it’s words came a shade more fluently, and gradually they began, when arranged, to make a small degree of sense.
Augustus John on the British Homefront
(Vanity Fair, 1916)
A war-time interview with the Welsh painter Augustus John (1878 – 1961).
Reviewed: A Fool There Was
(Life Magazine, 1922)
A Fool There Was was originally produced in 1915 starring Theda Bara in the vampire roll; but as the view of women changed in society, to say nothing of popular culture, the producers in the early Hollywood dream-factory decided to re-stage the production with a racier woman in the lead -a flapper-vampire, if you will. The reviewer was sympathetic as to the need for a new adaptation but pointed out that the actress who was re-cast in the Theda Bara roll, Estelle Taylor (1894 — 1958), left the audiences wanting. It was also pointed out that the censorship menace hangs heavy over ‘A Fool There Was’.
In 1919 Theda Bara wrote an article for VANITY FAIR MAGAZINE in which she swore off ever playing a vampire again; click here to read it.
Siegfried Sassoon Reviewed
(Touchstone Magazine, 1920)
American poet Marguerite Wilkinson(1883 — 1928) was very impressed with the World War I poetry of Sigfried Sassoon, MC (1886 – 1967); in this three page review she lucidly explained why Sassoon’s voice was different from all the other wartime versifiers and illustrated her point by quoting liberally from his two earlier volumes, The Old Huntsman (1917) and Counter Attack (1918):
Such wisdom is the shining power of Sigfried Sassoon. To read it is to come face to face with indelible memories of unspeakable anguish. No palliatives are offered. The truth about warfare is told, as Mr. Sassoon understands it, with vigor and in sight…It is told by a man, a soldier, who will never forget this Calvary of the youth of our generation.
The Wartime Leadership of Sian-Kuan Lin
(Collier’s Magazine, 1945)
As well as anything else, the leadership of Sian-Kuan Lin explains why the people of China continue to wage barehanded battle against the overwhelming might of Japan. It is a story that starts in 1927 when Chang Kai-shek marched North against the war lords, fighting to make Sun Yat Sen’s dream of a great Chinese republic come true.
Saul Steinberg
(Gentry Magazine, 1955)
The art of living in the wrong century – this is Saul Steinberg’s (1914 – 1999) own designation for the predicament he has been illustrating for over a decade. In his latest collection, The Passport
Saul Steinberg
(Gentry Magazine, 1955)
The art of living in the wrong century – this is Saul Steinberg’s (1914 – 1999) own designation for the predicament he has been illustrating for over a decade. In his latest collection, The Passport
Architect Rudolf Schindler
(Direction Magazine, 1945)
Esther McCoy (1904 – 1989) was one of the few voices in Forties journalism to champion modern architecture in the city Los Angeles. Sadly, the common thinking among too many critics and editors at the time held that Gomorrah-Sur-la-Mer could only to be relied upon for innovations like Cobb Salad and valet parking – but McCoy recognized that the city’s dramatic quality of light and odd lunar landscape combined to create fertile ground for modern architecture. Unlike other like-minded critics and historians who discovered the city in later decades, such as Reyner Banham, McCoy came to know the Viena-trained architect Rudolph Schindler, who is the subject of this 1945 article.
Architect Rudolf Schindler
(Direction Magazine, 1945)
Esther McCoy (1904 – 1989) was one of the few voices in Forties journalism to champion modern architecture in the city Los Angeles. Sadly, the common thinking among too many critics and editors at the time held that Gomorrah-Sur-la-Mer could only to be relied upon for innovations like Cobb Salad and valet parking – but McCoy recognized that the city’s dramatic quality of light and odd lunar landscape combined to create fertile ground for modern architecture. Unlike other like-minded critics and historians who discovered the city in later decades, such as Reyner Banham, McCoy came to know the Viena-trained architect Rudolph Schindler, who is the subject of this 1945 article.
The Princess Colonels of 1914
(Vanity Fair, 1914)
Attached is a page from VANITY FAIR MAGAZINE depicting the ten European princesses from 1914, having benefited from full hair and make-up, posing bemedaled and amused in full military dress before the society magazine cameras.
The Royals pictured on this page were all granted the ceremonial rank of ‘Colonel’ in the household cavalry units within their respective principalities, as well as a few of the cavalry regiments outside their domains.
Several of the Royal and Imperial women in Europe, who are possessed of military rank, have lost their colonelcies in foreign regiments by the World War. Thus, the Czarina and the Russian Grand Duchess, as well as Queen Mary of England, have been deprived of their commands in the Kaiser’s army.
W.W. I and the Royal Families of Europe
(Vanity Fair, 1915)
In five short paragraphs, this writer (Ard Choille), nicely sums up the chumminess that made up the royal families of old Europe and the vital role Queen Victoria played in the creation and maintenance of that bond:
Until the outbreak of the war the royal families of the various nations made up a wonderful club, the like of which had never been known before. Judging from the society papers, most of Europe existed for their convenience, and even the variety of military uniforms was kept up in order that royalty, while at home or abroad, might have the opportunity to change its clothes as often as possible
Irwin Shaw Recalled Combat PhotographerRobert Capa
(’47 Magazine, 1947)
American novelist Irwin Shaw (1913 – 1984) was quick to reminisce about the bad old days of World War II and Robert Capa (1913 – 1954), who fit it like a round peg fits a round hole:
Capa is a dangerous influence because he has perfected the trick of making life among the bombed cities and the stinking battlefields of our time seem gay and dashing and glamorous…
Click here to read an anecdote about Robert Capa during the Spanish Civil War.