Author name: editor

Dance International (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)
1937, Dance Magazine Articles, Pathfinder Magazine, Recent Articles

Dance International
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

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In New York last week, on the polished floor of the Rainbow Room, Rockefeller Center’s skyscraping night club, Hawaiians, Chinese, Scandinavians and Africans stamped whirled, leaped, and gesticulated to a dozen different kinds of music…it was an exposition of no little cultural and social importance – ‘Dance International,’ a festival showing the progress of the dance in all nations since 1900.


In their quest to document the evolution of dance in the United States, the audiences were treated to Modern Dance performances by Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Paul Weidman and Paul Haakon.

BBC Television Broadcasting Begins (Literary Digest, 1935)
1935, Early Television, Recent Articles, The Literary Digest

BBC Television Broadcasting Begins
(Literary Digest, 1935)

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The British Broadcasting Corporation announced that they were capable of transmitting television programming as early as 1935:

The British engineers plan to begin with a single broadcasting tower, capable of transmitting television images to receiving sets within a radius of about thirty miles…British engineers are not the first to try television broadcasting. A station has been operating regularly in Berlin for several months.

1933, Sino-Japanese Wars, The Literary Digest

The Japanese Drive on Beijing
(The Literary Digest, 1933)

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The aggressive ambitions of Japan know no bounds. The occupation of Peiping [Beijing] will lead to further aggression in Shantung and Shansi and other northern provinces, and will result either in the establishment of a new puppet regime in North China.

The Shanghai SHUN PAO, an independent newspaper, bewails the futility of the uncoordinated resistance which has prevailed among China’s forces since the capture of Jehol, and it adds:

The only possibilities now are peace by compromise or a continuance of war. Despite the dangers of the latter course it is the only possible solution, but resistance must be coordinated under an able leader, China must fight or become a second Korea.

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Waiting for Television (Literary Digest, 1937)
1937, Early Television, The Literary Digest

Waiting for Television
(Literary Digest, 1937)

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Written in response to the loud cries generated by those would-be pioneering couch-potatoes, this article presents a lengthy list of all the technical difficulties the young television broadcasting industry had to deal with in 1937.

First to have commercial television, it is agreed, will be New York City, then Philadelphia. In both of these cities transmitting-stations already exist. Advancement to other urban centers will be slower. Chicago, for example will have commercial television only after it has been made to pay in New York and Philadelphia. As each city’s television enterprises become self-supporting, installation will be begun in a new center.

One Cartoonist's View of Depression Era Hollywood...(Ken Magazine, 1939)
1939, Hollywood History, Ken Magazine, Recent Articles

One Cartoonist’s View of Depression Era Hollywood…(Ken Magazine, 1939)

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A full page drawing of the sound stage-spangled Hollywood landscape picturing all the usual suspects – the Hollywood glory girls, studio yes-men and sub-literate European starlets -all sweltering beneath the intense heat of the occidental sun.

Click here to see cartoons about the silent movie culture.

Click here to read historic magazine articles about American animated films.

Rudy Vallee: 'Vagabond Lover' (Film Spectator, 1929)
1929, Talkies 1930, The Film Spectator Magazine

Rudy Vallee: ‘Vagabond Lover’
(Film Spectator, 1929)

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It is not surprising to think that one of the first sound movies to be made had to consist of a plot that involved a musical number, and when put to the task of writing his review of VAGABOND LOVER (1929: RKO Pictures) the well respected film critic Welford Beaton dished-out some lukewarm opinions concerning it’s star, crooner/teen-idol Rudy Vallee (1901 – 1986):

The laddie’s face is set in a sort of perpetual sorrow which, added to the fact that he seldom looks the camera in the eye, makes him seem like the wraith of some calamity walking through the scenes. Only the voice is virile…

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The Tennis Blazer (Vanity Fair Magazine, 1916)
1916, Recent Articles, Tennis History, Vanity Fair Magazine

The Tennis Blazer
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1916)

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This article dates to a the dear, dead days when tennis balls were white and landscapers (rather than diesel machinery) were relied upon to make tennis courts; it was also a time when the abilities of a skilled tailor were required for tennis clothing. These court-side stylists would not simply monitor the drape of tennis trousers but they would anticipate the unspoken needs of their tennis dandies – and in so doing, the tennis blazer was born.

1918, Golf History

The Working-Class Golfer
(A and N Catalog, 1918)

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The 1920s editors of VANITY FAIR MAGAZINE would never have endorsed this ready-wear golfing jacket, nor would they have thought much of the country club that would permit such togs; but by today’s barbarian standards which decide what passes for acceptable golf apparel, we think it’s pretty nice.

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1925, Fashion, Recent Articles, The Delineator Magazine

Hats from the Spring of 1925
(The Delineator, 1925)

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Tenderly ripped from a copy of Delineator Magazine was this one page that featured nine chic illustrations of the fashionable hats for the Spring of 1925.

The small hat trimmed on top with an artichoke bow, pom-poms, gardenias, roses, water lilies, violets or quills is very popular…Hats for general wear remain head-size. The large hat is seen occasionally with afternoon gowns and will be worn with more formal Summer frocks.


Click here to see a beautifully photographed article about the fashionable hats of 1947.


Group therapy for weight loss celebrates its 60th year…

Golf History

Golf Accessories
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1915)

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If you intend to tarry on the links dressed in knickers, or plus fours, you will be needing a sturdy pair of ‘Scotch wool’ stockings in which to pull the look off; and should the assembled golf ruffians jeer at you from the comfort of the nineteenth hole, you can bludgeon them with your very smart, pleated golf gloves, circa 1915.

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Paris Puts a Stick in the Mode...(Vogue Magazine, 1919)
1919, Fashion, Recent Articles, Vogue Magazine

Paris Puts a Stick in the Mode…(Vogue Magazine, 1919)

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Fashion, like all empires, has it’s slaves. The slaves are treated cruelly but, strangely, they never seem to mind; they do what ever is required of them. Many are the examples of fashion’s tyranny: in the past it has demanded that it’s slaves wear cowboy boots, although none could rope a steer, and it has demanded of it’s slaves that they wear uniforms, although none could fight. In fashion’s name the slaves have removed ribs and teeth, reduced or enlarged body parts, dyed hair cross-dressed and tattooed themselves like jail-birds. The slaves do it all and there seems to be no limit to fashion’s fickle whims that will ever make them say, no.


To illustrate this point, you can read this beautifully illustrated Vogue magazine article from 1919 in which the beast demands perfectly healthy young women to walk with canes.

A Puttee Advertisement (The American Legion Weekly, 1919)
1919, The American Legion Weekly, U.S. Army Uniforms of World War One

A Puttee Advertisement
(The American Legion Weekly, 1919)

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This advertisement was placed in an American veteran’s magazine as an attempt to produce some profit from the vast surplus of uniform items that remained in all the combatant nations at war’s end. Puttees, unlike other uniform items, enjoyed a brief moment in fashion’s spotlight during the late teens and much the twenties as an accessory for those who enjoyed camping and hunting (or simply wished to affect the look).

Also included is a fashion photograph of puttees from a VANITY FAIR fashion editorial from 1917

Germany Introduces the Leather Gas Mask (Popular Mechanics, 1917)
1917, Inventions and Weapons, Popular Mechanics Magazine

Germany Introduces the Leather Gas Mask
(Popular Mechanics, 1917)

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A year and a half before the end of World War I, the German Army introduced the Lederschutzmasken, a leather gas mask made of specially treated Bavarian sheepskin with removable lenses. Designed to replace the rubberized cloth gas masks, the 1917 respirators proved to be far more effective against phosgene gas than the 1915 masks. The Allied powers dismissed the new design as evidence that material shortages on the German home front were forcing changes.

Click here to read about the celebrations that took place in Paris the day World War One ended.

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1916, Modern Art, Recent Articles, Vanity Fair Magazine

New Portrait Busts by Jo Davidson
(Vanity Fair, 1916)

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This single column reported on the 1916 busts that were created by the American sculptor Jo Davidson (1883 – 1952), during his tour of war-torn Europe.
By the end of the Twentieth Century, much of his work would be in the collections of many of the finest art museums, such as the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, the U.S. Senate Art Collection and the National Statuary Hall, both in Washington.

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