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A Glossary of Terms for Movie Fans (Vanity Fair, 1920)
1920, Photoplay Magazine, Silent Movie History

A Glossary of Terms for Movie Fans
(Vanity Fair, 1920)

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During the summer of 1920, Photoplay Magazine ran this glossary of movie terms with cartoons by Ralph Barton and doggerel verses by Howard Dietz.


With new technology came new terms that seemed odd to the ear (it should be remembered that this new technology did not involve the use of one’s ear at all); words to be added to the nation’s vocabulary were fade-out, shooting, box-office and location.


To shoot a scene is nothing new-
Directors should be shot at, too

In Praise of Slapstick Comedy (Photoplay Magazine, 1914)
1914, Photoplay Magazine, Silent Movie History

In Praise of Slapstick Comedy
(Photoplay Magazine, 1914)

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A reporter from Photoplay Magazine let all her eager readers in on the excitement from the glamorous set of the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company (Illinois) where the comedy, Actor Finney’s Finnish (1914) was being shot.
The silent short was directed and performed by those who would be participating steadily during Hollywood’s next thirty year spree: E. Mason Hopper (1885 – 1967), Director; Wallace Beery (1885 – 1949), leading man; Eddie Redway (1869 – 1919), co-star; Leo White (1882 – 1948), co-star; Bobbie Bolder (1859-1937) co-star, Ruth Hennesy (no dates), actress.

Norma Talmadge was Different (Photoplay Magazine, 1923)
1923, Photoplay Magazine, Silent Movie History

Norma Talmadge was Different
(Photoplay Magazine, 1923)

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As delighted as this Photoplay Magazine journalist was to make the acquaintance of 1920s film star Norma Talmadge (1894 – 1957), she could not help but compare her to the reigning film diva of the period, Mary Pickford:

Mary awakens your love.
Norma awakens your admiration.
Mary makes you long to be of service to her.
Norma makes you long to have her friendship.
Mary Pickford is a sort of divine child, who always seems far away from you, glowing in a soft light…
Norma Talmadge is an intelligent, brilliant woman of the world, with every faculty keyed to the highest pitch…


The interview was conducted by the versatile Adela Rogers St. Johns (1894 – 1988): a veteran journalist from Hollywood’s earliest days, she also made her mark writing screenplays, novels and toiled in the precincts as one of the first woman police reporters.

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1920s Racism in Georgia | Georgia Governor Hugh M Dorsey Issued The Negro In Georgia Pamphlet 1921
1921, African-American History, Recent Articles, The Literary Digest

Restraining The Terror In Georgia
(The Literary Digest, 1921)

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Whether Georgia Governor Hugh M. Dorsey (1871 – 1948) was overwhelmed by a sense of humanity or whether he simply wished to reduce the northern flow of African-Americans from his state in the Great Migration – we’ll never know, but the fact stands that in late April, 1921, the Governor stood before the State Committe on Race Relations and spoke of 135 instances in which Black citizens were unjustly treated by White Georgians (The Georgia Government document pertaining to his address can be read here).

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Selecting the Wine and Cheese (Gentry Magazine, 1957)
1957, Food and Wine, Gentry Magazine

Selecting the Wine and Cheese
(Gentry Magazine, 1957)

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Food writer Sam Aaron (1911 – 1996) let loose a slew of his well-researched thoughts on the matter of how well cheese and wine complement one another and provided us with a helpful list of which type of wines harmonize best with certain cheeses:

With Italian cheeses, such as Taleggio Cheese Provolone, I like a delicate red wine made near Verona called Bardolino. Frank Schoonmakerstyle=border:none

Paris Exults After Four Years of War (The Stars and Stripes, 1918)
1918, Armistice, Recent Articles, The Stars and Stripes

Paris Exults After Four Years of War
(The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

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A very moving column from the front page of the November 15, 1918 Stars and Stripes describing the joyous pandemonium that characterized the city of Paris when World War I came to a close:


And all Paris laughed the laugh of happy children after a day’s glad play. And the next day, and the next night, Paris sallied forth to romp and play again.


Click here to read about the W.W. II liberation of Paris.

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Sharp-Shooting on the Western Front (Cornhill Magazine, 1919)
1919, Cornhill Magazine, Snipers

Sharp-Shooting on the Western Front
(Cornhill Magazine, 1919)

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The attached remembrance of sniping on the Western Front was written by Major H. Hesketh-Pritchard, D.S.O, M.C. (author of Sniping in France 1914-18) and recalls the development and changes of sharp-shooting on both sides during the war. Pritchard broke down the scouting and sniper involvement on the Western Front into four phases:


Phase I (1914 – 1915): German snipers weigh heavily on Allied soldiers (Clear German advantage)


Phase II (1915 – 1916): British sniping organized (Advantage even)


Phase III (1916 – 1918): British sniper program takes off (Slight British Advantage)


Phase IV (1918 through to the Armistice): Allied Offensive takes effect (Snipers began scouting)

'Why I Live in Paris'' by a Former American Soldier (American Legion Monthly, 1927)
1927, Recent Articles, Return, The American Legion Monthly

‘Why I Live in Paris” by a Former American Soldier
(American Legion Monthly, 1927)

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This piece was penned by an anonymous expatriate, a former American soldier of the Great War who went into some detail comparing life in 1920s Paris to the life he knew in America, and he is quite funny about it. He described a Paris that Hemingway, Stein and Fitzgerald didn’t talk about.


Back in America I sincerely thought that my hometown had the worst telephone system in the world. This was a colossal error…


Click here to read about the fall of Paris…

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1918, Return, Vanity Fair Magazine

Sight-Seeing at the Front
(Vanity Fair, 1918)

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Written during the closing weeks of the war, this Vanity Fair article was penned by a rather sly, witty scribe who was astounded to find that those areas closest to the front, yet just outside the entrances to the reserve trenches, were jam-packed with all manner of civilian tourist groups (ie. The American Woman’s Bouillon Cube Fund, The Overseas Committee of the New and Enlarged Encyclopedia, The National Mushroom Association of the United States); an exercise in creative writing? You tell us.

Americans in Paris 1920 | WW I American Veterans Return to France 1919 | WW I American Veterans Loved France
1920, Return, The Home Sector

When The Doughboys Returned To France
(Home Sector, 1920)

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Despite its almost unanimous vows testified to by countless rounded phrases in trenches and billets, a good share of the A.E.F. is returning to France. It is almost chasing its own tail in the effort to get back, for it was only a few weeks ago that newspapers everywhere said that the last of the A.E.F. was home. And before the rear guard of the A.E.F. was aboard boats headed westward, the vanguard of the returning A.E.F. was pouring back into France through every port.

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How Canada's Veterans are Fairing (American Legion Weekly, 1921)
1921, Aftermath (WWI), The American Legion Weekly

How Canada’s Veterans are Fairing
(American Legion Weekly, 1921)

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Second only to the part played by Canada on the battlefields of Europe is the magnificent spirit in which the dominion has dealt with the returned soldier and with the fallen soldier and his dependents. From the time the war ended to the present, Canada has led the rest of the world in looking after ex-service men.


When the men of the Dominion returned from Europe they originally got three months’ post-discharge pay at their discharge rank. On second thought this was changed early in 1919 to a war gratuity basis, as follows: For one year’s overseas service or more, four months’ pay and allowances; for three years’ service or more, six months’ pay and allowances. From these amounts deducted any sum paid out under the post-discharge system which had earlier prevailed. The men who had seen service in Canada only were not forgotten and received checks for one month’s pay and allowances for each complete year of service in the army.

Moholy-Nagy and the New Bauhaus (Coronet Magazine, 1941)
1941, Coronet Magazine, Design, Recent Articles

Moholy-Nagy and the New Bauhaus
(Coronet Magazine, 1941)

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This unprepossessing place is the American survivor of a great international movement, the Bauhaus of Dessau, which filled the world with tubular chairs and sectional sofas. The Bauhaus, like so many other things German, drew Hitler’s ire because it was too intellectually independent. Hitler dissolved it in 1938…Some fragments of Bauhaus fled to America. Dr Laszalo Moholy-Nagy escaped with some remnants of students’ work and saught refuge in Chicago. There, in his concrete warehouse, Moholy-Nagy’s movement has taken root.

They do the oddest things…A chair might just be a double loop of shellacked plywood. It is steamed and shaped so that it has a seat, and a back, and stands on the floor…It doesn’t look like much of a chair. It will do the job for which chairs are sold.

The Invention of the Car was Revolutionary (Vanity Fair Magazine, 1920)
1920, Cars, Recent Articles, Vanity Fair Magazine

The Invention of the Car was Revolutionary
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1920)

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As early as 1920, the number of automobiles was quickly growing throughout the Western world. In this very brief article, a journalist lays out how rapidly life was changing in the United States as a result of the horseless carriage.

The village smithy is no more. In the place of that interesting relic of a bygone day, there stands a substantial concrete building marked ‘Garage’…

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