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Alternative Lyrics for the National Anthem (Pathfinder, 1941)
1941, Americana, Pathfinder Magazine, Recent Articles

Alternative Lyrics for the National Anthem (Pathfinder, 1941)

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Do you fail to recall the words to our national anthem time and again? You’re not alone – a quick glance at Google’s records indicate that in the silence of their rooms, thousands of your fellow Americans suffer from the same malady (and smirk at others who make their memory loss public). To say that the Americans of today are not as patriotic as they used to be is an understatement to be sure – but some of you will no doubt be relieved to know that the Americans of yore, vintage 1941, didn’t know the lyrics to The Star Spangled Banner any better than we do – as you can tell by the attached verses which were penned over seventy years ago about his fellow Americans and their inability to keep the words of Francis Scott Key in their heads.

1940 Congress Approves Military Build-Up
1930s Military Buildup, 1940, PM Tabloid

Congress Approved $5,000,000,000 Build-Up (PM Tabloid, 1940)

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To fulfill the [Pentagon’s requirements] the President plans to send Congress one more defense message asking for another $5,000,000,000. After that, with machine industries saturated with orders, Congress can sit back and survey the defense picture – provided England doesn’t collapse overnight… Acting Secretary of the Navy Compton announced yesterday the award of contracts for three aircraft carriers and two cruisers to the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co….

Tony Randall Magazine Interview
1964, Hollywood History, Pageant Magazine, Recent Articles

Tony Randall: Movie Star (Pageant Magazine,1964)

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In this early Sixties article, celebrity epistolarianne Cyndi Adams recalled her first two encounters with the man who would be Felix Unger:


‘I am definitely neurotic and psychotic,’ cheerily announced Tony Randall (1920 – 2004) the first time we met – ‘he’s an actor-comedian of remarkable skills…he unconsciously reflects, in the way he plays his rolls, so much of the neurotic age we live in…’.


The New York Times would pursue this point to a further degree in their 2004 obituary of the actor:

That’s the force Tony Randall embodied: he represented, in his neurotic grandeur, our national will to unhappiness. Or if not our will, at least our right, which in the 50’s we were only beginning to realize we could exercise.

1920, Aftermath (WWI), Recent Articles, The Independent

Post-W.W. I Society and the New Spirit of the Twenties (The Independent, 1920)

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In 1920 there were many articles celebrating the three-hundredth anniversary of the Puritan’s arrival on Cape Cod. This one writer decried the lack of enthusiasm that marked the modern age following the end of the Great War – a world that stood in contrast to the Pilgrim spirit. Religious faith, patriotism, and the belief in human progress had all been called into question by the mass carnage experienced during the war. Shell shocked and traumatized, the world seemed different: the old order had collapsed, replaced by an age of machines. The author of this column, Preston Slosson, was one of the observant souls to realize that the legacy of the First World War was disillusionment and cynicism.

Our stock of idealism has temporarily run low and a mood of cynicism has replaced the devoted enthusiasm of 1918…


Click here to read a 1916 article about life on the German home front.

Thanksgiving and Football (The Stars and Stripes, 1918)
1918, Football History, Recent Articles, The Stars and Stripes

Thanksgiving and Football (The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

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Peace was eleven days old when this column first appeared.
Anticipating Thanksgiving, 1918, The Stars & Stripes announced that football games, movies and assorted other forms of entertainment had been arranged by the American Red Cross in order to placate the eager American survivors of the First World War who simply wanted to get on those big boats and sail home.


As an expression of gratitude, numerous French families had volunteered to invite American soldiers and sailors to their homes to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday.

Bad 1940 Movies | 1940 Hollywood Studios Fail To Attract Audiences
1940, Hollywood History, PM Tabloid

Failing To Attract An Audience (PM Tabloid, 1940)

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In spite of the incredible films that Hollywood churned out in 1939 – Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, it seemed that there were some folks in 1940 who just wouldn’t be satisfied. This completely irked the citizens of Hollywood. And so the editor of Variety dispatched pollsters hither and yon to ask why they
thought the movies stunk.

The Book that Shook the Kremlin (Coronet Magazine, 1959)
1959, Coronet Magazine, Recent Articles, The Cold War

The Book that Shook the Kremlin (Coronet Magazine, 1959)

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How Pasternak’s Russian novel, Doctor Zhivagostyle=border:none (1957), came to be published was not your standard bourgeois affair involving manuscripts sent by certified mail to charming book agents who host long, wet lunches – quite the contrary. As the journalist noted in the attached article: It is an intriguing story involving the duplicity of one Italian communist who gleefully deceived a multitude Soviets favoring that the work be buried forever.

'Guns On French Cliffs Shell British Ships (PM Tabloid, 1940)
1940, France, PM Tabloid

‘Guns On French Cliffs Shell British Ships (PM Tabloid, 1940)

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A British convoy in the Straits of Dover today ran the gauntlet of terrific cannonade of long range German artillery on the French cliffs from Calais to Boulogne. The spectacular Channel bombardment was witnessed by thousands on the Dover cliffs. They reported that none of the 18 ships in the British convoy appeared to have been hit.

'Guns On French Cliffs Shell British Ships (PM Tabloid, 1940)
1940, France, PM Tabloid

‘Guns On French Cliffs Shell British Ships (PM Tabloid, 1940)

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A British convoy in the Straits of Dover today ran the gauntlet of terrific cannonade of long range German artillery on the French cliffs from Calais to Boulogne. The spectacular Channel bombardment was witnessed by thousands on the Dover cliffs. They reported that none of the 18 ships in the British convoy appeared to have been hit.

'Guns On French Cliffs Shell British Ships (PM Tabloid, 1940)
1940, France, PM Tabloid

‘Guns On French Cliffs Shell British Ships (PM Tabloid, 1940)

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A British convoy in the Straits of Dover today ran the gauntlet of terrific cannonade of long range German artillery on the French cliffs from Calais to Boulogne. The spectacular Channel bombardment was witnessed by thousands on the Dover cliffs. They reported that none of the 18 ships in the British convoy appeared to have been hit.

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