Notable Flights 1919 – 1931
(the Literary Digest, 1935)
Attached herein is a printable list of the important record-breaking flights in aviation history that made the world sit up and take notice.
1935
Articles from 1935
‘Lady Macbeth of Mzensk” by Dmitri Shostakovich
(Literary Digest, 1935)
The Cleveland Orchestra, on February 5 [1935], with Arthur Rodzinski conducting, will introduce to New York ‘Lady Macbeth of Mzensk’, an opera by twenty-eight year-old Soviet composer, Dmitri Shostakovich.
Shostakovich completed the work in December, 1932. It is the first of a projected cycle of four operas in which the composer plans to trace the condition of women in Russia…
Women on the Relief Rolls
(New Outlook Magazine, 1935)
It is illuminating to realize that more persons are receiving relief in the United States than there are individuals in such well-known countries as Romania (18,000,000), Mexico (16,500,000), Czechoslovakia (14,800,000) and Yugoslavia (14,000,000); over twice as many as Belgium (8,000,000) and Holland (7,920,000); about three times as many as in Sweden (6,140,000) and to cut theses comparisons short – almost seven times as many in all of Norway (2,800,000)… Clearly, it is not in the least inaccurate to speak of the relief population of the United States as a great nation within a nation… Women and children comprise as much as two thirds of the relief population.
The Birth of Donald Duck
(Stage Magazine, 1935)
The introduction of Donald Duck in Silly Symphony Number Thirteen had’em rolling in the isles, to be sure – and if you don’t think so, here’s proof from STAGE MAGAZINE’s Helen G. Thompson:
If you didn’t see him in The Orphan’s Benefit, you missed the performance of the generation. Like Bergner’s show, it ran for Donald the whole gamut of his emotions. Voted the toughest duck of the season, Long Island included, and now crashing Europe, a breathless American public awaits his acclaim. Will his fare be raspberries or chuckle-berries? Donald says whatever the decision, he’ll fight.
The Mistranslated Clause
(New Outlook Magazine, 1935)
This surprising article appeared sixteen years after the Versailles Treaty was signed; it argued that the War Guilt clause (article 231) had been deliberately mistranslated by the German Foreign Minister, Count Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau (1869 – 1928):
Brockdorff-Rantzau, coldly, haughtily, in the best German manner but with trembling legs, carried the thick [treaty] back to his hotel and he and his aides made their own translation into German… Count Brockdorff not only exercised his prerogative there; but he inserted words not synonymous with any that the Allies had written.
Hollywood and the Game of Bogus Plagiarism Law Suits
(Rob Wagner’s Script, 1935)
A bitter article written by a Hollywood veteran concerning what was at the time recognized as a growing cottage industry: recreational law suits that lay claim to falsified violations of movie plagiarism.
Robert Lord (b. 1902, Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 1932) penned this two page article and outlined it all quite clearly as to how the plagiarism game was played in 1930s Hollywood.
‘Voting Strength”
(New Outlook, 1935)
As one wise old wag once pointed out:
When robbing Peter to pay Paul, you can pretty much be guaranteed of Paul’s support come election time.
This 1935 opinion piece went into greater detail on this matter believing that this is (and has been for the past 70 years) the campaign strategy of the Democratic Party.
T.E. Lawrence and the Literary Coup of 1935
(Literary Digest, 1935)
The accidental death of T.E. Lawrence (1888 – 1935) triggered an event within the publishing world that was much discussed in all quarters:
THE SATURDAY REVIEW of LITERATURE, weekly guide-post for the literati, last week scooped the world with an air-tight exclusive story that was scheduled to be front page news fourteen years hence. The editorial coup was a review of Thomas Edward Lawrence’s (Lawrence of Arabia) final book, The Mint
The World Wide Military Expansion
(The Literary Digest, 1935)
A 1935 magazine article which presented a table of statistics regarding the the European military expansion and then concluded by stating:
It seems fair to offer the opinion that a major war is likely within the next ten years because the pressure of rising armament expenditure promises to be so great as to develop the explosion that bound to come.
In 1940 former W.W. I Prime Minister David Lloyd George wrote an editorial in which he condemned the leaders of Europe for procrastinating rather than dealing with Hitler when Germany was still weak.
Click here to read it.
The Era of Nationalized Religions
(The Literary Digest, 1935)
In 1935 the Biennial Congress of the Western Section of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (13,000,000 strong) gathered in Richmond, Virginia in order to discuss their concerns regarding the spread of nationalized religions in such nations as Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany:
As for anti-religious communism, said Doctor Charles S. Cleland, ‘In our missionary circles this is more to be feared than nationalism. The latter may be, and oftentimes is, a patriotic movement, while the former aims only at destruction. Communism of the type now referred to seeks not only the suppression of Christianity, but of all religions. Its purpose is to make governments entirely secular, and to free the national life from all forms of faith and worship.
The Expansion of the Red Army
(Literary Digest, 1935)
Premier Vyacheslav M. Molotov (1890 – 1986) pictured the Soviet Union as a lusty young giant strong enough to defend itself from both the East and the West in the keynote speech of the Seventh All Union Congress of Soviets, the Soviet Parliament.
In proof of this claim it was shown that in the last two years the Soviet Government had increased the strength of the Red Army from 562,000 men in 1932 to 940,000 in 1934.
The Expansion of the Red Army
(Literary Digest, 1935)
Premier Vyacheslav M. Molotov (1890 – 1986) pictured the Soviet Union as a lusty young giant strong enough to defend itself from both the East and the West in the keynote speech of the Seventh All Union Congress of Soviets, the Soviet Parliament.
In proof of this claim it was shown that in the last two years the Soviet Government had increased the strength of the Red Army from 562,000 men in 1932 to 940,000 in 1934.
Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine
(Delineator Magazine, 1935)
Attached is one of the first articles to be written about balletomanes Lincoln Kirstein (1907 – 1996) and his efforts with George Balanchine (1904 – 1983) and philanthropist Edward M.M. Warburg (1910 – 1992) to form the first American ballet company (the corps was later called the New York City Ballet).
Public Murals: the Art of the 1930s
(Literary Digest, 1935)
A quick read on the subject of that uneasy union that existed between art and industry during the 1930s. References are made to the work of muralists Dunbar D. Beck (1902-1986), Arthur Watkins Crisp (1881 – 1974), Kenneth B. Loomis, Charles S. Dean and Charles Louis Goeller (1901 – 1955).
Military Buildup in the USSR
(Literary Digest, 1935)
Premier Vyacheslav M. Molotov (1890 – 1986) pictured the Soviet Union as a lusty young giant strong enough to defend itself from both the East and the West in the keynote speech of the Seventh All Union Congress of Soviets, the Soviet Parliament.
In proof of this claim it was shown that in the last two years the Soviet Government had increased the strength of the Red Army from 562,000 men in 1932 to 940,000 in 1934.
Read about all the various international treaties that the Soviet Union violated…
Japan’s China Poicy
(Literary Digest, 1935)
What was called a Japanese ‘Monroe Doctrine for Asia’ whereby Japan would wield dominance there, especially in Chinese affairs, was announced last April, and drew the immediate attention of the world’s press.
In the last days of this January a following-up of this intention was seen in a series of talks at Nanking between Chiang Kai-shek, President and Generalissimo of the Nationalist Government of China, and Lieutenant-General Soshiyuki Suzuki, Japanese military representative at Shanghai; and among Akira Ariyoshi, Japanese Minister to China, and General Chiang and Premiere Wang Ching-wei.
BBC Television Broadcasting Begins
(Literary Digest, 1935)
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.