1935

Articles from 1935

The Forgotten Men and the NRA (Literary Digest, 1935)

A long program of suggested remedial legislation lies ahead of the 7,500 representatives of the people who gather this year in the halls of Congress and of all but four State Legislatures. The NRA (National Recovery Administration) will come under the closest scrutiny. As the old year waned, the NIRA (National Industrial Recovery Act)was being attacked and defended.

Click here to see a chart concerning the U.S. urban murder rate between the years 1926 – 1936.


In 1934, the NRA went to Hollywood and performed a task it was not legally obligated to do; click here to read about it…

A Call to Repeal the Japanese Exclusion Act (Literary Digest, 1935)

The anonymous journalist opened this 1935 magazine article explaining how the Indian caste system took root and reasoned as to why he believed such a system was an inevitability in the United States as well.

With the California Council on Oriental Relations waging an eloquent campaign for repeal of the Japanese Exclusion Act, a quota-basis solution is suggested.


Read another article about Asian immigration to California


Click here to read about the 1921 [anti-]Alien Land Bill in California.


You might also be interested in reading about the Yellow Peril in Canada.

The China Clipper (Literary Digest, 1935)

When the twenty-five-ton Martin transport-plane successfully passed its preliminary tests at Baltimore a few days ago, preparatory to entering the regular service of Pan American Airways, it was an occasion of world significance. In all likelihood this new member of the famous Clipper series will be the first to establish regular passenger and mail service across the Pacific.

The Personal Ads (Rob Wagner’s Script, 1935)

Before there was social media, there were the personal ads.

And what, as a general rule, is the personal column used for? To communicate, to sell, to plot, to advertise, to complain, to hope, to invite, to reject, to pray, to love, to hate, to express appreciation – in fact, anything.

Immigration Hollywood-Style (Rob Wagner’s Script, 1935)

Apparently during the pit of the Great Depression there were complaints coming from a few frustrated corners about the number of foreign talents that were being hired to entertain us in the movie business. An old Hollywood salt answered this complaint head-on:

The average world-fan cares nothing that Chaplin is an Englishman, Garbo a Swede, Novarro a Mexican, Bergner a German or Boyer a Frenchman.

Shirley Temple Sheds a Baby Tooth! (Stage Magazine, 1935)

Child movie star Shirley Temple (1928 – 2014) was by no means at her box-office peak when this article was penned (her most popular period would span the years 1936 through 1938), but the institution that she had become by 1935 had already built many second homes and an assorted number of mansions for more than a few well-placed studio executives and mogul types. When the news hit the palmy, sun-soaked boulevards of Hollywood that she had lost her first baby tooth, there was panic!

That the end now shows unmistakable signs of beginning. That first baby tooth fell to the studio floor with a crash heard ’round the world….Yet, even as as the nabobs of Fox stood about applauding and cooing, the cold hand of fear must have gripped their kindly hearts.


Click here to read a 1939 profile of Shirley Temple.

Mrs. Il Duce (Pathfinder Magazine, 1935)

As you will see by reading the attached article, Mussolini’s flack released no information concerning Rachele Mussolini (1890 – 1979), Il Duce’s second wife. All that they seem to know about the lass was that she had a waistline that rivaled his.

Tyranny At Home (New Outlook Magazine, 1935)

In the Spring of 1935, as the world slipped deeper and deeper into the muck of the Great Depression, journalist Cedric Fowler noticed that both governments state and Federal were introducing legislation that was designed to muzzle free-speech and make the deportation of foreign radicals far easier. At first he thought it was a result of the spread of Fascism across the globe – and it had finally reached our shores. He also considered the possibility that the elected classes, realizing that they were unable to reduce the destruction of the Depression, felt emasculated and invigorated by picking on the radical minority. Either way, he feared for the nations future.

The Benevolent Government… (New Outlook Magazine, 1935)

Sadly, this is a story that has been duplicated numerous times throughout the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, Red China, Vietnam, Canada and every other nation where the people have entrusted their health care to a faceless bureaucracy. It was a pathetic anecdote that was adored by FDR’s critics.


More about New Deal spending can be read here…

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