Articles from 1941
When you examine the 14 images in the attached article about California surfing in the Forties you’re quite likely to come away believing that the stale surfing comedy Beach Blanket Bingo
This article was written to mark the 100th anniversary of Punch and in so doing gives a very pithy history of the magazine and its editorial mission:
Yet, as a true chronicler of the times, Punch‘s volumes read more like a century-long history of England, and the magazine is never more on its mettle than during periods of crisis.
In this article, the controversial author and prominent chemist, Otto Eisenschiml (1880 – 1963), recalled the events that unfolded at Ford’s Theater as Lincoln lay dying. A good deal of information is dispensed concerning the physical damage that was wrought by Boothe’s derringer (pictured) – as well as the various life-prolonging measures that were implemented by the 23 year-old doctor who was first on the scene.
This article is composed of a couple of paragraphs recalling the damages caused to American shipping as a result of the U-Boat menace on the East Coast of the United States during the First World War. Written at a time when the U.S. was once again having to deal with the same threat, this time by Admiral Karl Dönitz (1891 – 1980), the journalist wished that Henry J. James, the author of German Subs In Yankee Waters
be properly credited for having devised many of the more successful countermeasures.
Statistically, Anderson is the the 12th most common surname in the United States and there are 894,704 Americans who bare this last name. The name stems from two sources: Scottish and Scandinavian. Both are derived from the Greek word Andreas, which means strong, manly or courageous.
In America today there are many Andersons high in achievement, some of them still spelling their name Andersen, who were born in Sweden, Norway or Denmark. This article broadly outlines the great and famous Andersons, the ones who have walked the halls of Congress, thrived in business, written the books, preached from the pulpits and fought the wars.
Oddly, very little column space is devoted to the infamous Andersons (ie. Confederate thug Bloody Bill Anderson).
The most common last name in the English speaking world (except Canada) is Smith – read about it…
An article written by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 – 1945) in which he rants on about all the triumphs of his first two terms, repeating in several places how much better his administration was than the one that preceded him, how popular he was with the voters and emphasizing throughout that the Federal Government had tremendous potential as a force for good during the Great Depression, but it’s efforts were blocked at every turn:
For a dead hand was being laid upon this whole program of progress – to stay it all.
It was the hand of the Supreme Court of the United States…former Supreme Court Justices McReynolds, Van Devanter, and Butler, whose judgments were all consistently against New Deal measures.
Click here to see an anti-New Deal cartoon.
With her characteristic disregard for the unreasonable mandates of the prevailing fashion police hanging out for all to see, Elizabeth Hawes (1903 – 1971) scoffed with the deepest irreverence at the males of the species for being so thoughtless and blind in matters sartorial. Pointing out that men, who she compared to mice, don’t have to wear ties, hats, heavy leather shoes or anything else that makes them uncomfortable, but do so purposelessly and out of fear…
Click here to read a 1929 article about the Dress-Reform Movement.
This column by Andrés Iduarte (1907 – 1984) addressed the popularity of Los Indios in the arts of Latin America throughout the 1930s. What came to be known as the pro-Indian movement in the U.S. of the 1960s was a political development in the counter-culture of that era, but thirty years earlier it was a trend in the arts of Latin America. Andrés Iduarte covered the contributions of painters, poets, novelists and sculptors who were all of Native descent south of the Rio Grande (FYI: Brazil is not mentioned in this article).
Here is a film review from DIRECTION MAGAZINE that discussed many of the forthcoming movies of 1941 and how they so rarely depict American culture in an accurate light:
In bringing back the usual revelations from a trip through the Middle West, I want to repeat the oft-declared amazement that American films… reflect the barest minimum of the American scene in these United States. The rare attempts of the Grapes of Wrath and Primrose Path to seek and show new dramatic settings, are the exceptions that prove the rule of formula.
Many of the American films of 1941 are listed herein and the article can be printed.
KEY WORDS: church in nazi-occupied norway,Norwegian church during nazi occupationRead more …
Up by bugle at 5:45 in subfreezing temperature. Breakfast – boiled oatmeal, French toast and syrup, toast, jam, coffee. At 7:30 began ‘psychological test’ for mental alertness (typical question: An orange is a broom, bat, flower, or fruit?). Received complete uniforms. Try-on period after lunch resulted in many misfits, much swapping and revival of old crack about there being only two sizes in the Army – too big and too small…
By late November, 1941, only children and the clinically optimistic were of the mind that America would be able to keep out of a war – as you’ll be able to assume when you read the attached article that appeared on the newsstands just ten days before the attack on Pearl Harbor. It extolls the industrial prowess of the United States as the country prepared for war:
• William S. Knudson (1879 – 1948), Director of the OPM, declared U.S. arms output will soon ‘assure Hitler’s defeat’. Proof of this claim was seen in the celebration in New Haven, Connecticut, of one company’s production of it’s 10,000th machine-gun within a year of the time the contract was signed to build a plant.
• The launching of the 35,000-ton battleship INDIANA at Newport News, Virginia, the third battleship to come off the ways this year, indicated the increased tempo of defense production, which Admiral Land, of the Maritime Commission, said neared ‘superhuman’.
It must have been a slow news week when the CLICK MAGAZINE crew approached three of the busiest editors in the the U.S. and Britain asking them how they would break the news if Hitler were to be killed tomorrow?
Every editor we queried agreed that when it happens, the death of Adolf Hitler will sell more papers than any other news event of the Twentieth century…All agreed that Hitler’s death would not end the war; two out of three guessed he would die violently.
The leftest publisher Ralph Ingersoll knew right away that Hitler would die by his own hand.
The article is illustrated with facsimile printings of the headlines and how each paper believed the dictator would die – it was an academic exercise, but a fun read, nonetheless.
An article that celebrated the well-received performance of Diana Barrymore in her stage debut in the New York play, The Romantic Mr. Dickens:
The critics marshaled such adjectives as ‘vibrant,’ ‘vivid,’ ‘beautiful’, and ‘confident’ to describe the ‘best Barrymore debut in years.’
At the age of 63, after 44 years in show business, and ten years as director of the Lux Radio Theater
They’re not with the U.S.O. but the barracks-happy GIs were delighted to see them just the same.
A very self-conscious column regarding the American class structure.
At the age of 63, after 44 years in show business, Cecil B. De Mille is still producing. He can’t stop and he probably never will. He is first, last and all the time a showman. The show business is in his blood, and whether he is on a set or taking his leisure at home, his heart and mind are in the theater. He loves to have people around him so that he can play a part, for consciously or unconsciously, he is always acting… C.B.’s father was an actor and playwright, and later a partner of David Belasco. His mother was an actress, and later a very successful play agent.
The article goes into more depth outlining De Mille various triumphs in silent film and his work on The Squaw Man
