1942

Articles from 1942

Tales of the Assinibone Tribe
(Direction Magazine, 1942)

Land of the Nakoda: The Story of the Assinibone Indians was the brain child of the Montana WPA (Works Progress Administration), Writers Project. The book is a collection of tales as told by the tribe elders and transcribed by one other member for publication in book form and it is still in print today.

American Tank Destroyers
(America’s Alertmen, 1942)

Another look at the M-2 Half Track and the training of their five-man crews at Fort Hood, Texas. We got a kick learning that these men were not simply trained to fire their 37 and 75 mm. mounted guns, but also instructed in all other manner of tank fighting methods:

Another little trick they master is the construction of a sticky grenade; a white sock filled with TNT, soaked in heavy axle grease to triple it’s detonating power. This sticks like glue; and if it explodes near the tank’s ventilators — that’s all, brother.


Click here to read about the TD units that fought at the Battle of the Bulge.

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Distributing Women Throughout Industry
(The American Magazine, 1942)

One of the seldom remembered branches of the War Production Board was the Women’s Labor Supply Services which served to eradicate the various draft deferments that were keeping too many men out of the military. Thelma McKelvey was the woman in charge of this body:

This captain of industry expects to see women workers in factories and farms increase from 700,000 today to 4,000,000 by mid-1943.

The Front-Line Mechanics
(United States News, 1942)

Side by side with with the fighting men who ride to battle goes an army of men who fight with tools and machinery, instead of guns and tanks… That army of fighter-mechanics has grown in importance with the increase in the Army’s dependence on motorized equipment. They operate beyond the glow of headlines – but without the aid of mechanics the Army’s wheels would never turn.

Ronald Reagan in his Own Words
(Photoplay Magazine, 1942)

In the attached PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE article, Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911 – 2004), the Hollywood actor who would one day become the fortieth president of the United States (1981–1989), gives a tidy account as to who he was in 1942, and what was dear to him:

My favorite menu is steaks smothered with onions and strawberry short cake. I play bridge adequately and collect guns, always carry a penny as a good luck charm…I’m interested in politics and governmental problems. My favorite books are Turnabout, by Thorne Smith, Babbitt, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the works of Pearl Buck, H.G. Wells, Damon Runyon and Erich Remarque.


A good read and a revealing article by a complicated man.


Click here to read about a Cold War prophet who was much admired by President Reagan…

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Ronald Reagan in his Own Words
(Photoplay Magazine, 1942)

In the attached PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE article, Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911 – 2004), the Hollywood actor who would one day become the fortieth president of the United States (1981–1989), gives a tidy account as to who he was in 1942, and what was dear to him:

My favorite menu is steaks smothered with onions and strawberry short cake. I play bridge adequately and collect guns, always carry a penny as a good luck charm…I’m interested in politics and governmental problems. My favorite books are Turnabout, by Thorne Smith, Babbitt, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the works of Pearl Buck, H.G. Wells, Damon Runyon and Erich Remarque.


A good read and a revealing article by a complicated man.


Click here to read about a Cold War prophet who was much admired by President Reagan…

Ronald Reagan in his Own Words
(Photoplay Magazine, 1942)

In the attached PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE article, Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911 – 2004), the Hollywood actor who would one day become the fortieth president of the United States (1981–1989), gives a tidy account as to who he was in 1942, and what was dear to him:

My favorite menu is steaks smothered with onions and strawberry short cake. I play bridge adequately and collect guns, always carry a penny as a good luck charm…I’m interested in politics and governmental problems. My favorite books are Turnabout, by Thorne Smith, Babbitt, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the works of Pearl Buck, H.G. Wells, Damon Runyon and Erich Remarque.


A good read and a revealing article by a complicated man.


Click here to read about a Cold War prophet who was much admired by President Reagan…

Ronald Reagan in his Own Words
(Photoplay Magazine, 1942)

In the attached PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE article, Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911 – 2004), the Hollywood actor who would one day become the fortieth president of the United States (1981–1989), gives a tidy account as to who he was in 1942, and what was dear to him:

My favorite menu is steaks smothered with onions and strawberry short cake. I play bridge adequately and collect guns, always carry a penny as a good luck charm…I’m interested in politics and governmental problems. My favorite books are Turnabout, by Thorne Smith, Babbitt, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the works of Pearl Buck, H.G. Wells, Damon Runyon and Erich Remarque.


A good read and a revealing article by a complicated man.


Click here to read about a Cold War prophet who was much admired by President Reagan…

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The Betrayal of French Jewry
(Newsweek Magazine, 1942)

The Nazis quickly extended the dread Nuremberg laws to the occupied territory. Jews lost jobs, businesses, property, liberty, even their lives. They were flung into primitive concentration camps and deported to Polish ghettos. And with them the Nazis brought the usual wave of Jewish suicides.

‘Hollywood Hangout”
(The American Magazine, 1942)

Schwab’s Pharmacy was like many other well-heeled American pharmacies of the Forties – it filled prescriptions, sold cigars, served three squares a day at their counter and cracked-wise with the clientele. What made it different was that many of the customers were among the most glam movie stars of the time. Located on Sunset Boulevard, west of Hollywood, in an area known as Sherman:

It’s the one place in Hollywood where screen biggies like Robert Taylor, Gene Tierney and Marlene Dietrich drop in and out all day and make themselves at home.

The D-Day Landing Crafts
(Click Magazine, 1942)

If you ever wondered why The National W.W. II Museum is located in New Orleans rather than West Point, Annapolis or the nation’s capitol – the answer can be spoken in two words: Andrew Higgins. Higgins was the innovator who designed and manufactured the landing crafts that made it possible for the Allied forces to land on all those far-flung beaches throughout the world and show those Fascists dogs a thing or two. His factory, Higgins Industries, was located on Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans and it was for this reason that the museum board of directors chose to doff their collective caps, and erect their repository in his home town.


Attached is a five page photo-essay about Higgins and all that he was doing to aid in the war effort.

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Los Angeles Nisei at Santa Anita Racetrack
(Rob Wagner’s Script, 1942)

Attached is a eye-witness account of the Los Angeles Issie and Nisei populations after having been removed from their homes and detained at Santa Anita racetrack prior to their transfer and subsequent incarceration at Manzanar, California.

There are more than 6,000 Japanese housed in the stables which once accommodated 2,000 horses…Each stall has had a room built on in front with doors and windows and the floors have been covered with a layer of asphaltum which seems to have killed the odors.

This article, laced throughout with subtle undertones of condemnation, was written by a Hollywood screenwriter named Alfred Cohn (1880 – 1951) who is largely remembered today for having written the adaptation for the Al Jolson movie The Jazz Singer (1929).

Paulette Goddard in Uniform
(Click Magazine, 1942)

Paulette Goddard (1910 – 1990) is pictured in color wearing an all-purpose uniform designed by the Hollywood stylist Irene (Irene Lentz, 1900 – 1962). The actress was a sporadic volunteer, having appeared in four films throughout 1942.

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The Barrymore Girl
(Collier’s Magazine, 1942)

When LIFE MAGAZINE ran a cheese cake picture of Diana Barrymore (1921 – 1960) on the cover of their July 31, 1939 issuestyle=border:none, the quick-witted editors at COLLIER’S were not to be outdone, so they ran this interview three years later. A color photo of the actress is provided in which she sports that remarkable Barrymore chin.

The Barrymore Girl
(Collier’s Magazine, 1942)

When LIFE MAGAZINE ran a cheese cake picture of Diana Barrymore (1921 – 1960) on the cover of their July 31, 1939 issuestyle=border:none, the quick-witted editors at COLLIER’S were not to be outdone, so they ran this interview three years later. A color photo of the actress is provided in which she sports that remarkable Barrymore chin.

Ode to the Hollywood Agent
(Rob Wagner’s Script Magazine, 1942)

The literati have all agreed: there is no doubt that if Shakespeare were alive today he would live in Beverly Hills, California. He would dwell in a 1930s split-level Persion-conversion, probably on Palm or Roxbury. As a well-compensated screenwriter he would churn-out the standard plots that were expected of him: fish-out-of-water dramadies, romcoms, and (under assorted pen names) a few reality shows; and like the poet whose work is attached, he would write about matters unique to Southern California -valet parking, Cobb Salads -and in this case the Hollywood agent.

This poem was written by Sydney King Russell (1898 – 1976), who, like Shakespeare, knew that if you’re going to write a poem about Hollywood agents, you’ll need to crack open the ol’ rhyming dictionary to see what rhymes with ten percent.

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