1947

Articles from 1947

Black Tie, Please (Collier’s Magazine, 1947)

One evening in 1947, Henry L. Jackson, co-founder of Esquire Magazine, realized that his magazine alone was not sufficient enough in circulation for passing the word along to his fellows that the rules for men’s evening wear were rapidly being rewritten; knowing full-well that Collier’s was one of the preeminent American magazines of its day, he no-doubt must have pleaded the urgency of his case to their editors and, in so doing, saved the collective faces of the homo Americanus once more! We’re delighted that he did so, because now you will have a more thorough understanding as to how you might have dressed had you lived in post-war America.

A White Woman Looks at the Negro and the Scourge of Racism (Pageant Magazine, 1947)

Writer Margaret Halsey (1910 – 1997) was a patriotic lass who did her bit for Uncle Sam by managing a soldier’s canteen in New York City during the Second World War – you should know that throughout the course of that war there were thousands of canteens throughout America where Allied soldiers, sailors airmen and Marines could enjoy a free meal and have a dance or two with the local girls. Similar to most other canteens in the country, her doors were open to all servicemen regardless of color and as a result, the same policy had to be followed by the local girls who came to dance: they, too, could not discriminate.


Her observations in this integrated environment led to believe that a national policy of racial assimilation will not be as difficult as many people at the time tended to believe.

BLOODBATH (’47 Magazine, 1947)

Written some eighteen years after the event, here is a reminiscence of the worst day in Prohibition history: the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

The Amish (Coronet Magazine, 1947)

Here is a wonderful photo-essay that depicts the lives of one of the most pious communities in the United States: the Mennonites of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania:

The Biblical statement that God wished to ‘purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works’ [Titus 2:14] is followed literally by the Amish. They do everything possible to ensure their goodness and to make themselves different from ordinary men.

The Rebellious Souls in Post-War Germany (Collier’s Magazine, 1947)

This Collier’s Magazine article from 1947 was penned by the German-speaking Sigrid Schultz (1893 – 1980) who’s report told on those discontented Germans who enjoyed tweaking the collective noses of the armies that lorded over them – oddly believing that a war between the Western Powers and the Soviet Union was the best answer to their hopes. Elements of the populace spoke openly about the good old days under Hitler and sang the old Nazi anthem, The Horst Wessel Song:

In Munich, the signs on the square named for ‘The Victims of Fascism’ were replaced by signs reading ‘The Victims of Democracy’. The police only acted after a Munich paper front-paged the story.


A similar article from 1951 can be read here…


Read about American censorship in Occupied-Japan…

Shavian Witticisms (Coronet Magazine, 1947)

Myriad are the clever epigrams that have been attributed to the famed Anglo-Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) – and attached you’ll find additional chestnuts to add to the list. These particular ones recall the bon mots he tossed out while prattling-on with various assorted glitterati of his day; yapers like Clare Boothe Luce, Orson Welles, Judith Anderson and tennis champ Helen Wills.


More about Shaw can be read here.

The Arabs Mobilize (Collier’s Magazine, 1947)

From a guarded high-walled villa in Alexandria, Mohammad Amin al-Husayni (1895 – 1974), exiled fifty-three year-old Grand son of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem craftily directs the affairs of the 1,200,000 Palestinian Arabs.

In the Mufti’s web, the strands of potential organized resistance include two rival ‘youth organizations’, the al-Najjada and the Al-Futawa and the ‘mobile elements’ of the secret Muslim Brotherhood, which is a sort of Middle Eastern Ku Klux Klan. The precise figures of their strength are elusive, but combined they may comprise something like 50,000 men and boys.

Mohammad Nimr al-Hawari, thirty-eight-year-old leader of the Najjada told me, ‘We believe in force’.

Exploited Farm Labor During World War II (Collier’s Magazine, 1947)

This 1947 Collier’s article, Heartless Harvest by Howard Whitman makes clear the sad story of migrant agricultural laborers who picked the fruits and vegetables for the Americans of the Forties:

A new crop of Okies, estimated in the millions, is wandering about the country, following the crops they pick. To get their story the author traveled 9,000 miles through 17 states, toiling in the fields. Here he describes working and living conditions you wouldn’t believe could be tolerated in America today.

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