1954 – Page 3 – Old Magazine Articles

Weapons and Tactics at Gettysburg (National Park Service, 1954)

The weapons and tactics used at the Battle of Gettysburg were in no way different from those brought into use during other parts in the war. Just as war has always been practiced, weapons influence tactics and this article lists a variety of Civil War rifles and artillery pieces that were put to use during that three day battle. The author also goes to some length describing the manner in which Civil War regiments and brigades marched into battle and the deployment of their supporting artillery batteries.

Weapons and Tactics at Gettysburg (National Park Service, 1954)

The Battle of Gettysburg: Day Three (National Park Service, 1954)

A clearly written piece which sums up the climactic third day of the Gettysburg battle:

Night brought an end to the bloody combat at East Cemetery Hill, but this was not the time for rest. What would Meade do? Would the Union Army remain in its established position and hold its lines at all costs?

The Woman Who Created Marilyn Monroe (People Today Magazine, 1954)

You can bet that throughout the short career of Marilyn Monroe there were voluminous amounts stylistes, cosmetologists, coiffeurs and doyennes of glamour who came in contact with the headliner at one time or another. Some offered genuine nuggets of beauty wisdom while others could only offer bum steers. Although the name Emmeline Snively may sound like a character from a Charles Dickens novel, she was in actuality the very first woman to offer sound fashion advice to the ingenue – advice that would start her on her path to an unparalleled celebrity status as the preeminent Blonde Bombshell in all of Hollywood. You see, Emmeline Snively was the one who recommended that La Monroe dye her hair that color in the first place.

Consumers Tell it to Detroit (Popular Mechanics, 1954)

Attached are the results of a nationwide survey from 1954 indicating what the American automobile consumers were shopping for in cars:

• 54% preferred whitewall tires over any other kind

• 68% preferred push-button door handles

• 59% wanted jet-age hood ornaments

• 44% wished that dashboards were loaded with dials and gauges

Glenn Miller (Coronet Magazine, 1954)

Ten years after the death of Big Band legend Glenn Miller (1904 – 1944), it was found that his record sales were going through the roof at 16,000,000 per annum, and Hollywood had attempted to cash-in on his memory by releasing a (bland) Technicolor bio-pic, appropriately titled, The Glenn Miller Story(Universal) – with Jimmy Stewart starring in the title roll. The band leader’s popularity was obvious to everyone in 1944, when he was killed in the war, but no one could have predicted this.

Bad-Boy Errol Flynn (Sir! Magazine, 1954)

There is no doubt that the Hollywood matinee idol Errol Flynn (1909 – 1959) was the Charlie Sheen of his day, and thanks to the unrelenting press control that the Hollywood studios exercised over the fan magazines of that day, we probably only know about a quarter of his assorted debaucheries. He was a masher and a lush, and the one law suit that the studio executives couldn’t kill was

the great case against him for statutory rape which, had it stuck, would have given him jail for fifty years. For weeks in 1942 it replaced the war news in the headlines.

In 1938, Flynn wrote an article in which he weakly defended the unique moral codes of Hollywood actors; you can read it here.

The First Thirty Years of Television (Coronet Magazine, 1954)

Countless scientists contributed to the phenomenon [of television]. Marconi gets credit, as do Farnsworth and Lee de Forest. But the real starting line was strung by an RCA scientist named Vladimir K. Zworykin in 1923, when he applied for a patent on a iconoscope…

Illustrated with 27 pictures, this article lists a number of historic and semi-historic events that were captured by the early TV cameras and seen by millions of souls who otherwise would have only had to read about them in their respective newspapers, if they cared to.

The War-Babies of Occupied Japan (People Today Magazine, 1954)

There was one thing the Japanese hated more than being defeated and occupied by the Gai-jin (the Japanese slur for Whites) and that was when their daughters, sisters and nieces began bedding their tormentors and baring their young. Tremendous shame was brought on these women, and their families. This article is about the Amerasian babies who were isolated in a special orphanage designed just for them.

How did all of this come to pass? Click here to find out…

Our French Inheritance (United States News, 1954)

The U.S. is going to shoulder the job of saving what is left of Indo-China from the Communists…Congress is unlikely to approve additional funds. South Vietnam isn’t a good-enough risk to be worth much bigger American investment. Everything may go down the drain in 19 months.