Coronet Magazine – Page 8 – Old Magazine Articles

The Returned P.O.W.
(Coronet Magazine, 1945)

Merchant Marine William T. Mitchell, having been locked-up for three and half years in a Japanese POW camp, recalled those terrible days intermittently as he explains what it was like to return to a changed America. One of the amusing stories concerned a time when his captors assembled the camp to announce [falsely] that movie stars Judy Garland and Deanna Durbin had been killed:

The Nips had lied to us, and I fell for it. You believe anything – almost – when you’re cut off from your home.

Caricaturist Al Hirschfeld
(Coronet Magazine, 1939)

Here is a profile of a very young Al Hirschfeld (1903 – 2003) – long-time NY Times caricaturist.

Sam Rosenman: FDR’s Right Arm
(Coronet Magazine, 1944)

Samuel Rosenman (1896 – 1973) was an attorney, judge and a highly placed insider within the ranks of the Democratic Party, both in Albany and the nation’s capital. It was Rosenman who helped articulated many of FDR’s policies, wrote numerous executive orders and conceived of the moniker New Deal. He was the first lawyer to hold the position White House Counsel and he was an indispensable advisor to Roosevelt throughout the course of his New York governorship as well as his presidency.

Bananas, Anyone?

Here is the skinny on the Bananas and Skim Milk Diet – also known as the Magic 888 – still in use today, the reducing plan is a crash diet designed to remove five pounds within three to four days.

Johnny Mathis
(Coronet Magazine, 1957)

Here is a moving account of the meteoric rise of Johnny Mathis (b. 1935) – from an impoverished child of the San Francisco slums to the last of the great-American crooners.

Johnny Mathis is just 23 years old , though he appears a hungry , vulnerable 17. When he sings a romantic ballad in high falsetto, his large eyes gaze out over the heads of the audience as if in search of someone.

Was He Brave?
(Coronet Magazine, 1943)

Before December 7, 1941, the average American regarded the Jap as a comical little fellow who bowed deeply from the waist and said, ‘So sorry.’…[and] as a fighting man, the Jap was obviously a joke. His army hadn’t been able to to lick poor old broken-down China in four years… This picture was destroyed forever by the bombs that fell on Pearl Harbor… But what makes the Jap so brave? Briefly, the Jap has two words for it. The first is Shinto and the second bushido,

The Destruction of the Shenandoah
(Coronet Magazine, 1949)

Pieced together from the captain’s log as well as various first-hand observations that were called to mind by the 29 surviving crew members, this article presents a blow-by-blow account as to how the U.S. Navy dirigible Shenandoah was overwhelmed by turbulent winds over Eastern Ohio and torn in two.

As they climbed into the hull, the ship began spinning counter-clockwise on its keel, then lifted its nose and shot upward. Girders groaned and wires snapped. Then came a crunching, sickening roar as the girders parted. The ship had broken in two. Another rending crash and the control car plunged earthwards, carrying Lt. Commander Landsdowne and seven other men to their death.

JFK – As the World Saw Him
(Coronet Magazine, 1964)

More than any other president in our history, John F. Kennedy was the public image of the United States of America. Unlike the initial acclaim accorded the stately Roosevelt or the revered Eisenhower, many nations viewed the election of Kennedy in 1961 with alarm. It was not difficult to understand; he was born to great wealth, he was very young and he was inexperienced. Could any country that elected such a man be respected?

Click here to read about Jackie Kennedy’s life after leaving the White House.

A History of THE BOB
(Coronet Magazine, 1955)

A single page history essay concerning the most popular hairstyle of the 1920s.

The Musicians Duke Ellington Admired
(Coronet Magazine, 1951)

Of all the jazz musicians who link yesterday’s ragtime with today’s dance music, Duke Ellington is the dean. In his 27 years as a pianist and composer, the Duke has played alongside every great brass, reed, and rhythm man of his day. Now he picks those music makers who, ‘on the basis of their over-all contribution, their all-time record, consistently good performance, and love of music,’ constitute 1951’s All-American jazz band.

Duke Ellington made a list of his favorite eleven musicians; some of the names may surprise you.

The Blowtorch Blonde
(Coronet Magazine, 1952)

Here is an article about the legendary Marilyn Monroe (né Norma Jeane Mortenson: 1926 – 1962), her painful beginnings, the cheesecake pictures, the bit-parts and her enormous popularity as a star are all woven into a narrative that never lets the reader forget that her unique type of appeal was something entirely new.

The Back Story of the Star-Spangled Banner
(Coronet Magazine, 1948)

Here is one of the few histories that explain the Star-Spangled Banner that seldom mentions its author. This short column will tell you about Sam Smith, the Militia general who kept the flag at Fort McHenry waving throughout that perilous fight.

Home Front Spy-Hunters
(Coronet Magazine, 1944)

Appearing in 1944, this article listed numerous reports relayed to the FBI by amateur spy-hunters of all the imagined foreign agents who they stumbled upon daily. Some of the accounts ended up being true and lead to actual confessions, but most were just plain silly – either way, the G-men had to investigate each account.

The Dying Lincoln: Could He Have Survived?
(Coronet Magazine, 1941)

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.

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.

News of the World
(Coronet Magazine, 1960)

Unlike other publications that enter this world with high ideals and lofty ambitions in matters concerning free-speech, the right-to-know, good form and all that sort of stuff – only to slowly devolve into petty, libelous innuendo rags before they cease publication altogether – the British daily The News of The World (1843 – 2011) made its appearance on Fleet Street seeming as if it was already on its way out. As the saying goes, it sold out early and beat the rush.

Although its earliest editions covered the Crimean War, as well as all the other Victorian military adventures, the paper’s editorial policy had always been positioned somewhere to the left of Whoopee.

The ‘Raise Your Vitality’ Diet

If you are seeking that alive-all-over glow your body radiates when you are in excellent health, try the 15-Day Revitalizing Diet listed on the pages following. It is designed to give you the protein, vitamins and minerals your body needs for dynamic living…

The Blitz Diet of 1956

A confident declaration makes clear at the top of these columns that all adherents will lose 5 pounds in 2 days if they seriously follow the dictates of the Blitz diet:

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are the same… Eight ounces of fresh creamed cottage cheese; two or three Elberta peach halves and juice…

(F.Y.I. – the Blitz diet allows for Norwegian flat bread, butter, sugar, and cinnamon.)