Pic Magazine – Page 2 – Old Magazine Articles

Cecil B. DeMille Tries his Hand at Radio
(Pic Magazine, 1941)

At the age of 63, after 44 years in show business, and ten years as director of the Lux Radio Theater, 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.

Celebutantes & GIs
(Pic Magazine, 1941)

They’re not with the U.S.O. but the barracks-happy GIs were delighted to see them just the same.

‘A Message to the White Collar Class”
(Pic Magazine, 1941)

A very self-conscious column regarding the American class structure.

Puerto Ricans Arrive
(Pic Magazine, 1955)

In the early Fifties many of the people from the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico decided to pack their bags and move to New York City. Overnight, it seemed, a portion of Harlem came to be known as Spanish Harlem – where hastily assembled mambo dance halls could be found among restaurants serving the exotic cuisine of the Caribbean. There were also complications that emerged with the new comers that are addressed in this 1955 article:

Today, however, there is a forceful change taking place, an influence so great that New York City officials have forecast a startling racial shift within a few years and are already making plans for meeting this switch…

The Show-Biz Blood of Cecil B. DeMille
(Pic Magazine, 1941)

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.

The Star of THE OUTLAW
(Pic Magazine, 1941)

Here is well illustrated article (16 images) from the set of THE OUTLAW (1941) that celebrates the arrival of the young, curvaceous Jane Russell (1921 – 2011).

One Editor’s Obsession
(Pic Magazine, 1941)

It seemed to have made no difference to the editors of PIC MAGAZINE how dark and thick the clouds of war were that encircled the United States one month prior to the Pearl Harbor attack – they ran yet another puff piece on Jane Russell five months after they had published their last puff piece on Jane Russell.

A Monopoly on Radio Talent?
(Pic Magazine, 1941)

This article will cue you in to a 1941 dust-up between the FCC and the biggest radio broadcasters in America.

Apparently CBS, NBC and the Mutual Broadcasting System were in cahoots, united behind a scheme to fix the prices they had to cough-up in order to pay all the various assorted musicians and acting talents they needed to hire if they were to attract their radio audiences. The feds got wind of the plan and smelled a rat:

The big radio networks are currently worried by the Federal Communication Commission’s accusation that they are talent monopolists, part of the FCC’s blanket charge that the radio chains constitute a trust within the broadcasting industry…

The Nazis Liked to Flatter Themselves
(Pic Magazine, 1943)

The Nazis had so many wonderful things to say – about themselves…

Yes, we are barbarians! We want to be barbarians. It is an honorable title. We shall rejuvenate the world.

The Hunt in Occupied-Germany
(Pic Magazine, 1946)

While the hunt for Nazis and hidden weapons cachés was taking place in allied-occupied Germany, a small number of U.S. Army detectives happened upon the entire archives of the Nazi Party.

Building the Suburban Dream
(Pic Magazine, 1955)

The author Thomas Hine pointed out in his 1986 tour-de-force, Populuxe, that by the time the Eisenhower years rolled around, suburban houses were growing in size, as is typified in the attached article that was created to sell the plans for a 1,290 square foot piece of suburban splendor. Gone were the days of the little boxes that dotted the countryside throughout the late Forties and early Fifties; these newer and larger domiciles were built in the shapes of U or L and the most popular models were built in the Ranch House style with attached garages (gasp!).

Robert Best of South Carolina
(Pic Magazine, 1943)

On July 26, 1943, in the same U.S. Federal Court that tried the American poet Ezra Pound (in absentia) for treason, Robert H. Best (1896 – 1952), formerly of the Associated Press, was also convicted on the same charges. What Iva Toguri (the alleged Tokyo Rose) was believed to have done for Hirohito, and what Pound did for Mussolini is what Best did for Adolf Hitler: he had broadcast Nazi radio propaganda.

You might also care to read about the American Bund.

Jane Russell Sur la Plage…
(Pic Magazine, 1941)

When these eight pictures of Hollywood actress Jane Russell (1921 – 2012) were snapped in the spring of 1941, she wasn’t up to much. She was studying acting at Max Reinhardt’s Theatrical Workshop in Los Angeles and more than likely waiting for her seven year contract with Howard Hughes to expire. The film that she’d made with him the previous year, The Outlaw, would not [be widely] distributed for some time and so we imagine that she jumped at the chance to put on a bathing suit and clown around on the beach when she got the call from the boys at PIC MAGAZINE. With the onslaught of the Second World War, she would be doing much of the same sort of posing for the pin-up photographers.

In the attached photo-essay, the PIC editors went out on a limb and called her one of America’s greatest beauties.

The Post-War Miracle that was Volkswagen
(Pic Magazine, 1955)

Out of the smoldering ruins of Japan came the Honda factories; while Germany amazed their old enemies by rapidly beating their crematoriums into Volkswagens. Confidently managed by a fellow who only a short while before was serving as a lowly private in Hitler’s retreating army, Volkswagen quickly retooled, making the vital improvements that were necessary to compete in the global markets.

Ludwig Erhard (1897 – 1977), West Germany’s Minister of Economics between the years 1949 and 1963, once remarked that Germany was able to launch its Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle) by implementing the principles of a market economy and laissez-fair capitalism within the framework of a semi-socialist state.

1946 Broadway
(Pic Magazine, 1946)

Click here to read about Broadway during the Second World War… KEY WORDS: 1946 Broadway theatre productions,Post-War Broadway Theatre Productions,Late

Preston Sturgis, Director
(Pic Magazine, 1944)

KEY WORDS: Preston Sturges magazine article,1930 s Hollywood Director Preston Sturges,Preston Sturgis director of SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS,SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS director Preston Sturgis,PRODIGAL