The American Magazine – Page 2 – Old Magazine Articles

The W.W. II Revival In Faith
(American Magazine, 1942)

When mobilization began, the government, as usual, undertook to provide spiritual ministry for the men. But many veteran clergymen doubted whether religion would catch on… But religion did catch on – and with such vigor that the chaplaincy services have been swamped by it. Army and Navy chapels are jam-packed. Demands for special services, for Bible study and for religious instruction, are more than can be met. Many men – Protestant and Catholic – are being baptized or confirmed. Some chaplains report an almost overwhelming interest in religion and church as a career.

Click here to read about the renewed interest in religion that existed on the home front…

‘Hitler” of Hollywood
(The American Magazine, 1944)

Song and Dance man Robert Watson (1888 – 1965) was Hollywood’s-go-to-guy when they needed a fella to tread the boards as the Bohemian Corporal (Adolf Hitler). Throughout the course of his career he played him nine times.

The Cuban and the Redhead
(The American Magazine, 1952)

We didn’t become addicts of I Love Lucy deliberately; it was a habit that engulfed our whole family gradually. the captivating thing about Lucy and Ricky is, we think, the fact that they hold a mirror up to every married couple in America. Not a regulation mirror that reflects truth, nor a magic mirror that portrays fantasy. But a Coney Island mirror that distorts, exaggerates and makes vastly amusing every little incident, foible and idiosyncrasy of married life.

‘America’s No. 1 Negro”
(The American Magazine, 1941)

Paul Robeson (1898 – 1976) was a multi-talented man and this article lays it all out.

Paul Robeson thinks of himself as conclusive proof that there is no such thing as a backward race. Given a few generations of equal opportunities, he believes, any people – Eskimos, Malayans, Fijians or the Untouchables of India – can produce as talented statesmen, scientists, educators, inventors and artists as the whites.

The American Way of War
(American Magazine, 1945)

The Yank is not expert at deception, but he can change his plans rapidly. He is a wizard at handling machinery and he can build airfields, roads and advance bases with uncanny speed.

– so wrote one of the bewildered Japanese Army generals concerning his experiences with the American military in the Pacific.

Fashion Police
(American Magazine, 1943)

Who was it who deprived men of their suit vests and trouser cuffs? Who banned silk stockings? Who outlawed the flow in flowing skirts? Why, it was the War Production Board of course – click the title link if you want a name and a face…

The Aussies Pull It Together
(The American Magazine, 1942)

The attached 1942 article tells the remarkable story of Prime Minister John Curtin (1885 – 1945) and his amazing Australians – together they redefined themselves as a wool-producing agrarian nation and began producing the necessary tools of war.

Harry Hopkins and Stalin
(The American Magazine, 1941)

Bromance was in the air when Harry Hopkins (1890 – 1946) went to Moscow to meet Joseph Stalin (1876 – 1953) for their second meeting:

He shook my hand briefly, firmly, courteously. He smiled warmly. There was no waste of word, gesture, nor mannerism. It was like talking to a perfectly coordinated machine, an intelligent machine. Joseph Stalin knew what he wanted, knew what Russia wanted and he assumed that you knew.

Mic-drop.

Socialism Bad
(The American Magazine, 1949)

It seems difficult to imagine, but this opinion writer felt America leaning toward socialism as far back as 1949:

While the people look more and more to Washington to do everything under the sun for them, the Federal Government hasn’t been discouraging them at all. On the contrary, the Administration has been repeatedly asking for more and more powers to use when it may see fit.

He is sympathetic to their feelings, but cautions his readers that Marxism looks alluring on the printed page – but it will simply lead to serfdom in the end

Jack Hamm: Cartoon Preacher
(The American Magazine, 1952)

The Moody Bible Institute has not graduated many cartoonists but they did give their sheepskin to Jack Hamm (1916 – 1996), a terrific cartoonist who used his talent to advance the Gospel in Godlier America.

The American Invasion of Saipan
(The American Magazine, 1944)

The battle of Saipan spanned the period between June 15 through July 9, 1944. Here is an eyewitness account of the three week battle:

Reveille for the Japanese garrison on Saipan sounded abruptly at five-forty that morning of D-Day minus one, with a salvo from the 14-inch rifles of one of our battleships. Other guns, big and small, joined the opening chorus and from than on we realized why we had stuffed the cotton in our ears. The bass drum jam session was to continue for hours.

Confronting the Bigots
(The American Magazine, 1946)

With the passing of the Ives-Quinn Bill in 1945, the state of New York was empowered to bring the full weight of the law down upon all employers who practiced any sort of discrimination in the workplace:

During the first eight months of the law’s operation, the Commission received 240 formal complaints charging some form of discrimination in employment… The charges varied greatly. Fifty-nine complained because of alleged prejudice against their religion. Another 113 charged color bias: 105 Negroes and eight Whites. Still another 48 charged prejudice against their race or national origin: 8 Germans, 5 Spaniards…

A similar article from 1941 can be read here…

Open All Night
(The American Magazine, 1954)

Ever since America established the car culture, there came a need for all-night retail establishments: hamburgers, hot dogs, beer, pharmaceuticals – you get the picture. During the late Thirties this became apparent to the Reverend John Welles as he drove aimlessly through the West – he saw that it was quite possible to acquire meatloaf at all hours of the night, but if you wanted to speak with a minister of the Gospel, you were just plain out of luck. It was then that Welles swore to himself:

If ever I have another church, it will be open day and night. The soul doesn’t come alive on Sunday mornings only, and some day I’ll build a church where people can pray whenever they wish.

American Apologist For The Purges
(The American Magazine, 1941)

FDR’s second ambassador to Moscow, Joseph E. Davies (1876 – 1958), wrote this stunning article in which he makes clear that he was all in favor of Stalin’s purges and believed that the trials indicated the amazing far-sightedness of Stalin and his close associates. He believed every one of the trumped-up charges and swallowed them hook, line and sinker. He concluded the article by advising other liberty loving nations to follow Stalin’s example.

The First Black Fighter Pilots
(The American Magazine, 1942)

This article partially explains the excitement of being a Tuskegee Airman and flying the Army’s most advanced fighters and partially explains what it was like to be a black man in a segregated America:

I’m flying for every one of the 12,000,000 Negroes in the United States. I want to prove that we can take a tough job and handle it just as well as a white man.

The Leader of Free France
(The American Magazine, 1942)

Almost literally,
he has built Free France from magnificent words. The miracle began on June 18, 1940, when he stepped before a London microphone with defiant, solemn appeal, beginning, ‘I, Charles de Gaulle, General of France’ – and ending superbly, ‘Soldiers of France, wherever you may be, arise!’.

The truth is that, to followers of de Gaulle, he is not a human being at all; he is a symbol, like the flag.

Women Working for the War
(The American Magazine, 1942)

Here is an account by one reporter of his visit to an American aircraft factory early in the war. His article concerns the novelty of female laborers:

We climbed to a catwalk in the rafters and looked down on one of the most fascinating factories on earth. It was gay as a flower garden. Women in bright blouses and slacks were everywhere, doing everything. Blondes and brunettes and redheads and – well , middle-aged ones. Mostly pretty. And every one eagerly intent upon her job.

An American POW On Radio Tokyo
(American Magazine, 1942)

When the bright boys at Radio Tokyo decided to allow one of their half-starved American prisoners to flatter them on air, they couldn’t imagine that he would take the opportunity to broadcast vital information needed by the U.S. Navy, but that’s just what he did.

Click here to read an article about the American POW experience during the Korean War.