Americana – Old Magazine Articles

A Refugee Looks at America
(Liberty Magazine, 1942)

Photographer Herbert Sonnenfeld (1906 – 1972) was able to escape from his native Germany in the winter of 1939, shortly after the Second World war had just begun. After the initiation of the Nuremburg Laws four years earlier, life for him and his fellow Jews had taken a terrible turn for the worse and he was delighted to be able to depart for New York. The attached photo-essay and the accompanying captions reveal his joy and elation for living in a land of plenty, far away from the Nazi boot.

Haunted White House
(Sir! Magazine, 1958)

In the 218-year history of the White House, only ten people have died within its walls – yet everyone who has ever perceived the presence of a ghost insists that the spirit was that of Abraham Lincoln (who died a few blocks to the east). President Eisenhower was no exception.

Alternative Lyrics for the National Anthem
(Pathfinder, 1941)

Do you fail to recall the words to our national anthem time and again? You’re not alone – a quick glance at Google’s records indicate that in the silence of their rooms, thousands of your fellow Americans suffer from the same malady (and smirk at others who make their memory loss public). To say that the Americans of today are not as patriotic as they used to be is an understatement to be sure – but some of you will no doubt be relieved to know that the Americans of yore, vintage 1941, didn’t know the lyrics to The Star Spangled Banner any better than we do – as you can tell by the attached verses which were penned over seventy years ago about his fellow Americans and their inability to keep the words of Francis Scott Key in their heads.

A Foreigner’s View of 1930s America
(Focus Magazine, 1938)

In his effort serve his editors at Focus Magazine and alert their curious readers just how Europeans saw the American culture, German photographer Bernd Lohse (1911 – 1995) traveled throughout the country taking snap-shots of everything that charmed and repulsed him – take a look for yourself.

U.S. Presidential Trivia Quiz

A printable trivia test of odd presidential facts regarding the assorted chief executives who have governed the United States at one time or another. Assembled herein is a list of real zingers that will put to the test your knowledge of U.S. history; do you know:

• Who the shortest president was?

• Which president first predicted a one-world government?

• Which president was the greatest student of the Bible?

• Which president kissed 34 little girls at his Inaugural parade?

(HINT: It wasn’t Clinton)

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.

The Boy Scouts of America
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1947)

When this article first appeared, the Boy Scouts of America, as an institution, was barely thirty-five years old:

The truth is that never in the history of mankind has a simple idea – an idea, incidentally, born in South Africa – so seized the imagination of boys the world over as has Scouting.

Both Boy Scots and Girl Scouts were active in the Japanese-American internment camps during W.W. II. Click here to read about that subject…

The American Amalgamation
(Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

In this brief report on the National Conference of Christian and Jews, a break-down of the various cultural groups is presented along with a list of the assorted religious denominations found in America at that time. We suppose that Hispanics and Asians were excluded because their numbers were so terribly small at that time.

Nudity And Smut Becomes the Norm In American Pop-Culture
(Coronet Magazine, 1968)

The Sexual Revolution began slowly building with the release of the Kinsey Report in 1948 (read about that here) and from that point on the whole ball of thread began to unravel. More and more mainstream magazines, that previously would never have done so, began publishing articles about sexual concerns: adultery, frigidity and homosexuality. Hollywood went right along for the ride; TV was slow to follow, but following nonetheless. By the time 1967 came around the social war on the old taboos was in full flower. This article concerns the new standards that came into place all across America in 1968. When this article went to press, the two most infamous assassinations of 1968 had not yet taken place – after that, the flood gates would open – but change was in the air.

More about the lowering of moral standards in American popular culture can be read here…

The Lady in the Harbor
(Coronet Magazine, 1955)

When this article first appeared, the Statue of Liberty was praised as the tallest statue in the world – today, it doesn’t even make the list of the tallest statues; nonetheless, here is a collection of facts about the Ladyy Liberty:

• 200,000 pounds of copper were used in the statue, enough copper for more than 100 stacks of pennies, each as tall as the Empire State Building.

• Trans-Atlantic voyagers do not see Liberty until their ship enters N.Y. Harbor, but her torch can be seen 15 miles out.

• Her index finger is eight feet long.

A Profile of ”Mr. America”
(Pageant Magazine, 1955)

WHO, WHAT, AND WHY is the average American [man]? What does he eat? What does he wear? What does he worry about? These questions and more like them have taken us on a long journey through the realm of statistics. Out of the discoveries of the Department of Commerce, the Census Bureau and Dr. Gallup’s polls, we’ve succeeded in piecing together an uncommon portrait of the common man.

Howard Johnson’s Roadside Restaurants
(Coronet Magazine, 1946)

By the mid-Twenties millions of cars were on America’s highways and by-ways and family road trips were all the rage. However, the few roadside food stands that existed at the time were woefully inadequate and numerous journalists in every locale were writing articles about the various stomach aches that were regularly descending upon hapless motorists who patronized these businesses. This article is about a Massachusetts fellow named Howard Johnson –

Somewhere along the line he figured out that what America needed even more than a good five-cent cigar was a chain of stands that would take the chance out of roadside eating.

It’s Superman!
(Coronet Magazine, 1946)

Attached is a 1946 article by Mort Weisinger (1915 – 1978), who is remembered primarily as the editor for DC Comics’ Superman throughout much of the Fifties and Sixties. His four page history of Superman, attached herein, lays out not simply the origins of the character but all his great successes when deployed on behalf of the enemies of bad grammar, tooth decay, and slot machines. The author lucidly explained his own amazement at the fact that during those years spanning 1936 through 1946, Superman not only fought tooth and nail for truth, justice and the American way, but had been successfully harnessed by numerous ad men to advocate for the study of geography, civics, literacy, vocabulary and the importance of iron salvage in wartime.
At the time Weisinger penned this article, SUPERMAN was purchased annually by as many as 30,000,000 buyers.

Click here to read about the roll comic books played during the Second World War.

America’s Ever-Changing Mind: 1929 – 1952
(Pageant Magazine, 1953)

In an effort to show how American thought can vary between decades, a retired pollster from the Gallup organization collected the data gleaned from various opinion polls that were launched between 1929 on up through the dawn of the Atomic Age in order to show what a different people we had become. The topics that were addressed were

• Racial tolerance

• Taxes

• Women in the work place

• Labor unions

• Women smoking

• Bathing Suits

America’s Favorite Illustrator
(Pageant Magazine, 1947)

Norman Rockwell (1894 – 1978) once remarked in an interview:

“The view of life I communicate in my pictures excludes the sordid and the ugly. I paint life as I would like it to be.”

– and his vision was shared with millions of Americans. He had a fondness for depicting everyday life in small town America, childhood friendships, family life, middle school sporting events and (as discussed in the attached article) the Boy Scouts. He knew who he was; he never referred to himself as an artist, he called himself an illustrator.

Popcorn Finds a Home at the Movies
(Quick Magazine, 1952)

Popcorn was introduced as a snack food to American movie-goers as a result of the candy shortages during the earliest years of the Second World War.

Attached is a petite notice documenting the fact that the substitute was a wise one:

By 1952, movie houses accounted for about one-third of the nation’s annual $350 million retail popcorn sales.

Reference is also made to the efforts that were made to secure noiseless popcorn bags.

If popcorn replaced sweets on the home front, what replaced steak?

American Love is Better
(People Today Magazine, 1955)

This article is based on the research of Paul Popenoe (1888 – 1979), and the American Sociological Society that pointed out the high STD rate in Europe at the time indicated that the first sexual experiences among the males of that continent were with prostitutes. Two additional factors in the author’s argument highlighted the alarmingly high suicide rate among young European women coupled with the fact that the illegitimate birthrate far outpaced that of the United States at that time. Illustrated with four images that depict how depraved European dating in the Fifties was and how darn wholesome American teenage dating used to be by comparison, this article presents some sociological data supporting the conclusion that American love is better than European love because the American approach to the topic was simply easier and Europeans are just a bunch of pervs.

The American Culture of 1914
(American Legion Monthly, 1934)

Appearing in a 1934 magazine for American war veterans (who by that year were well into their middle years and very much looking the part) was this curious column recalling the summer of 1914 and all the various goings-on that had taken place in the world and in American popular culture.

Is your name Anderson?