Recent Articles – Page 105 – Old Magazine Articles

‘Dark December”
(The Commonweal, 1947)

This is the 1947 review of Robert Merrian’s history on the Battle of the Bulge, Dark December; the reviewer, T.E. Cassidy, had served as a U.S. Army intelligence officer in the Ardennes:

Merriam is at his best analyzing the actual confusion that was rampant from the very beginning of the German drive on December 16th. I know his handling is expert here, for I was in the midst of the chaos, and can vividly recall, for example, the blank stares I met at various headquarters when I would ask what road net was clear, and to what point. It was really no one’s fault, after the first day or two. People simply did not know what was happening. And it was days and days before there was any concerted agreement among the different levels as to just what was going on.

‘Dark December”
(The Commonweal, 1947)

This is the 1947 review of Robert Merrian’s history on the Battle of the Bulge, Dark December; the reviewer, T.E. Cassidy, had served as a U.S. Army intelligence officer in the Ardennes:

The Beau
(Gentry Magazine, 1956)

Widely remembered as the best dressed man of the Nineteenth Century, Beau Brummell, (né George Bryan Brummell 1778 – 1840), set the standard for male sartorial splendor and as a result, his name
liveth ever more.

The attached men’s fashion article was written at a time when American leisure wear was going through it’s birth pangs and slovenly attire was on the rise all over the fruited plain; it was thoroughly appropriate for the editors of GENTRY MAGAZINE to print this article which not only examined the clothing philosophy of the Beau but also paid heed as to which actors portrayed him on screen (oddly, there was no mention made whatever as to who the various costume designers were).

He dressed simply, without ornamentation. What was it then that set him apart so ostentatiously from the crowd? What made him the best dressed man of the century? The answer lies not, as history has decided, in his clothes. It lay entirely in the way he wore them.

A further study of Dandies can be found here…

Remembering the Golden Age of the Dandy
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1920)

This is a fun read covering the all too short reign of the dandy. It touches upon those who were the great practitioners of the art (Beau Brummell, Sir Phillip Dormer Chesterfield, Beau Nash, Sir Robert Fielding, Count Alfred d’Orsay) and those who came later, but deserving of honorable mention (King Alphonso XIII and Oscar Wilde), as well as the wannabe bucks who wished they were dandies but simply came away well-tailored (George IV and Edward VII).

An article about Beau Brummell can be read HERE

The 1952 Election and the War in Korea
(Quick Magazine, 1952)

By the time November of 1952 rolled around the Korean War was in stalemate; this made the 1952 election one that was about progress as the American voters looked for a candidate who could make sound decisions and offer a leadership that would take the country (and the war) in a better direction. Neither candidate was looking for a victory in Korea, both campaigned on finding a peace. When President Truman taunted Eisenhower to come forward with any plan he had for peace in Korea it resulted in the retired general standing before the microphones and uttering pensively: I will go to Korea. The electorate was at once reminded as to how trusted he had been in the past and Eisenhower was elected, carrying 41 states and receiving nearly 58 percent of the popular vote.

More on the 1952 presidential election can be read here…

Father and Son Discord: Wilhelm II and the Crown Prince
(Current Literature, 1912)

Relations between Emperor William (Kaiser Wilhelm II, 1859-1941)and his son and heir, the German Crown Prince (Wilhelm III, 1882-1951), have now become so strained as to be a source of embarrassment to the whole court of Berlin. Vienna, a sort of clearing house for gossip of this sort, is filled with sensational stories…

Click here to read what the Kaiser thought of Adolf Hitler.

The Water-Colors of John Marin
(VanityFair, 1922)

When Fifth Avenue’s Montross Gallery launched an exhibit featuring over one hundred creations by the American painter John Marin (1870 – 1953) in the winter of 1922, art voyager and all-around well-respected critic Paul Rosenfeld (1890 – 1946) was present, and very shortly put pen to paper in order to heap many bon-mots upon the man and his work:

He applies his wash with the directness of impulse that is supposed to be discoverable only in the work of small children. One racks one’s brain for memory of a water-color painter who reveals in every stroke of his brush a more uninhibited urge outward.

The Art of the Insane Looks Like German Expressionism
(Current Opinion, 1921)

The attached article is about a 1921 exhibition displaying the art of the mentally ill; it was organized under the direction of the psychiatric department of Heidelberg University. The exhibition made quite an impact on a number of modernists at the time and it is said that a few of the pieces from the show were later displayed in the 1938 Degenerate Art exhibit that the Nazis launched in an effort to discredit modernism.

Wet vs. Dry
(Vanity Fair, 1918)

If you are looking for a serious report concerning the political battles fought in Congress regarding Prohibition (1919 – 1933), you can keep looking. The attached essay is a humorous parody of that dispute between the Drys and Wets as it existed just months before the ‘Noble Experiment’ began in earnest. By November of 1918, the American newspaper readers had simply overdosed on the redundant writings of assorted war correspondents – and so, with a bit of whimsy, the VANITY FAIR writer George S. Chappell sat down to write about the political war between these two groups using the same journalistic affectations everyone was so heartily sick of. You will also find a mock military map depicting the faux topography in dispute.

Two Important Rivers in the Cold War Struggle
(Collier’s Magazine, 1952)

Two continents apart, the Yalu and the Rhine wind down to the sea. But in the continuing struggle of freedom against Communism, they share the common roll of destiny.

Of the two rivers, perhaps the Yalu is of more immediate concern, for behind its 500 miles of coursing waters stand the bulk of the Red forces under Red China chief Mao Tse-tung… Few people had heard of the Yalu until the Korean War began. But it gained world-wide prominence in November, 1950, when 200,000 Chinese Reds came pouring across its bridges to aid the North Koreans as they retreated before UN troops…

The Healthiest American Men and the Draft of 1917
(U.S. Gov. 1931)

Attached is a map of the 48 states that will show you which regions of the country produced the greatest number of healthy men who passed their Selective Service physical examinations. You will also learn which parts of the nation provided men who could not pass this examination.

The Popularly-Elected Senate
(American Legion Weekly, 1920)

In 1913 a very strong, anti-Federalist step was taken to amend the Constitution and alter the manner in which U.S. Senators were to be selected and replaced in the event of vacancies. The 17th Amendment was passed: it guaranteed that senators would no longer be elected from within the legislative bodies of the state governments, but would be elected directly by the citizens of their respective states, just as the representatives are. Historian Everett Kimball pointed out in this article how the 17th Amendment altered the very nature of the U.S. Senate.

John Wayne
(Quick Magazine, 1949)

The attached three page article about John Wayne appeared at the very doorstep of the Fifties – the decade that was uniquely hisown. The uncredited Hollywood journalist who wrote this column was doing so in order to announce to the reading public that Wayne was coming remarkably close to being the top box office attraction:

Wayne reached this eminence by turning out film after film for 18 years. Working with a steady, un-nervous strength for four studios: Republic, RKO, Argosy and Warner Brothers. – he shifts back and forth between Westerns, sea-epics and war pictures. With each movie he makes (most of them re-hashes of of standard action-film plots, but a few of them film classics), his fans grow.

Second Oscar for Tom and Jerry
(The Lion’s Roar, 1946)

All told, the animated cartoon series Tom and Jerry would be awarded seven (7) Academy Awards before Oscar’s attention turned elsewhere.

This 1946 article sings the praises of Fred Quimby (1886 – 1965), the animation producer who ran the shop at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio between the years 1937 and 1954:

Doff the cap to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s Fred Quimby, producer of Tom and Jerry’, the only cartoon stars to have copped the coveted Oscar for two consecutive years. Even the distinguished Donald Duck has only been Oscarized once.

‘Tom and Jerry‘ reflect in broad comedy the faults and foibles of human beings, even as you and I. Here we have a thoroughly egotistical cat and a very shrewd mouse… a cartoon representation of the eternal conflict between HERO and VILLAIN. Toma always hopes to outwit Jerry who symbolizes the underdogs of the world.

This short notice appeared in The Lion’s Roar, which was the monthly publicity rag for M.G.M. Studio.

VJ-Day in Rome
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

A smattering of opinions on the subject of VJ Day (they all seemed to have been in favor of it) were offered up by a collection of Rome-based American soldiers composed of assorted hues and ranks.

Alfonso XIII and his Typewriter
(Popular Mechanics, 1914)

Alfonso XIII of Spain (1886 – 1941) is remembered as a pretty level-headed guy, but non the less, it was news items like this one that made Karl Marx first dip his nib in the inkwell…

Some British Opinions About the First Talking Movies
(Literary Digest, 1929)

Attached are excerpts from a few 1929 British newspapers that condemned all efforts made in Hollywood to produce talking pictures; one snide reviewer went so far as to insist that rather than calling the films talkies, they should be referred to as dummies:

The majority of films in the future will be made stupidly for stupid people, just has been the case with the silent movies for twenty years…

•Read About the First Talkie Movie Star•

The First Lady’s Story
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

A column from a 1937 issue of PATHFINDER MAGAZINE included these two seemingly random tales from the life of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The brief remembrance on the second page is a bitter-sweet story about young Eleanor and her mother’s vision of her as a hopelessly plain-looking girl.

Read a 1951 profile of a future First Lady: the young Nancy Reagan.