Recent Articles – Page 52 – Old Magazine Articles

Vivien Leigh to Play Scarlet (Photoplay Magazine, 1939)

A short notice from a Hollywood fan magazine announcing that Vivien Leigh (born Vivian Mary Hartley: 1913 – 1967), an actress largely unknown to U.S. audiences, had been cast to play the roll of ‘Scarlet’. Accompanied by two breathtakingly beautiful color images of the actress, this short announcement outlines her genetic makeup, her previous marriage to Leigh Holman, and her thoughts concerning the upcoming roll.

Click here to read magazine articles about D.W. Griffith.

The Duke Went After An Author (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Perhaps one of the unmentioned reasons for America’s revolt against the crown in 1776 was our revulsion of their power to cancel publication of any book of their choosing (there have been exceptions) – primarily books they deem slanderous of The Firm. This certainly was the case in 1937 when the newly minted Duke of Windsor (previously Edward VIII) sought to block all further publication of Coronation Commentary (1937) by Geoffrey Dennis. He succeeded in doing so on grounds of libel – but not before hundreds of copies could be published.

Chappaquiddick Cover-Up (Coronet Magazine, 1970)

1970: One year after Mary Jo Kopechne had died in a car driven by U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy – questions still lingered concerning his questionable behavior after the accident. This article concerns the five female campaign aids who attended the party the night of the accident; they were the last to see Miss Kopechne alive as she entered the senator’s car. These five were nicknamed the Boiler Room Girls by those who worked on Kennedy’s re-election campaign and many people were curious as to why they were as tight-lipped as they were.

‘The Americans Are Here” (Scribner’s Magazine, 1919)

Les Américains Sont Là!

Those were the words on everybody’s lips as the first big detachments of United States troops began to appear in the Paris streets… I think there is a simple politeness in these young warriors from across the sea, whether they come from some of the big cities, New York, Boston, Chicago or from some far-away states on the other side of the Rockies.

New York Exhibit for Le Corbusier (Art Digest, 1946)

A brief art review from 1946 announcing an exhibition of paintings, drawings, photographs, architectural plans and models by the modern architect Le Corbusier (né Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, 1887 – 1965) at the Mezzanine Gallery in Rockefeller Center.

Along with Ozenfant, Le Corbusier invented Purism. The earliest painting in the collection, and the only one of that period (1920), which is familiar to art audiences as part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

President Truman and Civil Rights (Commonweal, 1948)

When President Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights submitted their findings to the White House in December of 1947, the anxious and skeptical editors at COMMONWEAL MAGAZINE eagerly waited their conclusions. Knowing that this Southern president was the only Klansman (1924 membership) to have ever attained such high office, they were doubtful that any good would come of it, and in this column they explain why they felt that way.

Four years later an article was written about the gratitude many African-Americans felt toward President Truman and his stand on civil rights – read it here…

The 1964 Harlem Race Riot (Pageant Magazine, 1964)

James Baldwin remembered other Harlem riots he had witnessed… KEY WORDS: 1964 Harlem Race Riot newspaper article,1964 Harlem Race Riot

An Interview with Dr. George Washington Carver (Ken Magazine, 1938)

A profile of Dr. George Washington Carver (1864 – 1943):

One of the greatest agricultural chemists of our day was born a slave 80 years ago. He has given the world approximately 300 new by-products from the peanut…Today Dr. Carver is the South’s most distinguished scientist. He turned the peanut into a $60,000,000 industry.

I simply go to my laboratory, shut myself in and ask my Creator why He made the peanut. My Creator tells me to pull the peanut apart and examine the constituents. When this is done, I tell Him what I want to create, and He tells me I can make anything that contains the same constituents as a peanut. I go to work and keep working until I get what I want.

‘The Tenth Man” (Pathfinder Magazine, 1939)

This is a light history of the African-American people; weak in some spots, informative in others, it’s greatest value lies in telling the story of Blacks in the Thirties.

Because the colored race comprises almost a 10th of the population of the United States, sociologists sometimes refer to the Negro as ‘the Tenth Man.’ As such, he is little known to the other nine. Yet there are 12,500,000 colored persons in the nation – black, brown and some so white that 10,000 pass over the color line every year to take up life as whites.

Origin of the Term ”Jim Crow” (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

The first three paragraphs of this article explain the 19th Century origins of a moniker that represents the most hideous institution born on American shores. The term in question is Jim Crow – a sobriquet that came into use decades before the American Civil War but was refashioned into a synonym that meant institutional racism. The article goes on to recall one African-American Congressman and his fruitless efforts to clean up Jim Crow.