Recent Articles – Page 58 – Old Magazine Articles

Spring Fashions
(Rob Wagner’s Script Magazine, 1935)

Paulette, the fashion critic for the long-defunct Beverly Hills society rag, Rob Wagner’s Script, joyfully reported that color had at long-last come to liven-up the drab wardrobe for the Great American male:

The myriads of color, diversity of design and gamut of styles displayed in men’s shops are revolutionary…The new page in fashion history began when daring members of the nations’ social elite first braved formal dinners in suits showing decided sheens of blue and red.

‘Art Finds A Patron”
(Our Times, 1936)

[As the 19th Century was coming to an end] salesmanship evolved a technique more refined than pulpit or platform oratory; advertising became more subtle in method, more concrete in results than any form of proselyting argument. The art which Milton put into selecting words which should make man think about God was excelled by the care with which American writers of advertisements assembled words designed to persuade man to consume more chewing gum. The man, or advertising agency, who wrote an effective selling slogan, such as ‘It Floats’, received far greater compensation than Milton for Paradise Lost.

Why Only Half Our Soldiers Fire Their Rifles
(Collier’s Magazine, 1952)

In every engagement with the enemy during the Second World War, only 12 to 25 percent of American riflemen ever fired their weapons. This was an enormous concern for the brass hats in the Pentagon and they got right to work in order to remedy the problem. Five years later, when the Korean War rolled around, they found that the situation was somewhat improved: 50% of the soldiers were now able to return fire. This article tells the story of U.S. Army General S.L.A. Marshall (1900 – 1977) and his research in addressing this issue. A good read.

The Dos and Don’t in Men’s Suiting of the Forties
(Pic Magazine, 1945)

This article appeared in an issue Click Magazine that was deliberately edited to aid those young men who had been wearing uniforms for the past few years and, subsequently, had no knowledge whatever of tailoring or of fabric that was not government issued. It consists of a handy guide for the aspiring dandy showing just how a gentleman’s suit should fit if it is to be properly worn.

Read an article about the history of Brooks Brothers

Preparing for War with Motorcycles
(Literary Digest, 1937)

A short news piece from The Literary Digest reported on an investment that the Nazi forces were making to insure a lightening-fast attack:

Motorcycles, a cool million of them, have become a German army specialty. The new Wehrmacht specializes in them. (it knows it will be short of horses; as when in March, 1918, the Teuton cavalry arm was virtually abolished, west front and east.) The British and French have only half a million machines apiece.

Read about the mechanics of W.W. II German motorcycles…

Young Frank Sinatra
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

Nobody has been able to figure out to anyone’s satisfaction why Sinatra has the effect he has on his Bobby Sox fans. One of his secretaries, a cute dish whose husband is serving overseas, said: ‘The doctors say it’s just because he’s got a very sexy voice, but I’ve been with him a year now and his voice doesn’t do a thing to me’.

Maybe it’s the war.

One of the First Katherine Hepburn Interviews
(Collier’s Magazine, 1933)

It was 1933 interviews like this one that made the studio executives at RKO go absolutely bonkers; what were they to do with Katharine Hepburn (1907 – 2003)? She simply refused to take all matters Hollywood with any degree of seriousness; although she hadn’t been a movie actress for very long at all, Katherine Hepburn was downright impious and goofy when reporter’s questions were put to her:

‘Is it true that you have three children?’ asked the interviewer.

‘I think it’s six,’ she answered.

Such responses served only to frustrate the members of the fourth estate to such a high degree and it seemed only natural that the fan magazine journalists would want to have the final word as to who Katherine Hepburn really was…

-But the Hollywood press did like her future co-star Carry Grant, click here to read it.

Racism in the U.S. Navy 1941 – 1945
(Coronet Magazine, 1960)

A single page report on the instituted racist policies practiced by the U.S. Navy throughout the course of the Second World War.

Click here the institutional racist policies of the W.W. I American Army.

The Escaped P.O.W.s That The F.B.I. Never Found
(Collier’s Magazine, 1953)

Unlike Reinhold Pabel, the W.W. II German P.O.W. whose story is told in the article posted above, the five escapees in this article remained at large long after the war ended. Five minutes researching their names on the internet revealed that every single one of them remained in the U.S. where they held jobs, paid taxes and raised families well into their golden years.

The Faith of the Deaf
(Coronet Magazine, 1971)

This is an article about St. Matthew Luthern Church for the Deaf and the good work of Reverend Daniel Hodgson.

Not a sound can be heard by most of the congregation, but that doesn’t stop them from worshiping in a full church service – hymns included.

Click here to see a directory of churches for the deaf.

‘Porgy & Bess”
(Stage Magazine, 1935)

Music critic and scholar Isaac Goldberg (1887 – 1938) reviewed the opening performance of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess for the editors of STAGE MAGAZINE:

Why the Jew of the North should, in time, take up the song of the Southern Negro and fuse into a typically American product is an involved question. Perhaps, underneath the jazz rhythms and the general unconventionality of musical process lies the common history of an oppressed minority, and an ultimately Oriental origin. In any case, the human focus of this particular type of musical Americanism has been, from the very first notes, George Gershwin.

Dancer Mia Slavenska
(Collier’s Magazine, 1945)

Here is a 1945 article about the Croatian-born American ballerina Mia Slavenska (1916 – 2002) and her popularity. The article divides its column space between telling us about the dancer and providing a brief history of ballet – and how it was once joined at the hip with opera.

One Thousand Nasty Remarks About Silent Films
(The English Review, 1922)

A much admired theatrical set designer was the author of this column – he was devoted to his craft and believed deeply that movies could only lead society to the lowest place:

The Drama in the Cinema is held to be made ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people’ It is really made by the new school of the same old tyrants, to enslave the mind of the people.

The Films of the U.S. Army Signal Corps
(Click Magazine, 1943)

An article from Click Magazine designed for civilian consumption concerning the U.S. Signal Corps and their efforts to film and photograph as much of the war as was possible in order that the brass hats far off to the rear could sit comfortably and understand what was needed. The article is illustrated with six war photographs and the captions explaining what information was gleaned from each:

Every detail of these films is scrupulously studied by a group of experts, officers and engineers representing the Army Ground Force, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Army Air Corps, the Signal Corps the Armored Forces, the Quartermaster Corps and other military units. Naturally, these services are interested in different sections of every film. To facilitate their studies, a device known as the Multiple Film Selector is used.

The Signal Corps Movies of World War I were intended for different uses…

A History of Anti-Lynching Legislation
(Congressional Digest, 1922)

Here is a very brief study of U.S. congressional anti-lynching legislation spanning the years from 1901 through 1922.

Click here for the Ku Klux Klan Archive.

The First Celebrity Hairdresser
(Coronet Magazine, 1955)

This article tells the story of a certain Antoni Cierplikowski – better known as Antoine of Paris (1884 – 1976). He was the premiere hairdresser throughout much of the last century and his illustrious client list included many names that you would recognize. Yet, to simply write the man off as a celebrity hairstylist is to ignore his myriad innovations:

• Antoine was the creator of the Bob.

• He created the Perm.

• He was the first to tint gray hair to blue.

• He was the first to apply a lacquer to hair as a fixative.

• Antoine was the first to tinge isolated elements within a hairdo blond as a streaked highlight.

George Orwell
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1950)

No one perhaps has done as much as the British writer who calls himself George Orwell to persuade former fellow-travelers that their ways lie in some direction other than the Stalinist party line.

So begin the first two paragraphs of this book review that are devoted to the anti-totalitarian elements that animated the creative side of the writer George Orwell (born Eric Arthur Blair: 1903 – 1950). The novel that is reviewed herein, Coming Up for Air, was originally published in 1939 and was reviewed by Pathfinder Magazine to mark the occasion of the book’s first American printing in 1950.

‘Why I Live In Los Angeles”
(Pageant Magazine, 1950)

An article written at a time when L.A. was a very different city – with a population of merely ten million, the city’s detractors often called it Iowa by the sea; today they compare it to the Balkans:

The point is that in [1950] Los Angeles the individual leads his own life and plays his own games rather than lose himself vicariously in the capers of professionals.

Click here to read about the San Fernando Valley.