Recent Articles – Page 63 – Old Magazine Articles

The Slaughter of the Aristocrats
(NY Times, 1915)

This 1915 article goes into great length listing the names of all the assorted European noblemen and plutocrats who fell during the first year and a half of the First World War.

The great world conflict which broke out soon after [the murder of Archduke Ferdinand] has placed the pall of mourning over every third home in the belligerent countries of Europe… The dreadful slaughter has fallen with especial heaviness on the upper and wealthy classes…

The writer, Charles Stolberg, also included the names of the most admired European athletes who gave their lives for king and country.

Eleanor Roosevelt on Japanese-American Internment
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

In this article, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 – 1962) attempted to play (very politically) both sides of the street, implying on the one hand that the creation of the Japanese-American internment camps seemed a reasonable measure in wartime; but the reader doesn’t have to have a degree in psychology to recognize that she believed otherwise.

An Interview with a Kamikaze Pilot
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

With the fall of imperial Japan, YANK correspondent Robert MacMillan was
one of the very first journalists to interview the Japanese Kamikaze pilot Norio Okamoto, which allowed his readers to gain some understanding as
to how the Kamikaze Corps operated:

Okomoto’s story took all the wind -the Divine Wind – out of the Kamikaze sails. Even the interpreter, a Japanese civilian, was surprised. He had worked for radio Tokyo and while he knew a lot of the propaganda stories were ridiculous, he had believed the Kamikaze legend.

Click here to read articles about post-war Japan.

Benny Goodman, The King of Swing, on Park Avenue
(Stage Magazine, 1938)

To mark the momentous occasion of Benny Goodman and his Band performing for the ‘corsage clique’ on Park Avenue in 1938, ‘the King of Swing’ wrote this short essay concerning all his good work and the enjoyment that it brought to the Jitterbuggers of the world:

Swing is violent, at least so they tell me. But I’m willing to bet that Society is going to toss aside its toppers and tippers and really cut loose. They’ll all come slumming and stay for dancing.

Woodrow Wilson on Lincoln
(Collier’s Magazine, 1916)

Here is a paragraph that was pulled from an interview with President Wilson in 1916 in which the bookish president remarked upon the various interesting aspects of President Lincoln:

He was not fit to be president until he was president.

Yves Saint Laurent Takes Over the House of Dior
(Coronet Magazine, 1958)

When Christian Dior died quite suddenly in 1957, the eggheads of the fashion world got their knickers in a twist as they wondered who would serve as the creative force for the great fashion house that he had established just ten years earlier; all eyes turned to his very young assistant, a 21 year old man named Yves Saint Laurent (1936 – 2008).

Click here to read a 1961 article about Jacqueline Kennedy’s influence on American fashion.

Abuses at Sunbeam Prison
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1932)

Abuses were all too common in most Southern penitentiaries up until the Fifties. This article chronicles one prison in Florida and their practice of placing the prisoners in 60-gallon barrels when they stepped out of line.

John Steinbeck of The N.Y. Herald Tribune
(Newsweek Magazine, 1943)

An odor rises from the men, the characteristic odor of an army. It is the smell of of wool and the bitter smell of fatigue and the smell of gun oil and leather. Troops always have this odor. The men lie sprawled, some with their mouths open, but they do not snore. Perhaps they are too tired to snore, but their breathing is an inaudible, pulsing thing.

Click here to read a movie review of The Grapes of Wrath.

The Books Lincoln Read
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1920)

Examine Lincoln’s prose and the fruitage of his reading will appear… The easy quickening of Lincoln’s mind came from books like Aesop’s Fables, Robinson Caruso and Pilgrim’s Progress… To a man who knew intimately so many creatures, both wild and domestic, the fables seemed natural.

The German Peace Delegation Crosses the Lines
(American Legion Monthly, 1938)

During the pre-dawn hours of November 7, 1918 the German peace delegation crossed through to the American sector at a battle-scared Argonne village named Cunel. A former private in the U.S. Fifth Infantry Division, Amico J. Barone, recalled that night and wrote this essay in 1938.

The U.S. Army Assault on November 11, 1918
(The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

This uncredited STARS and STRIPES article dwells on the same topic as the well-researched book by Joseph Persico, Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918 (2003, Random House). For those who are curious about the violent climax of the war, this two page article will help you to understand which A.E.F. units were still attacking along what front at 10:59 a.m. on November 11, 1918.

Then a quite startling thing occurred. The skyline of the crest ahead of them grew suddenly populous with dancing soldiers… The Germans came with outstretched hands, ear-to-ear grins and souvenirs to swap for cigarettes.

‘Our Special Reporter at the Armistice Table”
(The B.E.F. Times, 1918)

From our humor department came this submission that first appeared in a British Army Trench magazine.

With the Brazilians in Italy
(Newsweek & Yank Magazines, 1944)

The attached YANK MAGAZINE article was written from the perspective of the American G.I.; it lays out a few peculiar facts about life in the World War Two Brazilian Army:

Every type of South American racial strain is represented. This gives a squad the appearance of a capsule League of Nations, except that there are no blonds.

Read about the day Brazil declared war on Nazi Germany…

Mexico preferred not to participate in the war, but they did kick all the Fascist spies out of their country, click here to read about it…

The Tragedy of Eugene O’Neill
(Look Magazine, 1959)

In 1946, a literary statistician ascertained that, in the world of O’Neill plays, there had been 12 murders, eight suicides, 22 other deaths and seven cases of insanity

To read the attached biographical essay is to understand that O’Neill did not become America’s premiere tragedian by simply reading about the disasters in the lives of others; his entire life was a tragedy. In his wake were alcoholic, suicidal children and numerous unloved wives.

S/Sgt. Henry E. Erwin Off the Coast of Japan
(Collier’s Magazine, 1945)

War correspondents see and hear about many courageous acts that serve as a testimony to the level of personal commitment held high by many (but not all) of the American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who served in the Second World War, and when I read the opening paragraphs about this hero, I knew it was going to be unique:

His name is Staff Sergeant Henry E. Erwin of Bessemer, Alabama. He was the radio operator on a B-29, and what he did, we think, was the bravest thing we ever heard of.

‘Soldier Man Blues”
(Literary Digest, 1927)

This article is essentially a collection of lyrics from an assortment of songs sung by the Black Doughboys who were charged with the task of loading and unloading trucks far behind the front line trenches during the First World War. It was written in 1927 to serve as a review for Singing Soldiers by John J. Niles, who compiled the labor songs while stationed in France as a fighter pilot:

All dese colored soldiers comin’ over to France

All dese soldiers an’ me

Goin’ to help de Whites make de Kaiser dance

All dese soldiers an’ me…

The War-Babies of Occupied Japan
(People Today Magazine, 1954)

There was one thing the Japanese hated more than being defeated and occupied by the Gai-jin (the Japanese slur for Whites) and that was when their daughters, sisters and nieces began bedding their tormentors and baring their young. Tremendous shame was brought on these women, and their families. This article is about the Amerasian babies who were isolated in a special orphanage designed just for them.

How did all of this come to pass? Click here to find out…

The Making of SNOW WHITE and the SEVEN DWARFS
(Photoplay Magazine, 1938)

The attached article is essentially a behind the scenes look at the making of Walt Disney’s 1938 triumph Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs:

• He employed 569 people who worked all day and frequently all night to finish it.

•The film took three and half years to make and cost $1,500,000.00.

•He concocted 1500 different paints to give it unmatched color.

•He spent $70,000.00 developing a brand new camera to give it depth.

•He threw away four times the drawings he made and the film he shot.

•He made over 2,000,000 separate drawings…

Although Disney’s wife, Lilian, was said to have remarked, No one’s ever gonna pay a dime to see a dwarf picture, the movie generated more box office receipts than any other film in 1938.