Recent Articles – Page 94 – Old Magazine Articles

In Defense of Literary Rebels
(Vanity Fair, 1920)

Literary critic Edmund Wilson (1895 – 1972) was a big part of the intellectual world that existed in New York throughout much of the Twenties through the Fifties. His reviews could be found in a number of magazines such as VANITY FAIR, THE DIAL and THE NEW REPUBLIC. Wilson is remembered for championing many of the younger poets that we still read to this day and in this review, Bunny Wilson celebrated the new poetic form that the modern era had created: free verse. Good words can be read on behalf of the poetry of Carl Sandburg and Amy Lowell.

French Women and American Soldiers
(The Spiker, 1919)

At the end of the First World War, the young women of France were asked the question:

Who would you choose for a husband, a Frenchman or an American? And what are the qualities and faults which justify your preference?

Some of the answers were pretty funny (especially the responses made by the irate Frenchmen returning from the Front). After all the votes were tallied, it was discovered that, regardless of their gold teeth, big tortoise shell glasses and shaved faces, the Doughboys were able to charm as much as a quarter of the women asked (which was a good deal better than they thought they would do) Some women, however, were not very impressed.

Click here to read an article about social diseases within the A.E.F..

Click here if would like to read about British Women and American G.I.s during the Second World War…

Jane Fonda
(Pageant Magazine, 1960)

When this article went to press in 1960, Jane Fonda (b. 1937) was all of 22.
She had recently dropped out of Vassar to pursue modeling in Manhattan (unlike most college drop-out who quit campus to pursue modeling, Fonda’s smiling mug was placed on two VOGUE covers that year) and to study method acting with Lee Strasberg (1901 – 1982). She had her first taste of Broadway in a short-lived production titled There was a Little Girl and had not, as yet, taken up her interest in totalitarian communism.

Click here to read about Henry Fonda.

Los Angeles Nisei at Santa Anita Racetrack
(Rob Wagner’s Script, 1942)

Attached is a eye-witness account of the Los Angeles Issie and Nisei populations after having been removed from their homes and detained at Santa Anita racetrack prior to their transfer and subsequent incarceration at Manzanar, California.

There are more than 6,000 Japanese housed in the stables which once accommodated 2,000 horses…Each stall has had a room built on in front with doors and windows and the floors have been covered with a layer of asphaltum which seems to have killed the odors.

This article, laced throughout with subtle undertones of condemnation, was written by a Hollywood screenwriter named Alfred Cohn (1880 – 1951) who is largely remembered today for having written the adaptation for the Al Jolson movie The Jazz Singer (1929).

Television: God’s Gift To Politicians
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1951)

Placing a teleprompter or cue cards below a camera lens seems like old-hat to us – but our grandparents thought that it rendered an amazing affect for televised addresses:

The new technique for speeches on TV – reading from larlge cards with lettering two inches high placed just under the camera lens – makes it possible for the speaker to look directly into the camera lens, giving the appearance of talking directly to the viewer.

A Review of Shoulder Arms
(Life Magazine, 1922)

Attached you will be able to print the film review for Charlie Chaplin‘s movie, Shoulder Arms (1918). Printed in a popular humor magazine from the time, the flick (which had been re-released) was hailed by this one critic as the greatest comedy in movie history.

The Klan as a National Problem
(The Literary Digest, 1922)

A two page article reporting on the growth of the KKK throughout the United States in the early Twenties, it’s general rise in popularity and the resolve of elected officials at both the state and Federal levels to contain the Invisible Empire.

Interesting comments can be read by a reformed Klansman named H.P. Fry, who authored a cautionary memoir titled, The Modern Ku Klux Klan.

Interview with a Home Front War Worker
(Yank Magazine, 1944)

It would seem that a good many World War II servicemen believed that they were missing out on all that home front glamour that had kicked-in as a result of the full-employment and booming economic prosperity of wartime America; and so Yank correspondent Al Hine was quickly dispatched to Turtle Creek, Pa. to pen this small article about Frank Hanly, an average guy in a average war plant. He works hard, rests and plays like we used to and he isn’t getting rich.

The truth is this army reporter was instructed to report on the blander side of home front living – the facts were far brighter; there was money to be made and fun to be had and you can click here to read about it…

Congress Adresses the Problem of the Hip-Flask
(Literary Digest, 1927)

Seven years after wine and spirits were banished from the land, the government in Washington felt pressured to discipline all those restaurateurs who failed to defenestrate their patrons who brought illicit drink into their establishments. This is an article about how an attempt was made to get restaurant owners to police their customers.

The Costliness of Mesopotamia
(Literary Digest, 1922)

The attached article from LITERARY DIGEST will give you a clear understanding of all that Britain went through in order to govern Iraq in the early Twenties; Britain’s treaties with the Turkish and Angoran Governments in regards to the oil-rich region of Mosul, the selection of an Arab King and the suppression of various Iraqi revolts.

The Mesopotamian Adventure required a tremendous amount of treasure and yielded very little excitement for either party:

At the end of the war we found Iraq upon our hands, and our Government agreed to accept a mandate for the administration for this inhospitable territory.

Click here to see a Punch Magazine cartoon about the British adventure in Iraq.

The State of Radio In 1937 America
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Girding the United States today are two major national radio chains and one smaller chain. They are the National Broadcasting Company, the Columbia Broadcasting Company and the Mutual Broadcasting System, NBC, with its combined Red and Blue networks, has about 110 stations. CBS on a single network has 101. Mutual has 45 and will add a new section of 10 more next month.

The State of Radio In 1937 America
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

International Movie Star – Mickey Mouse
(Photoplay Magazine, 1930)

Although Euro Disney would not be opening until 1990, this article by Hollywood costume designer Howard Greer implied that it would have done quite well had they opened eighty-six years earlier:

You know everyone in Hollywood? they asked. I blushed modestly and admitted that I did.

Don’t you want to know about the stars? I went on.Shall I tell you about Garbo?

‘A smile passed across their faces.’
‘Garbo? Yes, we like her. But the star we ‘d love to know everything about is – Mickey Mouse!’

Russian Composers Preferred by Rimsky-Korsakov
(Review of Reviews, 1912)

For those of you looking for some dish in the music history department, this article recounts a conversation between Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 – 1908) and Leo Tolstoy (1828 – 1910) as to which Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov preferred the best: Anton Rubinstein or Peter Tschaikovsky. Opinions flew in all directions and many more names were dropped before the conversation came to a close…

Library of Congress Salutes the Dime Novel
(Literary Digest, 1937)

In 1937 the Rare Book Department at the Library of Congress launched a surprising exhibit of what they called, ephemeral literature – these works were popularly known as Dime Novels and they were not simply the father of the modern comic book but also the father of one other form of popular literature:

The roots of the American historical novel are sunk in the so-called dime novel – the first effort at popular fiction. It began with the stories based on the Revolutionary War, then historical fiction of incidents in the War of 1812, the Mexican War and the struggle for Cuban independence, which stated about that period.

E.E. Cummings on T.S. Eliot
(The Dial Magazine, 1920)

A review of T.S. Eliot‘s (1888 – 1965) second collection, Poems (1919), as reviewed by E.E. Cummings (1894 – 1962) in the well respected magazine of the arts, THE DIAL. It was in this volume that Eliot’s well remembered series of quatrains first appeared: Sweeney Among the Nightingales, Sweeney Erect The Hippopotamus and Mr. Eliot’s Sunday Morning Service.

Cummings at that time was living in Paris and writing his first book, The Enormous Room, which would be published in 1922. The review of that work can be read here.

Captain Eddy Rickenbacker: Fighter Pilot
(The Literary Digest, 1919)

This is a wonderful read in which the American World War One fighter pilot Eddie Rickenbacker (1890 – 1973), recounted his experiences in France. Arriving rather late in the game (March, 1918), he quickly racked up 26 kills, a Croix de Guerre, a Distinguished Service Cross, the Legion d’Honeur and the Congressional Medal of Honor (which would not be approved and awarded to him until 1930). He was the top Ace in the American Air Service. In his later life, he would go on to become one of the founders of Continental Airlines.

I learned pretty fast. Long practice in driving a racing-car at a hundred miles an hour or so gives first-class training in control and judging distances at high speed…

In his later life, Rickenbacker would go on to become one of the founders of Continental Airlines.

Click here to read an article about the development of aerial reconnaissance during W.W. I.

Read what the U.S. Army psychologists had to say about courage.

C.R.W. Nevinson: Futurist on the Front
(The Great War, 1918)

Attached you will find a segment from a longer article reviewing the W.W. I paintings of C.R.W. Nevinson (1889 – 1946). Trained by the Italian Futurist Severini, Nevinson made some of the most modern images of all the World War One artists:

C.R.W. Nevinson with unerring eye penetrated to the man behind the khaki and deliberately unveiled the son of toil. The hands of the foremost figures may be exaggerated (but probably not), and in any case they emphasize the essential truth that these men belong to the horny-handed class. They may not be beautiful, but they are strong…

Click here if you would like to read a 1922 article about C.R.W. Nevinson.