Aerial Gunnery School (Click Magazine, 1943)World War II terms such as tail gunner, waist gunner and belly gunner are no longer a part of our vocabulary; they are uttered, if at all, about as often as the word blacksmith. However, since you found this website, there is a good chance that you use these terms more often than most - which means you'll appreciate the attached color photo-essay from 1943 illustrating how vital W.W. II Allied aerial gunners were in winning the air war over Germany and Japan.
Goodbye to the Pompadour (Click Magazine, 1944)A late-breaking news report from the fashion editors at Click Magazine announced that the pompadour hairstyle has been given the brush-off: grab your combs, girls, because parts are back in style... During the Second World War, hair dye was not simply used by women;click here to read about the men who needed it. Rampant Inflation in Post-War Germany (Click Magazine, 1944)Author and radio commentator Emil Ludwig (1881 1948) recalled the economic catastrophe that devastated post-World War I Germany as a result of their inflated currency:
"Inflation in Germany really started on the first day of the war in 1914 when the government voted a credit of five billion marks. This was not a loan...I saw the mark, the German monetary unit corresponding to the British shilling or the American quarter, tumble down and down until you paid as much for a loaf of bread as you would have paid for a limousine before inflation started." Ezra Pound of Indiana (Click Magazine, 1942)Click Magazine's illustrated article about the sedition of American poet Ezra Pound is peppered throughout with assorted quotes that clearly indicate the man's guilt. The reporter, David Brown, went to some length in explaining what an odd life decision this was for a poet with such a celebrated past - a decisions that ultimately lead to his conviction in Federal Court, followed by his twelve year incarceration in a mad house.
In an effort to understand Pound's thinking, we have included excerpts from a Wall Street Journal book review of a 2016 Pound biography that presents the poets queer rationale.
Paulette Goddard in Uniform (Click Magazine, 1942)Paulette Goddard (1910 1990) is pictured in color wearing an all-purpose uniform designed by the Hollywood stylist Irene (Irene Lentz, 1900 - 1962). The actress was a sporadic volunteer, having appeared in four films throughout 1942. Women Worked the Railroads (Click Magazine, 1943)"Nearly 100,000 women, from messengers aged 16 to seasoned railroaders of 55 to 65, are keeping America's wartime trains rolling. So well do they handle their jobs that the railroad companies, once opposed to hiring any women, are adding others as fast as they can get them..."
Soprano Dorothy Kirsten (Click Magazine, 1943)Illustrated with a black and white photograph of the 33 year-old soprano was this small notice announcing the discovery of Dorthy Kirsten (1910 - 1992) of Montclair, New Jersey. Kirsten went on to great heights, performing with the Metropolitan Opera for the next thirty years, she would also enjoy some popularity singing duets on the radio with Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Nelson Eddy, and Perry Como. Our Worst Enemy: The U-Boat (Click Magazine, 1943)Attached herein are a few "authentic sketches [that] show the nerve center of a captured Nazi sub." accompanied by a few informative paragraphs about the beast:"
"Every inch of a U-boats space, every one of its 45 men, is utilized to the maximum. Each serves the sub's principal weapon, the torpedoes which speed toward an objective at 45 knots. New models have one or two guns of 3.5-inch caliber or more which are effective against unarmored ships at ranges up to five miles." The Tin Can (Click Magazine, 1945)When this small piece was published there was a lot of talk concerning the blessings of the tin can. Recycling was in its infancy on the home fronts during the Second World War and tin played a big part for both the military (you can read about that here) and civilly (the home preservation of fruits and vegetables). This short article will tell you more about this helpful invention that aided in the allied victory.
''Loyal Japanese Fight for the U.S.A.'' (Click Magazine, 1943)This photo essay from Click Magazine consists of six black and white images illustrating the Nisei officers and GIs toiling under the merciless sun at Camp Shelby, Mississippi prior to being shipped out for combat duty in Italy. The accompanying paragraph sums up quite nicely their devotion to the United States, declaring that for these Japanese-Americans, "democracy outweighs blood ties", yet says not a word about the internment camps.
CLICK HERE to read about the beautiful "Blonde Battalions" who spied for the Nazis...
Rogers & Hammerstein Go West (Click Magazine, 1943) PM: the Evening Tabloid (Click Magazine, 1940)PM (1940 - 1948) was a left-leaning, New York-based evening paper that enjoyed some notoriety across the fruited plane on account of its founding editor, Ralph Ingersoll (1900 - 1985), who liked to believe that his steady mission was to create "A tabloid for literates":
Contributors included Theodor Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss), I. F. Stone, Ad Reinhardt, J.T. Winterich, Leane Zug‐Smith, Louis Kronenberger and Ben Hecht; the photographs of Margaret Bourke‐White and Arthur Felig (aka Weegee) appeared regularly. Occasional contributors included Erskine Caldwell, Myril Axlerod, McGeorge Bundy, Saul K. Padover, Heywood Broun, James Thurber, Dorothy Parker, Ernest Hemingway, Eugene Lyons, Earl Conrad; Ben Stolberg, Malcolm Cowley.
Preferring to rely more on subscribers than advertisers, PM only lasted eight years. The Mettle of Americans (Click Magazine, 1944)Following his tour of the war fronts, U.S. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (1902 1985) put pen to paper in an attempt to express his admiration for the brave and selfless acts that Americans were performing all over the globe:
If asked to say what impressed me on my recent trip to the war theater, my answer would be: the heroic qualities displayed by our American boys. My most lasting impressions were gained in the field and in the hospitals around the globe. It is there that one sees the kind of boy America produces."
Additional praise for the American fighting man can be read here...
The Absent Teachers (Click Magazine, 1944)This 1944 article by the U.S. Commissioner of Education, John W. Studebaker (1887 1989), reported on the impact that W.W. II was having on the American educational system. Studebaker pointed out that during the course of the national emergency, as many as 115,000 teachers had left the nation's classrooms in order to help the war effort in one form or another.
Click here to read about child labor exploitation during the Second World War...
Princess Elizabeth Comes of Age (Click Magazine, 1944)The attached article was about the Spring of 1944 and why it was such an exciting season for Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary of England (b. 1926): the twenty-first of April marked her eighteenth birthday and her country was entering the last year of their bloodiest war, while the princess herself held two positions that she took quite seriously: Patrol Leader of the Buckingham Palace Girlguides, as well as Colonel-in-Chief of the Grenadier Guards. There were also times when she was required to join her father when he was in conference with his ministers.
Also addressed in these pages was the royal concern as to who was suitable to be her mate; a list of names was provided. 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... Surfing: The New Thing (Click Magazine, 1941)When you examine the 14 images in the attached article about California surfing in the Forties you're quite likely to come away believing that the stale surfing comedy Beach Blanket Bingo was actually intended to be an anthropological documentary depicting a long lost Anglo-Saxon culture. Minus the bikinis, Frankie and Annette the pictures seem like production stills from the MGM archive; long boards do indeed rule, silly hats are evident and you might be surprised to see that bongo-drums were indeed pounded at the prerequisite evening bonfire, as well.
Click here to read Dr. Jung's thoughts on the collective guilt of the German people.
Watch a 1930s Newsreel Clip of Californai Surfers A 1940s Tour of Manhattan (Click Magazine, 1940)A black and white photo-essay of a New York that is gone with the wind, written in that wonderfully irreverent slang-heavy patois so reminiscent of the movies of that era. We posted this piece to please that New York archivist in all of you: you will see images of the watering holes preferred by the high and the low, the museums, Fifth Ave., Harlem, and the Fulton Fish Market.
Click here to see another 1930s photo-essay... WAAC Truck Drivers (Click Magazine, 1943)A Click Magazine photo-essay about the hard-charging WAACS of the Motor Transport School in glamorous Daytona Beach, Florida. Trained to operate and maintain two-ton trucks, the American women of the WAACs were mobilized to run the vast convoy system within the U.S. in order to free-up their male counterparts for more dangerous work in hostile regions.
Click here to read about the most famous woman truck driver in all of World War II...
*Watch a 1940s Newsreel Film About the WACs of World War Two* Nose-Bobbing (Click Magazine, 1938)In the parlance of today it is politely called Rhinoplasty but back in the day, the verb "bob" was in use - which meant "to cut short" and no matter what you call the procedure, you'll see that the gent pictured in this photo-essay needed a nose-job PRONTO! Six Color Photos of 1940 Manhattan (Click Magazine, 1940)If you've been wandering the internet hoping to get some idea what the fair isle of Manhattan looked like on 1940s color film, then your search is over (for a little while). These color images first appeared in a 1940 issue of Click Magazine and you will get a glimpse of the Bowery, Broadway, and Fifth Avenue -there are also two color pictures of New York at night for all of you wanted to see what the door man at El Morocco wore or the club-crawlers in Harlem. *Watch This Color Film Footage of 1940s New York* American Nazis (Click Magazine, 1938)As you can see by glancing at some of the other articles on this page, the Italians and Germans were not the only nations to cultivate a taste for fascism; a franchise office was opened in the United States in the mid-Thirties. This article is essentially a photo-essay consisting of twenty-six images and a brief explanation regarding the American Nazi movement that once existed in New Jersey:
"The pictures on these pages were not made in Germany. They may look like accurate shots of a foreign political movement, which they are, but they were made right here in these United States. Almost coincidentally with Hitler's assumption of power in the Reich, our free democracy began to feel the long paw of Nazi propaganda..."
Read about the American reporter who became a Nazi...
Click here to read about an admired American hero who was also attracted to fascist theology.
Watch a Quick Film Clip About the Pre-War Gertman-American Bund Home Front Lingerie (Click Magazine, 1944)Here is a small article, illustrated with five fashion images, about the types of intimate apparel and pajamas that were available to the home-sewing girls on the W.W. II American home front.
Click here to learn about the under garments that had to be worn to pull-off the New Look... Nazi Art Plunder (Click Magazine, 1943)The attached article tells the story of an organization that was formed by the German Foreign Office in order to steal the treasures of the occupied European nations. It was called the Nazi Art Corps and it was divided into four battalions of SS men; they stole manuscripts, sculpture, paintings, jewels etc, etc, etc. They answered to the Reich Minister of Foreign Affairs, Joachim von Ribbentrop (1893 1946).
Click here to read about the inmate rebellions that took place at Auschwitz, Sobibor and Triblinka.
German Choices In 1940 (Click Magazine, 1940)Attached is a Phoney War magazine article by Major General George Ared White (1880 - 1941) in which he mused wistfully (as Oregon men are wont to do) as to all the various horrible choices that were spread before Herr Hitler in the early months of 1940. The General believed that France's Maginot Line was impregnable and he did not think that Hitler would commit to such an undertaking. Guys & WAACs (Click Magazine, 1943)"Fort Warren, Wyoming, is bleak, windswept, desolate. It is no wonder that the soldiers stationed there looked forward to the arrival at the lonely post of a unit of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC). [When the women arrived] The men of Company H, Fifth Quartermaster Training Regiment, sent over an invitation to a party... The party was informal but military. The hosts marched in formation to their guests' barracks where the two companies fell in behind their respective officers for the return trip. The evening included a buffet supper, attendance at boxing matches and refreshments afterwards."
''What Kind of Women are the WAACs?'' (Click Magazine, 1942)"They're career women, housewives, professionals, factory hands, debutantes. They've taught school, modeled, supported themselves, as secretaries, salesgirls, mechanics. Single and married, white and colored, between the ages of 21 and 45, they're corresponding with a beau, in Ireland, a husband Australia, or the 'folks back home' in Flatbush. But varied as their background may be, they've enlisted in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) with a common purpose: to get behind America's fighting men and help win a lasting peace."
"When well-versed in army-administrative methods, the WAAC will cause the transfer of 450 enlisted men to combat areas each week. It realizes full-well its responsibility and has dedicated itself to the idea that the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps will prove itself equal to the opportunity."
Meat Rationing Lead To Alternatives (Click Magazine, 1944)As a result of the rationing of beef some people along the W.W. II home front turned to whale meat as a substitute for beef:
"If you walk into a Seattle, Washington butcher shop and ask for a steak, you might be offered a whale steak. No ration points will be required, and the flavor will be somewhere between that of veal and beef. You can prepare your steak just as you would a sirloin, or you can have it ground into whaleburger."
When the U.S. was fighting the First World War, twenty years earlier, it was found that the oil extracted from whales proved useful in the production of explosives. Beating the Beach Censor (Click Magazine, 1939)Attached is a printable fashion editorial from a 1939 issue of CLICK MAGAZINE which beautifully illustrated (in color) one of the chic, California beach fashions of the day.
Learn about the color trends in men's 1930 suits... The American Home Front Finds Faith Again (Click Magazine, 1942)By the time this article appeared on the newsstands at the close of 1942, the American people were fully committed to a war on two fronts that quite often was not generating the kinds of headlines they would have preferred to read. Certainly, there was the naval victory at Midway, but the butcher's bill was high at Pearl Harbor and North Africa and after a thirteen year lull in church attendance, America was once again returning to the church:
That Slim Wartime Silhouette (Click Magazine, 1943)Five fashion photographs and a few words on the "government-approved" look for the autumn of 1943. The wartime fashion news for 1943 was apparel order L-85 that had been issued by the War Production Board in order to "conserve material for victory".
To read another article about 1940s fashions and the hardships of fabric rationing, click here. Click here to read about the fashion silhouette of the early Fifties. Veronica Lake (Click Magazine, 1944)The attached magazine article is a profile of Veronica Lake (1922 1973) who was characterized in this column as "an artist at making enemies.":
"One of the most acute problems in Hollywood is Veronica Lake. Where, and at what precise moment her time-bomb mind will explode with some deviation from what studio bosses consider normal is an ever-present question. Hence, the grapevine of the movie industry always hums with rumors that unless Miss Lake 'behaves', she will no longer be tolerated, but cast into oblivion."
Her response was eloquent.
Combat Boxing (Click Magazine, 1943)We are not sure how wide-spread boxing exercises were among all the U.S. Army infantry training camps during W.W. II, but the attached photo-essay will cue you in to the fact that it was mighty important at Camp Butner in 1943.
Trainable Extras Were Vital (Click Magazine, 1938) The Parchuting Sheep of the Italian Army (Click Magazine, 1938)This is a highly amusing collection of photos depicting the seldom remembered "Para-Sheep" of the Italian Army during their adventures in Ethiopia. It would seem that Italian grunts simply would not stomach canned food the way other infantrymen were able to do and so it was decided that sheep would be individually rigged with parachutes and tossed out of planes, where they would be butchered and cooked by the Mussolini's men below. The accompanying paragraph explains that even a bull had been air-dropped from the same purpose.
Take a look.
The Hostess Gown Made a Splash on the Home Front (Click Magazine, 1944)There can be no doubt that the fashion-craving lasses of the Thirties and Forties had a tough time of it! Coming of age during the the Great Depression, they spent too much time window-shopping as a result of the all too widespread economic deprivations that were the order of the day - only to be greeted on the other end by the fabric rationing that accompanied the Second World War. They had some good news in the form of a swanky garment that was called "Hostess Gowns" which were seen as ultra-feminine and tailored in the finer fabrics of the day:
"Top-notch fashion stores are finding a new wartime boom in luxury hostess gowns and pajamas; new styles for home reflect the latest dress fashion trends. Ruffles, waistline draping, beads, sequins and marabou add luxury; a number of dressy models might also be taken for dinner gowns..." Dontchya Know There's A War On! (Click Magazine, 1944) Sing Sing Prison: Home of the Bad New Yorkers (Click Magazine, 1938)Sing Sing Prison was where the vulgar New Yorkers of the criminal variety spent much of their time: "Murderers and felons, rogues and embezzlers, an average of 2750 of them inhabit Sing Sing Prison at Ossining, N.Y. on the bank of the Hudson River. Theirs is a world apart. A world of gray stone walls and steel bars. When the gates clang shut behind them they enter upon a life scientifically regulated by Warden Lewis E. Lawes (1883 1947)...CLICK MAGAZINE takes you inside the grim walls and shows you what happens to the convicted criminal from the day he is committed to Sing Sing Prison until the day he leaves as a free man."
This is a photo-essay that is made up of twenty-five black and white pictures. Read about the religious make up of Sing Sing Prison in the Thirties. Wool of the 1940s (Click Magazine, 1945)The attached 1945 article was intended to serve as a suit-buying-guide for all those young men who were in the throes of trading in their military uniforms for civilian attire.
The one kind of wool that is not discussed in this article is "worsted": this was the wool that was specifically reserved for the uniforms of the U.S. military (enough to outfit 12 million souls) and there wasn't a single thread of it that could be purchased on the civilian market. Stuck in Nassau (Click Magazine, 1941)This Click Magazine article concerns the diplomatic posting to Nassau, Bahamas that was the lot of the Duke of Windsor shortly after the outbreak of World War Two. The Duke and Duchess had gleefully met Adolf Hitler some two years earlier and, following that error, were overheard on a few occasions making defeatist statements concerning the British war effort. Wishing to keep him in a spot where he could do no damage yet still be monitored, the British Foreign Office granted him the title of "Royal Governor" and posted him to Nassau.
Illustrated by four seldom-seen color photographs that, no doubt, the two were simply delighted to pose for, the interview makes clear just how bored the Windsors were on that hot, sticky island paradise, where they remained until 1945. Who are the U.S.Marines? (Click Magazine, 1943)A nice piece of P.R. for the W.W. II Gyrenes:
"Since the policy limits Marine Corps personel to 20 percent of the navy, no Marine can specialize as do other service men. He must be a crack rifle and pistol shot, a saboteur, a scout familiar with jungle and city alike. He must run, walk, swim, sail, shoot, and maim better than the men he's fighting... He glories in this responsibility, as in his corp's 167-year-old reputation as nonpareil shock troops. He's never yeilded either that responsibility or reputation to his jealous friends in rough-and-ready Army and Navy units. They resent the Marine. He knows it and doesn't give a damn, cocky in the knowledge that he's relied on to pave the way for the Army's operations and to finish up the Navy's."
This is a six page photo-essay that is comprised of seventeen images (two in color) of the San Diego Marines, who are identified as the "dirtiest" and "cockiest" fighters in the nation's arsenal.
Click here to read another article about the Marines. Hermann Goering: Power Hungry Graff Master (Click Magazine, 1943)Appearing on the pages of a 1943 CLICK MAGAZINE was this article by Austrian journalist Alfred Tyrnauer, who was no stranger to Nazi terror. The journalist explained quite clearly for his American readers who exactly Hermann Goering was, his shameless looting in all Nazi-occupied zones and the goings-on within "Goering Works", the German re-armament trust.
"Master crook, blackmailer and general villain Reichsmarshal Hermann Wilhelm Goering, second most potent Nazi, 'owns' the world's largest industrial empire by right of possession. Gross Goering has stopped at nothing, not even murder, to enrich himself and insure his future comfort, whether the Nazi regime stands or falls."
Hollywood Stars in the USO (Click Magazine, 1944)Attached is a 1944 article from Click Magazine about the touring performers of the U.S.O. during the Second World War. Illustrated with eight photographs picturing many of the most devoted and well-loved of the Hollywood entertainers (Bob Hope, Martha Raye, Al Jolson, Jack Benny, Wini Shaw) the article, by celebrated newspaper critic Leonard Lyons, goes into some detail as to the deep sense of gratitude these show people felt and how happy they were to give some measure of payback. It was estimated that the U.S.O. performed 293,738 shows by the time the war reached an end.
The Nazi School System (Click Magazine, 1940)"German school children in Bad Wilsnack as elsewhere look like American kids, study the same arithmetic, discuss the same current events in a regular 'press period'. But they sneer at democracy and tolerance, deliver serious, bitter impassioned orations in regular Fuhrer style against liberty and freedom...Youth is not youth, but a servant of the state." The Visual Accuracy of the 'Gone with the Wind' (Click Magazine, 1939)This page from Click Magazine contrasts three Civil War photographs by Matthew Brady (1822 1896) with three production stills snapped on the sets of Gone with the Wind. The editors refused to weigh-in on the slowly building case regarding Hollywood's questionable abilities to portray historic events with any degree of accuracy, preferring instead to praise the filmmakers as to "how carefully" they "checked details".
The Matthew Brady images provided on the attached page only serves to condemn the otherwise flawless work of Gone with the Wind costume designer Walter Plunkett (1902 - 1982) who historians and reλnactors have slandered through the years for failing to fully grasp the look of the era. WHAT IF - Hitler Had Been Killed? (Click Magazine, 1941)It must have been a slow news week when the CLICK MAGAZINE crew approached three of the busiest editors in the the U.S. and Britain asking them how they would break the news if Hitler were to be killed tomorrow?
"Every editor we queried agreed that when it happens, the death of Adolf Hitler will sell more papers than any other news event of the Twentieth century...All agreed that Hitler's death would not end the war; two out of three guessed he would die violently."
The leftest publisher Ralph Ingersoll knew right away that Hitler would die by his own hand.
The article is illustrated with facsimile printings of the headlines and how each paper believed the dictator would die - it was an academic exercise, but a fun read, nonetheless. Hitler's Military Options in 1940 (Click Magazine, 1940)A Phony War magazine article by Major General George Ared White (1880 - 1941) in which he muses wistfully (as Oregon men are wont to do) as to all the various, dreadful choices that were spread before Herr Hitler in the early months of 1940.
As varied as Hitler's military options were, the General believed that France's Maginot Line was impregnable and he did not think that Hitler would commit to such an undertaking. General White believed Hitler had six options before him which are all illustrated on the attached cartoon map. The Stork Club (Click Magazine, 1940) Tears in the Dark of the Theater (Click Magazine, 1944)Even the broad-shouldered, steely-hard men who toil daily over this website cry like little girls when exposed to the 1944 home front movie, Since You Went Away ; for our money it was the best movie Hollywood ever produced about the war years.
That said, we invite you to take a gander at the attached photo-essay from CLICK MAGAZINE in which a spy camera using infrared film was used to capture the weeping masses sobbing in the dark of the theater as they watched that remarkable movie.
U.S. Army Carrier Pigeons of World War II (Click Magazine, 1943)Although historians may like to refer to World War II as "the first hi-tech war", some of the ancient tools were still put to use with great effect. The attached article gives a very brief outline concerning the W.W. II use of carrier pigeons and the goings on at Camp Crowder, Missouri, where these birds were trained.
"Since 1400 B.C. these birds have acted as couriers; they are the oldest instruments of war still in use. Although they form only a small part of our tremendous Signal Corps resources, the Army maintains a corps of expert pigeoneers who have rendered their birds, by scientific training and breeding, ten percent stronger than those used in World War One." During the course of World War II the U.S. Army signal Corps deployed more than 50,000 carrier pigeons.
You might also enjoy reading this article about the carrier pigeons of W.W. I. The R.A.F. Mosquito-Bomber (Click Magazine, 1944)"Almost entirely of wood, Britain's Mosquito Bomber can sting the enemy out of proportion to its size and appearance. Thirty odd German cities already have felt the devastating, impressive bite of Mosquitoes in more than 150 bombing raids on the Reich." W.W. I Memories of the Imperial and Osmanic-Balloon Division (Click Magazine, 1940)In the Spring of 1940, Leo Kober, devoted reader of CLICK MAGAZINE and former crew member of one of the Kaiser's airships during the First World War, felt compelled to send his personal snap-shots of his zeppelin days to the editors of his fave mag with a few notations; and now we pass them along to you. ''The Grapes of Wrath'' (Click Magazine, 1940)The attached article is illustrated with three color photos from the set of the movie, this short article details why The Grapes of Wrath (Twentieth Century Fox, 1940) was such a different movie to come out of Hollywood and explains how thoroughly both the art and costume departments were in their research in depicting the migrant "Okies" in their Westward flight: "Realism, keynote of the book, was the keynote of the picture. Henry Fonda, who plays Tom Joad, lived for weeks among the Okie farmers from Oklahoma to understand their problems..."
As a result of Steinbeck's literary efforts, medical aid was offered to California's migrants - Click here to read about it
Click here to read a 1935 article about the real Okies.
Perhaps Steinbeck saw this 1938 photo-essay while writing his novel?
John Steinbeck became a war correspondent in 1943. The Hollywood Offerings from Late 1944 (Click Magazine, 1944)During the last month of 1944 the Yankee movie-goers had a choice of ten new releases to choose from, here are four titles:
Laura, starring Clifton Webb,
I'll Be Seeing You, starring Joseph Cotton and Ginger Rogers
The Doughgirls, starring Jane Wyman and Ann Sheridan
Mrs. Parkington, starring Walter Pidgeon and Greer Garson
Each review is illustrated with thumbnail images of the ten films.
The First Ten Years of Passenger Air Travel (Click Magazine, 1938)In the wake of numerous air disasters involving the nascent passenger airlines, this article was produced to show readers that with each crash, steps were taken to make each flight safer. In 1938, the Federl Government stepped in and established the Civil Aeronautics Authority. A Jihad on Menswear (Click Magazine, 1941)With her characteristic disregard for the unreasonable mandates of the prevailing fashion police hanging out for all to see, Elizabeth Hawes (1903 1971) scoffed with the deepest irreverence at the males of the species for being so thoughtless and blind in matters sartorial. Pointing out that men, who she compared to mice, don't have to wear ties, hats, heavy leather shoes or anything else that makes them uncomfortable, but do so purposelessly and out of fear...
Click here to read a 1929 article about the Dress-Reform Movement.
American Makeup Goes to War (Click Magazine, 1942)An interesting look at the beauty products used by American women during the Second World War and how that war effected the cosmetic industry. Students of history will be reminded that when a nation commits itself to a state of total war, all available elements within a government's grasp will be picked over by that country's military; even makeup. "If you're following a routine of 'beauty as usual' with qualms of conscience, believing that cosmetics and toiletries use materials essential to the war machine, know for certain that if Uncle Sam needed your lipstick for bombs and bullets, he'd have gotten it first." The U.S. cosmetics industry was effected in many ways, read the article and find out.
Click here to read an article about a popular 1940s hairstyle.
CLICK HERE to read about the beautiful "Blonde Battalions" who spied for the Nazis...
Beauticians Without Borders (Click Magazine, 1938)This is the story of the Jacob A. Riis Settlement beauty clinic which was funded by a well-heeled New Yorker in order that the impoverished women from the down-trodden quarters of New York might come to know all the relaxation that comes with electrolysis and eyebrow-plucking (sadly, anal bleaching was not offered at the time). When Ingenuity Out-Witted Scarcity (Click Magazine, 1942)A well illustrated wartime review concerning what the women of fashion could do to enhance life in spite of the government shortages. ''Assault Climbing'' (Click Magazine, 1944)One month after this article was seen on the newsstands, America would be reading a good deal about the U.S. Army Assault Climbers when they thirsted to read further about those hardy lads who climbed the steep cliffs at Point du Hoc on D-Day; but in May of 1944, the term was new to them. The article is well illustrated with two color images and a brief explanation as to what was involved in the training of those lucky souls who were charged with the task of learning how to climb the rocky terrain held by the Fascist powers.
Read what the U.S. Army psychologists had to say about fear in combat. Fashion Designers Colide wth Hollywood Designers... (Click Magazine, 1938)This is an historic article that introduced the fashion era that we still reside in today.
The attached article from 1938 heralded a new day in the fashion industry where fashion magazines would no longer be relied upon to set the trends in clothing; henceforth, that roll would largely be played by movie actresses in far-off Hollywood:
"The greatest fashion influence in America, stylists sadly lament, is the much-photographed, much-glamorized and much-imitated Movie Queen. What she wears is news, eagerly copied, by girls all over the country who want to look like Joan Crawford and Myrna Loy." The primary bone of contention that the East Coast fashionistas found most objectionable was the fact that movie stars are Californians, and Californians will always prefer comfort over glamor.
African-American Fighter Pilots (Click Magazine, 1943)A three page photo-essay found on the yellowing pages of a 1943 issue of Click Magazine introduced American readers to the flying Black Panthers of the U.S. Army Air Force; a fighter squadron composed entirely of African American pilots, trained "at the new $2000,000 airfield in Tuskegee, Ala.". The four paragraphs that tell their story are accompanied by eight portraits of the pilots and snap-shots of the assorted ground crew, mechanics and orderlies - all Black. "They undoubtedly will reach a combat area this summer. One squadron, the 99th, has arrived overseas already. [These] pilots, whose insignia is a flame-spewing black panther, are rarin' to join them. They want to roar a personal answer to the Axis 'race superiority' lies." Sheep from the Sky (Click Magazine, 1938)One of the weirdest inventions found in the annals of Italian military history was reserved for sheep. The funny pictures attached herein were snapped during the Italian adventures in Ethiopia, when sheep parachuting from the sky was not thought of as anything unusual and the story goes that the far-flung Italian infantry simply could not bare to have the standard pre-packaged processed food that most armies have to suffer and so an accommodating military air-dropped do-it-tour-self Ossobuco kits. Fresh Meat Delivery System for Italian Troops (Click Magazine, 1938)This is a highly amusing collection of photos depicting the seldom remembered "Para-Sheep" of the Italian Army during their adventures in Ethiopia. It would seem that Italian grunts simply would not stomach canned food the way other infantrymen were able to do at the time and so it was decided that sheep would be individually rigged with parachutes and tossed out of planes, where they would be butchered and cooked by the Mussolini's finest. The accompanying paragraph explains that even a bull had been air-dropped for the same purpose.
Take a look. Women Worked The Farms (Click Magazine, 1943)Although the Selective Service agency granted 4,192,000 draft deferments to farmers throughout the course of World War II, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recognized that this number alone would never be enough to harvest the food necessary to feed both the home front and the armed forces. With this shortage in mind, the Women's Land Army was created in 1943 to provide that essential farm labor that proved so vital in winning the war. Between the years 1943 and 1945 millions of American women from various backgrounds rolled up their denim sleeves and got the job done. The attached magazine article is one of the first to tell the tale of this organization, and was printed at a time when there were only 60,000 women in the field.< Adolf Hitler and Women (Click Magazine, 1939)This article about Adolf Hitler and women appeared on the newsstands two months prior the start of the Second World War, when the world learned how evil a man the lunatic truly was. The journalist wanted to confirm that there was no truth to the 1939 rumor that Hitler was dead and quickly began musing about other rumors: "More feasible is the theory that the sexless madman of Naziland is still alive and has merely discovered that he gets a vicarious thrill out of having women around him and likes to watch acrobatic dance routines." Photographed in this article is Frau Scholtz-Klink, who had been dubbed "the perfect Nazi woman" by the Reichfuehrer, in addition to three curvy American burlesque dancers who performed before Hitler.
Click here to read about the dating history of Adolf Hitler. 1940s Makeup and W.W. II (Click Magazine, 1942)Illustrated with thirteen pictures of the most popular U.S. makeup products used throughout the Forties, this article provides a fascinating look at how World War II effected the American cosmetic industry and how that same industry benefited the American war effort.
The U.S. cosmetics industry was effected in many ways, read the article and find out.
Click here to read a 1954 article about Marilyn Monroe.
Beauty in the Congo (Click Magazine, 1938)Fashions these days are simply fraught with influences from the developing world such as tattoos and piercings and there is no reason to suspect that fashion's dictators might one day soon decide that the elegant life is best lived with a cone-shaped head. The attached fashion article is illustrated with three pictures of the mode-conscious Manbetu tribe of Northeaster Africa who live life large as the "African Longheads".
Air-Raid Wardens on the Home Front (ClicK Magazine, 1942)The Congressional Declaration of War was a mere five months old when this photo-essay appeared that documented the earliest days of the American Civil Defense efforts during the Second World War. At this point in the war, the Marines were still three months away from landing on Guadalcanal and the Army wouldn't be arriving in North Africa for another six months - but the neighborhood volunteers of the Civil Defense seemed to be prepared. What Were the Germans Thinking? (Click Magazine, 1943)"We cannot conduct a Gallup poll in Germany, but we can find out by other opinion polls and from other inquiring reporters what the average German is thinking. Our reporters are the Nazis themselves. The poll is tallied daily at short-wave listening stations, among them that of the Columbia Broadcasting System. The C.B.S. corps of engineers monitors and records and interprets the voices of the enemy." "The Nazi propaganda here analyzed is a record of Nazi failure to keep the German people from thinking 'non-German' thoughts and failure to prevent the record from being known." This article is illustrated with fourteen W.W. II photographs. Women's Football (Click Magazine, 1940)Attached is a brief photo-essay documenting the short-lived experiment with women's football in California:
"Anything can and does happen in California, the proving ground for all sorts of fads and fancies. The latest craze sweeping the land of the Ham-and-Eggers is girl's football. Discarding their all-revealing bathing suits, Hollywood and Los Angeles lassies have taken to padded moleskins, hip pads, shoulder pads, head gears and rubber-cleated brogans. The transition from beach nymph to gridiron amazon is called a revolution against "oomph" in the capital of streamlined pulchritude...regardless of what is said, powder-puff football seems destined to stay." A Cartoonist Slams FDR (Click Magazine, 1939)Rube Goldberg (1883 1970), one of the iconic, Grand Master ink slingers from days of yore, applied his signature thought pattern to presidential politics in the creation of the attached FDR cartoon. Unlike President Roosevelt, Goldberg recognized that the New Deal was naive in their belief they could create and fund numerous government agencies that bedevil small businesses, reduce productivity, and fix prices while expecting the whole time that the national economy would bloom as a result. Life on a U.S. Navy Sub (Click Magazine, 1943)Illustrated with seven color pictures, this wartime magazine article served to give the folks back home a sense of what an U.S. Navy sub is capable of doing:
"With a crew of 44 men, an American submarine in Pacific waters may reasonably hope to sink twenty or more enemy ships before the end of this war... By its very limitations, the submarine offers its crew opportunities to do damage to the enemy which are not given to sailors on other types of vessels. Ninety percent of the time during the war our pig boats (ie. submarines) are looking for the enemy. Cruisers and destroyers, on the other hand must often pass up the privilege of fighting in order to carry out some broad strategy objective; thus convoying, reconnaissance and scouting are a kind of boresome duty the submariner seldom knows."
"They are a proud lot, our submarine men, but not boastful. They talk less of their exploits than the public likes. The brass hats apparently have decided to keep it that way."
Click here to read a unique story about the Battle of the Sula Straits... Crochet Made a Come-Back on the W.W. II Fashion Front (Click Magazine, 1943)When home heating fuel had to be rationed during the Second World War, a page was borrowed from Granny's play book and women once again began to sport crochet wraps, shawls and booties around the house. John Frederics and the Hats for the Fall (Click Magazine, 1942)Here is a an Elizabeth Hawes (1903 1971) fashion review covering some of the hats for the autumn of 1942. They were all the creations of John-Frederics (1902 1993) - some are simply fantastical while others are a tad less dramatic, but not lacking in style.
Click here to read about the hats of 1947.
Drawings of German POWs in America (Click Magazine, 1943)"This account of life aboard a U.S. train carrying Nazi prisoners of war to prison camps is an authentic bit of after-the battle reporting by an army MP who was a civilian artist. That his eye missed no telling detail is evident from both his first-person story and his on-the-spot pencil sketches."
"The Nazis are extremely curious about America, they gaze out of the windows constantly...War plants along our routes are the real eye-openers to the Nazis; those factories blazing away as we travel across America day after day. At first the prisoners look with mere interest and curiosity, then they stare unbelievingly, and before we reach the camps they just sit dumbfounded at the train windows."
Click here to read about Hitler's slanderous comment regarding the glutinous Hermann Goering. *Watch a Film Clip About Life in a German Prison Camp* Duke Ellington: Twenty Years in the Spotlight (Click Magazine, 1943)"The top man in Negro music climbed on the bandwagon when he and his band played a hot spot called the Kentucky Club. That was twenty years ago, in New York City's Harlem. This year, Duke Ellington (1899 1974) made another debut, at Carnegie Hall, goal of the great in music...Piano lessons bored Ellington when he was six years old. He never learned to play conventionally, but he was only a youngster when his flare for improvisation reaped attention and landed him a job in a Washington theater...one by one, his compositions hit the jackpot: 'Mood Indigo', 'Sophisticated Lady', 'Ebony Rhapsody', 'Solitude', 'Caravan'". "Ellington calls his work Negro Music, avoids the terms 'jazz' or 'swing'. Brazil Declares War on the Axis (Click Magazine, 1942)The government of Brazil declared war on Hitler's Germany on August 22, 1942, and you'd best believe that the over-paid photographers of Click Magazine were Johnny-on-the-spot to document all the joyous mayhem that let loose on those flag-strewn boulevards of the Brazilian capitol:
"Brazilians are fighting mad. When Brazil joined the United Nations in war on August 22nd, the formal declaration was a climax to the democratic action of its citizens who began, months ago, to let the world know how they felt about the Axis."
"The pent-up rage of a sorely-tried nation burst in earnest when war was declared. With unanimous enthusiasm, the people mobbed the streets, cheering everything that was part of the Allied cause...Day after day, anti-fascist demonstrations, and pageants choked the streets of Rio de Janiero, where the pictures on this page were taken." Washington, D.C. pt. II (Click Magazine, 1942) John Garand: Inventor of the M1 Garand (Click Magazine, 1944)Attached is a Click Magazine photo essay of one of the seldom remembered heroes of W.W. II: John C. Garand - the gunsmith who tripled the firepower of the American foot soldier.
In 1939, a German spy almost succeeded in delivering the blueprints of the Garand rifle into the blood-soaked hands of his Nazi overlords: read about it here.
Click here to read about the Japanese Zero.
Hollywood Stylists vs the Fashion Industry (Click Magazine, 1938)The attached article from 1938 heralded a new day in the fashion industry where fashion magazines would no longer be relied upon to set the trends in clothing; henceforth, that roll would only be played by movie actresses in far-off Hollywood. It was Hollywood movie stars who introduced sunglasses to the world of fashion... Tin Cans Go to War (Click Magazine, 1945)This article is accompanied by nineteen pictures illustrating the various ways tin cans are put to use by the American military during W.W.II, and it was printed to show the necessity of full civilian participation along the home front. In order to guarantee that this message would get out to everyone, magazine editors would have been provided with these photographs and an assortment of facts by a government agency called the Office of War Information. The Plan For Post-War Revenge (Click Magazine, 1944)This snippet that appeared in Click Magazine during the early months of 1944 supports the argument posed by journalist Gerard Williams and the investigators on the program Hunting Hitler. It stated that a Nazi insider had defected to London where he informed British intelligence of a Nazi plan to launch a third world war from the confines of, it was assumed, another country. Watch a Clip from ''Hunting Hitler'' Hollywood Fights Its Slowdown (Click Magazine, 1943)"Hollywood's manpower problems have multiplied, as in any large industry, since the U.S. entered the war. The draft, war plants, and the Government need for technicians depleted studio staffs all along the line, from producers to prop boys. The majority of Hollywood stars have devoted an untold number of hours to Army camp tours, war work, canteens; they have raised funds for war relief and war bonds. Robert Montgomery (pictured in uniform) is only one of many stars who have entered the armed services. Now he's a lieutenant in the Navy in charge of a torpedo boat squadron....With the reduction in Hollywood's talent ranks and the new ruling for a $25,000-net-income ceiling, movie companies face a crises in production."
Click here to read a about a particularly persuasive and
highly effective W.W. II training film...
The National Press Club During the War (Click Magazine, 1943)Like most capital cities, Washington, D.C. had numerous social clubs set aside for members of the press throughout the decades. A great number of the ones in Washington flopped because they would extend credit to their members when they drank at the bar. The one exception was the National Press Club - they insisted that their reporters and columnists pay-as-they-go. It was this well-observed rule that saved the club from bankruptcy and allowed it to flourish well into the Twenty-first Century. This article recalls what a busy place the NPC was during the war years.
Recommended reading:
Drunk Before Noon: The Behind-The-Scenes Story of the Washington Press Corps
Can Congress Kill the New Deal? (Click Magazine, 1943)This is a 1943 editorial that was penned by Republican Senator Robert Taft (1889 1953) who explained in the most clinical terms that President Roosevelt's loyal opposition on Capitol Hill can be relied upon to support him in all matters involving his roll as Commander-in-Chief. However, Taft implied, any further efforts to go gallivanting about the Capitol creating any more of those agencies with the New Deal trademark names like FSA, WPA, NYA, REA, TVA etc. etc. etc will be met with the stiffest opposition from the Republicans, who were well outnumbered, anyway.
Taft's column was answered by his opposite number in the Democratic Party: New York Senator Robert F. Wagner (1877 1953); his column can also be read here.
The historian Henry Steele Commager chose to rank FDR at number 19 insofar as his impact on the American mind was concerned - click here to understand his reasoning...
''Sand Diego - A Woman's Town'' (Click Magazine, 1944)"Sand Diego wanted women for its war industries. Since the beginning of the war boom San Diego has cajoled, bribed and appealed publicly for women. And San Diego got women, not only for the war industries, but for every other conceivable job. They became letter carriers, bus drivers, high-altitude window washers, milk deliverers, office workers."
The Segregated WAAC (Click Magazine, 1942)A single page from the early war period tells the tale of Natalie Donaldson
Click here to read about the African-American efforts during the First World War.
The Hollywood Anti-Nazi League (Click Magazine, 1938)The Los Angeles of the late Thirties was plagued by a small coterie of Nazis; they were not terribly visible, but they were around, nonetheless. From time-to-time real Fascists from Europe would blow into town and they would be met by such groups as the Jewish Labor Committee, the United Anti-Nazi Conference and the Los Angeles Jewish Community Relations Committee. This article concerns another organization that worked shoulder to shoulder with these groups, but with a little more style: the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League. The League was 5,000 strong (likely an exaggeration) and within its ranks were Hollywood notables such as Herbert Biberman, Robert Rossen, Francis Edward Faragoh, Ring Lardner, Jr. and Dalton Trumbo. The D-Day Landing Crafts (Click Magazine, 1942)If you ever wondered why The National W.W. II Museum is located in New Orleans rather than West Point, Annapolis or the nation's capitol - the answer can be spoken in two words: Andrew Higgins. Higgins was the innovator who designed and manufactured the landing crafts that made it possible for the Allied forces to land on all those far-flung beaches throughout the world and show those Fascists dogs a thing or two. His factory, Higgins Industries, was located on Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans and it was for this reason that the museum board of directors chose to doff their collective caps, and erect their repository in his home town.
Attached is a five page photo-essay about Higgins and all that he was doing to aid in the war effort.
Sunglasses Make Their Mark in the Fashion World (Click Magazine, 1939)Although sunglasses had slowly inched their way forward in popularity since the late Twenties, the attached article declared that by 1939 sunglasses were officially recognized as a full-fledged fashion accessory when the Hollywood stars Joan Bennet and Hedy Lamar began to sport them around town.Like T-shirts and khaki pants, it would be W.W. II that would provide sunglasses with a guaranteed spot on fashion stage for the next sixty-five years.
Click here to read a 1961 article about Jacqueline Kennedy's influence on American fashion.
Cartoonist ''Wally'' Remembers (Click Magazine, 1938)If there was any mascot who best represented the staff of the old Stars and Stripes, it would have been their primary cartoonist (even though he was a Marine), Abian Wallgren (1892 - 1948) - who went by the name, "Wally". Looking back 20 years, Wally remembers how he got started as a cartoonist and what Armistice Day was like at the paper's office.
Judy Garland (Click Magazine, 1940)This magazine profile of Judy Garland (nι Francis Ethel Gumm, 1922 - 1969) appeared alongside the Mickey Rooney article posted above, written at a time when she was at the top of her game. The article tells of her rise to stardom, from the time she was first noticed onstage with her sisters in Lake Tahoe to her starring roll in The Wizard of Oz just the year before. "Still, her favorite picture is the one that shot her up to join the movie fans top-ten, Love Finds Andy Hardy . Because audiences could see with one eye shut that the Rooney-Garland team was one of the cutest to come out of Hollywood, they demanded more of the same, got it in Babes in Arms , will get it again in Andy Hardy Meets a Debutante 
and Strike Up the Band ." The War Movies for the Month of June (Click Magazine, 1943)This printable list of war-themed movies indicates that Hollywood studio heads were all earning their commission stripes in 1943; attached you will find a list of film titles, stars and a one sentence synopsis of the plots.
Which Hollywood actors received draft deferments? Were Churchill and Stalin Hipsters? (Click Magazine, 1942)Illustrated with pictures of Winston Churchill's weird zipper suit and Joseph Stalin's "all purpose costume", 1940s fashion critic Elizabeth Hawes (1903 - 1971) taunts the Great-American-Male and challenges him to respond in kind by wearing copies of these comfortable threads: "Today's business clothes were worked out by the winners of the Industrial Revolution, whose descendants are the big tycoons of our day...Aspirants to leadership and success normally copy the clothes of existent leaders. Isn't it about time the most of you changed your suits?" Elizabeth Hawes wrote more on the topic of W.W. II fashions... El Morocco (Click Magazine, 1940) A Report on the War Reporters (Click Magazine, 1944)A well-illustrated 1944 article by Leonard Lyons pertaining to the assorted wartime experiences of ten American war correspondents:
Martin Agronsky for NBC News
Vincent Sheean with The N.Y. Tribune
Henry Cassidy of the Associated Press
Bob Casey of the Chicago Tribune
John Gunther of The Chicago Daily News
Jack Thompson of The Chicago Tribune
Cecil Brown of CBS News
W.L. White of the Associated Press
Quentin Reynolds of Collier's Magazine
Cyrus Schulzberger with the NY Times
Repeal + Ten Years (Click Magazine, 1943)"Americans on December 5 [1943] will look backwards to a dramatic night 10 years ago - many will be surprised that a whole decade has passed since the nation abandoned Prohibition... In the early '30s, Congressman LaGuardia found authorities siphoning an estimated million dollars a day in graft from bootleggers. Cost of the 'Noble Experiment' to the government hovered around a billion dollars a year. In the last 14 Prohibition years, the public was figured to have spent more than $36,000,000,000 for bootlegging and smuggled liquor!" When Fashion and Uniforms Meet...(Click Magazine, 1942)When the general appearance of women's uniforms prescribed for voluntary war work by various charitable organizations were deemed unfashionable, uncomfortable or simply embarrassing, the well-known fashion stylist and costume designer Irene (Irene Lentz, 1900 - 1962) stepped up to the plate designing an all-purpose green wool suit, topped-off by a beret:
"The noted Hollywood stylist, Irene, performed a real service for defense when she designed her all-around defense suit. Of sturdy gabardine, worn with long cotton service socks and plastic shoes, it is nevertheless as attractive as any civilian suit, and more practical than most. In this outfit, women war workers will not feel self-conscious and ill at ease." Lloyd George on the Nazi Blitzkrieg (Click Magazine, 1940)In this article, former British Prime Minister David Lloyd George (1863 1945) lambasts the leaders of Britain and France for blundering their way into the Second World War having failed to cut Hitler off at the knees on any number of previous occasions: "It is just over twenty-one years ago that France and Britain signed the Armistice with Germany which brought to an end the bloodiest war in history. They are now fighting essentially the same struggle... It is no use keeping up the pretense that things are going well for the democratic cause. We are suffering not from one blunder, but from a series of incredible botcheries. It is a deplorable tale of incompetence and stupidity."
Lloyd George singled-out Chamberlain with particular contempt, while presenting his thoughts about Hitler and Mussolini, the German Blitzkrieg and Soviet neutrality The Great Depression and American Communists (Click Magazine, 1939)This photo-essay tells the story of the radical elements within the United States during the later period of the Great Depression - all of them were directed and financed by Georgi Dimitrov (1882 - 1949) in far-off Moscow. The leaders of the American Communist Party USA (CPUSA) were William Z. Foster, Earl Browder, and Ella Reeve Bloor.
In 1944, the city of Seattle, Washington elected a communist to the U.S. House of Representatives, click here to read about him...
Click here to learn how thoroughly the FBI had infiltrated the CPUSA.
Click here to read about an American woman who grew heartily sick of the socialists who pontificated on every street corner during the Great Depression...
Click here to read about the tactics that American Communists used in Hollywood during the Great Depression...
From Amazon: Demagogues in the Depression: American Radicals and the Union Party, 1932-1936,
When Japan Went on the Defensive (Click Magazine, 1943)"Japan's one purpose now is to fight back and stall for more time - not to attack. That period in her war is over, and she came out on top...All signs now point to a growing major Allied offensive, and for the first time the enemy will be faced with the problem of holding territory which he can't afford to lose."
1943 was truly the year that proved to have been the turning point in the war, click here to read about it...
Top Model Jinks Falkenburg (Click Magazine, 1940)In the Sixties the most popular fashion model was Twiggy (nι Lesley Hornby, b. 1949), and in the Fifties the top model was Suzy Parker (1932 2003: truly the first "Super Model"). But in the 1940s the honor went to Jinx Falkenburg (1919 - 2003).
The 1940's was the decade in which the advertising world began to gaze more favorably upon photographers rather than illustrators, who had long held the prominent place since printers ink was first invented. During the earliest days of her career Falkenburg's likeness was often painted until the her bookings with photographers quickly picked up. She was the first"Miss Rheingold" (appointed, not elected), she appeared in movies, entertained the troops and when she stood before the cameras she was paid all of $25.00 an hour (the term "super Model" wouldn't come about until the Seventies). The attached photo essay will give you some more information.
From Amazon:
JINX by Jinx Falkenburg The Four Million Dollar Epic (Click Magazine, 1940)"Many a movie of the deep South has come out of Hollywood studded with 'you-alls' and trailing jasmine blossoms. Never before, however, has any studio had Gone with the Wind, already the most heavily publicized picture of the era, which, at long last, makes its film debut...For over two and a half years casting difficulties had beset the producers of Gone With The Wind. Most difficult was the part of Scarlet O'hara, green-eyed vixen around whom the 1,307 page novel revolves. With every leading lady in Hollywood under consideration, the studios tested and re-tested Norma Shearer, Miriam Hopkins, and Paulette Goddard. Even the 56,000,000 people reported by the Gallup poll to be waiting to see the picture began to get tired..."
Another great Hollywood movie from 1939 was The Grapes of Wrath - click here to read about it...
Traveling Movie Theaters (Click Magazine, 1944)"Two million Americans have as their principal form of visual entertainment nomad movies, run by some 3000 road-showmen who present their motion pictures in tents, auditoriums or churches. Few city folks realize that this is the way in which entertainment is brought to about 5000 U.S. towns of less than 1000 population... Road-showmen say that the favorite shows are fast-action westerns and occasional comedies. Mushy love scenes are box-office poison among their clientele. During harvest seasons, when customers can best afford the ten to twenty-five cents admission charge, these showmen take in between $75.00 and $150.00 a week."
These were not the only traveling entertainers during the Thirties: the Federal Theater Project also sent hoards of players throughout the nation to amuse and beguile - you can read about that here
Click here to read about Marilyn Monroe and watch a terrific documentary about her life.
Andrew Higgins: He Made D-Day Possible (Click Magazine, 1942)During an informal conversation with his biographer, Stephen Ambrose, Dwight Eisenhower once remarked that it was Andrew Higgins (1886 1952) who had "won the war for us". Knowing that such words do not flow from the lips of generals easily, Eisenhower went on to explain to Ambrose that if it were not for the creation of Higgin's landing crafts, the architects of the Allied victory would have had to seize the existing, and well-fortified, harbors of Europe in order to unload their invasion forces - and who knows how the island-hopping war in the Pacific would been fought?
Attached is a five page photo-essay from the Fall of 1942 about the man and his early contributions. W.W. II Button Restrictions and Button Decorations (Click Magazine, 1943)A well-illustrated article from the home front fashion-filled pages of Click Magazine that served to document the contradictory days when wartime button-rationing coincided with a wide-spread yen for decorating with buttons:
"In a frantic bid for individuality, fad-loving women are rediscovering the decorative button. Buttons are no longer just a practical devices for holding clothes together. They pep-up simplified silhouettes and restyle dated fashions.
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