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...

King Alcohol Keeps Cool (The Nation, 1918)

When there were only a few "wet" months left before all alcohol was banned from the United States, "The Nation" reviewed the 1918 "Anti-Prohibition Manual" and the 1917 "Year Book of the United States Brewers' Association" and came away with a brief history of drinking.

Dry vs. Wet (Vanity Fair, 1918)

If you are looking for a serious report concerning the political battles fought in Congress regarding Prohibition (1919-1933), you can keep looking. The attached essay is a humorous parody of that dispute between the Drys and Wets as it existed just months before the 'Noble Experiment' began in earnest. By November of 1918, the American newspaper readers had simply overdosed on the redundant writings of assorted war correspondents --and so, with a bit of wimsy, the Vanity Fair writer George S. Chappell sat down to write about that war between these two groups using the same journalistic affectations everyone was so heartily sick of. You will also find a mock military map depicting the faux topography in dispute.

The Atomic Crusade (Script Magazine, 1948)

A 1948 article by the Nobel laureate Arthur Holly Compton (1892 – 1962) concerning the widespread understanding among nuclear physicists to wrestle control of atomic energy away from the military and firmly in the hands of civil authorities, where it's benefits can be put to general use and harnessed as positive force in the lives of all mankind.

Awarded the Nobel prize for physics in 1927, the "script Magazine" editors believed that Arthur Compton, more than anyone else, deserved the title "Daddy of the Atomic bomb". When the U.S. Government decided to proceed with the research and development of this weapon, Compton was assigned the double task of attempting a nuclear chain reaction and of designing the bomb itself. Dr. Compton is remembered as the senior physicist at the Manhattan project who hired Dr. Robert Oppenheimer.

An Interview With James Joyce (Vanity Fair, 1922)

James Joyce (1882-1941) refers to many different subjects in this 1922 Vanity Fair interview, among them was "Ulysses", his recently released book. The interview was written by Djuna Barnes (1892 - 1982); avant-garde writer, illustrator and playwright.

"Yet James Joyce has been called eccentric, mad, incoherent, unintelligible, yes and futuristic. One wonders why, thinking what a fine lyric beginning that great Rabelaisian flower 'Ulysses' had, with impartial addenda for foliage, the thin sweet lyricism of 'Chamber Music', the casual inevitability of 'Dubliners', the passion and prayer of Stephen Dedalus, who said that he would go alone through the world."

F. Scott Fitzgerald on F. Scott Fitzgerald (The American Magazine, 1922)

At the peak of his fame, F. Scott Fitzgerald penned this opinion piece for a popular U.S. magazine:

"For one thing, I do not like old people - They are always talking about their "experience," and very few of them have any! - But it is the old folks that run the world; so they try to hide the fact that only young people are attractive or important."

A Profile of Mahatma Gandhi (The Independent, 1921)

A 1921 account of the anti-colonial struggles waged by the forty-eight year old Mahatma Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi (1869 - 1948). This well-illustrated article touches on Gandhi's popularity among the Indian people of all faiths, his various boycotts and acts of non-cooperation as well as comments made by his admiring British adversaries.

Social Customs in Washington, D.C. (Vogue Magazine, 1921)

Although this Vogue magazine article was written long before the need was ever created to discuss "e-mail etiquette" or "the proper application for Velcro in custom tailoring", many of these tribal maxims in Social Washington (both official and non) are still adhered to, especially in so far as White House functions are concerned. This article is a one page summation listing the social conventions of Washington D.C. in 1921 and it covers the rules that the First Lady and the Vice-President's wife were expected to abide by as well as the proper manner of accepting White House invitations.

"The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is not invited to dine with an Ambassador, or a foreign Minister, or the Secretary of State, because their relative rank has never been established."

The article reads much like any rule book, but it will introduce you to a local deity whom the idolatresses of "The Washington Social Register" have long prostrated before: the Washington Hostess.

Click here to read an article about social Washington during the Depression.

Social Satirist: Ann Fish (Vanity Fair, 1919)

Some ninety-three years ago, "Fish" was the name scribbled on those unique cartoon illustrations that could be found throughout Vogue (both American and British) and Vanity Fair. The editor of American Vogue between the years 1914 and 1952, Edna Woolman Chase (1877 - 1957) called this English cartoonist "brilliant" and began running her drawings from her earliest days in that office; her full name was Ann Fish and this article will tell you all we know about her.

"This most cosmopolitan of living black-and-white satirists has never stirred from England in all her days. She has never especially extended herself as a spectator of the London life which she so amusingly depicts. She has never gazed on Fifth Avenue."

Adolf Hitler: Ten Years Before his Rise (Literary Digest, 1923)

This article was written shortly after the French occupation of the Ruhr and at a time when Hitler did not have much of a following -he was something of a curiosity to the Western press:

"A principal reason why Hitler's followers have begun to doubt him, it appears, is that the 'dreaded gathering' of the National Socialists in Munich came and went without 'accomplishment.'"

Click here to read what the Kaiser thought of Adolf Hitler.

Did You Not See Your Search Article On This Page?
The Subject You Are Seeking Is On This Site,
It Has Simply Been Removed From This Page.
Please Use This Search Engine To Locate It.

Share This Page

Digg this

Post to del.icio.us

Post to Slashdot