Children in Need (Pathfinder Magazine, 1940)"In respect to their economic status, it has been estimated that one-half to two-thirds of the city children of America are in homes where annual income is too low to permit the family to buy items called for in an ordinary 'maintenance' budget - a budget of about $1,261 to meet the normal needs of living in a family of four."
CLICK HERE to read about African-Americans during the Great Depression.
New Jersey Law Nabs Top Bundists (PM Tabloid, 1940)In 1937 the elders of New Jersey passed a law that was tailor-made for the thugs of Camp Nordland. Knowing well who the Bundists were, the law clearly condemned "'the unlawful assembly of three or more persons' and 'and the uttering of speeches, the sale of literature, display of emblems and uniforms which counseled... hatred, violence or hostility against groups of persons... by reason of race, color, religion or manner of worship.'"
In 1940 the law netted a harvest of the three highest Bund leaders. Rationing on the Germn Home Front (Collier's Magazine, 1940)A weird article. This journalist seemed to admire much of what he saw in Nazi Germany. ''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. El Morocco (Click Magazine, 1940) Babies Wanted (Liberty Magazine, 1940)"Womanhood is industrialized in Germany today. The Führer has decreed that maternity is a state function, subject to production regulations like any part of the planned economy of the Third Reich. Sex has been regimented no less than the airplane industry. Love is now mechanized and runs on a twenty-four-hour schedule, with the slogan: Germany needs children." Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indians (American Legion Magazine, 1940)This football article recounts the glory days of Jim Thorpe (1888 - 1953) and his Carlisle football team as well as a number of other Native-American jocks of lesser fame who were active in other sports during the same time period. "A remarkable all-around athlete, Jim Thorpe at Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania was a whiz at reversing his field or skirting an end, and there was bonecrunching power behind his charges into the line. He could punt with any of them and was a good drop kicker. But it was as a place kicker that he was really tops. He rarely missed one."
We recommend this unique college football site... State Sponsored Ignorance (Pathfinder Magazine, 1940)The editors of Pathfinder Magazine were rightfully scandalized to report that the Mississippi State Senate voted in favor of purchasing two sets of civics books for the school children of their state:
"[The] idea behind this, said the Senate Education Committee, was to eliminate instructions for voting from the books to be distributed to Negro pupils". Why Was The U.S. Last to Recover? (Liberty Magazine, 1940)As editor-in-chief of Liberty Magazine, Bernarr Macfadden (1868 – 1955) asked an important question:
"What is the matter with this country? Why is it we are credited with being the last to recover from the world-wide Depression? As the wealthiest nation in the world we should have been the first?" Top Model Jinks Falkenburg (Click Magazine, 1940)In the Sixties the most popular fashion model was Twiggy (né 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 Mad Plaid of 1940 (Collier's Magazine, 1940)Fashion writer Henry Jackson had a few words to say concerning the importance of Glen Plaid in men's fashions during the Fall of 1940. A Most Memorable Jingle (PM Tabloid, 1940)Coca-Cola may be the real thing, but in 1940 Pepsi had launched the ad that made Madison Avenue sit up and realize the true power of radio advertising. It was the famous radio jingle that we still hear today in every play, movie and TV show wishing to create the perfect Forties atmosphere - you know the one: Pepsi Cola hits the spot, etc., etc., etc. A real toe-tapper. The attached article will clue you-in to it's significance. Germany Woos American Youth (PM Tabloid, 1940)"Hitler's undeclared war against America includes the attempted wholesale corruption of U.S. youth."
"Plans worked out over a period of years called for the selection of key Hitler leaders from U.S. youth in various cities and transporting them to Germany to be drilled in subversion...U.S. Nazis with college educations were sent to Stuttgart for a special eight-month course at the Propaganda Center." The French Navy In The Balance (PM Tabloid, 1940) ''I Backed Hitler'' (American Magazine, 1940)German millionaire industrialist Fritz Thyssen (1873 – 1951) paid the way for the Nazi party from its earliest days all the way up to Hitler's place in the sun. When Hitler attacked Poland, Thyssen bailed. In this column he confesses all:
"I met Hitler for the first time in 1923... Ludendorf arranged my first meeting with Hitler at the home of a mutual friend. What a different character Hitler was then! He was deferential and anxious to learn. You may not believe me, but he had a sense of humor, actually telling many jokes... Hitler as a speaker was amazing. I asked him how he achieved such success addressing people. He said, 'I don't know, but after ten minutes, like a band leader, I usually make contact with the crowd, and then everything is all right.'" 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. Cars are Here to Stay (Collier's Magazine, 1940)This article explains those heady days spanning the years 1900 through 1910 when the apostles of the automobile were given the task of telling anyone who would listen that the days of the horse were over:
"In the old days the salesmen had his problems. It took more than reason to get a sensible man in one of those contraptions with the motor under the seat and a water tank hanging from the rear. The salesman had to be a promoter, a mechanic, a ballyhoo artist, a stunt performer and a magician." With the French as Their Army Collapsed (American Legion Weekly, 1940)Attached is an article by the noted war correspondent Frederick Palmer (1873 - 1958) who observed the French and British as they attempted to hold-off the Nazi juggernaut of 1940. In this article, Palmer referred a great deal to walking this same ground with the American Army during the 1914 - 1918 war just twenty-one years earlier; he found the French to be confident of a decisive victory. The column is complemented by this 1940 article which reported on the wonders of "Blitzkrieg" and the fall of France.
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. Watching American Fascisti (PM Tabloid, 1940)A year and a-half before Pearl Harbor American law enforcement agencies got serious about the domestic fascist groups. This article pertains to a twenty-five page Federal order instructing the FBI and local authorities to tap phones and monitor the movements of all groups sympathetic to Axis philosophies.
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. American Schools During the Great Depression (Pathfinder Magazine, 1940)This is a portion of a longer article about American children and their collective sufferings during the Great Depression that can be read here. The column attached pertains to a White House conference and the sorry state of American schools in 1940.
From Amazon: Getting Schooled: The Reeducation of an American Teacher
The Biz (Pathfinder Magazine, 1940)Pulled from the business section of a 1940 issue of PATHFINDER MAGAZINE was this list of Hollywood statistics that should be of interest to all you old movie fans. If you've ever wondered how the Dream Factory fared following the Great Depression, you can stop scratching your head bone - herein you will learn how many souls were on Hollywood's payroll, how many movies did the town make each year (give or take), what percentage of global film production was turned out by Hollywood and how many American movie theaters were there in 1940.
Friend of the Allies (The American Magazine, 1940)"Colonel William J. Donovan and Edgar Mower, writing of fifth-column activities at the direction of Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy, charged Fritz Wiedemann [as having been] praised by Hitler for helping to spike American legislation to aid the Allies in 1939."
Numerous nasty remarks were quoted in the attached article concerning the German Consul General in San Francisco, Fritz Wiedemann (1891 - 1970), but the journalist who penned the article could not possibly know that Wiedemann was at that time spilling his guts to the FBI. Having served under Hitler for some time as adjutant, by 1940 Wiedemann had denounced his devotion to the Nazi Party and told Hoover all that he Knew about Hitler and what the world could expect from the man.
In 1940, Japanese spies made the mistake of confiding in Wiedemann - more about this can be read here.
Government Heath Care for California Migrants (PM Tabloid, 1940)This is a report on the 1939 government-sponsored medical outreach program for "California's Grapes of Wrath migrants":
"The counties of San Joaquin Valley have well organized health departments... [Migrants] are entitled to drugs, special diets, eyeglasses and appliances if authorized by the medical director. Since many patients are in need not so much of medicines than of food, the Association may pay a medical grocery bill just as it pays the druggist. It also provides school lunches and nursery meals."
More on migrant laborers can be read here...
Ogden Nash on Fashion (The American Magazine, 1940)In one of his other verses poet Ogden Nash (1902 – 1971) wrote that "women are not female men". In the attached poem he expanded on that thought to a greater degree as he observed women and their approach to fashion. Norman Thomas, Socialist Candidate For President (The American Magazine, 1940)Here is a profile of the American leftist Norman Thomas (1884 - 1968), who sought the U.S. presidency six (6) times on the Socialist ticket. He was a former clergyman and despite the fact that he wished to ban all private property, nationalize all businesses and put the kibosh on a free press - he still sounded like swell Joe to us. A Sweep at the Oscars (Newsweek Magazine, 1940)"On February 29, at the Academy's twelfth annual dinner at the Ambassador Hotel in Hollywood, Gone with the Wind surpassed [1934's 'It Happened One Night'] by winning eight out of sixteen possible prizes and garnering two special awards for good measure." Judy Garland (Click Magazine, 1940)This magazine profile of Judy Garland (né 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." H.G. Wells on Winston Churchill (Collier's Magazine, 1940)H.G. Wells and Winston Churchill first met in 1901. Churchill was a deep admirer of Well's fiction, and he eagerly pursued a friendship. The two enjoyed a spirited exchange of letters that went on for decades - although it seemed to have taken a hit in the Twenties when the two disagreed on the nascent USSR - but their friendship was not seriously shaken. In this 1940 article, Wells stepped up to tell American readers how fortunate Britons are to have such a man of discernment standing at the helm:
"I will confess I have never felt so disposed to stand by a man through thick and thin as I do now in regard to him. And I think that, in writing that, I write for a very great number of my fellow countrymen who have hitherto felt frustrated and fragmentary amidst the rush of events." 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. Speeches by Hitler and Chamberlain Compared (Pathfinder Magazine, 1940)"We shall fight until the terror of the plutocracies has been broken."
- so blathered Adolf Hitler in a radio address from early 1940 in which he attempted to clarify the Nazi war aims. Never forgetting that the "zi" in "Nazi" is derived from "Sozi" for socialist (Compare with 'Commie' for 'Communist') - the dictator was heard here doing what he did from time to time in his speeches; borrowing the street hustle of the proletarian underdog (many thanks to WIKIanswers).
Click here to read another article on the same topic.
The Life and Death of Trotsky (PM Tabloid, 1940)Appearing in the pages of a slightly left-leaning New York paper was this obituary of Leon Trotsky (1879 - 1940):
"Thus, at 9:25 last night, ended the life of the man who, with Lenin, brought about the world's most profound revolution and with his death, ended the bitterest of modern feuds - Trotsky against Stalin." The Dangers of the Bund (PM Tabloid, 1940)Here is an article from the man who would shortly be America's premiere spy-master: William "Wild Bill" Donovan. In this report he examined the Trojan horse tactics of the German "Foreign Organization":
"Children of Germans naturalized half a century ago are still counted German by Berlin and every effort is made to convince them of the fact... It is safe to say that a very fair proportion of the non-refugee Germans who have become American since Hitler came to power did so with the secret intention of turning free and democratic America into 'their' - that is, Hitler's - America."
Click here to read about the Canadian Bund... Blitzkrieg: In the Words of Nazi Officers (American Legion Weekly, 1940)An article by military historian and biographer Fairfax Downey (1894 - 1990) concerning the unique manner of mechanized warfare that the Germans had introduced to the world during the opening weeks of the Second World War:
"Thunder rumbles, lightening flashes and strikes. Incredibly swiftly it is over. So, compared to the campaigns of the First World War, was the German Blitzkrieg, rumbling, flashing and striking down Poland, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and France. How did it work? What made it click?"
Click here to read more about the nature of Blitzkrieg. British Palestine, 1940 (Collier's Magazine, 1940)For the first time since the Balfour Declaration was decreed, the Jews in British Palestine organized an avenging force and attacked numerous Arab villages after suffering random murders for 23 years. This happened in May of 1939; Collier's ran the attached article a year later - it concerned the slow-burn that was heating-up Jerusalem. 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 Mein Kampf Reviewed (L.A. Times, 1940)1940 was a pretty good year for Adolf Hitler, but then the L.A. Times review of Mein Kampf came out:
"It is obviously the book of an ignorant man, unaccustomed to logic or literature. It is sincere, and done in the style of the soap-boxer, the rabble-rouser. And it is Red; redder than any of the utterances of Emma Goldman or the I.W.W. street speakers. What Hitler calls National Socialism seems to us, although the man denies it on page after page, merely another form of Stalinistic Communism, only this is the German variety...his system blots out the businessman, banker, manufacturer, professional man, teacher, writer, and artist - just as effectively as Stalin's [Soviets]; property goes to the state in both cases; and all freedom of press, church and person dies as wholly in Germany as in Russia."
"Finally, to an American, a lemon by any other name, is just as sour."
•You might like to read a more thorough review of Mein Kampf•
The Great Native-American Athletes of the Early 20th Century (American Legion Magazine, 1940)"Idolized, publicized, dramatized, picturesque members of a fast diminishing aboriginal race, they were the white man's heroes. But the white man's adulations and his indulgences helped write 'finis' prematurely on the records of some of them even as his vices quickened the racial degeneration of their stock." "Sockalexis, Thorpe, Bender, Longboat and Meyers! There were scores of other notable Indian athletes from '93 to 1915, but the names of those five were household words in the early days of the new century." Mahatma Gandhi: ''Why I Cannot Hate Hitler'' (Liberty Magazine, 1940)"If this war is fought to a finish, however, civilization may perish in the holocaust. God grant, then, that it shall be halted in time. But can it be halted while hatred remains in the breasts of men? And if I bear hatred for one man, will not this hatred spread out its roots and grow insidiously into a hatred for all the people of his country?" The Way They Were Forced to Live... (Collier's Magazine, 1940)Attached is an excerpt from a longer article about the U.S. Border Patrol's adventures in Texas; it tells of one patrolman's shocking discovery as to how abusive the growers were to their hired hands - how dreadful were their living conditions. Cordell Hull: FDR's Man in Foggy Bottom (Collier's Magazine, 1940)This is a peculiar article about FDR's Secretary of State, Cordell Hull (1871 - 1955); the man who penned the piece was so obsessed with Hull's hillbilly upbringing that he didn't get around to writing about the man himself until page six. The Soviet Invasion of Finland (Pathfinder Magazine, 1940)Just as Lenin had a triumphal military adventure, Stalin, too, believed that he could deploy Soviet forces victoriously. However, when Lenin launched his enterprise against neighboring Georgia in 1921, he had the benefit of skilled military leaders under his command - this was not the case with Stalin, who had seen fit to purge his military of thousands of officers (1934 - 1939). When Stalin's legions attacked Finland in November of 1939, the Soviet losses that were inflicted by the numerically inferior Finns were far greater than he ever thought possible.
The article appeared during the closing weeks of the war and it reported on the outside aid the Finns were receiving. The attached file also includes an article from 1931 concerning some of the bad blood that existed between the two nations.
Read an article explaining how the Soviets used early radio...
Production Delays (PM Tabloid, 1940)The week the French Army collapsed was the week Hollywood experienced the greatest number of production delays. Studio wags believed it was an indicator as to just how many European refugees were employed on their stages. Studio bosses banned all radio and newspapers from their properties in hopes that each production would maintain their respective schedules. William Saroyan on William Saroyan (Stage Magazine, 1940)"Hundreds of thousands of people regard me, I believe, as something of a success: A well-dressed, well-fed young writer, famous for his ties, who has moved upward and forward in the world of letters with a speed veering on the imperceptible; an Oriental whose name has become a word in the English language."
SAROYAN, n., one with money, a gentleman, a scholar, an artist; v., to slay, butcher, club, strafe, bombard, or cause to spin; adj., pleasing, ill-mannered, gallant; prep., near-by, within, over, under, toward.
"What, however, is the inside story? What is the truth? Who is the real Saroyan? Is he a success or a failure? I will go over the entire saga from there to here chronologically..."
Click here to read a Saroyan book review.
In Defense of Modern Architecture (Coronet Magazine, 1940)Living, as he did, at a time when the average American homeowner was more inclined to prefer a ranch house over a "machine for living" that those vulgar, snail-eating European modernists were capable of creating, American architect George Frederick Keck (1895 - 1980) saw fit to write this spirited defense on behalf of modern design. Playing the part of a modernist missionary seeking to convert the heathens, Keck argued that his tribe of architects - with their understanding of contemporary building materials and respect for simplicity - were suited to create a better standard of living for one and all. The War in Winter (Pathfinder Magazine, 1940) Japanese Spies and Their Many Troubles (PM Tabloid, 1940)From the 1940 editorial pages of PM came this column by Henry Paynter (1899 - 1960) who wrote amusingly about the many frustrations facing Japanese spies in North America.
"The identity of almost every Japanese spy or saboteur has been known to U.S. authorities. Every instruction they have received or sent has been decoded..."
At the height of their irritation, they confided in the German Consul-General stationed in San Francisco - only to learn after the war that he was an FBI informant (you can read about him here). Abraham Lincoln: Inventor (Pathfinder Magazine, 1940)"There, to a coterie of Lincoln addicts on Abe's 131st birthday, U.S. Patent Commissioner Conway P. Coe displayed a model of a device Lincoln patented in 1849, when he was still an unknown congressman from Illinois. Commissioner Coe read the patent application, in Lincoln's own handwriting, for a gadget to float flatboats in shallow water". The Film's Technical Advisor: Susan Myrick (Coronet Magazine, 1940)A proud daughter of Georgia, Susan Myrick (1893 - 1978) worked the sixteen hour days in Hollywood policing the Southern accents and manners of every performer who passed before the camera. 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...
Hitler's Men in Mexico (Collier's Magazine, 1940)This 1940 article covers the Nazi shenanigans that were regularly pulled by elements of the German Legation stationed in Mexico City during the late Thirties, early Forties. Within a few months, the Mexican authorities would banish the Nazi presence from their land; click here to read about that. Red Tactics in Hollywood (Photoplay Magazine, 1940)American political parties have not been the only folks to visit Beverly Hills - hat-in-hand; Soviet-backed Reds have done it, too. This 1940 article goes into some detail explaining all the various false fronts that American Communists would erect in order to attract Hollywood's empathetic pretty boys - a tribe that is so easily separated from their wealth. Once an actor was hooked, they were steadily relied upon by the Reds to cough-up the do-re-mi without question; if they didn't - they got the works.
"Walter Winchell has already passed on to Washington documentary evidence proving that thousands of dollars contributed by Hollywood to innocent-sounding organizations eventually wound up in the hands of Communist leaders. Police and other investigatory groups have gone about accumulating evidence of the conspiracy."
One of the many Communist-front advocacy groups that milked Hollywood of much of its wealth was called the"Independent Citizen's Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions"; actress Olivia de Havilland was one of their willing dupes until she worked with the FBI and helped to bring them down. Thousands of British Children Welcomed (PM Tabloid, 1940)A year and a half before Pearl Harbor, many Americans, 10,000 to be exact, were active in welcoming British children, ages 5 - 16, to their homes. This was a time when it was widely believed that a Nazi invasion of Britain was imminent and the Battle of Britain was in full-swing:
"Nobody knows how many will be admitted or how many will land in Canada on the first child-refugee ship, due three weeks from now.The quota for British children is 6,500 a-month; for children from other countries quotas are considerably lower."
To read about the short and productive life of New York's PM, click here...
Prosperity's Return (Newsweek Magazine, 1940)A quick read about the return of prosperity by economist turned journalist Ralph Robey:
"Majority opinion among government economists at present, according to all reports, is that the current decline of business has another six or eight weeks to run and then there will be an about-face which will start us on an upgrade that by the end of the year will wipe out all the recent losses and bring production back to the high level of the final quarter of last year."
FDR's Third Term: Vox Populi (Pathfinder Magazine, 1940)Here are the results of PATHFINDER MAGAZINE's 1940 poll concerning FDR's controversial run for a third term. The pollsters were interested in discovering the voter's thoughts on the third term as a concept for future presidents - rather than gaining a better understanding as to the popularity of President Roosevelt.
The poll considered the opinions of citizens who voted for FDR in 1936 and those who sided with Republican Alf Landon in the same election. They concluded that 68.6% of poll's participants were against a third presidential term.
''What the Finns Won'' (Collier's Magazine, 1940)"We suppose debate will go on for years about whether the Finns or the Russians won their 105-day war of late 1939 and early 1940. We think the Finns won all the phases of the war except those included in the peace treaty - and that the treaty was a minor matter in the long view of it all...As for the predictions that the Russians will be coming back in six months or so to gobble up the rest of Finland - we may easily be wrong, but we can't picture the Russians tackling the Finns again for another thirty years." The Women Voter in Her First Five Elections (Pathfinder Magazine, 1940)This is an interesting article that indicates just how profoundly elections had changed after 1920, when women began to vote. Previously, when the voting booth was a gender-specific domain, the victory margins were seldom greater than 10%; yet, beginning with the 1920 presidential election and continuing through the election of 1936, dramatic differences could be seen between the winners and losers that had never existed in prior contests.
The journalist believed that the advent of radio broadcasting also played a contributing factor in these elections.
Read a 1951 profile of a future First Lady: the young Nancy Reagan.
Nazis Take Paris (PM Tabloid, 1940)"Paris belongs to Adolf Hitler. Abandoned by the French and declared an open city to prevent its destruction, the capital of France was turned over whole to the Nazi invaders early this morning."
Click here to read about the 1944 liberation of Paris.
He Saw the French Defense Implode (Liberty Magazine, 1940)"Probably never before has a country with three quarters of its army intact and the majority of its civilian population untouched by war surrendered so completely...In Tours, I ran into a French staff officer I had met on a trip to the Maginot Line in the quieter days of the war. It seemed incredible that then we had believed those fortifications would render France invincible. As we waited in a traffic jam, he told me the real story of the Ninth Army, which held the section adjoining the end of the Maginot Line, and which broke with such disastrous results..." 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... 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." 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." Prosperity in Sight... (Newsweek Magazine, 1940)"The optimistic year-end forecast - numerous authorities predicted at least a 25 percent rise in residential contracts and officers of the John Manville Corp. forecast the erection 400,000 privately financed homes, largest volume since 1929 - have been buttressed by several important developments since the turn of the year." Canada Steps Up for Britain (Collier's Magazine, 1940)In 1939, "Canada wisely decided that she could become an ideal training center for pilots and airmen generally. Canada could produce munitions in her factories. Conditions were ideal for both pursuits."
W.W. II: Where were the war poets?
Jim Crow and the Draft (PM Tabloid, 1940)Wishing to avoid some of the taint of racism that characterized the American military during the First World war, Republican Senator William Barbour (1888 - 1943) announced that he intended to introduce an amendment to the 1940 conscription legislation that would open all branches of the U.S. Military to everyone regardless of skin color. The article goes on to list all the various branches that practiced racial discrimination. The Border Patrol (Collier's Magazine, 1940)This article lays out the many responsibilities and challenges that made up the day of a U.S. Border Patrol officer stationed along the Rio Grande in 1940:
"In one month these rookies must try to absorb French and Spanish, immigration law, criminal law, naturalization, citizenship and expatriation law, fingerprinting, criminal investigation, first aid, firearms and the laws of the open country through which refugees are tracked down in the desert and forest."
Click here to read a 1937 article about the illeagal immigrants who came through Ellis Island. The Secret Papers of Robert Lansing (Pathfinder Magazine, 1940)In 1940, when America stood on the precipice preparing to enter another enormous conflict, the heretofore secret papers of Woodrow Wilson's Secretary of State, Robert Lansing (1864 – 1928), were released - shedding light on the government's reasoning as to why they felt U.S. intervention in the European war was necessary. Shooting Scenes Between Air Raids (Stage Magazine, 1940)An article about director Gabriel Pascal (1894 – 1954) and all the assorted difficulties set before him, his cast and his crew while filming George Bernard Shaw's "Major Barbara" during the bombing of England in 1940.
Much of the article is composed of diary entries by an anonymous member of the cast:
"After dinner we had a script conference off the lot and kept on working through the air raid sirens, relieved to be away from the studio discipline. Tonight the sky was one vast blaze of searchlights, and no sleep for anyone. It's tough staying up all night and trying to work between raids all day..." General George C. Marshall (American Magazine, 1940)A brief 1940 profile of the man President Roosevelt preferred over 33 other generals of higher grade for the job of Chief of Staff of the Army: General George C. Marshall:
"His most spectacular military feat occurred during the [First] World War, when, as operations chief of the First Army, he moved 500,000 men and 2,700 pieces of artillery from one battlefield to another without a hitch and without letting the enemy get wind of what he was doing." Behind the Scenes with Clark Gable... (Photoplay Magazine, 1940)In this article from a 1940 fan magazine, Clark Gable puts to rest some disturbing concerns numerous fans had concerning the human affairs that existed on the set during the production of "Gone with the Wind. He additionally expressed some measure of gratitude for having landed the juiciest role in Hollywood at that time:
"'Rhett' is one of the greatest male characters ever created. I knew that. I'd read the entire book through six times, trying to get his moods. I've still got a copy in my dressing room and I still read it once in a while, because I know I'll probably never get such a terrific role again. But what was worrying me, and still is was that from the moment I was cast as 'Rhett Butler' I started out with five million critics." Hitler Prepares to Visit Paris (PM Tabloid, 1940)"The man who once peddled cleaning fluids on the crooked back streets of Vienna, today was preparing to march as conqueror into Paris beneath the arch built to commemorate the triumphs of Napoleon Bonaparte." Despair and Hunger (PM Tabloid, 1940)PM correspondent Richard O. Boyer (1903 – 1973) was in Berlin in June of 1940 when Paris fell to the German Army. He was dumbstruck by the surprising gloominess that hung heavily upon the German people the week of that great victory:
"I could not understand it all and could scarcely believe the testimony of my own eyes. The scarlet banners with their black swastikas that garlanded the city everywhere in response to Hitler's orders seemed only to emphasize the worried melancholy. The victory bells that rang each day at noon acquired the sound of a funeral dirge when one looked at the tired, pinched faces of the Germans hurrying along the pavements ... When I expressed surprise to a glum man sitting near me he glanced impatiently up and only said, 'We celebrated once in 1914'."
The Japanese home front suffered from tuberculosis - click here to read about it... Elsa Maxwell: Life of the Party (Pathfinder Magazine, 1940) Robert Ley: Nazi Philosophizer (Pathfinder Magazine, 1940)Attached you will find the Nazi justification for organized slaughter which was encapsulated for the succeeding generations by Dr. Robert Ley, one of Hitler's willing henchmen (1890 – 1945).
Ley was the mad founder of the "Adolf Hitler Schools"; to learn more, click here.
Congress Approved $5,000,000,000 Build-Up (PM Tabloid, 1940)"To fulfill the [Pentagon's requirements] the President plans to send Congress one more defense message asking for another $5,000,000,000. After that, with machine industries saturated with orders, Congress can sit back and survey the defense picture - provided England doesn't collapse overnight... Acting Secretary of the Navy Compton announced yesterday the award of contracts for three aircraft carriers and two cruisers to the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co...." The War in Northern Finland (Liberty Magazine, 1940)When Stalin decided to mess with the Finns in 1939 he failed to take into consideration one demographic that was accustomed to blood, and that was the seal hunters of Finland. Upon hearing of the invasion, these men immediately burned their houses and turned their rifles away from the seals, toward the Soviets. Liberty war correspondent Edward Doherty (1890 – 1975) witnessed much of the fighting. The Klansman on the Supreme Court (Pathfinder Magazine, 1940)When the U.S. Supreme Court gave their decision concerning the 1940 appeal of a lower court's verdict to convict three African-Americans for murder, civil libertarians in Washington held their collective breath wondering how Justice Hugo Black approached the case. Black, confirmed in 1937 as FDR's first court appointee, admitted to having once "been made a 'life member' of the Ku Klux Klan. This column was one of any number of other articles from that era that reported on the Alabaman's explanation behind his Klan associations:
"I did join the Klan... I later resigned. I never rejoined." Lucille Ball Gets Noticed (Pic Magazine, 1940)Among all the many lovelies who resided in the Hollywood of 1940, the wide-awake editors of PIC MAGAZINE singled-out Lucille Ball (1911 – 1989) as the one to watch:
"Barring accidents, Lucille Ball tomorrow will occupy the spot now disputed by Carol Lombard, Joan Crawford and Ginger Rogers - as First Lady of Hollywood. Lucille deserves to get it and she has what it takes to get there. The red-headed ex-chorus girl has talent, ability looks, personality and willingness to take every punishment on her way up."
You can click here to read about I Love Lucy here
Prosperity Returns to Freeport, Texas (Collier's Magazine, 1940)In 1940, when a defense plant moved into the Gulfport town of Freeport, Texas, the Great Depression came to a screeching halt. Within three months their population shot up from 3,100 to a whopping 7,500, and the economic blessing was not simply confined to that one region:
"In Corpus Christi they have a nice little plum in the form of a $25,000,000 naval air base. Houston is getting a $2,000,000 refurbishing of Ellington Field. Randolph Field at San Antonio is getting a costly going over."
Life in Freeport was good. When a local shoeshine lad had found that his pockets were flush with cash after three day's labor, he exclaimed -
"We're in high cotton now!" The Stork Club (Click Magazine, 1940) Georgia Carroll (The American Magazine, 1940)Fashion Modeling Czar John Powers once said of model Georgia Carroll:
"She is the most terrific thing that ever hit this business." 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* Failing To Attract An Audience (PM Tabloid, 1940)In spite of the incredible films that Hollywood churned out in 1939 - Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, it seemed that there were some folks in 1940 who just wouldn't be satisfied. This completely irked the citizens of Hollywood. And so the editor of Variety dispatched pollsters hither and yon to ask why they
thought the movies stunk. The Designs of Gustav Jensen (Coronet Magazine, 1940)"High-Ranking in the roll-call of New York's industrial designer is a six-foot Dane with the voice of a Viking. Gustav Jensen is an artist, whether he is talking, eating, or performing Herculean labors in cleaning out Plebeian Stables. The creed of the industrial designer is that every implement of modern life can be made into a work of art. Jensen has pursued this creed to fabulous extremes. He has designed kitchen sinks, that have been compared to Renaissance caskets, and he meditates for months before he designs a doorknob...."
The article is illustrated with eleven photographs; the image on the right shows Jensen's design for a table model radio: "The radio is a miracle. It should look like a miracle", remarked the designer. With the Sailor Guns in France (The American Legion Magazine, 1940)A seven page recollection of the history of the US Navy Railway Artillery Reserve, penned by W.W I naval veteran Bill Cunningham, who served as an officer on one of her five rail-mounted batteries. The unit was lead in collaboration by a hard-charging U.S. Army artillery officer but commanded by Rear Admiral Charles Plunkett (1864 - 1931), a veteran of the Spanish-American War. Cunningham described his first encounter with the admiral, who he first mistook as a member of the YMCA: "I looked up to see a tall stranger approaching. He wore a pair of black, I said black, shoes beneath some badly rolled puttees. He didn't have on a blouse, but wore an enlisted man's rubber slicker open down the front, and badly rust-stained around the buckles. His battered campaign hat had no cord of any sort He was strictly the least military object we'd seen in a couple of years, if ever."
Click here to read about the woman who entertained the U.S. troops during the First World War. |