''Religion In The Ranks'' (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)During the course of the Second World War, over 12,000 Protestant ministers, Catholic priests, and Jewish rabbis left the safety of home to join the Chaplain Corps - yet this short article explains that in August of 1941 there were only 994 Protestants, 318 Catholics and 18 Rabbis enrolled in the Chaplaincy. Five months later, with the Pearl Harbor attack, these numbers would begin their climb. The article was written to mark the introduction of the prefabricated chapels that the military would be adding to each of the camps that would soon be dotting the American landscape. My Dinner With Winston (Collier's Magazine, 1941)"It is not an interview with the Prime Minister. He is too busy to give interviews and his sense of fairness long ago forced him to make the rule of 'no interviews'. If he couldn't give an interview to all, he wouldn't give an interview to one. But I spent two days with him and this story is of the Winston Churchill I got to know well in forty-eight hours."
Weeding-Out the Nuts from the Draft Pool (Collier's Magazine, 1941)As America was gearing up to fight another world war, the brass caps were reminded how incapable they were at identifying and isolating the mental incompetents during the last war, and they swore this war would be different. Numerous military and civilian psychiatrists were convened, and it was concluded that of the millions of men called, at least 15 percent would likely be off-their-rockers. Adolf Hitler and the German-Americans (Coronet Magazine, 1941)This is a fascinating article not simply for what you'll learn about Hitler, but for what you'll additionally learn about the manner in which many Germans tended to view that queerest of hybrids, the "German-Americans".
This article was written by Rene Kraus, who had been a German diplomat during the Wiemar Republic and a refugee under Hitler.
Click here to read about the German-Americans who called themselves "Nazis".
Click here and you will learn that Kaiser Wilhelm was also bugged by German-Americans.
The British Move On Tobruk (PM Tabloid, 1941)"British bombing planes made a lightning assault on the Fascist base at Tobruk yesterday... Italy's high command admitted today that Bardia had fallen and was completely in British hands... Reports from Benghazi, capital of italian Libya, indicated that the British were intensifying their attacks against Giarabub in an effort to strengthen their exposed left flank against counterattacks.
-what the Heck was PM Tabloid? click here and find out...
How the US Helped the Fascists Before Entering the War (Coronet Magazine, 1941)Although our friends in Asia, Europe and Canada had been fighting the Axis for at least a year and a half, American corporations continued to trade with the fascists all the way up until the U.S. declaration of war. This 1941 article, published seven months prior to that day, goes into some detail on the matter; although corporations are not named, it is pretty easy to identify them by their products.
"One reason why America today is short of ships to fill Britain's desperate needs is [due to] the fact that for six years or more, Japan and her scrap agents bought almost every American cargo vessel placed on the auction blocks, using them for scrap to feed the blazing steel mills of Nipon."
A Child of the Bund... (Collier's Magazine, 1941)Similar to the one other piece of W.W. II historic fiction posted on this site, this short story is remarkably brief and to the point. Published weeks before America committed itself to the war, this little ditty was penned by Pat Frank (born Harry Hart Frank: 1908 – 1964) who wished to convey the inherit dangers of allowing the Nazi-sympathizing German American Bund to operate unchecked in the land of the free and home of the brave.
A tight little story succinctly told: print it out and read it.
The other short story is called Nesei Homecoming.
Click here to read about the origins of Fascist thought...
New York Beneath a Bombsight (Coronet Magazine, 1941)When this article hit the newsstands, W.W. II was in full swing throughout many parts of Asia, Europe and North Africa. America had not yet committed itself to the war, but the grim, far-seeing souls who ran New York City recognized that it was inevitable - and much to their credit, they had been studying the possibility of New York City air raids since 1939.
Another article about wartime N.Y. can be read here...
Click here to learn about the New Yorkers who volunteered to fight the Germans and Japanese in W.W. II.
Boris Karloff: Gentle Monster (Collier's Magazine, 1941)Adorned with photos of the famous movie-monster-actor mowing his lawn and kissing his wife, this COLLIER'S MAGAZINE article tells the tale of how an English boy named William Henry Pratt became a famous Hollywood actor named Boris Karloff (1887 – 1969). This piece was originally conceived in order to promote the actor's appearance on Broadway in the roll of "Jonathan" in "Arsenic and Old Lace". The writer makes it quite clear to all that the show-biz career did not in any way come easily to Karloff and involved years of truck driving and traveling about performing in summer-stock theaters throughout the whole of North America before he was able to make a name for himself as a bit actor in the silent films of Hollywood.
Click here to read about the vulgar side of Erroll Flynn. China's Industrial Cooperatives (The Commonweal, 1941)A 1941 magazine article by Delbert Johnson that reported on the unprecedented success of Chinese Industrial Cooperatives during the earliest period of the Japanese occupation:
"Industrial cooperation in China, which was no more than a paper plan three years ago, today is a nation-wide movement that has cast a blight upon Japan's economic aspirations in Asia and is providing the people of China a new means of salvation against aggression."
"The plan for the Indusco movement came into being during the dark days of the spring and summer of of 1938...Seemingly, China was doomed to economic strangulation if not to military defeat. But a handful of Chinese and foreign "visionaries' thought otherwise. They knew that time, area and population all would work to China's advantage in any prolonged struggle."
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•• FDR vs. the Men in Black (Collier's Magazine, 1941)An article written by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 – 1945) in which he rants on about all the triumphs of his first two terms, repeating in several places how much better his administration was than the one that preceded him, how popular he was with the voters and emphasizing throughout that the Federal Government had tremendous potential as a force for good during the Great Depression, but it's efforts were blocked at every turn:
"For a dead hand was being laid upon this whole program of progress - to stay it all.
It was the hand of the Supreme Court of the United States...former Supreme Court Justices McReynolds, Van Devanter, and Butler, whose judgments were all consistently against New Deal measures."
Click here to see an anti-New Deal cartoon. Fritz Thyssen on Hitler (Liberty Magazine, 1941) 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. The North Atlantic Heats Up (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)"April 1917 was Britain's blackest month in the [First] World War... March 1941 seemed in many ways another grim month like April, 1917, perhaps even worse. Once more Britain faced peril on the sea - a danger which struck home deeper than any defeat of their armies on foreign soil... Not only German U-boats but German battle cruisers have crossed to the American side of the Atlantic and have already sunk some of our independently routed ships not sailing in convoy. They have sunk ships as far west as the 42nd meridian of longitude." The Fashion Industry Kowtows (PM Tabloid, 1941)Two Weeks after the Pearl Harbor attack, the New York fashion industry hastily manufactured profiles that were both feminine and practical for the new lives American women were about to have thrust upon them. Overnight, durable and launderable fabrics became uppermost in the thinking of the new war workers and culottes gained greater importance as the need for bicycles became a viable mode of transport for getting to the defense plants. King Named to Lead Fleet (PM Tabloid, 1941) American Apologist For The Purges (The American Magazine, 1941)FDR's second ambassador to Moscow, Joseph E. Davies (1876 - 1958), wrote this stunning article in which he makes clear that he was all in favor of Stalin's purges and believed that the trials "indicated the amazing far-sightedness of Stalin and his close associates". He believed every one of the trumped-up charges and swallowed them hook, line and sinker. He concluded the article by advising other "liberty loving nations" to follow Stalin's example. Yank Pilots in the RAF (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)"Many Americans are serving both with the British and Canadian Air Forces, but the RAF's Eagle Squadron is the only unit that is all-American save for the British squadron leader who succeeded William Erwin Gibson Taylor (1905 - 1991), a New Yorker, released to rejoin United States naval aviation." Blitzkrieg (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)"Lightning warfare suggests initiative and spirit of the offensive; it carries with it the element of surprise, not so much in the happening as in the speed and force with which the attack is launched and delivered."
Click here to read about the nature of Total war. Jimmy Stewart - One of the First Volunteers (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)A few weeks before this article went to press, actor Jimmy Stewart had been told by the hardy souls at the U.S. Army induction center that he was ten pounds under weight - too light for a man of his stature (6'4"). A few visits to Chasens, among other assorted Hollywood eateries and he was all set to qualify as the first Hollywood star to enter the U.S. Army Air Corps. Mahatma Gandhi on Prayer (Liberty Magazine, 1941)"I am a firm believer in prayer. Of all things, it has been the most important to me in my life, the surest staff on which I lean. It is my advice to any who come to me in confusion or weakness or with a problem that is driving them to despair. For I believe that it has not only a spiritual but also a concrete, practical value." A Blitzkrieg Refugee Speaks (The American Magazine, 1941)One of Hitler's refugees from Warsaw recalled the terror of the Nazi attack on her city:
"In a mad panic I ran through streets that were a sea of flames, dragging by the hand my two children, aged eight and three. I have seen wounded and dead. I lost many friends and all my belongings. I was a refugee. And for months I suffered hunger and cold... I can still see myself pressed against the wall, holding the children tight, and waiting, waiting for the bomb to crash..."
Click here to read about the fall of Paris...
How Much Can the Germans Take? (Collier's Magazine, 1941)The attached 1941 Collier's Magazine article reported on how the people of Berlin were faring after one solid year of R.A.F. bombing. By war's end it was estimated that as many as 580,000 Germans had been killed as a result of the Allied bombing campaign (many of them were children and far more women than men). This article examines what Berlin life was like when the bombs fell.
Click here to read about the bombing of Japan.
Mr. Nystrom's Car Won't Quit (Spot Magazine, 1941)Mr. John Nystrom of New York City drove a 32 year-old Model T Ford. Judging by the writer's tone, we can guess that not many cars from 1909 were around to see Roosevelt's third term. The Flivver (as she was nicknamed) had 250,000 miles on her (no mention as to how that was known) and still got 20 miles per/gallon, with a top speed of 48 miles per/hour. We can assume that Mr. Nystrom went to his rewards some time ago, but his car is probably still out there being written about. • Watch This Great Clip About Driving a Model-T • The Dying Lincoln: Could He Have Survived? (Coronet Magazine, 1941)In this article, the controversial author and prominent chemist, Otto Eisenschiml (1880 – 1963), recalled the events that unfolded at Ford's Theater as Lincoln lay dying. A good deal of information is dispensed concerning the physical damage that was wrought by Boothe's derringer (pictured) - as well as the various life-prolonging measures that were implemented by the 23 year-old doctor who was first on the scene.
The Failures of W.W. I American Press Censorship (Collier's Magazine, 1941)Seven and a half months before the second installment of the War-to-End-All-Wars was to begin, George Creel (1876 - 1953), America's first official censor from World War I, wrote this article for the editors of Collier's Magazine explaining why he believed that censorship in an open society cannot work:
"As many scars bear witness, I was the official censor during the World War. For two years I rode herd on the press, trying to enforce the concealment demanded by the Army and Navy."
The Aerial Nurse Corps of America (The American Magazine, 1941)To read the U.S. magazines and newspapers printed in 1941 is to gain an understanding as to the sixth sense many Americans had in predicting that W.W. II would soon be upon them - and this article is a fine example. One month before Pearl Harbor the editors of AMERICAN MAGAZINE ran this column about Lauretta Schimmoller (1902 - 1981) who established the Aerial Nurse Corps of America, which, at that time, was composed of over 400 volunteers:
"All air-minded registered nurses, they stand ready to fly with medical aid to scenes of disaster...Now established on a nation-wide scale, ANCOA, with its 19 national chapters, has already handled more than 3,000 emergency cases."
The 1940 Election Polls and FDR (Coronet Magazine, 1941)The attached article was written by Dr. George Gallup (1901 – 1984), the pioneering American pollster and founder of the Institute of Public Opinion. Gallup's article reveals some surprising information about American voters and their thoughts concerning FDR's 1940 bid for re-election against Wendell Willkie (1892 – 1944).
America's Hemispheric Allies Declare War Before FDR (PM Tabloid, 1941) Within hours of the Pearl Harbor attack, the nations of Costa Rica, Nicaragua and the Dominion of Canada all declared war upon Imperial Japan. The United States wouldn't do so until the next morning.
Although there were a number of Latin American countries that declared war on the Axis, only two, Brazil and Mexico, put men in the field (Mexican nationals served in the U.S. military)- click here to read about the Brazilians. ''Man on the Street Solidly Approves of War Declaration'' (St. Louis Star-Times, 1941)This report appeared in the evening edition of the St. Louis Star-Times on December 8, 1941 and it serves as an eyewitness account as to how the St. Louisans reacted both during and after listening to the President's declaration of war broadcast before Congress:
"In downtown restaurants and taverns, people paused to listen to the dramatic broadcast from Washington. Work was at a standstill for those minutes in many office buildings and stores. Pedestrians crowded around newsboys to obtain the latest 'extras' and along the streets groups could be seen collected about radio-equipped automobiles." The War and Public Opinion (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)Five months before America entered the war, pollsters sallied forth onto the streets with numerous queries:
"On the question, 'Shall the United States enter the war to help Britain defeat Hitler?' The New York Daily News and the Chicago Tribune found war sentiment ranging from 3 out of 10 voters in New York State to 2 out of 11 in Illinois." FDR on His Efforts to Pack the Court (Collier's Magazine, 1941)In writing the attached article for Collier's, FDR made his feelings clear that he felt a deep sense of urgency to alleviate the collective pain spreading across the nation as a result of the Great Depression. Believing that it was the Supreme Court that was prolonging the agony of the American unemployed, FDR quickly began to examine all his options as to how he could best secure a majority on the court:
"Here was one man, not elected by the people, who by a nod of the head could apparently nullify or uphold the will of the overwhelming majority of a nation of 130,000,000."
"Time would not allow us to wait for vacancies. Things were happening." Click here to read about American
communists and their Soviet overlords.
The Star of THE OUTLAW (Pic Magazine, 1941)Here is well illustrated article (16 images) from the set of THE OUTLAW (1941) that celebrates the arrival of the young, curvaceous Jane Russell (1921 – 2011). • Watch a Few Clips from ''The Outlaw' • Celebrity Wedding: Lucile Ball and Desi Arnaz
(Photoplay Magazine, 1941)Attached you will find a small illustrated notice from the shameless gossips at PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE reporting on the surprise 1941 wedding that took place between Lucile Ball and Desi Arnaz. PHOTOPLAY acknowledged the nay-saying "Hollywood romance prophets" who predicted doom for the union of these two "Rhumba Stars" - but in the end, they were right: Lucy and Desi divorced in May of 1961. Hitler Cries Out for Civilian-Donations (PM Tabloid, 1941)Blaming it all on an "early winter", Hitler ordered the volks on the home front to give their furs, woolens and long underwear to the German Army on the Eastern Front. A Pen-Picture of the Devastated Soviet Union (Collier's Magazine, 1941)After touring thousands of miles with a German press-pass throughout Nazi-occupied Russia, American journalist Hugo Speck (1905 - 1970) gave a thorough picture of the violence visited upon that land by both Armies:
"German-occupied Russia is in rags and ruins; huge sweeps of European Soviet territory have been systematically destroyed, partly by the Russians themselves and partly by the devastation of Stukas, panzers, guns and fire..." Moholy-Nagy and the New Bauhaus (Coronet Magazine, 1941)"This unprepossessing place is the American survivor of a great international movement, the Bauhaus of Dessau, which filled the world with tubular chairs and sectional sofas. The Bauhaus, like so many other things German, drew Hitler's ire because it was too intellectually independent. Hitler dissolved it in 1938...Some fragments of Bauhaus fled to America. Dr Laszalo Moholy-Nagy escaped with some remnants of students' work and saught refuge in Chicago. There, in his concrete warehouse, Moholy-Nagy's movement has taken root." "They do the oddest things...A chair might just be a double loop of shellacked plywood. It is steamed and shaped so that it has a seat, and a back, and stands on the floor...It doesn't look like much of a chair. It will do the job for which chairs are sold."
Debauchery Near the Army Camps (Collier's Magazine, 1941)Even before the Home Front kicked into high-gear, the men who had been picked up in the 1940 draft were causing real problems in every area where a military training camp could be found. Knowing that the enlistments were soon to grow and these problems would be getting worse, the brass hats joined arms with the town elders to curb the drinking and whoremongering. The cure for these difficulties came in the form of the USO, which would be eatablished before the year was out.
A similar article can be read here.
An Anti-Discrimination Law on the Home Front (Collier's Magazine, 1941)Inasmuch as the Roosevelt administration believed that the integration the armed forces was far too risky a proposition during wartime, it did take steps to insure that fair hiring practices were observed by all industries that held defense contracts with the Federal government; during the summer of 1941 a law was passed making such discrimination a crime.
The attached editorial from Collier's Magazine applauded the President for doing the right thing:
"For our money, the President's finest single act in the national emergency to date is his loud-voiced demand for an end to all racial discrimination in hiring workers for the defense industries."
The primary political force behind this mandate was a group that was popularly known as "the Black Brain Trust''...
''A Message to the White Collar Class'' (Pic Magazine, 1941)A very self-conscious column regarding the American class structure.
The German Eastward Thrust (PM Tabloid 1941)"Sub-surface evidence that the war on the Russian Front is going into a more crucial phase is mounting... if the present German drive achieves the bulk of its objectives, the Russians will have had some of their resistance power taken away from them. They will not have quite the same communications, the same supply facilities or the same freedom of movement they have had to work with thus far."
-what the Heck was PM Tabloid? click here and find out...
The WPA Symphony Orchestras (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)This article lays out the enormity of the WPA Music Projects in the City of New York during 1941 - "It sponsors the most extensive musical organization ever assembled in one city: two symphony and eight dance orchestras, two bands, two choral groups and three ensemble employing some 500 musicians, not to mention 96 music centers with 188 teachers instructing 22,000 students." The Earliest Days of Training (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)"Up by bugle at 5:45 in subfreezing temperature. Breakfast - boiled oatmeal, French toast and syrup, toast, jam, coffee. At 7:30 began 'psychological test' for mental alertness (typical question: An orange is a broom, bat, flower, or fruit?). Received complete uniforms. Try-on period after lunch resulted in many misfits, much swapping and revival of old crack about there being only two sizes in the Army - too big and too small..."
Click here to read about what was involved in training a WAAC. A Clinic On The Move (Pic Magazine, 1941)Call it what you will - socialized medicine, the public largess or the community chest, it makes no difference, but let it be known that in the late Thirties the elders who presided over Shelby County, Tennessee, recognized that some measure of TLC was required in their dominion, and so they bought a big bus and stuffed it full of 12 nurses and a physician. The leading African-American doctors in the area were also instrumental in the creation of this behemoth - which was created to contain syphilis in Shelby County. Thoughts on the American Films of 1941 (Direction Magazine, 1941)Here is a film review from DIRECTION MAGAZINE that discussed many of the forthcoming movies of 1941 and how they so rarely depict American culture in an accurate light: "In bringing back the usual revelations from a trip through the Middle West, I want to repeat the oft-declared amazement that American films... reflect the barest minimum of the American scene in these United States. The rare attempts of the "Grapes of Wrath" and "Primrose Path" to seek and show new dramatic settings, are the exceptions that prove the rule of formula."
Many of the American films of 1941 are listed herein and the article can be printed. The Birth of American Parachute Infantry (The American Magazine, 1941)Here is an account of the earliest days of the paratrooper branch of the U.S. Army. It is told by a man who claims the unique distinction of being the first volunteer to be recruited into the organization, Captain William T. Ryder (1913 - 1992). At this point in history the word paratrooper was not is use - the author uses the term "jump-fighter", instead. The German Paratroopers (Collier's Magazine, 1941)This 1941 article lays out the brief history of airborne infantry before the author begins to recall the origins, training and victories of the W.W. II German paratroopers:
"The origin of parachute usage in warfare is obscure. They were extensively employed in the Great war to land spies and saboteurs. It is also of record that in 1917 General [Billy] Mitchell tried to persuade General Pershing to permit him to form an experimental troop of parachute fighters. Thus Mitchell was probably the first man professionally to express the notion of paratroopers... It was in 1935 that Hitler ordered Goering to organize paratroopers...[In Germany] the parasoldier is an object of curiosity to the elders, of envy to the youth. He is bound to be questioned and bound to do a sales job in educating the public, as you would say." Celebutantes & GIs (Pic Magazine, 1941)They're not with the U.S.O. but the barracks-happy GIs were delighted to see them just the same. Explaining the Need for the USO (Spot Magazine, 1941)This article said it all honestly and without flowery metaphors - plainly stating the facts that if American military personnel were not provided some wholesome distractions, they would simply loiter around barrooms and whorehouses during their leisure time and become a drag on society. ''Workingman's War'' (Collier's Magazine, 1941)This 1941 Collier's article looks at the British working class during the Blitz on London. Numerous men and women were interviewed concerning their aspirations and hopes for the post-war world. Much is written about the 300 free kitchens that were placed throughout London to accommodate them as well as the free schools that were instituted to train war plant workers how to use the various machines needed to create the necessary war materinél.
"Hitler isn't making war against capitalism, as he says he is. He's not the great proletarian he brags he is, but is instead deliberately bombing civilians, their schools, churches, homes and hospitals in order to throw the civilian population into despair and terror. Well, he has failed." The Partisan War (PM Tabloid, 1941)"A Red Army officer, who said the German Army was being constantly harassed behind its lines by partizan activities and guerilla warfare, told me details of a number of recent incidents in White Russia. He said almost every village in German-occupied territory had supplied one or more groups of partizans who lived in the woods and used every opportunity to waylay detachments of infantry patrols and tanks." Men's Suits in the Summer of 1941 (Collier's Magazine, 1941)If you've been wondering what the stylish Yankee beaus of yore used to wear during the Summer of 1941 when they plopped themselves down to read about the British occupation of Syria or the Nazi siege of Leningrad, then you can stop looking because we have the article right here - it is the summer fashion forecast from COLLIER'S MAGAZINE of May 24, 1941 - illustrated with no fewer than three color images:
"The newest color for vacation clothes is parchment, one of the natural tan shades. Don't be afraid that you'll look like a member of the street-cleaning department in a white linen suit. Even the Duke of Windsor wears one. It is ideal for vacation wear, as the jacket may be worn with colored slacks, the trousers with other light weight jackets.... For week-end and vacation wear you can choose from tropical worsteds, Palm Beach cloth, tropical weight flannels, linen, seersucker and tropical weight tweeds."
Her Arrival (American Magazine, 1941)An article that celebrated the well-received performance of Diana Barrymore in her stage debut in the New York play, The Romantic Mr. Dickens:
"The critics marshaled such adjectives as 'vibrant,' 'vivid,' 'beautiful', and 'confident' to describe the 'best Barrymore debut in years.'"
College Fashion (Look Magazine, 1941)Dusty, Peggy and Jean were just three of the co-eds that made up the six percent of American women who attended college in 1941 - and that's all that was required of them in order for the trio to sample fashion's latest wares and sound-off in the attached Fall fashion review. Go figure.
The Pilots War (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)Reviewed anonymously in the attached column are two books, I Was a Nazi Flyer, the diary of Gottfried Leske, and The Airmen Speak, which is a compilation of war stories told by assorted RAF pilots.
One Tough New York City Cop (Collier's Magazine, 1941)"Few Times Square tourists recognize Johnny Broderick, but New York mobsters cringe at the mention of his name. Meet Broadway's one-man riot squad in his own bailiwick, where the lights are brightest."
The words and deeds of Johnny Broderick were so widely known that visiting politicians would request that he take charge of their security details and the broadcasting moguls wanted to make radio shows celebrating his daring-do. His round-house punch was known far and wide; cops like this one do not come along too often. Propaganda Radio (Direction Magazine, 1941)This magazine article first appeared on American newsstands during February of 1941; at that time the U.S. was ten months away from even considering that W.W. II was an American cause worthy of Yankee blood and treasure; yet, the journalist who penned the attached column believed that American radio audiences were steadily fed programming designed to win them over to the interventionist corner. He believed that it was rare for isolationists to ever be granted time before the microphones and quite common for newscasters to linger a bit longer on any news item that listed the hardships in France and Britain. Objectivity was also missing in matters involving the broadcasting of popular song:
The morning after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor President Roosevelt stood before the microphones in the well of the U.S. Capitol and became the first president to ever broadcast a declaration of war; CLICK HERE to hear about the reactions of the American public during his broadcast...
America's Hemispheric Allies Declare War Before FDR (PM Tabloid, 1941) A Monopoly on Radio Talent? (Pic Magazine, 1941)This article will cue you in to a 1941 dust-up between the FCC and the biggest radio broadcasters in America. Apparently CBS, NBC and the Mutual Broadcasting System were in cahoots, united behind a scheme to fix the prices they had to cough-up in order to pay all the various assorted musicians and acting talents they needed to hire if they were to attract their radio audiences. The feds got wind of the plan and smelled a rat: "The big radio networks are currently worried by the Federal Communication Commission's accusation that they are talent monopolists, part of the FCC's blanket charge that the radio chains constitute a trust within the broadcasting industry..." In Search of the Average New Yorker (Coronet Magazine, 1941)A well-known writer consulted many different sources about that rarest of species, the New Yorker - he came away with these many different replies:
"Yeah. New Yorkers are suckers, all right. They think they are so much smarter than anybody else, but they're the biggest suckers of them all." America Prepares... (Pathfinder Magazine, 1941)By late November, 1941, only children and the clinically optimistic were of the mind that America would be able to keep out of a war - as you'll be able to assume when you read the attached article that appeared on the newsstands just ten days before the attack on Pearl Harbor. One Editor's Obsession (Pic Magazine, 1941)It seemed to have made no difference to the editors of PIC MAGAZINE how dark and thick the clouds of war were that encircled the United States one month prior to the Pearl Harbor attack - they ran yet another puff piece on Jane Russell five months after they had published their last puff piece on Jane Russell. Harry Hopkins and Stalin (The American Magazine, 1941)Bromance was in the air when Harry Hopkins (1890 - 1946) went to Moscow to meet Joseph Stalin (1876 - 1953) for their second meeting:
"He shook my hand briefly, firmly, courteously. He smiled warmly. There was no waste of word, gesture, nor mannerism. It was like talking to a perfectly coordinated machine, an intelligent machine. Joseph Stalin knew what he wanted, knew what Russia wanted and he assumed that you knew."
Mic-drop. 100 Years of Punch (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)This article was written to mark the 100th anniversary of Punch and in so doing gives a very pithy history of the magazine and its editorial mission:
"Yet, as a true chronicler of the times, Punch's volumes read more like a century-long history of England, and the magazine is never more on its mettle than during periods of crisis." • A 1962 Film Clip About Punch • The French Army in Africa (The Commonweal, 1941)Attached is a history article concerning the various organizations that made up the French Colonial Army in Africa:
"Before and during the World War, all the different races serving in the French Army were excellently officered by subalterns and non-coms born in North Africa, but of European ancestry: by sons of immigrated colonists of French, Spanish and Italian extraction."
"The late Marshal Lyautey used to say of these sons of European settlers: 'Their knowledge of the ways of the natives is priceless, because they have assimilated it from childhood. In the native regiments, they constitute a human concrete, which keeps together men of antagonistic races and beliefs'
Integrating the Home Front (Collier's Magazine 1941)Although the Roosevelt administration believed that integrating the armed forces was far too risky a proposition during wartime, it did take one important step to insure that fair hiring practices were followed by all businesses that held defense contracts with the Federal government; during the summer of 1941, while American industry was still fulfilling its roll as "the arsenal of democracy", a Federal law was passed that criminalized racist hiring practices. The attached editorial from Collier's Magazine applauded the President for doing the right thing.
During the war, the British working people had tremendous admiration for FDR - you can read about that here
Silk Disappears From The Shelves (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)Five months before The United States entered the war, the government in Washington had foresight enough to remove silk from the consumer market. Silk would be badly needed for the manufacturing of parachutes and gunpowder bags.
More about silk on the W.W. II home front can be read here...
Capturing The Largest Nazi Spy Ring (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)"Following swiftly on the smashing of a spy ring in this country, a Federal grand jury in Brooklyn, N.Y., last week leveled a unique indictment at the government of Nazi Germany: it baldly accused the Third Reich of conducting, in ten countries stretching from Peru to China, a worldwide espionage plot directed against the United States."
J. Edgar Hoover tells how this ring was broken up in this 1951 article...
Life Under Siege (Collier's Magazine, 1941)Here is an account of life during the Blitz, as written by sculptor Clare Sheridan (née Frewen; 1885 – 1970):
"I have from the very beginning put [poison] gas out of my thoughts and refused to carry a gas mask. But in a mad world growing madder daily who knows what the madmen may not resort to!... According to the gas booklet, the stuff will come through the window clacks, under the door and down the chimney." The Radio Facsimile Transmitter (Spot Magazine, 1941)Throughout the course of the Second World War the Radio Facsimile Transmitter (Radio Fax) was used by the Allied Armies to transmit maps, orders and weather charts across God's vast oceans. War correspondents used the technology to transmit articles and images to their editors. 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.
Comprehending the Afterlife (Coronet Magazine, 1941)The attached article is by novelist Richard DeWitt Miller (1910 – 1958) who assembled a number of anecdotes and first-hand accounts from people of various backgrounds who had all experienced singularly unique moments in their lives that were unworldly; happenings that could only serve as evidence that there exists a life after this one.
The German Resistance (Coronet Magazine, 1941)"The Free German Movement is vigorously gnawing away at the very roots of Naziism with teeth filed to needle sharpness. Our organizations are fighting Hitler, at home or in South America with his own weapons. We have consolidated earlier gains against Hitler with important new gains."
So wrote Dr. Otto Strasser (1897 – 1974) who oversaw the Free German Movement, the Black Front and other Nazi resistance organizations. He must have been pretty effective, the Nazis put a half-million dollar price on his head. American Indians Step Up - Again (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)"...And last week the Office of Indian Affairs, reporting results of a sampling of 26 out of 80 Indian jurisdictions, revealed that out of 7,407 Selective Service registrants, 547 had already volunteered against 37 actually drafted - a ratio of 15 volunteers for each draftee." The Thinking of Buckminster Fuller (Coronet Magazine, 1941)Bereft of all but one illustration, this five page article delves into the design philosophy of the architect Buckminster Fuller (1895 – 1983) - who was very fond of the word "dymaxion":
"Fuller argues that the social function of machinery is to eliminate the unpleasant phases of life in the shortest possible space of time. Housing, or 'shelter' as he prefers to call it, should be, fundamentally, 'a machine for living.'" 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. Ralph Ellison on Richard Wright Among Others... (Direction Magazine, 1941)Printed just twelve years before he would receive a National Book Award for his tour de force, The Invisible Man, celebrated wordsmith Ralph Ellison (1914 – 1994) wrote this review of "Negro fiction" for a short-lived but informed arts magazine in which he rolled out some deep thoughts regarding Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, Arna Bontemps, Zora Neil Hurston and assorted other ink-slingers of African descent: "It is no accident that the two most advanced Negro writers, Langston Hughes and Richard Wright, have been men who have enjoyed freedom of association with advanced white writers; nor is it accidental that they have had the greatest effect upon Negro life."
Click here to read a 1929 book review by Langston Hughes.
CLICK HERE to read about African-Americans during the Great Depression.
A Patriotic Argument for Shorter Skirts (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)Months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Washington was gearing-up for the fight by restricting the availability of certain fabrics to the fashion industry and diverting these materials to the defense industry. This started an open discussion in fashion circles as to whether it would simply be best to raise the hemlines until the national emergency was over.
"The Fashion Originators Guild termed shorter skirts silly and added that dresses 'are just as short today as decency and grace will permit." Britain Executes Two Spies (PM Tabloid, 1941)"They were landed off the Branffshire coast by a German seaplane and rowed ashore in a rubber boat in darkness.
Both were arrested a few hours later. Both had pistols, large sums of British currency, food and radio transmitting and receiving apparatus." 1941 Fashion (PM Tabloid, 1941)Eleven months before America's entry into the war found sailor suits playing a heavy role in the thought processes of the Great American Fashion Designers.
Click here to read about the military influence on W.W. I fashion... Alternative Lyrics for the National Anthem (Pathfinder, 1941)Do you fail to recall the words to our national anthem time and again? You're not alone - a quick glance at Google's records indicate that in the silence of their rooms, thousands of your fellow Americans suffer from the same malady (and smirk at others who make their memory loss public). To say that the Americans of today are not as patriotic as they used to be is an understatement to be sure - but some of you will no doubt be relieved to know that the Americans of yore, vintage 1941, didn't know the lyrics to The Star Spangled Banner any better than we do - as you can tell by the attached verses which were penned over seventy years ago about his fellow Americans and their inability to keep the words of Francis Scott Key in their heads.
The Czar's Paper (Coronet Magazine, 1941)This is the story of a news daily that was published between the years 1894 and 1917 and its entire readership could be counted with one finger,the subscriber's name was Czar Nicholas II of Russia. This unique periodical employed hundreds of correspondents (both foreign and domestic), and although only one printing of each issue was ever run, it cost the Russian taxpayers more than $40,000.00 a day to maintain.
Click here to read another article about the Czar.
Model Children (Coronet Magazine, 1941)The children whose pictures you see on the advertising pages of national magazines often launch their careers when they are scarcely larger than their social security numbers. Blonde or brunette, freckled or glamorous, these famous boys and girls help sell you everything from automobiles to safety pins. As accustomed to to a camera as a top-flight movie star, they enjoy their work partly because it satisfies their fondness for 'make-believe'.
"Nice work if you can get it. But the maestros of the modeling agencies, John Robert Powers and Harry Conover, emphasize the fact that finding juvenile models is a difficult assignment".
Living Under the Bombs (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)Here is one of the reviews of Pattern of Conquest , a book by Joseph C. Harsch (1905 – 1998) - a CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR correspondent who had been posted to Germany during the earliest years of the war:
"Harsch says that German morale is 'fundamentally unsound' however, and that it took a bad beating when the RAF first bombed Berlin, which Marshal Goering had said would happen only 'over his dead body'. ('Have you heard the news?' Berliners asked each other, after the first raids. 'Goering's dead.')"
Click here to read about the 1943 bombing campaign against Germany.
The Church in Occupied Norway (Newsweek Magazine, 1941) The Anderson Family History (Coronet Magazine, 1941)Statistically, "Anderson" is the the 12th most common surname in the United States and there are 894,704 Americans who bare this last name. The name stems from two sources: Scottish and Scandinavian. Both are derived from the Greek word Andreas, which means strong, manly or courageous.
In America today there are many Andersons high in achievement, some of them still spelling their name Andersen, who were born in Sweden, Norway or Denmark. This article broadly outlines the great and famous Andersons, the ones who have walked the halls of Congress, thrived in business, written the books, preached from the pulpits and fought the wars.
Oddly, very little column space is devoted to the infamous Andersons (ie. Confederate thug "Bloody Bill" Anderson).
The most common last name in the English speaking world (except Canada) is "Smith" - read about it...
Reporter Under Fire (PM Tabloid, 1941)CBS war correspondent Betty Wason (1912 - 2001) reported in a very chatty way about how the war was proceeding along the shores of the Southern Mediterranean Sea. Of particular interest was her observation regarding how thoroughly lame the Italian Army appeared to their opposite numbers in the Albanian Army. Rather than eliciting feelings of dread and hatred, the Italian soldiers were pitied for their poor skills - their bodies were plentiful on every battlefield. New Deal Price Controls (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)This article appeared six months before the 77th Congress passed a price control law as a wartime measure in an attempt to stave off inflation. The column pertains to the early planning of a wartime economy as the nation prepared to devote itself to total war. You'll remember that the Supreme Court found FDR's price control schemes (the NRA) to be unconstitutional during the Thirties. Regardless of their efforts, inflation still kicked-in after the war, up until the Republican Congress cut taxes. His Mail (Spot Magazine, 1941)Unlike his many predecessors, FDR used to encourage the American people to write him with their thoughts. At times, the President used to boast to Congress concerning the volume of his mail in favor of his programs, but the mails did not simply deliver stamped envelopes:
"Almost anything you can think of has arrived as a gift at some time or another - dogs, sheep, eagles, baby chicks, toads, alligators. Mr. Roosevelt has never received any lions, but Calvin Coolidge got two, from Johannesburg..." Jane Russell Sur la Plage... (Pic Magazine, 1941)When these eight pictures of Hollywood actress Jane Russell (1921 - 2012) were snapped in the spring of 1941, she wasn't up to much. She was studying acting at Max Reinhardt's Theatrical Workshop in Los Angeles and more than likely waiting for her seven year contract with Howard Hughes to expire. The film that she'd made with him the previous year, The Outlaw, would not [be widely] distributed for some time and so we imagine that she jumped at the chance to put on a bathing suit and clown around on the beach when she got the call from the boys at PIC MAGAZINE. With the onslaught of the Second World War, she would be doing much of the same sort of posing for the pin-up photographers.
In the attached photo-essay, the PIC editors went out on a limb and called her "one of America's greatest beauties". ••Is it me, or was she really bad in THE OUTLAW - watch some of her clips from that highly unimpressive 1943 movie•• Christian Science Churches Closed (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)During the summer of 1941, the Nazis closed all nine of the Christian Science churches in the city of Berlin.
 ''America's No. 1 Negro'' (The American Magazine, 1941)Paul Robeson (1898 – 1976) was a multi-talented man and this article lays it all out.
"Paul Robeson thinks of himself as conclusive proof that there is no such thing as a backward race. Given a few generations of equal opportunities, he believes, any people - Eskimos, Malayans, Fijians or the Untouchables of India - can produce as talented statesmen, scientists, educators, inventors and artists as the whites." W.W. II-Era Immigrants and Americanization (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)"Convinced that the best way to combat fifth columnists is to teach aliens how to become good citizens, the Department of Justice announced a $14,000,000 program to expand Works Projects Administration classes in 'Americanization'..." German Submarines in American Waters (Coronet Magazine, 1941)This article is composed of a couple of paragraphs recalling the damages caused to American shipping as a result of the U-Boat menace on the East Coast of the United States during the First World War. Written at a time when the U.S. was once again having to deal with the same threat, this time by Admiral Karl Dönitz (1891 – 1980), the journalist wished that Henry J. James, the author of German Subs In Yankee Waters
be properly credited for having devised many of the more successful countermeasures. Civil Defense Insignias (The American Magazine, 1941)"Here are the sleeve insignia by which you can identify the various groups of U.S. Civilian Defense Workers - men and women, boys and girls, who volunteer for home duty to protect you in war [emergencies]" The Show-Biz Blood of Cecil B. DeMille (Pic Magazine, 1941)"At the age of 63, after 44 years in show business, Cecil B. De Mille is still producing. He can't stop and he probably never will. He is first, last and all the time a showman. The show business is in his blood, and whether he is on a set or taking his leisure at home, his heart and mind are in the theater. He loves to have people around him so that he can play a part, for consciously or unconsciously, he is always acting... C.B.'s father was an actor and playwright, and later a partner of David Belasco. His mother was an actress, and later a very successful play agent."
The article goes into more depth outlining De Mille various triumphs in silent film and his work on The Squaw Man . The Wunderkind: Orson Welles (Direction Magazine, 1941)his brief notice is from a much admired American magazine containing many sweet words regarding the unstoppable Orson Welles (1915 - 1985) and his appearance in the Archibald McLeish (1892 – 1982) play, Panic (directed by John Houseman, 1902 — 1988). The year 1941, Ano Domini, was another great year for the "boy genius" who seemed to effortlessly triumph with all his theatrical and film ventures. At the time this appeared in print, Welles was filming The Magnificent Ambersons, having recently pocketed an Oscar for his collaborative writing efforts in Citizen Cane. Highly accomplished and multi-married, no study of American entertainment is complete without mention of his name. The anonymous scribe who penned the attached article remarked: "No pretentiously shy Saroyan courtship of an audience about Welles! He really loves his relation to the public. He doesn't flirt with it." An Anti-Discrimination Law on the Home Front (Collier's Magazine, 1941)Inasmuch as the Roosevelt administration believed that the integration the armed forces was far too risky a proposition during wartime, it did take steps to insure that fair hiring practices were observed by all industries that held defense contracts with the Federal government; during the summer of 1941 a law was passed making such discrimination a crime.
The attached editorial from Collier's Magazine applauded the President for doing the right thing.
Cecil B. DeMille Tries his Hand at Radio
(Pic Magazine, 1941)"At the age of 63, after 44 years in show business, and ten years as director of the Lux Radio Theater , Cecil B. De Mille is still producing. He can't stop and he probably never will. He is first, last and all the time a showman. The show business is in his blood, and whether he is on a set or taking his leisure at home, his heart and mind are in the theater. He loves to have people around him so that he can play a part, for consciously or unconsciously, he is always acting... C.B.'s father was an actor and playwright, and later a partner of David Belasco. His mother was an actress, and later a very successful play agent."
Novelty ''Victory Fashion'' Makes An Appearance (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)It's hard to believe - but "Victory Fashion" hit the American home front before it was even called the "home front". However by mid-1941 Americans were pretty outraged by fascist aggression: the U-boats, London bombed, Nanking ravaged, France invaded - the list goes on. When this article went to press, we were not in the war but we were firmly on the Allied side. The word "victory" made its way into fashion circles and the nation's couturiers began turning out novelty accessories and garments. Even the hairdressers contributed.
The General Who Failed France (Coronet Magazine, 1941)General Maxime Weygand (1867 – 1965) is remembered as the French military commander who allowed himself to be out-maneuvered and out-generaled when France was invaded by the German Army in May of 1940. The Battle for France lasted roughly 42 days before Weygrand's forces collapsed.
Click here to read about the German concept of Blitzkrieg.
Proclamation Number 2525 (U.S. Government Document, 1941)Signed by President Roosevelt on December 7, 1941, Proclamation 2525 enabled the U.S. government to relocate anyone it chose from all areas believed to be of military value.
"...the President makes public proclamation of the event, all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of of the hostile nation or government, being of the age of fourteen years and upward, who shall be within the United States and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as alien enemies."
Native Contributions to Latin American Arts (Direction Magazine, 1941)This column by Andrés Iduarte (1907 - 1984) addressed the popularity of Los Indios in the arts of Latin America throughout the 1930s. What came to be known as "the pro-Indian movement" in the U.S. of the 1960s was a political development in the counter-culture of that era, but thirty years earlier it was a trend in the arts of Latin America. Andrés Iduarte covered the contributions of painters, poets, novelists and sculptors who were all of Native descent south of the Rio Grande (FYI: Brazil is not mentioned in this article). Black-Owned Businesses and the War Effort (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)Eight months before the American entry to the war, FDR's Commerce Department Office turned its attention to the thousands of Black-owned businesses throughout the country in order to help maximize their profits and bring them into the wartime economy. The Arsenal of Democracy Kicks-In (Newsweek Magazine, 1941) The Soviets Bombed Berlin, Too (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)This Newsweek article reported on the first Red Air Force bombing raid on the city of Berlin (August 11, 1941). The Soviets kept the pressure up for a few more weeks until their airfield was overrun in September. The John Powers Modeling Agency (Coronet Magazine, 1941)"They sip your favorite coffee, drive your dream car, display the latest fashions, show you how to cook a waffle: they are potent forces in the scheme of American advertising. Their faces and figures adorn the covers of countless magazines...often they develop into stars of the cinema. They come from all over America to an office on Park Avenue, New York, where a quiet, discerning man named John Robert Powers appraises their charms and schools them for the job of selling sables to society or groceries to the great American housewife."
Beginning in the mid-Twenties and spanning the years leading up to the late Forties, John Robert Powers (1892 - 1977) created and maintained the first modeling agency in New York City (if not the world) and during the Forties, the Powers Agency grossed over five million dollars a year. Attached are nine photos of the most popular fashion models he represented in 1941; a unique breed of woman known at the time as "Powers girls".
Charlie Chaplin's Credo (Direction Magazine, 1941)"This, the much-discussed final speech in The Great Dictator, is more than a climax and conclusion to Chaplin's newest film, it is a statement of Chaplin's belief in humanity, a belief in which his creative powers and artistic development are deeply rooted."
"Hope...I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone, if possible -Jew, Gentile -black man -white."
Big Bandleader Cab Calloway (Coronet Magazine, 1941)The attached six page article about Cab Calloway (1907 – 1994) makes no mention whatever of the three movies he had appeared in prior to 1941, but it answers many other questions you might have had about the musician's first thirty-one years.
What is Boogie-Woogie? (The Clipper, 1941)A 1941 article by the screenwriting, piano playing novelist Eliot Paul (1891-1958) who put-forth a sincere effort to define that popular 1940s music known as "Boogie-Woogie". Paul went to great lengths explaining the roots of Boogie-Woogie, the origin of the term and the finest performers and composers of the music: "First, one can say that Boogie-Woogie is an authentic, soul-satisfying genre of piano music, native to America and for which America is indebted to the Negro people...If you ask Al Ammons (1907 — 1949), one of the foremost exponets of boogie-woogie, what boogie-woogie is, he would smile, his eyes would light up, and probably he would say: 'Man! It scares you' -and it does. There are deep reasons why it tugs at our memories and slumbering instincts." | 
, a book by Joseph C. Harsch (1905 – 1998) - a CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR correspondent who had been posted to Germany during the earliest years of the war: