John Cage (The American Magazine, 1942) Art on the Home Front (Rob Wagner's Script Magazine, 1942)The United States had only been committed to the Second World War for twenty weeks when the American artist Rockwell Kent (1882 1971) felt compelled to write about the unique roll artist are called upon to play within a democracy at war:
"The art of a democracy must be, like democracy itself, of and by and for the people. It must and will reflect the public mood and public interest...Awareness of America, of its infinitely varied beauties and of its sometimes sordid ugliness; awareness of the life of America, of its fulfillments and its failures; awareness, if you like, of God, the landscape architect supreme - and political failure: of the promise of America and of its problems, art has been, or has aimed to be, a revelation. It is for the right to solve these problems our way that we are now at war." Fort Des Moines (Liberty Magazine, 1942)"When recruits in the new Women's Army Auxiliary Corps - commonly dubbed WAACS - reported for training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, women for the first time in American history became members of Uncle Sam's Army."
(The title concerning "the first woman in the Uncle Sam's Army" is believed to go to a lass named Deborah Sampson who served in George Washington's army in 1781, under the name "Robert Shurtliff".) Soviets Hold Their Reserves for Stalingrad (PM Tabloid, 1942)"The Russians undoubtedly have a reserve army that they are waiting to throw in at a moment that a counter-offensive would be of greatest value. Tne Nazis haven't crippled the southern army. Except at Voronezh, where it has made a stand costing the Germns thousands of men and hundreds of tanks, the Red Army has been falling back in good order." What Hitler Wanted (Omnibooks Magazine, 1942)Hearst reporter H.R. Knickerbocker (1898 1949) had been closely watching Hitler since 1923 and pointed out that on April 29, 1941 the Axis forces had printed a "trial balloon" on the pages of the JAPAN TIMES ADVERTISER that clearly indicated the peace terms that were acceptable to the Nazis. Attached is Knickerbocker's outline of this proposal, as well as the correspondent's astute commentary that he had prepared for his 1942 bestseller, Is Tomorrow Hitler's?
From Amazon: Is Tomorrow Hitler's? :
The German economist who made the Reich's rearmament possible was named Hjalmar Schacht, click here to read about him...
Under-Age Workers Step-Up (PM Tabloid, 1942)The National Youth Administration (NYA) was established in 1935 as one of FDR's many alphabet agencies created to alleviate the sting of the Great Depression; it was tasked with providing work and education for young Americans between the ages of 16 through 25. By the time World War II kicked -in, many in Congress felt it was time to do away with the organization, but as this article spells out, NYA members could now be put to work in the defense plants.
Click here to read about the travails of young adults during the Great Depression.
Richard Wright on the Black Home Front (Coronet Magazine, 1942)Black author Richard Wright (1908 1960) clearly delineated for the readers of Coronet why African American participation in W.W. II was of great importance to the Black community. Americans ♥ Winston Churchill (Collier's Magazine, 1942)Shortly after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a solemn visit to the White House in order to plot the course of the war with FDR. The affect that the Prime Minister impressed upon the average American was profound and was soon made manifest in the form of innumerable gifts that began descending upon the White House addressed to him. An unsigned editorial in Collier's Magazine noticed the event and remarked:
"If we hadn't liked Mr. Churchill immensely from the moment he arrived here, none of us would have sent him anything. The size and variety of this shower of gifts are the best measure of the terrific hit he made with all kinds and conditions of Americans."
Walt Disney's Artists and the Making of 'Bambi' (Collier's Magazine, 1942)For the production of "Snow White" (1938), the Disney artists had gone to great lengths in order to properly portray the manner in which young women move; these efforts were rewarded at the box-office to such a high degree that the same devotion was applied to the study of deer anatomy in their efforts to create "Bambi" (1942). "We had to remember, that Disney has a ruthless fidelity to the physical scene, to the truth of nature, even when he may seem to be distorting nature." Click here to read more articles about Disney animation. Asking Important Questions (The Pittsburgh Courier, 1942)"Should I sacrifice my life to live half American? Will things be better for the next generation [of colored Americans] in the peace to follow? Would it be demanding too much to demand full citizenship rights in ex- change for the sacrificing of my life?" Brazil Declares War on the Axis (Click Magazine, 1942)The government of Brazil declared war on Hitler's Germany on August 22, 1942, and you'd best believe that the over-paid photographers of Click Magazine were Johnny-on-the-spot to document all the joyous mayhem that let loose on those flag-strewn boulevards of the Brazilian capitol:
"Brazilians are fighting mad. When Brazil joined the United Nations in war on August 22nd, the formal declaration was a climax to the democratic action of its citizens who began, months ago, to let the world know how they felt about the Axis."
"The pent-up rage of a sorely-tried nation burst in earnest when war was declared. With unanimous enthusiasm, the people mobbed the streets, cheering everything that was part of the Allied cause...Day after day, anti-fascist demonstrations, and pageants choked the streets of Rio de Janiero, where the pictures on this page were taken." Allied Air Power Succeeded (Collier's Magazine, 1942)"[If not for the Allied air forces] Rommel might have reached his objectives - Alexandria, Cairo and Suez - had he not been able to plow through to the Nile Delta where he could resume his favorite kind of military football. He might have reached the flat, broad, green cool plains of the Delta had he been able to bring up water, food, fuel and reinforcements in men and weapons. It was precisely that which air power prevented..." FDR in W.W. I (Liberty Magazine, 1942)Between the years 1913 through 1920, FDR served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy under Josephus Daniels:
"Roosevelt had not been in office a month before he gave out a public statement urging a more adequate navy:"
"'The navy is not fit for war. We have today only sixteen ships we can send effectively against the first line of the enemy.'" Distributing Women Throughout Industry (The American Magazine, 1942)One of the seldom remembered branches of the War Production Board was the Women's Labor Supply Services which served to eradicate the various draft deferments that were keeping too many men out of the military. Thelma McKelvey was the woman in charge of this body:
"This captain of industry expects to see women workers in factories and farms increase from 700,000 today to 4,000,000 by mid-1943."
Women In The War Effort (PM Tabloid, 1942)Eight months into America's entry into the war came this article from PM reporting the War Manpower Commission and their data as to how many American women up to that point had stepped up to contribute their labor to the war effort (over 1,500,000):
"Women have been found to excel men in jobs requiring repetitive skill, finger dexterity and accuracy. They're the equals of men in a number of other jobs. A U.S. Employment Service has indicated women can do 80 percent of the jobs now done by men."
Stalingrad Turns in Favor of Reds (PM Tabloid, 1942)"At Stalingrad the initiative appears to be slowly shifting into the hands of the Russians...The Russian attack was reported to be growing in vigor and German counterthrusts were repulsed with heavy losses...German losses in the hand-to-hand street fightings were reported by prisoners to run as high as 70 percent in some regiments."
The Zoot Suit (Newsweek Magazine, 1942)This article tells of the origin and fast times of the zoot suit. Although the garment was popularized by Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles, it had it's origins in Harlem, New York, where it was known as the "root suit". ''Box Office Man No. 1 (Liberty Magazine, 1942)In 1940 Mickey Rooney (nι Joe Yule, Jr.: b. 1920 - 2014) had replaced Shirley Temple as the number one box-office draw, after having steadily performed before the cameras from the age of six onward. Rooney had been jockeying for first place since he began playing the title roll in the Andy Hardy films just two and a half years earlier. With the onslaught of the Second World War the sands of Hollywood shifted beneath his feet, creating a plethora of new stars and the need for different sorts of films - from that point on he only appeared in supporting rolls. In 1982 Rooney remarked:
"When I was 19 years old, I was the number one star of the world for two years. When I was 40, nobody wanted me. I couldn't get a job." Rommel Returned to Where he Began (PM Tabloid, 1942)"Marshal Erwin Rommel's Axis forces in Egypt have been beaten back by British guns and planes. A Cairo communique said yesterday that the German armored divisions had retreated west of the British minefields to the starting line of his offensive which opened a week ago... Captured Axis prisoner disclosed how Rommel had touched off the offensive last Monday with a proclamation to his men that "we are off to Cairo.'" ''Hollywood Hangout'' (The American Magazine, 1942)Schwab's Pharmacy was like many other well-heeled American pharmacies of the Forties - it filled prescriptions, sold cigars, served three squares a day at their counter and cracked-wise with the clientele. What made it different was that many of the customers were among the most glam movie stars of the time. Located on Sunset Boulevard, west of Hollywood, in an area known as Sherman:
"It's the one place in Hollywood where screen biggies like Robert Taylor, Gene Tierney and Marlene Dietrich drop in and out all day and make themselves at home." Savoia Marchette SM 82: Italian Transport and Bomber (Alertman, 1942)The Savoia Marchetti SM 82 "Canguru" was a triple engine transport aircraft that was also put to use as a bomber. Produced by the Italians, it was additionally used by their German allies and was capable of seating 40 fully-equipped soldiers comfortably or 51 fully-equipped soldiers uncomfortably. At the time this article appeared, this long-range transport was being used to shuffle German and Italian soldiers to the collapsing fronts in North Africa. Why France Fell (Omnibooks Magazine, 1942)On assignment for the Hearst papers, H.R. Knickerbocker (1898 1949) witnessed the total collapse of the French Army. He made his observations and conclusions available to American readers in his 1941 book Is Tomorrow Hitler's?, which hit the bookshops shortly after Pearl Harbor.
"If [The French] had ignored their low birth rate, been willing to spend lives, had retained the old offensive spirit traditional in the French Army, had known that they had to win or perish, had a Churchill to inspire and lead them, and had no traitors in their ranks, their comparative lack of weapons would not have mattered; they would still be fighting the Germans in France."
Click here to read the observations of U.S. Army Lieutenant Louis L'Amour concerning 1946 Paris.
Another article about a French general who collaborated with the Nazis can be read here...
Red Drive Toward Rostov (PM Tabloid, 1942)"The Red Army crossed the Don River at three points and advanced spearheads upwards of ten miles to the south of the Stalingrad Axis seige army, threatening it with more strict encirclement and at the time moving the key city of Caucacus. Moscow dispatches stressed the importance of this action which apparently swings a considerable weight along the railroad toward Rostov." Guadalcanal (Newsweek Magazine, 1942)The Battle of Guadalcanal (August 7, 1942 February 9, 1943) was the first major land offensive by Allied forces against the Japanese. When this article went to press, the American military presence on the island was exactly one month old; it was at this point that the Marines sought to outmaneuver the enemy by conducting an additional amphibious landing on the north side of the island where "They found that except for a few snipers, the Japanese had scampered to the hills."
Click here to read about a Kamikaze attack like no other...
Nighttime Tank Battle (PM Tabloid, 1942)Canadian war correspondent M.H. Halton reported from the Egyptian desert concerning "one of modern war's most dramatic spectacles - [a] battle of tanks in the dark." Women Behind the Guns (Assorted Magazines, 1942)When it became clear to the employers on the American home front that there was going to be a shortage of men, their attention turned to a portion of the labor pool who had seldom been allowed to prove their mettle: they were called women. This article recalls those heady days at the U.S. Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground when local women were trained to fire enormous artillery pieces in order that the Army weapons specialists understand the gun's capabilities. This column primarily concerns the delight on all the men's faces when it was discovered that women were able to perform their tasks just as well as the men.
Click here to read about what was involved in training a WAAC.
Bundist Arrested As Spy (PM Tabloid, 1942)Johannes Kroeger, ex-leader of the German-American Bund was picked up by the FBI in the Fall of 1942 for espionage. Employed as a bus driver on Long Island, New York, Kroeger would regularly carry the employees of the Republic Aviation Company to and from work. When pressed for details, the FBI remarked:
"Workers in aviation plants talk too much."
 Gandhi Urges Revolution (PM Tabloid, 1942)"Mohandas K. Gandhi tonight summoned India's millions to rise in a struggle 'for freedom or death' after the full committee of the All-India Nationalist Congress approved by an overwhelming vote his call for mass passive resistance against British rule." The Segregated WAAC (Click Magazine, 1942)A single page from the early war period tells the tale of Natalie Donaldson
Click here to read about the African-American efforts during the First World War.
The Front-Line Mechanics (United States News, 1942)"Side by side with with the fighting men who ride to battle goes an army of men who fight with tools and machinery, instead of guns and tanks... That army of fighter-mechanics has grown in importance with the increase in the Army's dependence on motorized equipment. They operate beyond the glow of headlines - but without the aid of mechanics the Army's wheels would never turn." Spiritual Warfare (Newsweek Magazine, 1942)For the believers in this world, it is very easy to see World War II as a spiritual conflict waged against the righteous by the evil forces of darkness. The atheist Nazis were truly having their way with the lukewarm Christians who filled the ranks of the European armies - up until the arrival of a particular North American army whose motto is "In God We Trust". Even to this day, the U.S. Military holds the record as having built more churches than any other institution (every military installation had one). This article reports that the U.S.Army did not simply deliver weaponry to our Chinese allies, they delivered millions of Bibles, too. Wilson On The Eve of War (Pic Magazine, 1942)This article remembers the relationship Wilson enjoyed with a much admired editor and columnist for the N.Y. World, Frank Cobb (1869 - 1923). A page from the newspaperman's diary recalls his 1917 visit with the President on the night before he appeared before Congress seeking the declaration of war.
"I'd never seen him so worn down. He looked as if he hadn't slept - and he said he hadn't..."
The Japanese Aichi-99 Dive Bomber (Alertmen, 1942)When, on December 7, 1941, the bombers and fighter aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy came roaring out of the Hawaiian blue to reign death and destruction on Pearl Harbor, the Aichi-99 was among those present. The attached article from 1942 will tell you all that the American military knew about it at the time.
Read about another plane that was at Pearl Harbor that morning...
Watch A Great Documentary About W.W. II German Tanks The Rangers Go Public (Newsweek Magazine, 1942)The first time the American public learned of the existence of the now famous U.S. Army Rangers was through articles like this one, that appeared during August of 1942. This article made public the fact that fewer than 100 Rangers had participated in the not-terribly-successful raid on Dieppe.
"The Rangers were named after Rogers' Rangers, the rough and crafty Indian fighters of colonial days who battled near the Canadian border under their leader, Major Robert Rogers... All Rangers are volunteers, selected for strength and ability to use such weapons as daggers, grenades, fists, tommy guns and mortars." The British Six-Pounder (PM Tabloid, 1942)"Six-pounder guns are being turned out in large numbers in one of the Royal Ordnance factories in England. Most of the workers who make them are women. The gun is highly mobile and is said to have a high rate of fire and remarkable armor penetration." Ezra Pound of Indiana (Click Magazine, 1942)Click Magazine's illustrated article about the sedition of American poet Ezra Pound is peppered throughout with assorted quotes that clearly indicate the man's guilt. The reporter, David Brown, went to some length in explaining what an odd life decision this was for a poet with such a celebrated past - a decisions that ultimately lead to his conviction in Federal Court, followed by his twelve year incarceration in a mad house.
In an effort to understand Pound's thinking, we have included excerpts from a Wall Street Journal book review of a 2016 Pound biography that presents the poets queer rationale.
The Afrika Korps in Retreat (Yank Magazine, 1942)This article was penned by YANK correspondent Sergeant George "Slim" Aarons (1916 - 2006) concerning his travels throughout the Allied occupied portions of Tunisia in 1943. Aarons reported on the heavy presence of German military debris that could be found scattered throughout the deserts - evidence that spelled out the imminent eviction of the Germans from that continent:
"Some of these tanks lay in groups, showing how they had clustered together and fought it out to the bitter end. Other iron carcasses were alone in the desert, burned and twisted - relics of a hopeless, single-handed struggle against the Allied forces."
Click here to read about the retreat of the German 7th Army from Normandy.
A Pearl Harbor Day Recollection (PM Tabloid, 1942)A year after the Pearl harbor attack, one of the PM journalists recalled for their readers how many Americans in the lower 48 had heard the news on the radio that evening. Stalingrad Exordium (PM Tabloid, 1942)A short article explaining the significance of Stalingrad to Stalin (aside from its name) and the battle that took place there 24 years earlier during the revolution - when the city was called Tsaritsyn. U-507 In The Gulf of Mexico (Newsweek Magazine, 1942)"For the first time, U-boats became active in the Gulf [of Mexico], evidently under command of men familiar with its shallow waters. Two freighters, one American and one Honduran, were sunk." The Betrayal of French Jewry (Newsweek Magazine, 1942)"The Nazis quickly extended the dread Nuremberg laws to the occupied territory. Jews lost jobs, businesses, property, liberty, even their lives. They were flung into primitive concentration camps and deported to Polish ghettos. And with them the Nazis brought the usual wave of Jewish suicides." ''Healthy Eroticism'' in the Third Reich (Coronet Magazine, 1942)"The fruits of the Third Reich Population Policy are shocking indeed. Fifteen and 16-year-old girls are having babies with the blessings of their Hitler Youth leaders. Unwed mothers with illegitimate children have the right to evict married but childless couples from apartment houses...laws are passed entitling unmarried mothers to call themselves 'Mrs.' instead of 'Miss', and providing state subsides for illegitimate children and crushing taxes for childless adults."
An eyewitness recalled Hitler as a boy...
Watch a Film Clip about the Lebensborn Program Brazil's German Problem (PM Tabloid, 1942)You can be sure that when Brazil declared war upon Nazi Germany in 1942, there was no talk of "our diversity is our strength" - for they were worried about the 1,000,000 Teuto-brasileiros (German-Brazilians) who dwelt among them who seldom, if ever, made much of an effort to assimilate:
"The Germans, in their towns and communities, have set up schools of their own, schools in which German teachers, with better equipment than the Brazilian national schools provide, have been preaching loyalty to the German fatherland... It was charged by investigators that German school children were being taught obedience to Hitler and the German clergymen were taking their texts from Mein Kampf."
Hello, Denim, Why Don't You Stay a While? (Collier's Magazine, 1942)The editors at Collier's Magazine could not have known the significance of this subject back in 1942, yet to those Americans born after 1950 who read these old columns, it seems like a sign post that pointed the way to the sportswear of the future. Verily, few are the Americans who tread the fruited plane today who do not see at least one pair of jeans every day. Blue jeans have become the symbol of the nation, just as much as the flag.
This 1940s article pointed out that more and more Americans are waking up to denim. They found that it suited them and deemed it a sensible fabric in light of the new agricultural and industrial toil that needed to be finished if the fascists were to be beaten. However, denim was not some newfangled wartime invention; denim has been on the American scene since 1853 - in the Western gold mines and barnyards, roundhouses and cattle ranges.
Some seven years before this article hit the newsstands American teenagers began wearing jeans, but it was W.W. II that created a market for women's jeans, and for good or ill, the course of American sportswear was forever altered.
A far more thorough fashion history of blue jeans can be read here.
An American POW On Radio Tokyo (American Magazine, 1942)When the bright boys at Radio Tokyo decided to allow one of their half-starved American prisoners to flatter them on air, they couldn't imagine that he would take the opportunity to broadcast vital information needed by the U.S. Navy, but that's just what he did.
Click here to read an article about the American POW experience during the Korean War.
The Importance of Detroit (Liberty Magazine, 1942)Throughout a good deal of the Great Depression (1929 - 1940), FDR liked to think he was cozying-up to the voters when he insulted the great captains of industry with mean names like "selfish" and "stubborn". All that ended when the war started, and the President had to make common cause with these men in order gain their cooperation in meeting the military needs of the nation. This article concerns the importance of the industrial might of Detroit. Flight Officer Lawrence Olivier (Photoplay Magazine, 1942)When the actor Lawrence Olivier (1907 1989) first heard that a state of war existed between Britain and Germany, he was enjoying the breezes off the shore of Southern California in a sailboat skippered by Hollywood's heir expectant, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and it was to Fairbanks that the attached letter was addressed. When this letter was written, Olivier was posted to the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm where he gained the understanding that aeronautics was an acquired taste, and one that he simply could not cultivate. In his book International Stars at War, author James Wise noted that Flight Officer Olivier would soon be judged incompetent by the Royal Navy and released for other duties more in line with his abilities (like writing this highly self-conscious letter to his Hollywood friend).
Fairbanks, on the other hand, played an important roll in the U.S. Navy and by the war's end was sporting a chest-full of ribbons. Murray Korman (PM Tabloid, 1942)Brilliant photographer Ralph Steiner (1899 1986) spent some time examining the photographs of Murray Korman (1902 - 1961) and, to his surprise, came away finding his work to be very interesting:
"Murray Korman is the man whose pictures you see outside the musical shows and in girlie magazines... After four hours of looking I was dizzy. I figured that no man could take such pictures for 17 years and get satiated with lusciousness and bored by the sameness of the girls. I figured that all that kept Korman going was the profit motive. But when I went to his studio on Broadway I found I was all wrong." The Addict's Plight (Newsweek Magazine, 1942)The war in the Pacific interrupted the flow of illegal narcotics to the United States. By the Spring of 1942 opioids were becoming scarcer and the prices were predicted to rise. Drug suppliers turned to an untested source closer to home: Latin America.
Click here to read aboutdrug addiction in the Twenties. The Navy Tells It (PM Tabloid, 1942)One year after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the Navy released its report to the press with updates on all the various repairs that were put into effect.
- from Amazon:
Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor
American Tank Destroyers (America's Alertmen, 1942)Another look at the M-2 Half Track and the training of their five-man crews at Fort Hood, Texas. We got a kick learning that these men were not simply trained to fire their 37 and 75 mm. mounted guns, but also instructed in all other manner of tank fighting methods:
"Another little trick they master is the construction of a "sticky grenade"; a white sock filled with TNT, soaked in heavy axle grease to triple it's detonating power. This sticks like glue; and if it explodes near the tank's ventilators -- that's all, brother."
Click here to read about the TD units that fought at the Battle of the Bulge.
Enjoy This 1943 Film About the Tank Destroyers Trained at Camp Hood Laval's France (Newsweek Magazine, 1942)An article from the Spring of 1942 concerning the efforts of Premiere Laval to fool the French citizenry into loving their Nazi occupiers and hating the Allies.
"Laval's handicaps in reconciling the nation to the 'new order' are his personal unpopularity - careful observers estimate that 90 to 95 percent of the population spurn his policies - and the determination of the Nazis to stamp out resistance with terrorism." Restraining The Consumer (American Magazine, 1942) Posters For Encouragement (Newsweek Magazine, 1942) There were many varieties of posters to be found on the American home front of W.W. II - most depicting sweaty barrel-chested young men. Yet in the factories another type was prevalent, these were the ones that showed the non-heroic faces of the average American worker. Below these images would be found simple quotes declaring their unique patriotic reasons for laboring on the production lines. This article recalls who dreamed them up and how popular they were. Germany's Dictated Peace Terms for the World (Omnibooks Digest, 1942)During the opening months of 1941 Nazi Germany was positively drunk with power; their army seemed able to march wherever it chose and all of Europe was trembling. Foreign correspondent for the Hearst papers, H.R. Knickerbocker (1898 1949), pointed out that on April 29, 1941 the Axis forces had printed, what he termed, a "trial balloon" on the pages of The Japan Times Advertiser that clearly indicated the peace terms that were acceptable to them.
Click here to read about the German concept of Blitzkrieg.
A New Kind of Naval Warfare (PM Tabloid, 1942)"In the seven months since Pearl Harbor the aircraft carrier has replaced the battleship as the true capital ship of modern naval warfare. The carrier's rise to power reached a crushing climax in the battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway - the two most decisive naval engagements of the war thus far. Opposing fleets only struck at each other with bomber and torpedo planes and never fired a shot except in self-defense against aircraft."
Click here to read about FDR as Under-Secretary of the Navy.
A Busy Year for the FBI (PM Tabloid, 1942)The FBI had been tangling Axis spies throughout the mid-to-late Thirties, but with the December 8, 1941, declaration of war the FBI was emboldened with far greater powers. This explains why Director Hoover exclaimed "that his agency had just completed the busiest year in its history." ''My First Jump (Sir! Magazine, 1942) Brereton Steps Up (PM Tabloid, 1942)"Major General Lewis E. Brereton (1890 - 1967) is the new commander of the U.S. forces in the Middle East." Here Comes Denim (Collier's Magazine, 1942)Nine months into the war the American fashion industry awoke to discover that one of the most sought after cottons being purchased domestically was denim.
Denim was first seen in 1853, worn by the men who panned for gold in California. When faced with hard labor, this sturdy twill had proven its worth again and again, and when the American home front recognized that there was a great deal of work to be done in the fields and factories if the war was to be won, they slipped on jeans and denim coveralls and saw the job through.
Who on Sixth Avenue could have known back then that denim would be the main-stay in American sportswear for decades to come?
A far more thorough history of blue jeans can be read here.
All-In for the Eastern Front (PM Tabloid, 1942)"In a message to the German Red Cross, Hitler referred to Russia as 'an enemy whose victory would mean the end of everything'"
"When Hitler says 'the end of everything' he means the end of Nazism." Were Churchill and Stalin Hipsters? (Click Magazine, 1942)Illustrated with pictures of Winston Churchill's weird zipper suit and Joseph Stalin's "all purpose costume", 1940s fashion critic Elizabeth Hawes (1903 - 1971) taunts the Great-American-Male and challenges him to respond in kind by wearing copies of these comfortable threads: "Today's business clothes were worked out by the winners of the Industrial Revolution, whose descendants are the big tycoons of our day...Aspirants to leadership and success normally copy the clothes of existent leaders. Isn't it about time the most of you changed your suits?" Elizabeth Hawes wrote more on the topic of W.W. II fashions... Who in Hollywood Received Draft Deferments (Photoplay Magazine, 1942)This article first appeared at the end of America's first full year of war and it is composed of the names and pictures of Hollywood's leading men who were absolved from fulfilling their military obligations during the war.
"The personalities of the fabulous films are on the spot in the matter of serving their country. It is useless to deny that the motion picture stars have been getting the best of it. Some have been given special draft deferments and choice assignments and often have been allowed extra months to finish their pictures before having to report for duty."
Click here to read about the American draft-dodgers of the Second World War.
The Director: Frank Capra (Rob Wagner's Script, 1942)This profile of director Frank Capra was written five years before he directed "It's a Wonderful Life" and gives a tidy account as to the course of his career up until 1942, when he was inducted as a major in the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Watch a Short Film Clip from Capra's W.W. II Documentary WHY WE FIGHT Rockwell Kent: Artists of Democracy (Rob Wagner's Script Magazine, 1942)The U.S. had only been actively engaged in World War II for five months when the American artist Rockwell Kent (1882 1971) felt the impulse to write about the unique roll an artist must play when a democracy goes to war:
"The art of a democracy must be, like democracy itself, of and by and for the people. It must and will reflect the public mood and public interest...Awareness of America, of its infinitely varied beauties and of its sometimes sordid ugliness; awareness of the life of America, of its fulfillments and its failures; awareness, if you like, of God, the landscape architect supreme - and political failure: of the promise of America and of its problems, art has been, or has aimed to be, a revelation. It is for the right to solve these problems our way that we are now at war." The Outcast Americans (American Magazine, 1942)"Economically, the departure of the [Japanese-Americans] presented no particular problem in the cities... But it was different in the country. [They] had owned or controlled 11,030 farms valued at $70,000,000. They had produced virtually all the artichokes, early cantaloupes, green peppers and late tomatoes, and most of the early asparagus. They owned or controlled the majority of wholesale produce markets and thousand of retail vegetable stands. When they disappeared, the flow of vegetables stopped. Retail prices went up. Many vegetables vanished entirely. There were rumors of a food shortage." Women At The Brooklyn Navy Yard (PM Tabloid, 1942)"The Navy Yard in Brooklyn (NY) got along with men mechanics for 141 years, up to now - but this is a tough war. Women are now being hired to help build and repair warships and their accessories." Fighting in Winter (PM Tabloid, 1942)"Within a few weeks, Winter again will be sweeping down on the greatest battlefield in history... At Leningrad, the Fall rains are almost over. Now comes a month of dangerously dry, clear weather and then the snow. The Moscow zone will be thickly carpeted in white in seven or eight weeks. Allied strategists hope that the second Russian war Winter will bring a repition of the first, when Soviet skill in cold weather fighting finally drove the Nazis back. Men's Hats and Shoes (Advertisements, 1942)When the fops answered the call in 1942, these are the hats and shoes they walked away wearing.
You will be able to easily print the attached page of fashion images.
On another note: the legendary fashion designer Christian Dior had a good deal of trouble with people who would illegally copy his designs; click here to read about that part of fashion history.
Fibber Mcgee & Molly (Newsweek Magazine, 1942)The radio world sat up and took notice when the Hooper Radio report for April of 1941 came out and revealed that the Fibber Mcgee and Molly comedy show had rocketed to the top of the chart - displacing Jack Benny, Walter Winchell and Bob Hope. This article from 1942 told the home front readers who these comic geniuses were and what made them tick. Bringing the African-Americans On-board (PM Tabloid, 1942)Here is a small notice concerning the Office of War Information and the steps they took during the Summer of 1942 to ensure the patriotic enthusiasm of the African-American community in the war effort:
"Two well-known Negro newspapermen have been selected to supervise the gathering and issuance of Negro news. The head of the new division - still untitled - will be Ted Poston, former New York newspaperman. He will be assisted by [filmmaker] William D. Alexander [who will make newsreels]."
Finding Japanese Spies (The American Magazine, 1942)Here is an interesting article by an American counter-espionage agent who tells several stories about the various Japanese spies he had encountered during the early months of the war. He wrote of his his frustrations with the civil liberty laws that were in place to protect both citizen and alien alike.
It was Mexican president Manuel Avila Camacho who chased the spies out of his nation - click here to read about it...
Andrew Higgins: He Made D-Day Possible (Click Magazine, 1942)During an informal conversation with his biographer, Stephen Ambrose, Dwight Eisenhower once remarked that it was Andrew Higgins (1886 1952) who had "won the war for us". Knowing that such words do not flow from the lips of generals easily, Eisenhower went on to explain to Ambrose that if it were not for the creation of Higgin's landing crafts, the architects of the Allied victory would have had to seize the existing, and well-fortified, harbors of Europe in order to unload their invasion forces - and who knows how the island-hopping war in the Pacific would been fought?
Attached is a five page photo-essay from the Fall of 1942 about the man and his early contributions. The W.W. II Revival In Faith (American Magazine, 1942)"When mobilization began, the government, as usual, undertook to provide spiritual ministry for the men. But many veteran clergymen doubted whether religion would catch on... But religion did catch on - and with such vigor that the chaplaincy services have been swamped by it. Army and Navy chapels are jam-packed. Demands for special services, for Bible study and for religious instruction, are more than can be met. Many men - Protestant and Catholic - are being baptized or confirmed. Some chaplains report an almost overwhelming interest in religion and church as a career."
Click here to read about the renewed interest in religion that existed on the home front...
An American-Style Concentration Camp (Coronet Magazine, 1942)An optimistic article from 1942 that asks us to look for the sunny side of the Japanese American internment camps - after all, they never had it so good! The Training of Tank Crews (Collier's Magazine, 1942)For the Americans, World War II was just four months old when these three color pictures appeared depicting the most up to date (and economical) methods used in the training of Stuart Tank gunners. Enemy Agents Sought Weather Info (PM Tabloid, 1942)Before the era of the World Wide Web, intelligence agencies had to rely on their own flunkies to gather all meteorological information they could find about a particular weather system; this explains why so many Axis spies were found with weather data among their possessions. Air-Raid Wardens on the Home Front (ClicK Magazine, 1942)The Congressional Declaration of War was a mere five months old when this photo-essay appeared that documented the earliest days of the American Civil Defense efforts during the Second World War. At this point in the war, the Marines were still three months away from landing on Guadalcanal and the Army wouldn't be arriving in North Africa for another six months - but the neighborhood volunteers of the Civil Defense seemed to be prepared. The First Black Fighter Pilots (The American Magazine, 1942)This article partially explains the excitement of being a Tuskegee Airman and flying the Army's most advanced fighters and partially explains what it was like to be a black man in a segregated America:
"I'm flying for every one of the 12,000,000 Negroes in the United States. I want to prove that we can take a tough job and handle it just as well as a white man." The Home front Knuckles Under (Collier's Magazine, 1942)Having heard from assorted armchair generals, radio oracles and ink-stained bums that the heart of the American home front was not in the fight, journalist Quentin Reynolds bought some train tickets to scour the country and see if it was true.
It wasn't.
Click here to read about the rationing of makeup. How Americans Were Seen by The Japanese (American Magazine, 1942)In this article, photographer Frederick L. Hamilton recalled his two years in Japan prior to the Pearl Harbor attack; he let's lose with all he learned concerning how the Japanese perceived the Americans:
"They think we are soft, wasteful, irreverent and stupid...Most serious of all to the Japanese is their belief that we have no spiritual quality, no sense of honor." Ronald Reagan in his Own Words (Photoplay Magazine, 1942)In the attached PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE article, Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911 2004), the Hollywood actor who would one day become the fortieth president of the United States (19811989), gives a tidy account as to who he was in 1942, and what was dear to him:
"My favorite menu is steaks smothered with onions and strawberry short cake. I play bridge adequately and collect guns, always carry a penny as a good luck charm...I'm interested in politics and governmental problems. My favorite books are Turnabout, by Thorne Smith, Babbitt, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the works of Pearl Buck, H.G. Wells, Damon Runyon and Erich Remarque."
A good read and a revealing article by a complicated man.
Click here to read about a Cold War prophet who was much admired by President Reagan...
Paulette Goddard in Uniform (Click Magazine, 1942)Paulette Goddard (1910 1990) is pictured in color wearing an all-purpose uniform designed by the Hollywood stylist Irene (Irene Lentz, 1900 - 1962). The actress was a sporadic volunteer, having appeared in four films throughout 1942. Nazi Spy Master (Liberty Magazine, 1942)This is a profile of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris (1887 1945), Hitler's man in charge of sabotage and espionage. It tells the story of what he was up to during the First World War and throughout the Twenties; how he greased the wheels in Belgium, Norway, Denmark and France to make the invasion of those nations a bit easier. It explains how impressed Hitler was with his abilities and how suspicious Himmler was at the same time. ''We Can Win On Both Oceans'' (The American Magazine, 1942)Frank Knox was FDR's Secretary of the Navy between 1940 through 1944. Arm and arm with his lieutenant, Under Secretary James Forrestal, the two men made good on the "Two-Ocean Navy Bill" passed by Congress during the summer of 1940:
"I am proud of this Navy of ours. Every American has a right to be proud of it, to know that it is, up to now, the greatest navy in history. But we cannot afford to be complacent about it. It is still not the navy that our country needs and that our fighting men in the ships deserve." Fair Employment Laws Enforced (PM Tabloid, 1942)Some six months prior to Pearl Harbor FDR signed Executive Order 8802 which made it illegal for defense contractors to discriminate based on race or religious faith. Eight months later the President's Committee on Fair Employment Practices was convened in New York City to review the evidence at hand indicating that numerous defense contractors were failing to comply with the law. Europe Enslaved (PM Tabloid, 1942)"Today in Europe there are more slaves than ever existed on any continent at any time. Hitler had to fight for every one of them... They used gangs, particularly in Poland, to round up workers from the streets, to drag them from churches and theaters and even from homes to go to work in Germany."
At the time it was estimated that there were as many as 6,000,000 slaves in Germany; half of them were prisoners of war.
Click here to read about the enslavement of France...
Charlie Chaplin W.W. II Radio Address (Rob Wagner's Script Magazine, 1942)Within the toasty-warm confines of the attached PDF lie the text of a speech that Chaplin delivered over the war-torn airwaves in 1942. Wishing only to encourage the citizenry of London and Washington, D.C. to be of stout heart in their battle against the Fascist powers, Chaplin's address was titled, "Give Us More Bombs Over Berlin". Washington, D.C. pt. II (Click Magazine, 1942) The Aussies Pull It Together (The American Magazine, 1942)The attached 1942 article tells the remarkable story of Prime Minister John Curtin (1885 - 1945) and his amazing Australians - together they redefined themselves as a wool-producing agrarian nation and began producing the necessary tools of war. Los Angeles Nisei at Santa Anita Racetrack (Rob Wagner's Script, 1942)Attached is a eye-witness account of the Los Angeles Issie and Nisei populations after having been removed from their homes and detained at Santa Anita racetrack prior to their transfer and subsequent incarceration at Manzanar, California. German Army Thirsted for Grozny Oil (PM Tabloid, 1942)The summer of 1942 found the German Army in the Soviet Union nearing the end of its oil reserves. It was decided that this problem could best be solved by seizing the Red oilfields of the Caucasus Mountains - and so began the Battle of the Caucasus (25 July 1942 12 May 1944). The Japanese Zero (PM Tabloid, 1942)"Soon after Pearl Harbor Americans began hearing about a Japanese warplane called called the Zero. It had an unusual name, it was virtually unknown, even to aircraft experts, and almost immediately it began to take on an air of sinister mystery. Information now available shows there is no good reason for the mystery, although the plane has been a big factor in the Jap drive... The Zero has no secret weapons or engineering developments. It is simply a pretty good pursuit or fighter." He Censored The Mail (American Magazine, 1942)During the Second Word War all mail headed out of the country and all inbound mail from foreign locales fell under the discerning eyes of U.S. Post Office censors. The censors, all 15,000 of them, were under the command a U.S. Army cryptologist named Colonel W. Preston Corderman; click the title link above to learn more about him.
Click here to read about censoring the mail during W.W. I.
Preparing for Battle (PM Tabloid, 1942)"Brazil and the U.S.A. have signed a trade agreement whereby Brazil's army gets needed war equipment in exchange for raw materials needed in the United States... During the last year, large quantities of arms and material have reached Brazil from the U.S. for development of defense at vital ports and construction of airdromes to guard Brazil's 5,700 miles of seacoast." ''Why Hitler Thinks He'll Win'' (The American Magazine, 1942)This is a great article, penned by an American correspondent who had actually sat face-to-face with Hitler on numerous occasions. He tells the reader many of his observations concerning the man's personality, expressions and what he has observed regarding the German people:
"I have presented [in this article] the essential psychological and material factors in Hitler's conviction that he will still win the war. There were signs even while I was still in Germany that the German people have given up the dream of a 'total victory' to follow their total war."
More about Adolf Hitler can be read here...
Air Corps Ordinance (PM Tabloid, 1942) The Pearl Harbor Story (Yank Magazine, 1942)When this article went to press the Pear Harbor attack was already over a year old - and like the articles that came out in '41, these two pages capture much of the outrage that was the general feeling among so many of the American people. The article serves to give an account as to how the ships that were damaged that morning have largely recovered and were once again at sea (excluding the Arizona).
Five months after the Pearl Harbor attack the United States Navy defeated the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Coral Sea, click here to read about it...
''The Man Who Stopped Rommel'' (PM Tabloid, 1942)Australian general Leslie Morshead (1889 - 1959) gave Rommel and his Afrika Korps a tough time of it during the North Africa campaign (1940 - 1943). The Germans called him Ali Baba Morshead, and they knew what he was capable of. He kicked Rommel out of Tobruk and El Alamein and when his work was done in the Mediterranean, he was transferred to the Pacific Theater where he gave the Japanese no end of grief.
The Career of Lilian Gish
(Rob Wagner's Script Magazine, 1942)Attached is a decidedly "pro" Lilian Gish (1893 1993) article concerning the silent film actresses' meteoric rise under the direction of D.W. Griffith, her mediocrity when paired with other directors and her much appreciated march on Broadway.
"Lilian Gish is the damozel of Arthurian legend, tendered in terms of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Her heroines perpetually hover in filtered half-lights, linger in attitudes of romantical despair. They forever drift farther from reality than the dream, and no matter how humble their actual origins, the actress invariably weaves them of the dusk-blues, the dawn-golds of medieval tapestries." Click here if you would like to read an article in which Lillian Gish recalls her part in "Birth of a Nation". Click here to read articles about Marilyn Monroe. Japanese Atrocities in China (Liberty Magazine, 1942)Hallett Abend (1884 - 1955) was an American journalist who lived in China for fifteen years. He covered the Sino-Japanese War during its early years and had seen first-hand the beastly vulgarity of the Japanese Army. After Pearl Harbor, the editor at Liberty turned to him in hopes that he would explain to the American reading public what kind of enemy they were fighting:
"In four and a half years of warfare [in China], the Japanese have taken almost no prisoners... Chinese prisoners of war are shot." Hunger in Axis Lands (United States News, 1942)American diplomats caught in Germany, Austria, Italy and other occupied lands at the time of FDR's declaration of war were subject to five months of incarceration before they were repatriated. The attached article tells of the hardships and hunger experienced by the citizens of those nations as the war entered its third year. Also seen was the tremendous distrust that was developing between the Italians and the Germans. ''Tanks Spearhead Nazi Offensive'' (PM Tabloid, 1942)The largest tank battle in history was fought on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. In April of 1943, 6,000 German and Soviet tanks, supported by some 2,000,000 infantrymen, had-at-it near the Russian city of Kursk. This article was written a year before the clash, and it informed the readers that armored engagements were becoming larger and larger with each one. Anti-Lynching Legislation Shelved (PM Tabloid, 1942)Whether it was due to the urgency of the war or whether it was simply business as usual on Capitol hill, who knows - but ever since he came to Washington in 1929 Representative Joseph Gavagan (D., NYC: 1892 1968) tried numerous times to get his anti-lynching legislation through Congress. In April of 1937 he succeeded in getting one of his anti-lynching bills passed (277 to 118) - but the Southern Democrats saw to it that he wouldn't get an encore performance in '42; this was his last attempt, he retired from the House that same year. ''Uranium-235: Can It Win the War?'' (Coronet Magazine, 1942)Three years before terms such as "Enola Gay" and "Atom Bomb" would become household words, this five page article appeared in an American magazine informing the folks on the home front that this monstrosity was being developed silently behind the scenes.
We have no doubt that the FBI was knocking at the publisher's door the very second that the issue appeared on the newsstands.
Ranger School (Yank Magazine, 1942)"The 76th Division at Fort Meade learns the latest scientific methods of hand-to-hand slaughter and free-for-all street fighting that will soon be taught to every infantry outfit in the Army." The article concerns the hand-t-hand combat instruction of one Francois D'Eliscu - a U.S Army major made famous for his 11-point training plan.
"Major D'Eliscu is one of the toughest men alive. He can kill with a flick of his elbow, maim with a pinch of his fingers. He imparts this toughness into the course he gave to the 76th Division instructors and to the Special Service officers from the other divisions."
See Major D'Eliscu at Work in this Color Film About Ranger Training With The War Came New Opportunities (United States News, 1942)"The government, endeavoring to meet the problem by raising the economic stature of the Negro, create committees, change regulations. The Army admits Negro candidates for officer training to the same schools as whites. It is training Negro pilots for the Air Corps. Negro officers will command Negro troops. The Navy opens new types of service for the Negro in the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, inshore establishments, Navy yards and construction crews." So, You Want to Be a Guerrilla? (Coronet Magazine, 1942)This article was written during a time when guerrilla armies seemed to be popping up all over the globe, and, no doubt, many men and women must have been asking themselves, "What if it happens here? Could I fight?" And with that, out stepped Bert "Yank" Levy (1897 - 1965), a well-seasoned man of war who wrote a mass market paperback for the English speaking world: Guerrilla Warfare (Amazon). Attached are a few pages from his book. Joseph Cummings Chase: Soldiers All (Rob Wagner's Script, 1942)Joseph Cummings Chase (1878 - 1965) was an American painter who's name is not likely to be associated with World War I artists but, like Sir William Orpen, he had a comfortable place within fashionable circles and he, too, was commissioned to paint portraits of the anointed within his nations military establishment. This article appeared in 1942 and primarily concerns the W.W. I portrait that Chase painted of Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur during the closing days of the war: "Joseph Cummings Chase is without doubt one of the world's greatest portrait painters, and as luck would have it, he was in Paris when World War I began, at which time the Government commissioned him to paint the Distinguished Service Cross men, both enlisted men and officers, wherever he could catch up with them; some in dugouts, some in trenches, and some behind the lines."
Click here to see a few trench war images by German Expressionist Otto Dix.
Click here to read a 1942 article by Rockwell Kent on the proper roll of American artists during wartime.
The Battle of Stalingrad (Newsweek Magazine, 1942)The Newsweek report on the under-supplied Red Army counter-offensive at Stalingrad.
"Russia's hope was Hitler's despair. His schedule for the year had already been irreparably disrupted and none of his major objectives - Stalingrad, the Caspian Sea, the oil of the Caucasus - had yet been attained. And already the Nazi soldiers could feel the cold breath of winter through their summer uniforms..." Rita Hayworth (Rob Wagner's Script, 1946, American Magazine, 1942)A 1946 article from "Script", a semi-chic Beverly Hills magazine (it went belly-up in 1949), explaining just how it came to pass that a sweet, little Brooklyn girl named Margarita Carmen Cansino became Rita Hayworth (1918 1987):
"Then came reincarnation. Rita discarded her Spanish name, gave away her dancing costumes, did something to her hairline, stuck a y into her mother's family name (Joseph Haworth, same family, toured with Edwin Booth) and so on to the big time and 'Cover Girl' and 'Tonight and Every Night'." "So the girl with a Spanish father and an Anglo-Saxon mother becomes the typical American girl to thousands of American soldiers abroad, and that, too, is as it should be."
Click here to read articles about Marilyn Monroe. FDR's Sense of Sympathy (PM Tabloid, 1942)When a 22-year-old expectant father wrote to President Roosevelt complaining that he'd been unemployed for four months, FDR wasted little time in contacting one of his alphabet agencies and seeing to it that the gent was offered a defense job. The American Home Front Finds Faith Again (Click Magazine, 1942)By the time this article appeared on the newsstands at the close of 1942, the American people were fully committed to a war on two fronts that quite often was not generating the kinds of headlines they would have preferred to read. Certainly, there was the naval victory at Midway, but the butcher's bill was high at Pearl Harbor and North Africa and after a thirteen year lull in church attendance, America was once again returning to the church:
The Barrymore Girl
(Collier's Magazine, 1942)When LIFE MAGAZINE ran a cheese cake picture of Diana Barrymore (1921 1960) on the cover of their July 31, 1939 issue , the quick-witted editors at COLLIER'S were not to be outdone, so they ran this interview three years later. A color photo of the actress is provided in which she sports that remarkable Barrymore chin.
Yes, We Know There's a War On (Liberty Magazine, 1942)This is an interesting editorial that pretty much implies that the U.S. Congress reigning in 1942 thought the American people were just as dumb as Congress does today. Although the Selective Service had reached into almost every household in the country and taken every able-bodied male, Congress behaved as if these households only cared about gas and sugar rationing:
"Don't Think that We the People, can't take anything you have to hand out. And don't get it into your minds that we don't know there is a war on... He won't be home for dinner [again] tonight. And your worry about our rationing cards would be funny if it weren't so pitiful." The Leader of Free France (The American Magazine, 1942)"Almost literally,
he has built Free France from magnificent words. The miracle began on June 18, 1940, when he stepped before a London microphone with defiant, solemn appeal, beginning, 'I, Charles de Gaulle, General of France' - and ending superbly, 'Soldiers of France, wherever you may be, arise!'.
"The truth is that, to followers of de Gaulle, he is not a human being at all; he is a symbol, like the flag." The New Normal (United States News, 1942)This was an important article for its time. It seems hard to believe, but it took the Federal Government the full six months after Pearl Harbor to figure out how the home front would be governed and what would be rationed. This article heralds that new day and clarified how the war would affect their salaries, savings, education, shopping, clothing, taxes, leisure time, transportation and their general manner of living:
In 1944, a class of sixth graders wrote General Eisenhower and asked him how they can help in the war effort; click here to read his response...
Click here food rationing at U.S. POW camps.
Clash of the Titans in Libya (Liberty Magazine, 1942)This is a primary source article by a reporter who rode in the armored vehicles of the British Army during the Libyan campaign of 1942:
"It seemed incredible that in the melee either side could know whom or what they were firing at. The best I could do was identify the burning tanks: white smoke for the petrol-driven British - black smoke for the Diesel oil of the German tanks. There was plenty of both." Mario Moreno: The Mexican Charlie Chaplin (Collier's Magazine, 1942)A 1942 article about Mexican film comedian Mario Moreno (1911 1993) who was widely known and loved throughout Latin America and parts of the West as "Cantinflas", the bumbling "cargador" character of his own creation. Born in the poorest circumstances Mexico could dish-out, Mario Moreno achieved glorious heights in the entertainment industry; by the time he assumed room temperature in the early Nineties he had appeared in well over fifty films. Equal Pay for Equal War Work (PM Tabloid, 1942)"The War Labor Board has decreed 'equal pay for equal work' for women in war industry... George W. Taylor, WLB vice-chairman, wrote the decision and said that any other condition than that of pay equality was 'not conducive to maximum production'." ''Nazis Halted at Stalingrad'' (PM Tabloid, 1942)"Stalingrad continued to hold today. For three days now the Nazis have been stopped on both the northwest and southwest approaches to the key industrial city on the Volga, loss of which would be a grave blow to the Soviet war effort... Today's first Soviet communique indicated that Marshall von Bock continues to pour in more men, more tanks and more planes, trying to overwhelm the Russian defenders by sheer weight." Should Movie Stars Be Expected to Fight, As Well? (Photoplay Magazine, 1942)We were very surprised to read in the attached editorial that the whole idea of draft deferments for actors and other assorted Hollywood flunkies was not a scheme cooked-up by their respective agents and yes-men, but a plan that sprung forth from the fertile mind of the executive officer in charge of the Selective Service System: Brigadier General Lewis Blaine Hershey (1893 - 1977) in Washington.
Always one to ask the difficult questions, Ernest V. Heyn (1905 - 1995) executive editor of Photoplay posed the query "Should Stars Fight?" and in this column he began to weigh the pros-and-cons of the need for propaganda and an uninterrupted flow of movies for the home front, and the appearance of creating a new entitled class of pretty boys.
Twenty years earlier a Hollywood actor would get in some hot water for also suggesting that talented men be excused from the W.W. I draft...
''What Kind of Women are the WAACs?'' (Click Magazine, 1942)"They're career women, housewives, professionals, factory hands, debutantes. They've taught school, modeled, supported themselves, as secretaries, salesgirls, mechanics. Single and married, white and colored, between the ages of 21 and 45, they're corresponding with a beau, in Ireland, a husband Australia, or the 'folks back home' in Flatbush. But varied as their background may be, they've enlisted in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) with a common purpose: to get behind America's fighting men and help win a lasting peace."
"When well-versed in army-administrative methods, the WAAC will cause the transfer of 450 enlisted men to combat areas each week. It realizes full-well its responsibility and has dedicated itself to the idea that the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps will prove itself equal to the opportunity."
Eyewitness to Pearl Harbor (Rob Wagner's Script Magazine, 1942)Attached is an eyewitness account of the Pearl Harbor attack as relayed to family members in a letter written home a few weeks after the assault:
"The noise was like ten thousand factories gone nuts....Quicker than I can tell you, a bomb blows up the barracks with the gang in it, a ship explodes in front of me, a hangar goes up in flames..."
The very next day President Roosevelt stood before the microphones in the well of the U.S. Capitol and asked Congress to declare war against the Empire of Japan; CLICK HERE to hear about the reactions of the American public during his broadcast...
Pearl Harbor Christmas: A World at War, December 1941
Click here to read about the Battle of Midway.
Enter, Esther Williams (Collier's Magazine, 1942)"There is a new girl out at MGM in Culver City named Esther Williams (1921 - 2013), who is a cross between Lana Turner and a seal...Miss Williams happens to be that fortunate thing known as 'a knockout' - in looks and one of the greatest swimmers in the world."
Click here to read about Marilyn Monroe and watch a terrific documentary about her life. *In this 2007 Esther Williams Film Clip the Actress Recalls Her Glorious Career* Restless Nazis in Canada (Newsweek Magazine, 1942)Here is an article about all the goings-on at the POW camp in Bowmanville on Lake Ontario, Canada. It concerns the German inclination to escape and the methods employed by the Canadians to keep them in place. The Man Behind The WAAC Uniforms (The American Magazine, 1942)Although the WAAC uniforms were designed by Dorthy Shavers (1893 - 1959) of Lord & Taylor, this short article credits U.S. Army Colonel L.O. Grice - who actually served more in the capacity as the Army's "artistic director" who supervised the designer.
"He picked everything from purses to panties for Uncle Sam's powder-puff army..."
Click here to read about the WAVE's uniform... RAF Bombs Munich (PM Tabloid, 1942)Throughout the course of the Second World War, the city of Munich was bombed seventy-four times by both the Royal Air Force as well as the U.S. Army Air Corps. The attached article gives an account of the third of these attacks.
"Giant four-motored planes flew in over their targets so low that they could clearly see the Brown House and the Beer Hall where Hitler organized his 1923 putsch... The citizens of Munich will, no doubt, be thinking of their Fuehrer today as they survey the bombed-out buildings and piles of rubble in the streets where Hitler first harangued them about his political ideas." Ode to the Hollywood Agent (Rob Wagner's Script Magazine, 1942)The literati have all agreed: there is no doubt that if Shakespeare were alive today he would live in Beverly Hills, California. He would dwell in a 1930s split-level Persion-conversion, probably on Palm or Roxbury. As a well-compensated screenwriter he would churn-out the standard plots that were expected of him: fish-out-of-water dramadies, romcoms, and (under assorted pen names) a few reality shows; and like the poet whose work is attached, he would write about matters unique to Southern California -valet parking, Cobb Salads -and in this case the Hollywood agent.
This poem was written by Sydney King Russell (1898 - 1976), who, like Shakespeare, knew that if you're going to write a poem about Hollywood agents, you'll need to crack open the ol' rhyming dictionary to see what rhymes with "ten percent". John Frederics and the Hats for the Fall (Click Magazine, 1942)Here is a an Elizabeth Hawes (1903 1971) fashion review covering some of the hats for the autumn of 1942. They were all the creations of John-Frederics (1902 1993) - some are simply fantastical while others are a tad less dramatic, but not lacking in style.
Click here to read about the hats of 1947.
Stalingrad Hell (Newsweek Magazine, 1942)"The most devilish Hell on the 2,000-mile front was the battleground before Stalingrad, in the dusty, 50-mile-wide bottleneck between the Don and the Volga. After two months' furious fighting, the great German offensive begun on June 28 approached its climax." ''White Man's War'' (PM Tabloid, 1942)During the winter of 1942, Private Harry Carpenter, U.S Army, made a big honking mistake when he decided to declare that the current war was "a white man's war". Arrested by the MPs and carted-off to stand before Magistrate Thomas O'Hara, Carpenter found that he had reaped the whirlwind: he was charged with treason against the United States. The D-Day Landing Crafts (Click Magazine, 1942)If you ever wondered why The National W.W. II Museum is located in New Orleans rather than West Point, Annapolis or the nation's capitol - the answer can be spoken in two words: Andrew Higgins. Higgins was the innovator who designed and manufactured the landing crafts that made it possible for the Allied forces to land on all those far-flung beaches throughout the world and show those Fascists dogs a thing or two. His factory, Higgins Industries, was located on Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans and it was for this reason that the museum board of directors chose to doff their collective caps, and erect their repository in his home town.
Attached is a five page photo-essay about Higgins and all that he was doing to aid in the war effort.
Hitler's 1942 Challenges (Newsweek Magazine, 1942)"The dilemma before Hitler is that he must marshall all his air strength to crush Russia. He cannot do so without weakening his air units in France or the Mediterranean. Such a move would threaten him either with an Allied invasion of the Continent or the disruption of the Axis supply lines to Africa... The Luftwaffe had lost 15,000 planes in Russia - and with them the hope of regaining air superiority in Russian skies."
Click here to read about the German concept of Blitzkrieg.
Saboteurs to be Tried in Military Court (PM Tabloid & Yank Magazine, 1942)"The eight Nazi agents, who landed from U-boats on the shores of of Long Island and Florida, planning to cripple American war production, are in jail here [Washington, D.C.] under heavy guard, awaiting military trial on four charges that carry the death penalty." Reporter on Bataan (Newsweek Magazine, 1942)War reporter Nat Floyd (news service unknown) briefly explains how he was able to get out of Bataan just in the nick of time and avoid years of starvation at the hands of the Japanese Army. American Makeup Goes to War (Click Magazine, 1942)An interesting look at the beauty products used by American women during the Second World War and how that war effected the cosmetic industry. Students of history will be reminded that when a nation commits itself to a state of total war, all available elements within a government's grasp will be picked over by that country's military; even makeup. "If you're following a routine of 'beauty as usual' with qualms of conscience, believing that cosmetics and toiletries use materials essential to the war machine, know for certain that if Uncle Sam needed your lipstick for bombs and bullets, he'd have gotten it first." The U.S. cosmetics industry was effected in many ways, read the article and find out.
Click here to read an article about a popular 1940s hairstyle.
CLICK HERE to read about the beautiful "Blonde Battalions" who spied for the Nazis...
Ireland Bows Out of the War (Collier's Magazine, 1942)This article discusses the various complications and contradictions inherent with Irish neutrality in the face of the Nazi march on Europe. Even though it was clear to see that an Allied victory would certainly be an Irish benefit and the Germans had already fire-bombed Irish cities twice, the Irish leader Eamon De Valera (1882 - 1975) was hellbent on seeing to it that Ireland never played favorites. FDR's Proposal to Limit Personal Income (PM Tabloid, 1942)By the end of the war, FDR's administration had placed taxable personal income as high as 94%(!). His Brain Trust were all big believers in Federal intervention into the economy - offering all sorts of price freezes and wage freezes in order to limit competition during the Great depression (as if that was a good). As the war kicked-in to high gear, FDR installed a low ceiling upon all high-earners and capped their salaries at $25,000.00 per-year.
Click here to read about FDR's airplane.
Pants for Women Become a Thing (Spot Magazine, 1942)In the Digital Age we simply don't think much about pants on women - but they sure thought about it in the Forties - and everyone was expected to have an opinion on the subject. This article is about the dust-up that was caused at a new Jersey high school when some of the girls came to school in pants. The Well-Organized War (Liberty Magazine, 1942)In the attached column, Liberty Magazine publisher Paul Hunter responded to all the naysayers who were carping about how poorly the American war was being prosecuted, he would have none of it. Hunter pointed out that previous American wars were plagued with all manner of shortages and bureaucratic foul-ups that hampered military success but that was not the case with the current conflict. The war at that point was not even half-way over, yet Hunter seemed clairvoyant when he wrote these words that historians yet un-born would agree with:
"On performance to date it is an even bet this war will go down in the history books as the best-run war America has ever fought."
A similar article can be read here.
Prison Bust in Libya (Yank Magazine, 1942) Carl Jung on Hitler (Omnibook Magazine, 1942)H.R. Knickerbocker (1898 1949), foreign correspondent for the Hearst papers, recalled a 1938 conversation he had with the noted Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung concerning Adolf Hitler and his broad appeal among the German people:
"He is like a man who listens intently to a stream of suggestions in a whispered voice from a mysterious source, and then acts upon them... In our case, even if occasionally our unconscious does reach us in dreams, we have too much rationality to obey it - but Hitler listens and obeys."
Click here to read about the origins of Fascist thought...
Click here to read Dr. Jung's thoughts on the collective guilt of the Germans. The Fifth Column In America (PM Tabloid, 1942)Sabotage, The Secret War Against America (Harper, 1942), is as exciting as a Hitchcock movie. It is also a tragic story, for it is the factual , documented narrative of the years when this country was the happy hunting ground for our enemies, foreign and domestic."
Click here toread about the Canadian Bund.
Private Yori Wada, United States Army (Script Magazine, 1942)The attached article was written by a twenty-five year-old Japanese-American Army private named Yori Wada (1917 - 1997). Wada had joined the army some months prior to the Pearl Harbor attack and with all the good fellowship and optimism typical of youth, he explained with some enthusiasm, about how much he enjoyed army life and all the friends he had made within his unit. While the article makes no reference to the unfortunate lot of his family back home, Wada wrote that his future in the army as of April, 1942 was unclear; all he wanted was a fair shot to defend his country, and he didn't think that he'd get it. Why the Japanese Didn't take Prisoners (Liberty Magazine, 1942)Hallett Abend (1884 - 1955) was an American journalist who lived in China for fifteen years. He covered the Sino-Japanese War during its early years and had seen first-hand the beastly vulgarity of the Japanese Army. After Pearl Harbor, the editor at Liberty turned to him in hopes that he would explain to the American reading public what kind of enemy they were fighting:
"In four and a half years of warfare [in China], the Japanese have taken almost no prisoners... Chinese prisoners of war are shot." Women, Fashion and Uniforms on the Home Front (Rob Wagner's Script Magazine, 1942)Two short, gossipy paragraphs from a Hollywood literary magazine printed early in the American home front experience concerning women war-workers, fabric rationing and the long-standing debate between ready-made uniforms vs custom-made uniforms: "Feminine uniforms are causing great dismay. Women of small means complain that while they would like custom-made uniforms, they can't afford them. Nevertheless, designers are doing a capacity business, turning out ultra-chic numbers for those in the money..." Click here to read an article about women's uniforms during W.W. I. Aid From The Farm Service Administration (Pic Magazine, 1942)"It matters not that we're fighting a war on, under and over all the seas and on half the continents of the earth. Uncle Sam is determined that there shall be be no new army of 'forgotten men' to make a mockery of all the things for which we are now fighting...The Farm Security Administration [has been] detailed to look out for migratory defense workers - the kind who can't find a place to live in overcrowded war-boom towns"
Click here to read about the effects that the Great Depression had on the clothes we wore...
A Smaller War on the Home Front (Brooklyn Eagle, 1942)In 1942, the reasons for despising Global Fascism were many and myriad but the woman who penned this editorial hated Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo for a reason all her own: Gertie McAllister hated them because they put women in pants. When Ingenuity Out-Witted Scarcity (Click Magazine, 1942)A well illustrated wartime review concerning what the women of fashion could do to enhance life in spite of the government shortages. Harold Ickes: FDR's Gas Czar (Liberty Magazine, 1942)This article was published one month after the start of the war; it must have been a time when everyone had something to say about Harold Ickes (1874 1952) as he was composing the gas rationing laws for the home front. In this column, Ickes speaks for himself. He had been the one who saw to the President's energy policy's during the Great Depression and now he was FDR's go-to-guy for gas during the war. Americans Answered The Call (PM Tabloid, 1942)When it came across the wire that Fall of 1942 saw the U.S. Navy enlistments increase by 150%, the editors of PM were not slow to dispatch a team down to the induction center to check it out (at 67 Broad St., NYC).
Many, many African-Americans answered the call as well, but with understandable reservations...
More about W.W. II induction can be read here
When Fashion and Uniforms Meet...(Click Magazine, 1942)When the general appearance of women's uniforms prescribed for voluntary war work by various charitable organizations were deemed unfashionable, uncomfortable or simply embarrassing, the well-known fashion stylist and costume designer Irene (Irene Lentz, 1900 - 1962) stepped up to the plate designing an all-purpose green wool suit, topped-off by a beret:
"The noted Hollywood stylist, Irene, performed a real service for defense when she designed her all-around defense suit. Of sturdy gabardine, worn with long cotton service socks and plastic shoes, it is nevertheless as attractive as any civilian suit, and more practical than most. In this outfit, women war workers will not feel self-conscious and ill at ease." Sticking It to FDR (Liberty Magazine, 1942)George Creel (1876 - 1953), the nation's first and only official censor (1917 - 1918), knew FDR for twenty-five years, and in this wartime recollection he made FDR wish that the two had never met. This is the type of article Creel would never have allowed to be published twenty some years earlier because it sought to reduce confidence in the Commander-in-Chief. Yet, with the war in its eleventh month, Creel gave it to FDR with both barrels:
"No man ever dreamed more nobly or had less skill in making his dreams come true." French Slavery Becomes A Reality (PM Tabloid, 1942)"Petain clamped the chains of Nazi slavery on the men and women of France today. The aged Marshal, Pierre Laval, and their quisling cabinet, promulgated a decree ordering all French men and women to compulsory labor. The decree, which the Government frankly admitted meant slavery in Germany for thousands of Frenchmen, was signed by Petain on Friday night."
Click here to read about the enslavement of Europe... Tales of the Assinibone Tribe (Direction Magazine, 1942)"Land of the Nakoda: The Story of the Assinibone Indians" was the brain child of the Montana WPA (Works Progress Administration), Writers Project. The book is a collection of tales as told by the tribe elders and transcribed by one other member for publication in book form and it is still in print today.
Women Working for the War (The American Magazine, 1942)Here is an account by one reporter of his visit to an American aircraft factory early in the war. His article concerns the novelty of female laborers:
"We climbed to a catwalk in the rafters and looked down on one of the most fascinating factories on earth. It was gay as a flower garden. Women in bright blouses and slacks were everywhere, doing everything. Blondes and brunettes and redheads and - well , middle-aged ones. Mostly pretty. And every one eagerly intent upon her job."
Click here to read about what was involved in training a WAAC.
Pain and Hope (Coronet Magazine, 1942)Attached herein are a few pages from 12 Million Black Voices by Richard Wright (1908 1960). The book, published in 1942, is a poetic account of the challenging lives lead by African Americans both before the great migration and after their arrival in the North. The editors of Coronet showed their sympathies for this minority by publishing these pages, but they also showed their total racial insensitivities by running crude pigeon English captions beneath each of the accompanying photographs.
Click here to read about the first Black Marines.
1940s Makeup and W.W. II (Click Magazine, 1942)Illustrated with thirteen pictures of the most popular U.S. makeup products used throughout the Forties, this article provides a fascinating look at how World War II effected the American cosmetic industry and how that same industry benefited the American war effort.
The U.S. cosmetics industry was effected in many ways, read the article and find out.
Click here to read a 1954 article about Marilyn Monroe.
''The Problem People'' (Collier's Magazine, 1942)These assorted color photographs of the Japanese-American internment camp at Manzanar, California helped to illustrate this 1942 Collier's Magazine article by Jim Marshall as to what Manzanar was and was not, who was there and how it operated:
"All we can do here is prove that we are good sports and good Americans, and hope that people will respect us and our problems." The American Draft Dodgers (The American Magazine, 1942)This article consists of assorted stories that illustrate the length some American men would go in order to stay out of the military during the Second World War. The article also tells of draft evasion during the First World War.
Click here to read a 1945 article about your average Massachusetts draft board.
| 
