A Really Rich Nun (Coronet Magazine, 1964)The sixth American to be granted the status of sainthood by the Catholic Church was a remarkable woman by the name Katharine Mary Drexel (1858 – 1955). Born into aristocratic circles in Philadelphia, she entered a convent at the age of 31. She is remembered for toiling unceasingly among America's down-trodden while liberally dispersing her family fortune in the process:
"In a period of some 60 years, she gave away $12 million. In doing so, she built 45 elementary schools, 12 high schools a university and countless country schools; she supported orphanages, hospitals and homes for the aged; she increased her congregation from its original 11 teaching nuns to over 500 at the time of her death in 1955." Jacqueline Kennedy: Her New Life (Pageant Magazine, 1964)A profile of the former First Lady following the conclusion of her first year outside of the White House.
"She mourns with dignity. And if there are tears, they may
fall only in the dead of night."
CLICK HERE... to read the obituary of President Kennedy.
The 1964 Harlem Race Riot (Pageant Magazine, 1964) She Had that Thing (Coronet Magazine, 1964)"The magnetic power that Greta Garbo still generates to attract the avid interest of beatniks, the avant garde, the hootenanny, the jet set and her own contemporaries is not easy to explain..." ''How Was Acts Written?'' (The Hibbert Journal, 1964)THE BOOK of ACTS has a fourfold structure, as the faith spreads outwards from Israel to the Hellenist fringe, to the Gentiles and to Rome. Paul's own mission repeats a pattern four times. The whole book is cyclical, with a sequence of nine steps in each stage. Each section moves from a descent of the Spirit to a death and resurrection. And behind the pattern of the New Testament story is the pattern of the Old Testament. ''Why I Compare LBJ with my Father, FDR'' (Coronet Magazine, 1964)"'Doesn't LBJ remind you of FDR?'"
"That's the question I hear most of these days. He does, and touring through the poverty-stricken states of Appalachia with President Johnson, I saw why."
- so wrote Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. (1914 – 1988) in the attached article that was penned some 23 years after his father's death. A Righteous Gentile (Pageant Magazine, 1964)"With daring and resourcefulness Father Benoit built up an efficient organization to smuggle Jews and other anti-Nazi refugees into Spain...He found an old hand press in the basement and, with the aid of a Jewish printer-engraver, turned out thousands of passports. Then he summoned a number of Swiss, Hungarian and Rumanian consuls and convinced them in the name of God and our common humanity to sign the crudely made documents." American Graphics Seen in Soviet Russia (Pageant Magazine, 1964)"An exhibition of graphic art from the United States has become a tremendously popular attraction [as it toured throughout four cities within the Soviet Union]... In the first two days more than 17,000 Soviet citizens, most of them in their teens or early twenties, came to see a gay collection of funny American posters, preposterous ads, colorful book covers and abstract prints."
"'You mean you're really allowed to paint like this, and nobody says anything?' one of the visitors asked." Watch Jack Masey of USIA Recall the Cultural Exchange Exhibits of the 50s & 60s JFK - As the World Saw Him (Coronet Magazine, 1964)"More than any other president in our history, John F. Kennedy was the public image of the United States of America. Unlike the initial acclaim accorded the stately Roosevelt or the revered Eisenhower, many nations viewed the election of Kennedy in 1961 with alarm. It was not difficult to understand; he was born to great wealth, he was very young and he was inexperienced. Could any country that elected such a man be respected?"
Click here to read about Jackie Kennedy's life after leaving the White House.
The Faith of Mahalia Jackson (Pageant Magazine, 1964)In this 1964 article, the cherished Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson (1911 – 1972) explained for the reader the relationship she had with the Almighty and further remarked that this relationship was the exact one God required from Christians:
"- you have to have a made-up mind. You don't straddle the fence serving God; we must put our all on the alter and let God abide." Tony Randall: Movie Star (Pageant Magazine,1964)In this early Sixties article, celebrity epistolarianne Cyndi Adams recalled her first two encounters with the man who would be "Felix Unger":
"'I am definitely neurotic and psychotic,' cheerily announced Tony Randall (1920 - 2004) the first time we met - 'he's an actor-comedian of remarkable skills...he unconsciously reflects, in the way he plays his rolls, so much of the neurotic age we live in...'".
The New York Times would pursue this point to a further degree in their 2004 obituary of the actor:
"That's the force Tony Randall embodied: he represented, in his neurotic grandeur, our national will to unhappiness. Or if not our will, at least our right, which in the 50's we were only beginning to realize we could exercise." ''Fear of the Police'' (Pageant Magazine, 1964)As 1964 came to a close this venom-packed column was read by many in the white American middle-class and it must have seemed very clear to many among them that matters between the races would not be righted for decades to come. Written by the Harlem-born writer James Baldwin (1924 – 1987) on the occasion of the 1964 Harlem Race Riot, Baldwin did not simply denigrate the NYC Police Department but the culture, government and sacred documents of the entire nation.
Click here to read about the Harlem riot of 1964.
The Dying Underclass... (Pageant Magazine, 1964)This article chronicles the poor health that had been a constant companion within the African-American communities and how it differed from their white counterparts.
"To the men who count the living and the dead - the statisticians, discrimination against the Negroes carves a picture in their death charts as clear as an inscription on a new tombstone, as pathetic as a dead child's forgotten doll... There is no question in any public health expert's mind that to get a real improvement in the death rate picture among Negroes, they must be able to improve their diet, housing, education, and living standards, including medical care. And that can only come about, it seems, by removal of all the discriminatory barriers on the economic and social level."
The O.S.S. Continued (Coronet Magazine, 1964) The Kick-in-the-Pants from Sputnik (Coronet Magazine, 1964) Russia's Fifth Column in America (American Opinion, 1964)"Over the last thirty years the United States, as well as Central and South America, has been invaded repeatedly by ununiformed soldiers of the Soviet Government - agents of the International Communist Conspiracy. Our government has been furnished repeatedly with conclusive evidence of this invasion and yet has done nothing to exclude and deport the invaders... To make matters worse, 'Liberal' administrations since the time of Franklin Roosevelt have urged that what few immigration restrictions we have to prevent their entrance be removed... Roosevelt was not interested in the fact that many of those entering were Communists; after all, he told me that some of his best friends were Communists." The Work of J.D. Salinger (The Hibbert Journal, 1964)A Literary journal's review of The Catcher in the Rye as well as the short stories contained in Salinger's collection Franny and Zooey:
"Salinger seems both to have a teenager's view of the adult world... and to have portrayed someone with whom a great many teenagers passionately wish to identify themselves."
The Coup of 1963 (Coronet Magazine, 1964)The outcome of the 1963 Cuban Missile Crisis was seen as a largely tasteless affair by the brass caps in Moscow. They believed Premiere Khrushchev and his diplomatic bungling left the U.S.S.R. in a weaker position and they wanted him out, pronto. Numerous men in the Soviet Army and within the Kremlin united in a plot to force him out. The Premiere proved himself a master at seeing through such intrigue; he stopped the coup dead in its tracks with a boatload of key arrests and executions which then knocked the remaining confederates off their game, sending them hither and yon.
Ten months later the Kremlin forced Khrushchev into retirement. ''The Girl Who Started the Civil-Rights Breakthrough'' (Pageant Magazine, 1964)This article recalls the story behind the 1954 Supreme Court case Brown vs. the Board of Education. Banned Book$ (Coronet Magazine, 1964)This is an article about the unintended consequences that ensue when the morality police ban books that, in their eye, will corrupt our youth and degrade society's splendid ethical code. Time and again these books become bestsellers:
"In our own day, standards have changed so rapidly that books banned and burned only decades ago are now acceptable reading matter in our schools...[banned authors] are so respected that most college students are puzzled to learn of the trouble that greeted these books when originally published." | 
