Author name: editor

ww2 Taking Remagen Bridge 1945 | WW2 Ludendorf Bridge Crossing 1945 | Remagen Bridge News Article
1945, World War Two, Yank Magazine

The Americans Who First Crossed the Rhine
(Yank Magazine, 1945)

By /

The attached article tells the story of the first Americans to cross the Rhine river into Germany following the capture of the Ludendorf Bridge at Remagen, Germany.

One of the most striking incidents of the first day’s action on the bridge was the way German snipers opened up on their own men who had been taken prisoners. As each batch of PWs was lead across the bridge, a storm of sniper fire from the surrounding hills swept its ranks. Several were killed.


Pictured on page two is a photograph of the first American to make it across: Sgt. Alexander A. Drabik (1910 – 1993) of the 27th Armored Infantry Division.

Click here to read about a popular all-girl band that performed with the USO.

The Saucy Ada Leonard and Her All-American Girl Orchestra (Yank Magazine, 1943)
1943, Big Band 1930s-1940s, Yank Magazine

The Saucy Ada Leonard and Her All-American Girl Orchestra
(Yank Magazine, 1943)

By /

One of the most popular women’s group of the 1940s was Ada Leonard and Her All-American Girl Orchestra; few were surprised to hear that they were first girl band to be signed by the USO when America entered W.W. II. Sired by two vaudevillians, Ada Leonard (1915 – 1997) briefly toiled as a stripper in Chicago nightclubs before embarking on her career in music.

This interview displays for the readers her salty, fully-armored personality and her disgust concerning the total lack of glamor that accompanies USO shows, topped-off by a photo of her pretty face.


Reading and listening from Amazon
Take-Off: American All-Girl Bands
During World War IIstyle=border:none

Advertisement

Use shortcode [oma_ad position="summary_top"] (or other position) in your theme or widgets to display OMA Promotions here.

A Grateful Immigrant Speaks ('47 Magazine, 1947)
1947, 47 Magazine, Immigration History

A Grateful Immigrant Speaks
(’47 Magazine, 1947)

By /

An article by Atomic Age immigrant Juanita Wegner testifying as to her undying gratitude that she should be permitted to live in a nation with so many freedoms. Having spent much of her life on the run from the Fascists of Austria, Italy and Argentina, Wegner stated:

For all my life I’ve wanted to be an American. I’ve dreamed about it, studied, worked for it…I’ve been an American for only a few days. But if I could have one wish it would be to go up to everybody I meet and say: ‘Aren’t we lucky to have this chance! Let’s never forget it.’

1930s Minnesota Governor Floyd B Olson Article | The Great Depression in Minnesota 1933
1933, The Great Depression, The Literary Digest

The Governor Who Threatened Martial Law
(Literary Digest, 1933)

By /

An article about Governor Floyd B. Olson (1891 – 1936) of Minnesota who allowed his emotions to get the better of him one day in the early Spring of 1933 when he threatened to impose martial law throughout the state in order to confiscate private wealth should his proposed relief legislation fail to pass the Minnesota Senate:


Was former Democratic vice-President Henry Wallace a dirty Red?

A Church on Wheels (Literary Digest, 1913)
1913, Cars, The Literary Digest

A Church on Wheels
(Literary Digest, 1913)

By /

In our era we think nothing of bookmobiles and bloodmobiles or any number of other converted trucks and vans that are fashioned for various unique uses; this link will enable you to learn about a Catholic chapel-on-wheels (a.k.a. the Jesus-Jalopy, the Nun-Truck, the Pope Pick-Up, the Bishop-Bus) from 1913, that very well might have served as the inspiration for them all.

Advertisement

Use shortcode [oma_ad position="summary_top"] (or other position) in your theme or widgets to display OMA Promotions here.

1919, Interviews: 1912 - 1960, The American Legion Weekly

An Interview With P.G. Wodehouse
(The American Legion Weekly, 1919)

By /

At the time this magazine profile first appeared in 1919, P.G. Wodehousestyle=border:none (1904-1975) had recently resigned his post as the Drama Critic for VANITY FAIR MAGAZINE in order to pursue his ambition as a novelist and playwright. This article revealed to all Wodehouse’s keen interest in American slang and the language of American comic strips.

Click here to read magazine articles about D.W. Griffith.

How Public Relief Operated During the Great Depression | 1934 Public Relief from the Federal Government
1934, New Outlook Magazine, The Great Depression

‘Nobody Starves”
(New Outlook Magazine, 1934)

By /

This article attempted to explain to that portion of the reading public fortunate enough to have jobs, just how the county relief programs worked and what was provided to the subscribers. The journalist did not weigh-in as to whether she approved or disapproved of the program but sought to explain that in places like the Mid-West, where houses outnumbered apartment buildings, allowances for such possessions were made. In the congested cities of the East it might be expected that the family car be sold prior to receiving relief funds, but in the states where distances were greater subscribers were permitted to hold on to their cars.

Ronald Reagan in his Own Words (Photoplay Magazine, 1942)
1942, Interviews: 1912 - 1960, Photoplay Magazine

Ronald Reagan in his Own Words
(Photoplay Magazine, 1942)

By /

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 (1981–1989), 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…

Advertisement

Use shortcode [oma_ad position="summary_top"] (or other position) in your theme or widgets to display OMA Promotions here.

Clare Boothe: The Woman Behind ''The Women'' (Stage Magazine, 1938)
1938, Interviews: 1912 - 1960, Stage Magazine

Clare Boothe: The Woman Behind ”The Women”
(Stage Magazine, 1938)

By /

The following STAGE MAGAZINE article by American playwright Clare Boothe (Clare Boothe Luce 1903 – 1987) appeared in print shortly after the successful opening of her play, The Women:

Of course, writing plays wasn’t exactly a flash of genius. I mean I am shewed in spots…But inspiration or calculation, it was frightfully lucky that I hit on writing plays, wasn’t it? And it was so wonderfully fortunate that quite a lot of people that I’d met socially on Park Avenue, at very exclusive parties, people like cowboys, cooks, manicurists, nurses, hat-check girls, fitters, exchorines, declasses countesses, Westport intellectuals, Hollywood producers Southern girls and radical columnists, gave me such lovely material to write about.

Click here to read about feminine conversations overheard in the best New York nightclubs of 1937.

Advertisement

Use shortcode [oma_ad position="summary_top"] (or other position) in your theme or widgets to display OMA Promotions here.

US Army Warfare Compared to Imperial German Army Warfare
1919, Doughboys

Intent on Battle
(U.S. Army Report, 1919)

By /

Here is a page from The Enemy Order of Battle report (1919) by the subsection of the same name that was an arm of the U.S. Army General Staff. The report tells of Baccarat, a portion of the Western Front during the later part of the war that was quiet, by mutual agreement between the French and Germans – until the U.S. Army took their place in the French position – and then all Hell broke loose.

Advertisement

Use shortcode [oma_ad position="summary_top"] (or other position) in your theme or widgets to display OMA Promotions here.

Home Front Feminism (Collier's Magazine, 1943)
1943, Collier's Magazine, Home Front

Home Front Feminism
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

By /

1940s feminism bares no resemblance to the take-no-prisoners feminism of today. This is made clear in the attached article by Amaran Scheinfeld (1900 – 1979), a writer, whose book Women and Men (1944), as stated by the New York Times, foreshadowed many issues of the feminist movement. The primary difference between the two lay in the fact that seventy-five years ago it was believed that it was nature that had established many of the rolls played by the (two) genders.

WW I PTSD Disorder | WW I Veterans Suffered From Shell Shock 1919 | Shell Shock Newspaper Article 1919
1919, Aftermath (WWI), The American Legion Weekly

The Shell-Shocked Millions
(American Legion Weekly, 1919)

By /

With the close of the war came the release of millions of combat veterans onto the streets of the world. Some of these veterans adjusted nicely to the post-war world – but many had a difficult time. Their maladjustment was called Shell Shock and it could manifest itself in any number of ways; in the attached article, written less than a year after the war, one anonymous American veteran explained his own personal encounter with the illness.


Click here to read a post-W.W. I poem about combat-related stress…

Night Patrol in the Toul Sector (Stars and Stripes, 1918)
1918, The Stars and Stripes

Night Patrol in the Toul Sector
(Stars and Stripes, 1918)

By /

Mr. Junius B. Wood, correspondent of the Chicago Daily News with the A.E.F. recently spent a week in the sector held by the American Army Northwest of Toul. He lived the life of a Doughboy, slept a little and saw a lot. He spent his days in and near the front line and some of his nights in No Man’s Land. Here is the second and concluding installment of his story, depicting life at the front as it actually is…


Click here to read an article about the German veterans of W.W. I.

Advertisement

Use shortcode [oma_ad position="summary_top"] (or other position) in your theme or widgets to display OMA Promotions here.

Scroll to Top