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Primary Source Radio Newspaper Article | Early Radio History
1932, Pathfinder Magazine, Radio History

‘Radio Here and Abroad”
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1932)

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During the early days of radio, as in the early days of the internet, there was much scrambling done all around in order to figure out a way to make the technology profitable. When this article was on the newsstand the pioneers of radio were getting closer to achieving this goal but they were not there yet. In Europe, by contrast, the concept of commercial radio was held askance by many; some nations barred all ads from the invisible wave, while others preferred that commercials only be heard during certain hours of the day.

Educational broadcasting is growing in popularity in Europe and is being extended into the afternoon school hours.


A good deal of column space explains how the Soviet Union used radio.

Read about the radio program that was produced by the WPA writers and actors branch in order to celebrate American diversity; click here.

A Tribute to General Pershing (American Legion Weekly, 1924)
1924, General John Pershing, The American Legion Weekly

A Tribute to General Pershing
(American Legion Weekly, 1924)

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Six years after the last shot was fired, war correspondent Frederick Palmer (1873 – 1958) typed up some sweet words of praise for the American W.W. I Commanding General John Pershing:

When the people at home were thinking in terms of thousands, Pershing planned for an army of a million men overseas…He was organizer and molder of the A.E.F.. The stamp of his character was upon it in so far as any one man can put his stamp upon a vast, modern army.


During that brief period of the war in which Pershing’s Doughboys were at bat against the Germans, Palmer worked under the general as the press liaison officer and censor for the entire A.E.F. (a job he hated). His bitter recollections of W.W. I were recorded in his 1921 memoir; click here to read the review.


Click here to read an article from 1927 by General Pershing regarding the American cemeteries in Europe.

Scrambling for Oil (Literary Digest, 1921)
1921, Miscellaneous, The Literary Digest

Scrambling for Oil
(Literary Digest, 1921)

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Even as early as 1921 the world was noticing that in the U.S., that old Yankee mantra about avoiding foreign entanglements (a distortion of Washington’s Farewell Address) was being updated with a disclaimer: avoid foreign entanglements except when oil is involved.


Having put the Prussians in their place three years earlier, oil had become the new peace-time obsession for the Americans and their British ally – but it was to be the bane in their relationship: the Anglo-American irritant as Sydney Brooks remarked in FORTNIGHT REVIEW. With car manufacturers filling orders to placate a booming consumer market, the Brits pumped oil in Mesopotamia, the Americans in Texas while the oil companies from both locals vied for the rights to explore Latin America and the Caribbean.

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Assessing U.S. Army Management
1945, General Marshall, Yank Magazine

Assessing U.S. Army Management

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As he looked back on all that the U.S. military was able to accomplish during the last two years of World War Two, General George Marshall was full of praise for the War Department’s General Staff; however, it was management of these three major commands that impressed him time and again:


*the collective efforts of the American Air Forces


*the Army Ground Command and


*the Service Forces.

The Price of Victory
1945, General Marshall, Yank Magazine

The Price of Victory

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The first two paragraphs from General Marshall’s Biennial Reportstyle=border:none concentrate on the number of casualties counted from December 7, 1941 up to June 30, 1945 (keep in mind that this immediate estimate would have to be adjusted as time advanced and more men would continue to die of the wounds inflicted during earlier periods of the war).


The last two paragraphs in the report concern the remarkably low amount of non-battle deaths suffered by the U.S. military during the course of the war. General Marshall attributed this fact to the broad immunization program that was enacted on all fronts by the army medical corps.


Click here to read a news report on the American military casualties that were amassed from 1941 up to November, 1944.

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Protestant Churches Condemn the KKK (The Literary Digest, 1922)
1922, Ku Klux Klan, The Literary Digest

Protestant Churches Condemn the KKK
(The Literary Digest, 1922)

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A couple of years after the membership lists of the Ku Klux Klan had swelled to record levels, and just seven years after a chic Hollywood film director made a movie that ennobled their crimes,the Administrative Committee of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America issued a statement which served to distance the Protestant churches from that hate-filled organization.


From Amazon: Gospel According to the Klan: The KKK’s Appeal to Protestant America, 1915-1930style=border:none

World War I Aerial Combat | World War 1 Air War Article | World War 1 Dog Fight Article
1918, Vanity Fair Hall of Fame, World War One

Dogfight Over Hunland
(Vanity Fair, 1918)

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British fighter pilot in the Great War, Lieutenant E.M. Roberts, gave this account of the deadly game of Boche-hunting above the clouds:

I noticed he was going down a little, evidently for the purpose of shooting me from underneath. I was not quite sure as yet that such was really his intention; but the man was quick…he put five shots into my machine. But all of them missed me.

I maneuvered into an offensive position as Quickly as I could, and I had my machine gun pelting him…The Hun began to spin earthward.

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The Showmanship of Babe Ruth (Gentry Magazine, 1952)
1952, Babe Ruth Articles, Gentry Magazine

The Showmanship of Babe Ruth
(Gentry Magazine, 1952)

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The attached notice recalled one of the grandest moments in baseball history when Babe Ruth played it up to his fans:

Then like an actor who, having played a part so often, knows it by heart, Ruth majestically waved toward the right center field wall. A moment later the Babe’s pantomimed prediction was a reality. As the crowd, sensing the finale of the drama, rose to its feet, Ruth slammed a homer almost exactly where he had pointed.

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Nazi Germany 1950 | Germany 1950
1950, Aftermath (WWII), See Magazine

Germany, The Unrepentant
(See Magazine, 1950)

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Filed from Berlin by the respected American journalist William Shirer (1904 – 1993), he read the findings of a German opinion poll revealing that


• A majority of Germans tended to hold that Nazism was good, when properly administered.

• Antisemitism was rapidly assuming its customary spot within German society.

• War guilt was largely non-existent and Nazi publications were rolling off the smaller presses with predictable regularity.


Shirer also reported that unrepentant, senior Nazis like Max Amann were getting out of prison, expecting to wield the power they once enjoyed as as one of Hitler’s yes-men.

Harley Earl on Car Design (Gentry Magazine, 1956)
1950s Cars, 1956, Gentry Magazine

Harley Earl on Car Design
(Gentry Magazine, 1956)

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Few realize that when we applaud the tremendous style that went into so much of the design of 1950s American cars, we are actually praising the fertile mind of Harley J. Earl (1893 – April 10, 1969):


Earl, who served as the Vice-President of Design at General Motors, conceived of so many design elements that are associated with that period, such as wrap-around windshields, tail-fins and two-tone paint styling. In the attached article, written when he was at the top of his game, Harley Earl tells his readers what is involved in automobile design:

Shakespeare has told us ‘neither a borrower nor a lender be’. An automobile stylist must be both. He must borrow his ideas from the creatures and creations of nature which are all about him…

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American Trucks & Armored Cars (Vanity Fair Magazine, 1916)
1916, Cars, Vanity Fair Magazine

American Trucks & Armored Cars
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1916)

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Recognizing the importance of armored vehicles, a group of American millionaires, among them Henry Clay Frick (1849 – 1919), pooled their money and donated a number of such items to the New York National Guard. VANITY FAIR MAGAZINE pursued this story and produced this article as it developed with a thorough review of each of the donated military vehicles. Although the trucks are photographed, few are named.

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