Good Taste and the Year 1914
(The Delineator Magazine, 1914)
A quick read for costumers and historians regarding the fashion dos and don’ts on the matter of men’s ready-made clothes from 1914.
Dada at MOMA
(Literary Digest, 1936)
An amusing, if blasphemous, art review of the Museum of Modern Art’s 1936 Dada and Surrealism exhibit.
The journalist oddly credited Joan Miro as the author of the Dada movement.
The Marx Brothers of the art world are displayed, in all their unrestrained glory, in an exhibition of Fantastic Art in New York this week.
An exhibition of this type is always easy prey for the practical joker. A similar show in Paris several years ago exhibited a shovel, submitted by a well-known but discontented artist as an example of perfect symmetry.
Click here to read about the contempt that the Nazis had for Modern Art.
Violent Women
(The Literary Digest, 1913)
With the number violent acts committed by destructive Suffragettes quickly growing, the British patriarchs considered deporting them to Australia and other dominions as a just punishment for such a class of women.
Read about an attack on President Wilson that was launched by the suffragettes in 1918…
A Writer in the Ranks
(Yank Magazine, 1945)
Dashiel Hammett (1894 – 1961) had a pretty swell resume by the time World War II came along. He had written a string of well-received novels and enjoyed a few well-paying gigs in Hollywood. During the war years it was rare, but not unheard of, for an older man with such accomplishments to enlist in the army – and that is just what he did. The attached article spells out Hammett’s period serving on an Alaskan army base, his slow climb from Buck Private to sergeant, his difficulty with officers and the enjoyment of being anonymous.
Accompanying the article is a black and white image of the writer wearing Uncle Sam’s olive drab, herringbone twill – rather than the tell-tale tweed he was so often photographed wearing.
Click here to read a 1939 STAGE MAGAZINE profile of Hammett’s wife, the playwright Lillian Hellman.
‘Dark December”
(The Commonweal, 1947)
This is the 1947 review of Robert Merrian’s history on the Battle of the Bulge, Dark December; the reviewer, T.E. Cassidy, had served as a U.S. Army intelligence officer in the Ardennes:
Merriam is at his best analyzing the actual confusion that was rampant from the very beginning of the German drive on December 16th. I know his handling is expert here, for I was in the midst of the chaos, and can vividly recall, for example, the blank stares I met at various headquarters when I would ask what road net was clear, and to what point. It was really no one’s fault, after the first day or two. People simply did not know what was happening. And it was days and days before there was any concerted agreement among the different levels as to just what was going on.
The Beau
(Gentry Magazine, 1956)
Widely remembered as the best dressed man of the Nineteenth Century, Beau Brummell, (né George Bryan Brummell 1778 – 1840), set the standard for male sartorial splendor and as a result, his name
liveth ever more.
The attached men’s fashion article was written at a time when American leisure wear was going through it’s birth pangs and slovenly attire was on the rise all over the fruited plain; it was thoroughly appropriate for the editors of GENTRY MAGAZINE to print this article which not only examined the clothing philosophy of the Beau but also paid heed as to which actors portrayed him on screen (oddly, there was no mention made whatever as to who the various costume designers were).
He dressed simply, without ornamentation. What was it then that set him apart so ostentatiously from the crowd? What made him the best dressed man of the century? The answer lies not, as history has decided, in his clothes. It lay entirely in the way he wore them.
Remembering the Golden Age of the Dandy
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1920)
This is a fun read covering the all too short reign of the dandy
An article about Beau Brummell can be read HERE
The British Ball Grenade
(Trench Warfare, 1917)
The attached mechanical drawing depicts one of the most common ignition grenades that were put to use by British and Commonwealth forces during World War One. The Ball grenade was essentially a cast-iron sphere that measured three inches in diameter and it was one of any number of British grenades that used the Brock lighter.
A Three Part Anti-Aircraft Shell
(Scientific American, 1917)
An Honorable Mention was certainly in order for the British inventor Edward Dartford Holmes who thought up a three tiered, time fuse anti-artillery shell:
Briefly, his scheme calls for a shrapnel shell containing a number of compartments which are each exploded in turn at predetermined intervals.
1915, Inventions and Weapons, Sur Le VifThe Revolver-Canon
The Revolver-Canon
(Sur Le Vif, 1915)
The French made Revolver Canon must have had some difficulties…
1919, Almanach Hachette, Inventions and WeaponsGerman Gas Shells
German Gas Shells
(Almanach Hachette, 1919)
The attached is a black and white diagram depicting five different German gas artillery shells that were manufactured to be fired from a number of different guns of varying calibers.
In retaliation for a 1914 French tear-gas grenade attack at Neuve Chapelle, the German Army, on April 22, 1915, hurled 520 gas shells at British and Canadian units in Belgium, killing five thousand and incapacitating ten thousand more.
Clicke here to read more articles about W.W. I gas warfare.
The German Blockhouse
(L’Illustration, 1917)
Here is an architectural plan and a photograph of a German blockhouse that was constructed in Flanders during 1917. The Historian John Laffin is very informative on this subject when he refers to it in his 1997 book, The Western Front Companion:
Blockhouses generally measured 30 ft. along the front, with a width of 10 ft. They were sunk three feet into the ground and stood 7 feet above it. The front was up to 30 inches thick. Massively strong, a blockhouse was virtually impervious to shell-fire; even a heavy shell would merely knock a large chip off the edge.
This article appears on this site by way of a special agreement with L’Illustration.
Cockpit of the Giant Goltha Bomber
(j’ai vu Magazine, 1918)
In the spring of 1917, the German Air Corps developed a squadron of large aircraft capable of dropping 660-pound bombs on London -and drop them they did, killing as many as 788 human beings between May of 1917 and May of 1918. The Giant Goltha Bombers conducted these raids primarily at night and utterly terrified the East End of London. Eventually, German losses escalated and the London raids were canceled in favor of Paris and various other French targets. In 1917 this image of a Goltha cockpit appeared in the French press.
The Lewis Gun
(The Great War Monthly, 1918)
The Lewis gun was, in the circumstances, a weapon of very considerable value. It helped the British infantry to hold back masses of the enemy in the opening phase of the war, and became one of the most important instruments of attack and defense during the long period of trench warfare.
The light Lewis gun became the favourite weapon of the British airman, against the Parabellum gun of German pilots and fighting observers.
Click here if you wish to read about the American inventor of the Lewis Gun.
The 1952 Election and the War in Korea
(Quick Magazine, 1952)
By the time November of 1952 rolled around the Korean War was in stalemate; this made the 1952 election one that was about progress as the American voters looked for a candidate who could make sound decisions and offer a leadership that would take the country (and the war) in a better direction. Neither candidate was looking for a victory in Korea, both campaigned on finding a peace. When President Truman taunted Eisenhower to come forward with any plan he had for peace in Korea it resulted in the retired general standing before the microphones and uttering pensively: I will go to Korea. The electorate was at once reminded as to how trusted he had been in the past and Eisenhower was elected, carrying 41 states and receiving nearly 58 percent of the popular vote.
More on the 1952 presidential election can be read here…
Louis L’Amour on Post-War Paris
(Rob Wagner’s Script Magazine, 1946)
During the course of the Second World War, Western fiction writer Louis L’Amour (1908 – 1988) served as a U.S. Army lieutenant in a transport unit. He penned this nifty article about 1946 Paris while waiting to return home:
It is cold in Paris now. There are chill winds blowing down those wide streets. The fuel shortage is serious, and will probably continue to be so as transportation is not yet what it should be.
Vivid with historical background, the city somehow remains modern. It has kept step with the world without losing its beauty or its patina…Easy enough when riding along the Rue St. Antoine to forget that where the jeeps and command cars roll now, there were once Roman chariots. No corner of Paris is without its memories.
An Illegal Comedy in Occupied Paris
(Yank Magazine, 1945)
In Nazi occupied Paris there was a secret underground movie theater (93 Champs Elysees) operating throughout the entire four year period and it charged an excessive sum of francs to gain entry. Guess which Chaplin film was shown?
French Dirigible
(Popular Mechanics, 1914)
Pictured herein is the French dirigible ADJUDANT REAU as it appeared during the first months of the First World War.
Also depicted are two early tri-planes which were used to help elevate the craft.