editor – Page 221 – Old Magazine Articles

1936, Stage Magazine

The Advance on the Rhineland and Other Forebodings
(Stage Magazine, 1936)

By editor / September 23, 2015

One of the very few literati who recognized what a German military presence in the Rhineland meant was a one legged American veteran of the last war named Laurence Stallings (1894 – 1968). This article appeared to be about the great benefit afforded to us all by hard working photo-journalists who supplied us daily with compelling images of various far-flung events, but it was in all actuality a warning to our grand parents that the world was becoming a more dangerous place.

I think the unforgettable picture of the month will come from shots stolen near a French farmhouse by Strasbourg, when the French were countering Hitler’s move into the Rhineland…Routine were the crustacean stares of the Italian children in gas masks last week, where they practiced first aid against chlorine and mustard barrages…

1937, Sino-Japanese Wars, The Literary Digest

Japan Sinks an American Warship
(Literary Digest, 1937)

By editor / September 23, 2015

Bombs rained like hailstones and churned the waters all around the ship like geysers.’ said Earl Leaf, United Press correspondent in China and eyewitness of the sinking of the United States gunbpat PANAY, by Japanese aviators, in the Yangtze River about 26 miles above Nanking; ….The British gunboat LADYBIRD and BEE also were fired on, and soon Foreign Minister Anthony Eden was telling an angry House of Commons that:

His Majesty’s Ambassador to Tokyo has made the strongest protest to the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs.’

Click here if you would like to read more about the sinking of the U.S.S. Panay.

1938, Hermann Goering, Ken Magazine

Hitler Slams Goering for his Girth
(Ken Magazine, 1938)

By editor / September 23, 2015

Having been encouraged by Goebels to show more than a little excitement about meeting Adolf Hitler, the German screen actress Renate Müller (1906 – 1937) recalled that during their time alone, the Führer slandered Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering for his gluttonous appearance…

The entire story is told in a longer article about Hitler’s wish for a wife.

1935, Spying, The Literary Digest

Spies Beheaded in Germany
(Literary Digest, 1935)

By editor / September 20, 2015

This magazine article was filed during the suspenseful phony war that was waged between Poland and Germany over the Danzig issue. It reported on the beheading of two German women convicted of spying on behalf of a Polish cavalry officer by the name of Baron Georges Von Sosnowski:

In London, THE NEWS CHRONICLE, Liberal Party organ, declared that the beheading of the two women was ‘disgusting savagery’, and was not the first evidence of ‘a strain of sheer barbarism in the Nazi creed…

1918, Old New York History, Vanity Fair Hall of Fame

Greewich Village
(Vanity Fair, 1918)

By editor / September 15, 2015

A whimsical article about the topography of New York’s Greenwich Village and the migratory habits of all it’s assorted bohemians, vagrants, spinsters and vegetarians during the Prohibition era.

Click here to read some high praise for Greenwich Village from a French film star.

1927, China - Twentieth Century, Pamphlet Produced by the National Park Service

The Roots of Communist China
(The Nation, 1927)

By editor / September 10, 2015

A dispatch from the old China watcher Lewis S. Gannett was printed in the left-leaning American magazine, THE NATION:

All China has been won to half the Nationalist program – that which is directed to the reestablishment of national independence. The fundamental conflict between ‘moderates’ and ‘extremists’ is, I think, between short-sighted men who think that the Nationalist passion can subside without causing fundamental changes in China’s social fabric, and those who recognize the inevitability of industrialization in China and are determined that their country shall not pass through all the miserable phases of capitalistic industrialism which created a disinherited proletariat in the West.

1922, Aftermath (WWI), The Literary Digest

Bertrand Russell on American Intervention
(Literary Digest, 1922)

By editor / September 9, 2015

The British philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970; Nobel Prize for Literature, 1950) used to get mighty hot under the collar when the topic of American society came up and this column is just one example. During his 1922 American speaking tour Russell rambled-on about how prone Americans were to confuse the truth with commercial messages; believing that altruism was seldom a motivating factor behind a single American undertaking. He will have none of the thinking that America’s main concern for jumping into the meat grinder of 1914-1918 was entirely inspired by wounded France and poor little Belgium but was rather an exercise in American self-interest.

Read the thoughts of one W.W. I veteran who regrets having gone to war…

1937, Cosmetics, The Literary Digest

The Old Hollywood Way to Physical Perfection
(Literary Digest, 1937)

By editor / September 8, 2015

The old flesh sculptor himself, Donald Loomis, late Physical Director for MGM Studios, let loose with some 1930s tips as to how he was able to make all those movie stars look so utterly fabulous – some are quite useful (some are pathetic).

Symmetry is the objective of Hollywood body sculptors. For bust-reduction, Loomis has a simple formula: Jump up and down with no support. Exercise in which the arms are forced backward and forward horizontally are used to develop the upper chest…

Click here to read an article about the demise of a popular 1940s hairstyle.

1919, Men's Fashion, Vanity Fair Magazine

Men’s Correct Clothes
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1919)

By editor / September 5, 2015

These images, as well as the headline, were from a paid avertisement for a fashionable fifth avenue shop that had originally appeared in a chic Conde Nast magazine.

1921, Jews in the 20th Century, The Independent

New York and the Real Jew
(The Independent, 1921)

By editor / September 4, 2015

An energetic and wonderful four page article which gives an account of the Jewish growth of New York. Even as early as 1921 nearly half of the Jews of North America lived there and every fourth New Yorker was a Jew.

Click here to read about the Jewish population growth in the Unites States during the 1920s.

1920, Doughboys, Pictures of the World War

Where Did the Doughboys Board? Where Did They Land?
(Pictures of The World War, 1920)

By editor / September 1, 2015

A black and white map indicating the Atlantic ports up and down North America where the A.E.F. boarded troop ships, their trans-Atlantic routes and their French and British points of arrival. The map is also accompanied by a few facts concerning this remarkable trip across U-boat infested waters.

Click here to read an article about the sexually-transmitted diseases among the American Army of W.W. I…

When the Doughboys complained, they complained heavily about their uniforms; read about it here.

1936, Modern Art, The Art Digest

20th Century Artists Rediscover Woodcut Printing
(Art Digest, 1936)

By editor / August 28, 2015

An art review concerning a 1936 Brooklyn Museum exhibit of woodcut prints by avant-garde German, Russian and French artists. The reviewer details how the medium was rediscovered.

Before Franz Marc (1880 – 1916) was killed in the war he strengthened woodcut design in his departure from pretty and representational decoration toward more rugged abstraction…Almost all of these German, Russian and Frenchmen have concentrated their attention on human life. There is no pretty landscape, no picturesque architectural rendering, no still life, no sporting print. Froma a few prints the actual human form has been abstracted. One of these by Wassily Kandinsky ‘looks like a diagram of the contents of a madman’s waste basket’. The rest of the prints are chiefly tragic, mostly pitiful, occasionally derisive comments on the failure of man as an animal.

1950s Fashion, 1952, Quick Magazine

Swank in the Cold
(Quick Magazine, 1952)

By editor / August 28, 2015

The slobs who run this website are a slovenly lot, so don’t take our word for it – but we believe this hooded turtleneck sweater that showed up on fashion’s catwalks during the fall of 1952 to have been the proverbial bees knees!

1897, Miscellaneous, The Literary Digest

Why Englishmen Resist Socialism
(Literary Digest, 1897)

By editor / August 22, 2015

Attached are the thoughts of German socialist Karl Liebknecht (1871 – 1919) concerning the matter as to why he believed

1930, Hollywood History, Photoplay Magazine

Laurel and Hardy
(Photoplay Magazine, 1930)

By editor / August 21, 2015

An interview with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy:

They are the comedy sensations of the season. And all because they have learned, by a lucky stroke, that the public likes to see itself caricatured on the screen; that the public can laugh at the maunderings of a fat man who shakes a warning pudgy forefinger at a sensitive simpleton who is prone to weep

1921, Silent Movie History, Vanity Fair Magazine

The Monstrous Movies
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1921)

By editor / August 21, 2015

By 1921 the city of Los Angeles began to seriously grow, and the expansion was not simply due to the arrival of performers and extras and all manner of craftsmen that are required to launch a film production – but the city was also bringing in the sorts necessary to support a wealthy urban environment. Every thriving city needs a support system, and Hollywood imported tailors, milliners, chefs, architects and various other tastemakers who in turn attracted realtors, contractors, merchants and restauranteurs.

1919, The Literary Digest, Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson and the Repeal of Prohibition
(Literary Digest, 1919)

By editor / August 18, 2015

For some in the U.S. Congress and for President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) in particular, the prohibition of alcohol in the United States (passed by Congress on November 1, 1918) was simply viewed as an appropriate war-time measure guaranteed to maintain the productivity of an efficient working class. However, with the First World War coming to a close, President Wilson saw little need in keeping the entire law as it was written, and he suggested allowing the sale and distribution of beer and wine. This article will inform you of the political will of the dry members of congress as well as the strength of the American clergy in 1919

1916, Fashion, Vanity Fair Magazine

P.G. Wodehouse on the Virtues and Vices of Artists
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1916)

By editor / August 18, 2015

Written under the pen name P. Brooke-Haven, this very funny essay was in fact written by Vanity Fair’s drama critic, P.G. Wodehouse, who attempted to understand the criminal nature of artists.

Author name: editor