1922 – Page 4 – Old Magazine Articles

The Back-Hand from a Flapper
(Flapper Magazine, 1922)

Flapper Magazine crowned itself the

official organ of the national flapper’s flock

If nothing else, this verbiage simply spells out that the editors took themselves very, very seriously indeed and it was in that same spirit they gleefully went to work disemboweling a movie that they saw as anti-flapper to its very core. The film in question was

Nice People (Paramount, 1922) starring Bebe Daniels and Wallace Reid. Produced by Willam C. deMille (1878 – 1955), elder brother of Cecil, the film makers were clearly intimating that nice people will always keep their flapper daughters in line; it is at that point in the flick when the reviewer dipped her pen in the ink:

This is one of the themes that ‘old fogies‘ usually delight in; the ‘reformation’ of the flapper… The picture is replete with pithy subtitles, such as ‘the smart girl of today removes the rouge from her lips only to kiss and make up.’

Colleen Moore: A Flapper in Hollywood
(The Flapper Magazine, 1922)

By the time this piece appeared in The Chicago Daily News (prior to being picked up by the fast crowd at Flapper Magazine) Colleen Moore was all of twenty-one years of age with fourteen Hollywood films to her credit. This interview was conducted over lunch by the polished Hollywood reporter Gladys Hall, who we’re sure picked up the check; on that day Miss Moore wanted to talk about flappers, a flock she was proud to be numbered among (and a subject she seemed to know well).

Silent Film Flapper Colleen Moore
(Flapper Magazine, 1922)

By the time this piece first appeared in THE CHICAGO DAILY NEWS (prior to being picked up by the fast crowd at FLAPPER MAGAZINE) Colleen Moore was all of twenty-one years of age with fourteen Hollywood films to her credit. This interview was conducted over lunch by the polished Hollywood reporter Gladys Hall, who no doubt, picked up the check; on that day Miss Moore wanted to talk about flappers.

The wise elders of Hollywood were perfectly fine about casting flappers to play in various movies, but they didn’t always produce films that were sympathetic to their causes; for example, the editors of FLAPPER MAGAZINE hated this movie.

We recommend this book: The Silent Feminists

‘Boy Soldiers of the Confederacy”
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1922)

The two page article attached herein served to alert the 1922 subscriber-base of Confederate Veteran Magazine that Boy Soldiers of the Confederacy (1905) – was no longer in print and isn’t that too bad and just in case no one shared the reviewers feelings on this matter, she recalled some of the Civil War experiences of the boys who fought throughout that war.

Read about a boy who fought for the Union…

The Myth of Lee’s Sword
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, , 1922)

Responding to the old tale that General Lee offered his sword in surrender at Appomattox, and that the magnanimous General Grant, flush with victory, kindly refused this gesture of humiliation – this anonymous contributor to Confederate Veteran Magazine penned an article that exposes the old saw to be incorrect:

And General Grant says specifically in his memoir (Volume II, Chapter 25, pages 344-346): ‘No conversation, not one word, passed between General Lee and myself either about private property, side arms, or kindred subjects. The much talked of surrendering of General Lee’s sword and my handing it back, this and much more that has been said about it, is pure romance.’

Two Civil War Poems
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1922)

Looking back on the American Civil War from a vantage point of fifty-seven years, these two versifiers, both highly schooled in Southern lore, penned these Dixie ditties for their South-land readers of Confederate Veteran Magazine.

Read an article about how Victorian fashion saved a life during the Civil War.

How the Confederacy Armed Themselves
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1922)

This two page article will answer some of your questions as to how the South was able to procure the necessary weapons needed to sustain their army as long as they did:

The Southerners were a ‘gun-totting race, so that there were enough firearms for the first round of the struggle at Bull Run.

Click here to read a similar article on this subject.

An Important Factory Town in the South(Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1922)

In response to the article posted above, one of the readers of Confederate Veteran Magazine…

wrote to the editors to point out an over site that was made concerning an important center of military production for the Confederacy. The reader wished to remind all concerned that Columbus, Georgia was home to numerous manufactories that served the rebels well in so far as the production of swords, brass cannons, harnesses, revolvers and rifles as well as wool and leather goods for the infantry.

Lynching as an Extension of Chivalry?
(The New Republic, 1922)

This small column from the pages of THE NEW REPUBLIC reported that women from five Southern states had gathered together in 1922 intending to pass a set of resolutions that would remedy one aspect of the Negro question (an illusive phrase that meant lynching). The attached article remarked that these women

…feel a deep sense of appreciation for the chivalry of men who would give their lives for the purity and safety of the women of their own race, yet They wish to bring about a state of public opinion which will compel the protection and purity of both races.

Decline of Religiosity Among College Women
(Literary Digest, 1922)

The reporter who filed this 1922 article for Literary Digest was concerned with the secular world on college campuses that was damaging the well-balanced minds of American women:

Woman is learning the same things that are taught to her brother; scientific theories destructive of the faith she imbued at home…The women are not doing their duty – they are giving too much time to outside interests – they are degenerating! Women smoking! Women drinking! Women preferring adventures and amusement to caring for families! The flapper – the short skirt – the lack of corsets…

Click here to read the review of a novel that dealt the feminist discomfort with Christianity.

Decline of Religiosity Among College Women
(Literary Digest, 1922)

The reporter who filed this 1922 article for Literary Digest was concerned with the secular world on college campuses that was damaging the well-balanced minds of American women:

Click here to read the review of a novel that dealt the feminist discomfort with Christianity.

Charles Darwin in the Schools
(The Literary Digest, 1922)

An article which discusses the growing number of state legislatures given the task to vote up or down on the issue as to whether or not to allow the Darwin theory of evolution to stand as a legitimate topic for discussion and instruction in their respective school systems. Mentioned in the article was one of the major players leading the charge on behalf of creationism: William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925). The journalist interviewed many assorted hot-heads from the most polished universities on behalf of Darwinists and the reader will no doubt be amused to see that so many years have past yet the arguments remain exactly the same.

Three years after this article was printed Bryan would be standing in defense of Christian Fundamentalism during the famous Tennessee Scopes Trial.

The historian Henry Steele Commager ranked Charles Darwin at number 43 insofar as his impact on the American mind was concerned – click here to understand his reasoning…

Flapper Poesy
(Literary Digest, 1922)

More juvenile flapper verses revealing that the flapper is as old as history itself – and far more meddlesome than her male counterpart.

Click here to read a FLAPPER MAGAZINE review of an anti-flapper movie.

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

Moral Corruption in Hollywood
(The Smart Set, 1922)

Appearing in their monthly column, Repitition Generale, H.L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan briefly explored the reoccurring topic regarding Hollywood immorality:

So long as the majority of figures in the field of movies are recruited from the social and aesthetic slums, so long will the smell of Lime house cling to the movie’s scandals.

Speaking of moral corruption, read this article about the actor Errol Flynn…

The Russian Nobility Struggled in Exile
(Vogue Magazine, 1922)

Luciene Murat (1876 – 1951?), a distinguished member of the French nobility wrote this Vogue article shortly after her return from Turkey in 1922. It is the sort of column that could only have been written by an over-indulged member of the post-war European high-society types, which makes it all the more enjoyable to read. Her reminiscences of her visit to the city of Pera are especially interesting for the observations made regarding the recently displaced White Russians of her acquaintance who reluctantly resided there in some discomfort.

Japan’s Rebellion Against Western Fashions
(Current Opinion Magazine, 1922)

Contrary to the headline written above, this interesting article does not simply discuss the (temporary) Japanese rejection of European and American clothing in the Twenties but also touches upon earlier days when Western styles were fully embraced by the nobility of that country.

There is in Japan a growing revolt against European clothing…The Japanese have endured agonies in their efforts to get our hats, our trousers, our corsets…

Under-Nourished German Children
(Magazine Advertisement, 1922-3)

Attached is a sad advertisement that ran on the pages of THE NATION for a number of years following the end of the war. Posted by a German charity, the ad pictures -what we can assume to be- a starving German child from one of the more impoverished regions of Saxony or Thuringia. All told, the photo and the accompanying text clearly illustrate the economic hardships that plagued post-World War I Germany.

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

Mark Twain’s Unkind Portrait of Bret Harte
(Current Opinion, 1922)

Nasty adjectives fly in this nifty essay concerning the friendship that soured between American writers Mark Twain (1835 – 1910) and Bret Harte (1836 – 1902). The two men were quite close during their younger days as journalists in San Francisco; in 1877 the bond between them was so strong that the two agreed to collaborate on a play, which they titled, Ah, Sin. However, Twain insisted that it was notoriety that killed his friend and it might have been better …if Harte had died in the first flush of his fame:

There was a happy Bret Harte, a contented Bret Harte, an ambitious Bret Harte, a bright, cheerful, easy-laughing Bret Harte to whom it was a bubbling effervescent joy to be alive. That Bret Harte died in San Francisco. It was the corpse of that Bret Harte that swept in splendor across the continent…