1922 – Page 9 – Old Magazine Articles

‘RETREAT? HELL!”
(The American Legion Weekly, 1922)

This four page history of the Battle of Belleau Wood is primarily concerned with the fighting that took place at Les Mares Farm; it was written in 1921 by William E. Moore, formerly a U.S. Army captain who was attached to the Historical Branch, General Headquarters of the A.E.F.. Throughout his article, Moore compared the fight at Les Mares Farm to the Battle of Gettysburg, and believed it to have been just as decisive:

That was the last effort the Germans made to force their way to Paris… It is is truly at Les Mares Farm where the Gettysburg of the A.E.F. lies, and there some day a monument should rise to inform the world what deeds were done upon that field.

German historians have long maintained that the Battle of Belleau Wood was not as significant as the Americans have liked to think that it was.

Paris Dada and Jazz
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1922)

VANITY FAIR’s Edmund Wilson (1895 – 1972), reported his view on Dada as it existed in Paris, the influence of Jazz and the art of Jean Cocteau (1889 – 1963). The article is subtitled:

The Influence of Jazz and Americanization of French Literature and Art

Compensation for Soldiers: How Much During the War? How Much After?( The Congressional Digest, 1922)

While debating the 1922 issue of benefits to be paid to the American W.W. I veterans, this record of salary and the post-war benefits paid by the other combatant nations was distributed to members of Congress.

The Rise of Islamic Outrage
(Current Opinion, 1922)

I predict increasing ferment and unrest throughout all Islam; a continued awakening to self-consciousness; an increasing dislike for Western domination.

So wrote Lothrop Stoddard (1883 – 1950), an author who was very much a man of his time and tended to gaze outside the borders of Western Civilization with much the same vision as his contemporary Rudyard Kipling, seeing the majority of the world’s inhabitants as the white man’s burden. Yet, for all his concern on the matter of Anglo-Saxon hegemony, he seemed to recognize the growing discontent in Islam, even if he was some sixty years early.

More Nasty Criticism About Silent Films
(English Review, 1922)

This new form of illusion cannot be called an art. Without the magic of the human voice, without the reality of the human form, lacking in color sound and poetry the film is purely an ocular illusion, an effect of light.

Another anti-silent film article can be read here…

Click here to read a 1939 article about an alumni organization for the pioneers of silent films.

To Outlaw War
(Literary Digest, 1922)

Not pacifists, but soldiers, have signed what several editors term one of the most striking and remarkable appeals for peace that have come to their tables.

Veterans of the 1914-1918 slaughter called for their respective governments to oppose territorial aggrandizement and demanded that an international court be established to outlaw war; following the establishment of said court, the immediate effort to disarm and disband sea and air forces and destroy the implements of warfare should begin. The American Legion Commander-in-Chief, Alvin Owsley (1888 – 1967), was among the signators.

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

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

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, 1915-1930

Harold Lloyd: The Man, The Cornball
(The American Magazine, 1922)

An in-depth interview with the great silent film comedian Harold Lloyd (1893 – 1971) accompanied by a seldom seen picture of the man WITHOUT his glasses (he didn’t really need them).

One blogger read the attached article and wrote the following:

I’ve never read this before – it’s great. It’s always good to hear Harold’s own thoughts on his films; I enjoyed his description of the stunt he did in on top of the locomotive at the mouth of an approaching tunnel in the film Now or Never. It’s a spectacularly funny gag, but we sometimes forget the effort that went into these scenes; Harold was one comedy star who was prepared to suffer for his art!

Helena Rubenstein on Youth, Beauty and Commerce
(The American Magazine, 1922)

Prior to the creation of cosmetic surgery, with odd procedures like tummy tucks and butt lifts, there was Helena Rubenstein (1871 – 1965), who had a long and stunning career in the cosmetic business and who is remembered for once having said:

There are no ugly women, only lazy ones.

In this interesting 1922 interview, the matron saint of cosmetics made some very bright remarks on the issue of beauty, glamor and vanity.

Silent Movie Caricatures
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1922)

When the Five O’Clock Whistle Blows in Hollywood is attached;
it appeared in VANITY FAIR eight years after Hollywood was declared the film capital of the world.

This single page cartoon was created by one of the great American caricaturists of the Twenties: Ralph Barton, and all the kingpins of the young empire are depicted (among others): Douglas Fairbanks, Marry Pickford, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Bebe Daniels, Bill Hart, Wallace Reed, Gloria Swanson, Nazimova, Charlie Chaplin, Jackie Coogan, Fatty Arbuckle and the writer Rupert Hughes.
Lording above them all, and represented simply by jodhpurs and riding boots, stands the founder of the feast – Cecil B. DeMille (and his brother).

Napoleon Takes Charge
(Literary Digest, 1922)

The Napoleon who plays the Monday-morning-quarterback in these columns was created by the tireless researcher Walter Noble Burns (1872 – 1932); his version of Bonaparte explains what went wrong on the Western Front and how he would have beat the Kaiser – but not before he dishes out liberal amounts of defamation for the senior commands on both sides of No Man’s Land.

The war’s stupendous blunders and stupendous, useless tragedies made me turn over in my sarcophagus beneath the dome of the Invalides. I can not conceive how military men of even mediocre intelligence could have permitted the Allied Army to waste its time by idly lobbing over shells during a three-years’ insanity of deadlocked trench warfare.

Click here to read an article about life in a W.W. I German listening post…

Replacing American Combat Uniforms
(The Official Record, 1922)

The World War I American uniform data attached herein answers the question as to how often Doughboy uniforms would wear out and need replacing. This information was all transcribed by U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps and published in a book titled THE OFFICIAL RECORD OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE WORLD WAR (1922).

The Klan Influence Within the Protestant Churches
(Literary Digest, 1922)

The zeal of the Ku Klux Klan to ‘support the Church’ has been displayed by many signs, and intimations multiply, we are told, that certain Protestant ministers are in its confidence and would seem on occasion to be directing it’s activities. But to some ministers the Klan’s mark of approval appears to be embarrassing, a favor which they would much prefer to do without. Scarcely a Sunday passes without the publication of the news that a Klan has visited a church in a body, simply to signify approval, or to remain decorously through the service.

Klan Victories in Oregon and Texas
(The Literary Digest, 1922)

The Ku Klux Klan victories in Texas and Oregon, where the influence of the hooded organization is said to have elected a United States Senator in one instance and a Governor in the other, indicates to The Nation that

the Ku Klux Klan has now passed out of the amusing stage and has entered the domain of practical politics to challenge our existing parties.

The KKK in Oklahoma
(The Outlook, 1922)

An article by one of the KKK‘s most outspoken enemies in the press, Stanley Frost (author of Challenge of the Klan), who reported on the political dust-up that took place in the Oklahoma state government when the Klan made serious attempts to be a dominate factor in Oklahoma politics.

THE OUTLOOK sent Stanley Frost to Oklahoma to study the amazing political conflict which has taken place in the state. The forces at odds in the state may have a far-reaching influence upon national politics.

‘Progressive Monogamy”
(The English Review, 1922)

In her 1922 essay, Marriage, Jane Burr (né Rosalind Mae Guggenheim, 1882 – 1958) refers to the modern marriage as progressive monogamy. She writes knowingly about the blessings and damnation of matrimony and believed that the institution has only improved since we entered an age where unions between man and woman can be so easily dissolved.

Over the civilized globe there hangs this tragedy of women and this tragedy of men – those who are free longing for bondage, those who are in bondage longing for freedom, everybody searching for the pure white flame, yet everybody compromising with sordidness that could be avoided, if only a new attitude could be legitimized.

Jew – Gentile Relations 1922
(Literary Digest, 1922)

This article appeared at a time when Eastern European immigration levels had been drastically curtailed, Klan membership was at it’s peak, antisemitism in college admissions had been exposed, and the memory Leo Frank’s murder was in it’s seventh year. The article is about the chasm between the two groups and building the necessary bridges; Dr. Stephen S. Wise (1874 – 1949), columnist Walter Lippmann (1889 – 1974) and a cadre of others address the topic with the needed perspective. Dr. Wise remarked:

Whatever Christians may have taught…their duty in the present is clear as are the heavens in the noon hour; the duty of affirming that incalculable and eternal is the debt of Christians to Israel, of whose gifts Jesus is treasured as the chiefest.

Charlie Chaplin Wanted to be Taken Seriously
(Current Opinion, 1922)

We have all seen it many times before: the well-loved, widely accepted comedian who decides that being adored by the masses is simply not enough. For too many comic talents, sadly, there comes a time when they slip on one banana peel too many and it occurs to them that they want the world to appreciate them for their ability to think. Comics who fill this description might be Al Frankin, Woody Allen or Steve Martin.

This article tries to understand why Chaplin wanted to play a tragic part in a 1921 London stage adaptation of William Thackeray’s ‘Vanity Fair’.
We have seen such behavior in comics many times before, they hadn’t.