1929

Articles from 1929

Babe Ruth Ranks and his Peers
(Literary Digest, 1929)

The ten best players that Babe Ruth can pick from the major leagues go into an unofficial diamond hall of fame. Ruth started picking these teams as a result of a clubhouse argument…

That there has been no prejudice is best shown, I think, by the fact that I have named six men from the National League and only one from my own league, the American…I haven’t named a single man from my own club, the New York Yankees, the men who play alongside me day after day through the season.

Rudy Vallee: ‘Vagabond Lover’
(Film Spectator, 1929)

It is not surprising to think that one of the first sound movies to be made had to consist of a plot that involved a musical number, and when put to the task of writing his review of VAGABOND LOVER (1929: RKO Pictures) the well respected film critic Welford Beaton dished-out some lukewarm opinions concerning it’s star, crooner/teen-idol Rudy Vallee (1901 – 1986):

The laddie’s face is set in a sort of perpetual sorrow which, added to the fact that he seldom looks the camera in the eye, makes him seem like the wraith of some calamity walking through the scenes. Only the voice is virile…

A Census of Skyscrapers
(Literary Digest, 1929)

Egged on by the 1929 completion of the Chrysler building, the curious souls who ran the New York offices of THE LITERARY DIGEST were moved to learn more about skyscrapers, both in New York as well as other parts of the U.S. and We were surprised to learn that as of 1929

50 percent of the buildings in New York from 10 to 20 stories and 60 percent of those over 20 stories are located between 14th and 59th streets.


This article also presents statistical data concerning the number of tall buildings that could be found throughout the 1920s United States.

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The Year of Sound
(Theatre Arts Magazine, 1929)

The oddballs who read old Hollywood magazines from the year 1929 seem to all be in agreement that these magazines all shared the same frenzied, enthusiastic energy; something new and wonderful and unpredictable had been introduced and it was going to cause an enormous shake up in every movie capitol under the sun: sound.

But it was in the past year that the newest art, that of the silent drama, like prehistoric Man, stood up on it’s hind legs and began to talk. Like prehistoric man, it talked badly at first. But soon it’s words came a shade more fluently, and gradually they began, when arranged, to make a small degree of sense.

Read about the first talkie movie star: Mickey Mouse…

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