1937 – Page 6 – Old Magazine Articles

The Moscow Show Trials Continue
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Of the 17 defendants in the Russian ‘circus trial’, four were still alive in Moscow last week. Thirteen others, convicted of having acted on the instigation of exile Leon Trotsky to sabotage Soviet railways, mines and factories, were taken to a cellar of Moscow’s Lubianka Prison, where they were yanked into cells to have have their brains blown out by pointblank pistol shots.

Another article about the show trials can be read here…

Gandhi’s Struggle Against British Imperialism
(Literary Digest, 1937)

A news article from a 1937 issue of LITERARY DIGEST pertaining to Mahatma Gandhi‘s ongoing struggle to break free from the bonds of English imperialism:

The basic policy of this Congress, Nehru admonished, is to combat the ‘Government of India Act’ (the Federal Constitution); resist in every way the attempt by British imperialism to strengthen its hold on India and its people; stress a positive demand for a constituent assembly, elected by adult suffrage.

Goering in Italy
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

The journalist who penned the attached article was in the dark as to the reasons why Reichsmarshal Herman Goring appeared in Rome during the opening weeks of January, 1937, but he wisely presumed that it had something to do with the Spanish Civil War – and he was right.

FCA: Not Going Anywhere
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Unlike the CCC, WPA, CWA, or DRA, you can type FCA.gov into a search engine and actually make contact with one of FDR’s multiple alphabet agencies. This 1937 article will tell you why it came into being – but it won’t tell you why the agency wasn’t done away with during any of the decades of plenty that followed.

Rumors of Hitler’s Favorite American Comedy Team?
(Photoplay Magazine, 1937)

The amiable Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr. penned the attached article and it was written at a time in his life when the man simply had to know what movie was the preferred darling above all others for the hideous Adolf Hitler – so after some hard-charging investigative journalism, he discovered that Hitler would scurry-away with Herman Goering in order to yuck it up in the dark while watching his fave non-Aryan comedy team. Who do you think it was?

Hitler might have liked American movies, but there was one thing American he didn’t like: German-Americans drove him crazy.

Click here to learn about Stalin’s favorite movie.

Food Shortages in the Third Reich
(Literary Digest, 1937)

Guns instead of butter! was the slogan General Hermann Goering, Commissar, sounded for the Four Year Plan destined to control production and slash imports as an aid to the Reich’s fantastic rearmament program.

For the great mass of Germans, however, the most serious food shortage since the war cast a pall over Christmas. Housewives got orders to specify their favorite dairy store, and to patronize it exclusively. By prohibiting any shopping around, officials found it possible to limit the distribution of butter and other fats. A census of of the size of families has already been taken, and, beginning January 1, every housewife must limit fat purchases to at least 80 per cent of her October buying.

Food Shortages in the Third Reich
(Literary Digest, 1937)

The State of Radio In 1937 America
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Girding the United States today are two major national radio chains and one smaller chain. They are the National Broadcasting Company, the Columbia Broadcasting Company and the Mutual Broadcasting System, NBC, with its combined Red and Blue networks, has about 110 stations. CBS on a single network has 101. Mutual has 45 and will add a new section of 10 more next month.

‘The Thin Man”
(Stage Magazine, 1937)

Attached is an article by One Take Woody (Woodbridge Strong Van Dyke, Jr. 1889 – 1943) on the topic of the two Thin Man films he had directed:

Looking back into the infinite past, I seem to recall that a certain motion picture was made and that I had something to do with it. It stirs restlessly in my memory, for it was immediately seized by the theater public as a new cycle in screen entertainment. In Hollywood, things are often done in cycles – gangster cycles, G-man cycles, historical romances, sea stuff,even Shakespeare. Somebody starts it and others fall in line to catch the shekels that bounce to the floor after the first jack pot.

Click here to read an article about Dashiell Hammett.

Library of Congress Salutes the Dime Novel
(Literary Digest, 1937)

In 1937 the Rare Book Department at the Library of Congress launched a surprising exhibit of what they called, ephemeral literature – these works were popularly known as Dime Novels and they were not simply the father of the modern comic book but also the father of one other form of popular literature:

The roots of the American historical novel are sunk in the so-called dime novel – the first effort at popular fiction. It began with the stories based on the Revolutionary War, then historical fiction of incidents in the War of 1812, the Mexican War and the struggle for Cuban independence, which stated about that period.

When Prestige was Thrust Upon Hollywood’s ”Cameramen”
(Stage Magazine, 1937)

Shortly before this article went to press, that particular member of the Hollywood film crew called the director of photography (DP) was treated a wee-bit better than other crew members were likely to be treated (but not that much better). Granted, the director and producer knew his name and his body of work – but his screen credit was still mixed among all the other names of the crew (if listed at all) – and this article points out that much of that changed in the Thirties.

Understanding Unemployment
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

In order for FDR’s Federal Government to layout their planned economy they had to be able to forecast the future trends in unemployment, and with that in mind it was deemed suitable that a committee be convened to study the matter. The board of brainiacs called themselves the National Resources Committee and their study was boundless and all encompassing. This article summarizes the findings of one of the organization subcommittees; their 450,000-word report was titled Technological Trends and National Policy, Including the Social Implications of of New Inventions. The head of this subcommittee was the famed sociology professor William F. Ogburn, and as the title implied, the report studied the blessing and the curse that is the nature of technological innovation.

Artist Paul Cadmus
(Art Digest, 1937)

A late Thirties art review of Paul Cadmus (1906 – 1999), one of the finest and most scandalous artists of the W.P.A.:

Paul Cadmus was thrust into national prominence at the age of 26 when his canvas, ‘The Fleets In’, painted for PWAP in 1933, stirred up a storm of protest. Since then controversies have dogged his art but with them has come recognition…Like the contemporary writers Thomas Wolfe and Aldous Huxley the reaction of Cadmus against present day ‘civilization’ is one of repulsion tinged with hatred. This note of protest seems to be the battle cry of the younger generation of artists and writers. Mrs Overdressed Middle class to be viewed by the public…

More Babies, Please
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Italy, Germany and Russia, leading exponents of Europe’s Fascist and Communist camps, have each asked for more prolific mothers and decreed measures designed to fetch in the bambini, kinder and kodomos. Their dictator’s desires for more babies and still more babies have developed into a population race.

Click here to read about the Nazi struggle to increase their birthrate…

New York City Bars at Four in the Morning…
(Stage Magazine, 1937)

Tickled by the New York laws that prohibited bars from serving spirits between the hours of 4:00 to 8:00 a.m., this correspondent for Stage Magazine, Stanley Walker, sallied forth into the pre-dawn darkness of a 1937 Manhattan wondering what kind of gin mills violate such dictates. He described well what those hours mean for most of humanity and then begins his catalog of establishments, both high and low, that cater to night crawlers.

For something a shade rougher, more informal, smokier: Nick’s Tavern, at 140 Seventh Avenue South [the building went the way of Penn Station long ago], dark and smoky, with good food and carrying on in the artistic traditions of the old speakeasies.

Click here to read about the arrest and conviction of New York’s high society bootleggers.

The Five Wealthiest Counties
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

During the summer of 1937 the U.S. Census Bureau released the data that was compiled by it’s business department concerning the payrolls dolled out by the nation’s wealthiest industries in 1935. The information gleaned from these payrolls indicated which were the five richest counties in the country based on personal income. These small municipalities could be found in two Eastern states, two Mid-Western states and one Western state.

Jump ahead to our own time and you’ll learn how much the game has changed: today the top five wealthiest counties in the United States are all located in the Maryland and Virginia Suburbs that lie just outside the District of Columbia!

‘Noses, Eyes, Chins”
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Practicing throughout the Thirties and Forties, fashion photographer Arthur O’Neil took time out from his glamorous day to explain to an inquiring journalist what his requirements are when looking for a fashion model:

The prettiest girls, according to O’Neil, are between 16 and 28 and come mostly from the Middle West…

A Soviet Need to Update
(The Literary Digest, 1937)

While strong on land and in the air, [the Soviet Union] is weak on the water. Most Russian ships are World War or pre-War in origin, and many of her best vessels are in the Baltic, facing Germany, or in the Far East, where Japan looms up.