1943 – Page 6 – Old Magazine Articles

The Films of the U.S. Army Signal Corps
(Click Magazine, 1943)

An article from Click Magazine designed for civilian consumption concerning the U.S. Signal Corps and their efforts to film and photograph as much of the war as was possible in order that the brass hats far off to the rear could sit comfortably and understand what was needed. The article is illustrated with six war photographs and the captions explaining what information was gleaned from each:

Every detail of these films is scrupulously studied by a group of experts, officers and engineers representing the Army Ground Force, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Army Air Corps, the Signal Corps the Armored Forces, the Quartermaster Corps and other military units. Naturally, these services are interested in different sections of every film. To facilitate their studies, a device known as the Multiple Film Selector is used.

The Signal Corps Movies of World War I were intended for different uses…

The 82nd Airborne in Sicily
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

An article from the Fall of 1943 that reported on the second campaign fought by the men of the 82nd Airborne Division, the invasion of Sicily:

These air-carried forces were will be in a position to assist seaborne invaders not only by harassing the rear of the foe’s first lines, but by standing in the way of his attempts to bring up his reserves…These men were also to show that an airborne force can assail and capture and enemy’s strategic strong points, can man his bridges and his highways, can dominate his high-banked rivers and fight off his counterattacks.

‘Hello, Central, Give Me Heaven”
(The American Magazine, 1943)

Recognizing that simply because he had retired from the ministry, it did not mean that he had retired from spreading the Good News; Reverend J.J.D. Hall immediately began to deliver a sermon with each and every wrong number he received. That was in 1940 – three years later his telephone number was recognized as an institution and a reliable source for those thirsting for knowledge of The Almighty.

Allied Efforts in North Africa
(PM Tabloid, 1943)

By the time this article appeared at the New York City newsstands, the British had chased Rommel’s Afrika Korps out of Egypt, the Americans had suffered their first defeat at the Kasserine Pass and was in the process of walloping the Tenth Panzer at El Guettar. The anonymous general who penned this article took all that into consideration but believed there was much more fight left in the Germans than there actually was.

The U.S. 34th Division fought in Tunisia, click here to read about them.

American Units Get Active
(PM Tabloid, 1943)

Click here to read about the Rangers in North Africa.

Dan Burley, Editor
(Pic Magazine, 1943)

Dan Burley (1907 – 1962) was a much admired man of his day; noted editor and columnist who served at a number of respected African-American newspapers and magazines, a Boogie Woogie pianist, sports writer covering the Negro League and he was to Jive what Samuel Johnson was to English – a lexicographer. This PIC MAGAZINE profile centers primarily on his efforts to translate famous English lines into Jive talk and chronicle the slanguage .

More about the African-American press corps can be read HERE.

At The Front North Africa
(PM Magazine, 1943)

Here is the PM movie review of At The Front North Africa directed by John Ford and produced by Darryl Zanuck for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. The reviewer seemed irked that the film only showed the Germans having a difficult time.

Click here to read about the American Army in North Africa…

Hollywood Stars Cope with Food Rationing
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

If you ever wondered how Lucille Ball, Red Skelton, Barbara Stanwyck, Carmen Miranda, Veronica Lake, Charlie McCarthy or Edgar Bergen prepared their respective meals during the bad ol’ days of food rationing during W.W. II – then you’ll get your answer here:

Hollywood has done a complete about-face and banned the lavish, costly dish…. These days when the inhabitants of Glamor Town take off their faces and sit down to dine, the taste may be varied, but every meal is eaten with the full knowledge that a quarter of a pound of butter or a pound of ground steak is just as rare in Hollywood as Wheeling, West Virginia.

Women War Workers
(Pic Magazine, 1943)

Attached is a photo-essay from a 1943 issue Pic Magazine illustrating the roll women played in a California bomber factory.

Click here to read about the women war workers of W.W. I.

The Optimist’s Joseph Stalin
(Coronet Magazine, 1943)

During the Second World War in the United States it would have been an act of treason for a journalist to write a slanderous profile about any of the leaders of the allied nations who were beset against the Axis powers. Not only would the writer face grave charges, but so would his editor and publisher. However, this does not mean that the editors of Coronet Magazine had to go so far over the top as to publish this article by the Soviet cheerleader Walter Duranty (1884 – 1957) of The New York Times.

From Amazon:

Stalin’s Apologist: Walter Duranty: The New York Times’s Man in Moscow

African-Americans in Hawaii
(Yank Magazine, 1943)

Colonel Chauncey Hooper was a World War I veteran; of African-American stock, he had served with the Harlem Hellfighters (the 369th Regiment, 93rd Division). When 1943 came along, he could be found as an army colonel in Hawaii, lording over a regiment of colored New Yorkers calling themselves Hooper’s Troopers. This article is by no means about Hooper as much as it concerns the high number of Harlem Jazz musicians who served under his command

Dorie Miller was an African-American hero during the Second World War, click here if you would like to read about him.

African-American Fighter Pilots
(Click Magazine, 1943)

A three page photo-essay found on the yellowing pages of a 1943 issue of Click Magazine introduced American readers to the flying Black Panthers of the U.S. Army Air Force; a fighter squadron composed entirely of African American pilots, trained at the new $2000,000 airfield in Tuskegee, Ala.. The four paragraphs that tell their story are accompanied by eight portraits of the pilots and snap-shots of the assorted ground crew, mechanics and orderlies – all Black.

They undoubtedly will reach a combat area this summer. One squadron, the 99th, has arrived overseas already. [These] pilots, whose insignia is a flame-spewing black panther, are rarin’ to join them. They want to roar a personal answer to the Axis ‘race superiority’ lies.

Stockings Go to War
(Office of War Information, 1943)

The attached article from 1943 appeared in a number of publications throughout the nation in order to impart to the women (and perhaps a handful of the men) how urgent was the need for their used silk stockings.

More about silk on the W.W. II home front can be read here…

Click here to read about the woman who dictated many of the fabric restriction rules on the home front.

The Pin-On Hairdo: White Trash Triumph
(Click Mahazine, 1943)

In light of the fact that we are patriots, we like to think that these hairdos were not as wide-spread on the home front as the journalist implies.

Michel, of the Helena Rubinstein salons, has been fingered as the one responsible for the two-tone pin-On hairdo, a look that was entirely reliant upon the false hair industry in order to achieve the preferred look. Three color images are provided as well as six how-to images.

During the Second World War, hair dye was not simply used by women; click here to read about the men who needed it.

Click here to read a 1961 article about Jacqueline Kennedy’s influence on American fashion.

W.W. II Button Restrictions and Button Decorations
(Click Magazine, 1943)

A well-illustrated article from the home front fashion-filled pages of Click Magazine that served to document the contradictory days when wartime button-rationing coincided with a wide-spread yen for decorating with buttons:

In a frantic bid for individuality, fad-loving women are rediscovering the decorative button. Buttons are no longer just a practical devices for holding clothes together. They pep-up simplified silhouettes and restyle dated fashions.

That Slim Wartime Silhouette
(Click Magazine, 1943)

Five fashion photographs and a few words on the government-approved look for the autumn of 1943. The wartime fashion news for 1943 was apparel order L-85 that had been issued by the War Production Board in order to conserve material for victory.

To read another article about 1940s fashions and the hardships of fabric rationing, click here. Click here to read about the fashion silhouette of the early Fifties.

Crochet Made a Come-Back on the W.W. II Fashion Front
(Click Magazine, 1943)

When home heating fuel had to be rationed during the Second World War, a page was borrowed from Granny’s play book and women once again began to sport crochet wraps, shawls and booties around the house.

The Grumman Hellcat
(Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

An enthusiastic piece that informed the folks on the home front that the days of the Japanese Zero were numbered:

Hellcat, daughter of battle, answers all the prayers of Navy pilots. She’s a low-winged Navy fighter; F6F, the Navy’s newest and the world’s best…F6F is a ship that can fight the Jap Zero on the Zero’s own terms, a plane that can stand up and slug, that can bore in with those terrible body blows.