The American Magazine – Page 4 – Old Magazine Articles

The Aerial Nurse Corps of America
(The American Magazine, 1941)

To read the U.S. magazines and newspapers printed in 1941 is to gain an understanding as to the sixth sense many Americans had in predicting that W.W. II would soon be upon them – and this article is a fine example. One month before Pearl Harbor the editors of AMERICAN MAGAZINE ran this column about Lauretta Schimmoller (1902 – 1981) who established the Aerial Nurse Corps of America, which, at that time, was composed of over 400 volunteers:

All air-minded registered nurses, they stand ready to fly with medical aid to scenes of disaster…Now established on a nation-wide scale, ANCOA, with its 19 national chapters, has already handled more than 3,000 emergency cases.

Badass
(The American Magazine, 1943)

For those who survived it, the Second World War changed many lives – some for better, some for worse. Gale Volchok was rescued from a dreary job in New York retail and delivered to the proving grounds of two different infantry training camps in New Jersey. It was under her watchful eye that thousands of American soldiers learned to throw their enemies into the dirt and generally defend them selves.

Engaging The Japanese Soldier
(The American Magazine, 1945)

Wherever they have fought in this war, the Japs have shown an amazing aptitude for the queer and fantastic. They have staged solemn funeral processions in the midst of hot battle. They have blown themselves to bits with hand grenades, have stabbed themselves with daggers, sabers, bayonets and even with scythes. They plunged forward in stupidly blind Banzai charges. They have danced wildly atop ridges while exposed to American fire. And they have directed artillery action while lounging in hammocks.

Mother of the American Soap Opera
(The American Magazine, 1943)

Here is a short profile of Irna Phillips (1901 – 1973) – she was, more than anyone else, the one who can be credited with the creation of the daytime dramas called soap operas on both radio and television.

‘Me & My Flapper Daughters”
(American Magazine, 1927)

A Victorian father embraced the spirit of the Flapper rebellion, welcomed it into his house and testified that it made his daughters better and their family bonds stronger.

He Represented Four Million POWs
(The American Magazine, 1943)

Here is a petite profile of Tracy Strong (1887 – 1968), who, as Director of the YMCA War Prisoners Aid Committee, had license to enter every combatant nation in order to see to the health and welfare of all POWs. Much of his work involved procuring books, sporting equipment and musical instruments to the incarcerated.

The Extraordinary Story of Eugene O’Neill
(The American Magazine, 1922)

A marvelous interview with the thirty-four year old playwright, Eugene O’Neill (1888 – 1953) -coincidentally published just as it seemed his stock was on the rise.

Click here to read a 1930s article about Eugene O’Neill.

‘My Two Years In The Red Army”
(American Magazine, 1953)

Is the average soldier in the USSR eager for war with the United States? Here’s the inside story of Russian morale and military spirit, revealed by the first Soviest fighting man to escape his Communist masters and become an American GI.
“Every day my American GI friends throw questions at me. They try to find out what compelled me to leave the reputed Soviet paradise…”

Will Hays Comes to Hollywood
(The American Magazine, 1922)

This short notice is about Will Hays, an Elder in the Presbyterian Church, who was hired to be the conscience of the Dream Factory in 1922; he rode into Hollywood on the heels of a number of well-publicized scandals vowing to sober the place up. Widely believed to be a moral man, the Hays office was located in New York City – far from the ballyhoo of Hollywood. Hays’ salary was paid by the producers and distributors in the movie business and although he promised to shame the film colony into making wholesome productions, he was also the paid apologist of the producers.

‘Guadalcanal Diary”
(The American Magazine, 1943)

Lieutenant Colonel Richard Mangrum, USMC, was a seasoned veteran in the Cactus Air Force that fought the good fight at Henderson Field from Guadalcanal in 1942:

For eight weeks the author and his fellow pilots shared the primitive life of the other Marines at Henderson Field. Some portion of his squadron was almost constantly in the air, attacking enemy reinforcements.

Distributing Women Throughout Industry
(The American Magazine, 1942)

One of the seldom remembered branches of the War Production Board was the Women’s Labor Supply Services which served to eradicate the various draft deferments that were keeping too many men out of the military. Thelma McKelvey was the woman in charge of this body:

This captain of industry expects to see women workers in factories and farms increase from 700,000 today to 4,000,000 by mid-1943.

Dogs for Defense
(American Magazine, 1943)

Dogs for Defense was a World War II organization founded by three patriotic dog enthusiasts who established the group in order to procure patriotic canines (meeting certain height and weight standards) for the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps, that branch of the services charged with the task of training the animals. Dogs for Defense was able to provide as many as four hundred dogs a week for the U.S. Army throughout both W.W. II as well as the Korean War.

The attached article can be printed.

Georgia Carroll
(The American Magazine, 1940)

Fashion Modeling Czar John Powers once said of model Georgia Carroll:

She is the most terrific thing that ever hit this business.

Un-Americanism
(The American Magazine, 1946)

New York’s Cardinal Francis Joseph Spellman (1889 – 1967) wrote the attached editorial explaining why Marxism was the polar opposite of everything Americans holds dear:

My sole objective in writing is to help save America from the godless governings of totalitarianism…if you believe with me that freedom is the birthright of the great and the small, the strong and the weak, the poor and the afflicted, then you would be convicted as I that [Socialism] is the antithesis of American Democracy.

Click here to read another argument opposed to socialism.

‘Hollywood Hangout”
(The American Magazine, 1942)

Schwab’s Pharmacy was like many other well-heeled American pharmacies of the Forties – it filled prescriptions, sold cigars, served three squares a day at their counter and cracked-wise with the clientele. What made it different was that many of the customers were among the most glam movie stars of the time. Located on Sunset Boulevard, west of Hollywood, in an area known as Sherman:

It’s the one place in Hollywood where screen biggies like Robert Taylor, Gene Tierney and Marlene Dietrich drop in and out all day and make themselves at home.