The New Glamour of Velvet (Literary Digest, 1936)A 1930s fashion article which perfectly encapsulated some of the heady excitement that filled the air when "a new crush-resistant, non-wrinkling, packable, ultra-fashionable velvet" hit the market. The material was immediately swooped-up by the glam squad in far-off Hollywood; RKO chief costume designer Walter Plunkett pontificated: "Velvet is the epitome and symbol of elegance."
Not one to be upstaged, Travis Banton (1894 1958) Plunckett's counterpart at Paramount Studios, chimed in declaring:
"The flattery and refinement of velvet is supplied by no other material." Anticipating the Springtime coronation of Edward VIII, thousands of yards of velvet had been manufactured for the occasion.
Click here to read about the woman who dictated many of the fabric restriction rules on the American home front.
Forgiveness Reigns at the Verdun Reunion (Literary Digest, 1936)The attached magazine article is for any sentimental sap who has never crossed the water to walk wander pensively upon that ground where the blood once flowed between the years 1914 and 1918. It concerns the July 14, 1936 reunion at Verdun where many of the old combatants of the Great War were:
"Called together at historic Fort Douaumont, captured and retaken a score of times during those dark days of 1916, to swear a solemn oath to work for peace, the disillusioned survivors of their father's folly found Verdun changed, yet unchanged and changeless."
Click here to read another article concerning peace-loving veterans of World War One. Military Buildup in the United States (Literary Digest, 1936)"At midnight, December 31, the Naval Limitations Treaty of 1930 will expire and, tho a treaty of a sort was negotiated last April, apparently it will not be ratified and put into effect by the end of the year." With this in mind, Congress authorized the construction of two battleships at the cost of $50,000,000 each. "And is it worth it, in these days of fleet and deadly torpedo planes or great diving bombers clutching demolition bombs weighing a ton apiece? Naval experts think so. The Battleship, they say, is still the backbone of the battle-fleet. In the phrase of the street, the battleship can dish it out." The Navy would soon learn that they were actually living in the age of the aircraft carrier.
Click here to read more about the expansion of the U.S. Navy. MODERN TIMES (Stage Magazine, 1936)"The world, with the exception of those bright eyed youngsters under the age of five, has waited pretty breathlessly for the reappearance of a forlorn little figure in a derby, baggy trousers, and disreputable shoes. The fact that his reappearance was to be under the sinister title, Modern Times alarmed not a few of us. This hapless creature, whose name by the way, is Charlie Chaplin, had come to mean an unchangeable element to us...Disguised in current mechanistic ingenuity, veiled in lukewarm disapproval of the plight of the working man, and tinted a slight shade of Red, it remain, delightfully and irrevocably, Chaplin. American Horses in the First World War (American Legion Monthly, 1936)"I have read many interesting stories about heroes of the war and interesting accounts of pigeons, and police dogs, etc., but very little about the horses that served...Many of them were taken prisoner by the Germans, taken back into Germany and exhibited in their American harnesses and equipment. After the war, immediate plans were made to return the American men to their native country, but the equine warriors were forgotten..."
This article is about the 32 American horses that were captured by the Germans during the war, and never repatriated.
This Guy Coached Astaire and Rogers (Literary Digest, 1936)A magazine profile of RKO Studio Dance Director Hermes Pan (1909 - 1990); his work with Fred Astaire (1899 1987) and Ginger Rogers (1911 1995) and the lasting impression that African-American dance had made upon him. It is fascinating to learn what was involved in the making of an Astaire/Rogers musical and to further learn that even Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (1878 - 1949) was a fan of the dance team. "Astaire liked the youngster's blunt answers. He realized the need of a critic who would talk back to a star." Newsreels at the Movies (Stage Magazine, 1936)The journalist who wrote this 1938 piece saw much good in theater newsreels, believing that "the newsreel encourages a keener sense of the present and imprisons it for history." He doesn't refer to any of the prominent newsreel production houses of the day, such as "Fox Movietone", "Hearst Metrotone", "Warner-Pathe" or "News of the Day" but rather prefers instead to wax poetic about the general good that newsreels perform and the services rendered. This newsreel advocate presented the reader with a long, amusing list of kings, dictators and presidents and what they thought of having their images recorded.
Click here to read articles about Marilyn Monroe. *Click Here to Watch a 1940s Newsreel About the Bombing of Berlin* Nazi Art Criticism (Art Digest, 1936)A few vile words concerning modernism and "Jewish artists" by a forgotten Nazi art critic named L.A. Schutze: "The only one who has created an art entirely born out of the Talmudistic spirit is Picasso, heir of Arabian decorative artists or the Jewish cabalists of Spain."
Click here to read about the contempt that the Nazis had for Modern Art.
The Persecution of Jehovahs Witnesses (Literary Digest, 1936)Here is an article concerning the persecution of that Protestant faith so unique to American shores: the Jehovah's Witnesses, a religion that numbered 50,000 world-wide in 1936. The attached article reported on the school expulsions of various assorted young followers for failing to show proper respect to the American flag on campus: "A year ago the first such case, in Pennsylvania, startled the newspapers. 'If you kill me I won't salute!' quavered an eleven year-old schoolboy. He was expelled. Soon after, in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, a teacher was was dismissed for refusing to honor 'the flag of horror and hate.'" Military Buildup in Belgium (Literary Digest, 1936)With a clear understanding as to what was coming down the pike, Belgian Foreign Minister Paul Henri Spaak (1899 - 1972) "prevailed upon Prime Minister Paul van Zeeland to push through the Chamber of Deputies a bill increasing the military service from twelve to eighteen months for Belgium's 44,000 conscripts" while at the same time, reinforcing the fortifications along the French border.
Over half the article pertains to the fascist party of Belgium, REX, a group that hardheartedly resisted any such defensive posturing. A few weeks following this printing, Lιon Degrelle (1906 1994), the leader of REX, the Belgian fascist party, marched on Brussels and brought down the van Zeeland government. 1913 American Films (''Our Times'', 1936)As the rosy fingered dawn came upon America in 1913 it found Douglas Fairbanks, the man who would soon be Silent Hollywood's fair haired boy, wowing the crowds on Broadway. The play, Hawthorne of the U.S.A., starred Fairbanks in the title roll and closed after 72 performances; he was also married to a woman who wasn't named "Pickford" - but rather named Anna Beth Sully, who had sired his namesake. Life was good for the actor and he wouldn't turn his gaze West for another two years. By contrast, his future bride, Mary Pickford (nι Gladys Smith, 1892 - 1979) had been prancing before the cameras since 1909 and by the time 1913 rolled around had appeared in well-over 100 short films and earned the nickname "Little Mary".
Did He Postpone the War? (Liberty Magazine, 1936)On March 7, 1936, Hitler ordered his army to violate the Versailles Treaty, once more, and march into the Rhineland (the portions of Western Germany that border France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands). Hitler was knee-deep in such violations by this time - since 1919, Germany was forbidden to raise an army, manufacture armaments or draft conscripts, so he thought he'd test the waters once more. Western Europe was appalled, seeing this encroachment as the biggest crisis since 1914. Journalist Earl Reeves, insisted in this column that what happened next was entirely due to the acumen of King Edward VIII, but, alas, it really made no difference and the 22,000 German soldiers remained in the Rhineland. Her Divorces (Literary Digest, 1936)An interesting article that reported on the the successful filing of Mrs. Simpson's second divorce (a photo of the document is attached) with a few words mentioned regarding the stigma of divorce within court circles and how ruthlessly she was treated by the American press corps:
"Nobody mentioned the King. For that matter, no British newspaper mentioned that Mrs. Simpson was his friend."
"But minutes before the Baltimore belle slipped out of Ipswich Assizes with her second divorce in her pocket, a million conversations were being launched around the world with the phrase:"
"'Now that she's free-'" ''Some of My Best Friends Are Jewish'' (Literary Digest, 1936)"'Jews are like everybody else, only more so.'
So clicked the typewriter of the epigrammatic Dorthy Thompson (1893 - 1961), syndicated columnist and wife of Sinclair Lewis (1885 1951)'. 'Are they?' queried Robert Gessner (1913 - 1978), twenty-nine-year-old instructor of English at New York University. 'Then why are they so persecuted?' 'To answer his own question, the young Michigan-born Jew traveled to Europe, saw Hitler-swayed Jews march from meetings shouting 'Down with us! Down with Us! Less fantastic were his experiences in Poland, Palestine, the Soviet Union and England...'" 20th Century Artists Rediscover Woodcut Printing (Art Digest, 1936)An art review concerning a 1936 Brooklyn Museum exhibit of woodcut prints by avant-garde German, Russian and French artists. The reviewer details how the medium was rediscovered. "Before Franz Marc (1880 1916) was killed in the war he strengthened woodcut design in his departure from pretty and representational decoration toward more rugged abstraction...Almost all of these German, Russian and Frenchmen have concentrated their attention on human life. There is no pretty landscape, no picturesque architectural rendering, no still life, no sporting print. Froma a few prints the actual human form has been abstracted. One of these by Wassily Kandinsky 'looks like a diagram of the contents of a madman's waste basket'. The rest of the prints are chiefly tragic, mostly pitiful, occasionally derisive comments on the failure of man as an animal." The Military Buildup in France and Britain
(Literary Digest, 1936)This 1936 magazine article reported that Germany had spent a considerable sum on munitions and armaments throughout much of the previous year and was not likely to stop anytime soon. In light of this fact, the French and British governments were moved to do the same:
"Winston Churchill, a cherubic reddish-haired Cassandra, bobbed up in the House of Commons again last week to warn his countrymen of the 'remorseless hammers' of the world." ''If Lincoln Were in the White House'' (Liberty Magazine, 1936)By cleverly borrowing from the state paper, letters and speeches of the Great Emancipator, a journalist from the usually pretty anti-New Deal Liberty Magazine was able to piece together a few paragraphs indicting
what they hoped Lincoln would think of the New Deal. NBC and CBS Open Shop on the West Coast (Literary Digest, 1936)In order to take advantage of the local talent abiding in the sleepy film colony of Hollywood, the far-seeing executives at NBC and CBS saw fit to open radio and television broadcasting facilities in that far, distant burg.
"The trek to Hollywood of the Broadcasting companies began in earnest last winter when the National Broadcasting Company opened a large building - fire-proof, earthquake-proof, sound-proof and air-conditioned." Can Mrs. Simpson Marry the King? (Literary Digest, 1936)Once the cat was out of the bag and the whole world had learned of the whirlwind romance between the King of England and the twice-divorced American social-climber Wallis Simpson (1896 - 1986), one of the favorite social pastimes soon involved musing aloud as to whether British laws would permit him to marry such a woman. Constitutionally, the King cannot marry a Roman Catholic, which she was (although this journalist erroneously stated that she wasn't); recognizing he couldn't get around this law, he abdicated. This article can be printed. The Monument at Vimy Ridge (The Literary Digest, 1936)The attached article was written nineteen years after the smoke cleared over Vimy Ridge and succinctly tells the story of that battle in order that we can better understand why thousands of Canadian World War One veterans crossed the ocean a second time in order to witness the unveiling of the memorial dedicated to those Canadians who died there:
"Walter S. Allward (1876 1955), Canadian sculptor, worked fourteen years on the completion of the monument, which cost $1,500,000." The article also touches upon some of the weird events that have taken place at Vimy Ridge since the war ended...
Click here to read an article about the German veterans of W.W. I.
The Abdication (Literary Digest, 1936)This is a very juicy, action-packed article written in the immediate aftermath of the abdication of Edward VIII.
The journalist detailed how the whole affair evolved at 10 Downing Street and in the parliament; the reaction across the empire. The writer also endeavored to introduce the readers to the two unknown heirs: George VI (1895 1952) and Elizabeth II (b. 1926)."Thus the ruler of the world's greatest empire joined the shabby band of ex-kings - the wood-chopper of Doorn, Germany's forgotten All Highest; Alfonso of Spain, who roams the Continent looking for pleasure; Ferdinand of Bulgaria, an old man doddering over his stamps; Prajadhipok of Siam, Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, Abdel Medjik of Turkey, and Amanullah of Afghanistan." At the end of the day, history will remember him simply as one of the most henpecked husband. Modigliani: Appreciated at Last (Art Digest, 1936)In his lifetime Amedeo Modigliani's (1884 1920) was only honored one time with his own solo showing in an art gallery; many of his paintings were given away in exchange for meals in restaurants and he died the death of a pauper in some unglamorous corner of Paris. In the years that followed the art world began to learn about Modigliani bit by bit through art reviews like the one attached herein. Written sixteen years after his death, this is a review of a Modigliani exhibit at the avant-garde gallery of Mrs. Cornelius J. Sullivan in New York City:
"C.J. Bulliet (1883 - 1952) in 'Apples and Madonnas' declared that Modigliani's nudes may be ranked ultimately with the great ones of all time - with Giorgione's 'Sleeping Venus', Titian's 'Venus Awake', Goya's 'Maja' (nude and even more impudently clothed), with Manet's sensational wanton in the Louvre.'" The Industrial Visions of Paul R. Meltsner (Art Digest Magazine, 1936)The artist Paul R. Meltsner (1905 - 1966) was one of many WPA artists given to depicting sweaty, mal-nourished proletarians laboring in the fore-ground of smoke-plagued, industrial cityscapes and his work can be found today in the vaults of every major American museum. This is a 1936 art review covering his one-man show at the Midtown Galleries in New York:
"Meltsner builds his pictures everyday scenes of industrial life, dedicating them to labor and the machine...He gets broad vitality in his forms and force in his compositions, relieving at the same time the usual drabness of such scenes by a tonic of color."
Another 1936 article about Paul Meltsner can be read here.
The U.S. Urban Murder Rate: 1926 - 1935 (Literary Digest, 1936)Attached is a chart pulled from a 1936 issue of THE LITERARY DIGEST that reported on the U.S. urban homicide rate spanning the years 1926 through 1935. It indicates that the murder rate began climbing during the economic depression (from 8.8 in 1928); the years 1934 through 1936 saw a steady decline in urban homicide, more than likely as a result of the end of Prohibition. Japan's Puppet (Literary Digest, 1936)A brief notice reporting on Prince Teh Wang (Prince Demchugdongrub 1902 - 1966), ruler of Inner Mongolia, who, in an attempt to create an independent Mongolia, simply ruled as an appeaser of Imperial Japan: "While Prince Teh's position, as a Japanese puppet, can scarcely be less comfortable than it was before , Japan has a grip on the bottle-neck controlling a vast, ill-defined hinterland of North China; and has as well a buffer State between her own influence and that of the Soviets." 1918: An Armistice Remembrance (American Legion Monthly, 1936)"St. NAZAIRE, 1918. It was eleven in the morning when we first heard the news. A piercing whistle from one of the steamers in the harbor, a sudden blast so loud and so startling that even the nurses in their rest camp in La Baule fifteen kilometers away could hear it...L'ARMISTICE EST SIGNΙ...by noon the entire town was outdoors; a truck load of German prisoners rolled past, apparently quite as happy as the rest of us." Calling Out the Kaiser, et al... (''Our Times'', 1936)"[On January 16, 1920] the Peace Conference at Paris summoned Holland to yield the ex-Kaiser of Germany for trial... In its reply, issued January 23, Holland refused."
The conferees also demanded that Germany hand over some 850 German citizens to stand trial for numerous infractions; needless to say, nothing came of the request.
''Art Finds A Patron'' (Our Times, 1936)"[As the 19th Century was coming to an end] salesmanship evolved a technique more refined than pulpit or platform oratory; advertising became more subtle in method, more concrete in results than any form of proselyting argument. The art which Milton put into selecting words which should make man think about God was excelled by the care with which American writers of advertisements assembled words designed to persuade man to consume more chewing gum. The man, or advertising agency, who wrote an effective selling slogan, such as 'It Floats', received far greater compensation than Milton for Paradise Lost." His Popularity (Literary Digest, 1936)Here are a few editorial opinions concerning the bygone activities of one "Dave Windsor" authored by the assorted ink-stained wretches dwelling in both England and the United States. "Many felt with George Bernard Shaw that Edward quit, 'simply and solely because he hates his job and has had enough of it.' 'What's the good of being Prince if I can't do as I like?' he protested as a youngster after riding his bicycle across his fathers geranium bed. Innumerable incidents supported the popular impression that as Prince of Wales he had not looked forward to kingship with pleasure. Once in a Paris club, he was asked by an American:
'How shall I behave here?'
'Like a human-being.' The answer roused his quick smile, - but just then a Britisher came up, bowed from the waist.
'How can I?' Edward sighed."
At the end of the day, history will remember him simply as one of the most henpecked husband to ever walk the earth.
Versailles Treaty Violations (Literary Digest, 1936)Attached is an interesting article that announced the Nazi march into the Rhineland as well as the island of Hegoland. The journalist also listed various other Versailles Treaty violations: "The treaty said that Germany should have no troops in the Rhineland. On March 7 of this year, they marched in. The treaty said that Germany should never have a conscript army. On March 16 of this year, conscription was announced by Chancellor Hitler. It said that Germany should have no military aviation. She has it. It said that the Great German General Staff should be abolished. It was never disbanded.
*Violations of the Versailles Treaty began, in fact, a week before it was signed."
Click here to read an additional article concerning the Versailles Treaty violations. Dada at MOMA (Literary Digest, 1936)An amusing, if blasphemous, art review of the Museum of Modern Art's 1936 Dada and Surrealism exhibit.
The journalist oddly credited Joan Miro as the author of the Dada movement. "The Marx Brothers of the art world are displayed, in all their unrestrained glory, in an exhibition of Fantastic Art in New York this week." "An exhibition of this type is always easy prey for the practical joker. A similar show in Paris several years ago exhibited a shovel, submitted by a well-known but discontented artist as an example of perfect symmetry."
Click here to read about the contempt that the Nazis had for Modern Art.
The Richest Tribe (Literary Digest, 1936)Living, as we do, in the age of Indian gaming casinos it seems rather quaint to talk about which tribe was considered the richest of them all back in the Thirties. Nonetheless, this 1936 article tells the tale of the Osage Indians (Missouri) and the great wealth that was thrust upon them when oil was discovered on their tribal lands: "In 1935, some 3,500 Osage Indians proved their right to the title of "wealthiest Indian tribe in America" by drawing an income of $5,000,000 from their oil and gas leases...The members of Chief Fred Lookout's tribe were not stingy with their new wealth. They bought clothes, big cars lavishly ornate homes..." Armistice Day Mussolini Style (American Legion Monthly, 1936)American World War I veteran John Roberts Tunis (1889 - 1975) was charged with the task of writing about the two Armistice Day ceremonies as they were marked in both London and Rome; needless to say they were entirely different in nature and spirit. The attached piece is an excerpt from that article and reported on the manner in which fascist Italy observed the anniversary of November 11, 1918 - the day World War I came to a close; a war in which Italy lost 1,240,000 men. Tunnis was disgusted to observe how the Italians seemed to learn nothing from the war - Mussolini's Armistice celebration was drenched in fascist pageantry and the attending masses had far greater interest in their current military adventures in Africa than remembering their sons and fathers who had perished just eighteen years earlier.
Women Drivers Vindicated (Literary Digest, 1936)Attached is a magazine article concerning the on-going debate regarding women drivers and the continuing balderdash as to which of the genders is the better driver: the issue was decided in 1936 and the men lost:
"...according to the report of a university professor who took the trouble to find out. Armed with statistics, he asserts that the female of the motoring species is not nearly so deadly as the male." Fashion Journalism Goes Legit (Art Digest, 1936)"Keeping abreast with current need, the Traphagan School (New York) offers for the first time a course in fashion journalism, which prepares students for positions on magazines and newspapers in advertising departments and agencies where they will interpret in words what they themselves or some other designer relates. The course is conducted by Marie Stark, formerly associate editor of Vogue..."
About Paul Meltsner (Coronet Magazine, 1936)"To listen to Paul Meltsner one would think that it was fun to be a painter. Looking at his pictures one is compelled to conclude that life is a grim business of industrial strife, with factories shut down or picketed..."
"A wise-cracker and a wit at the cafe table, Mr. Meltsner is a proletarian artist when he works, and he works hard, he says. Which is what a proletarian artist should do... He exhibits frequently. He sells lithographs when he isn't selling paintings and is represented in a number of museum collections."
Click here to read a Paul Meltsner review from ART DIGEST. Fascists in Poland (Literary Digest, 1936)The attached 1936 magazine article presents a picture of the Polish city of Danzig as it was during the mid-thirties. It was a city in which Danzig Nazis, like Arthur Karl Greiser, spoke of making that town a part of Germany once more (it was ordained a Polish city as a result of the Versailles Treaty) and Minister Joseph Beck who liked everything just the way it was, thank you very much:
"NAZI PATIENCE: Neither Beck nor Hitler is anxious to come to a break over Danzig. Hitler, a sworn enemy of Soviet Russia, advises his Danzig Nazis to forbear from mentioning their intention of completely abandoning League control for secession to Germany..." Hitler's troops invaded Poland on August 31, 1939. American W.W. I Cemeteries and French Gratitude (American Legion Monthly, 1936)Eighteen years after the last shot was fired in World War I, Americans collectively wondered, as they began to think about all the empty chairs that were setting at so many family dinner tables, "Do the French care about all that we sacrificed? Do they still remember that we were there?" In response to this question, an American veteran who remained behind in France, submitted the attached article to "The American Legion Monthly" and answered with a resounding "Yes" on all six pages: "...I can assure you that the real France, the France of a thousand and one villages in which we were billeted; the France of Lorraine peasants, of Picardy craftsmen, of Burgundy winegrowers - remembers, with gratitude, the A.E.F. and its contribution to the Allied victory." The article is accompanied by eight photographs of assembled Frenchmen decorating American grave sites.
Click here to read about the foreign-born soldiers who served in the American Army of the First World War. More Laws for the Germans (Literary Digest, 1936)"With no check of legislative body or court, the Nazi triumvirate had decreed that smuggling money or shares out of Germany, and failure to bring into Germany money from goods sold abroad, should be punishable by death."
"Today shadows have fallen upon the once-proud German universities. The professors have been forced out of the temples of learning or driven into exile or subjected to a subtle pressure which has changed their academic detachment into clumsy conformity with Hitler's ideals."
Click here to read Hitler's plan for German youth."
Hermann Goering Named as 'Economic Dictator' (Literary Digest, 1936)"'Uncle' Hermann to the masses, 'Our' Hermann to the army and big business, Col. Gen. Hermann Wilhelm Goering (1893 1946) last week became economic dictator and virtual Vice-Chancellor of the Third Reich." "Adolf Hitler dropped into his brawny, outstretched arms full power to carry out the gigantic plan which aims at making the Nazi State economically self-sufficient [in four years]." General Smedley Butler on Peace (Liberty Magazine, 1936)Retired Marine Corps General Smedley Butler (1881 1940) was well known for his 1935 book, War is a Racket in which he summed-up his military career as one in which he served as "a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers"; he wrote of the importance of removing the profitability from war and cautioned his countrymen to be weary of American military adventurism. In this essay, Butler warned of well-healed, deep-pocketed "peace" organizations and prophesied that institutions like the League of Nation and the U.N. would be incapable of stopping wars (he got that right).
The Advance on the Rhineland and Other Forebodings (Stage Magazine, 1936)One of the very few literati who recognized what a German military presence in the Rhineland meant was a one-legged American veteran of the last war named Laurence Stallings (1894 - 1968). This article appeared to be about the great benefit afforded to us all by hard working photo-journalists who supplied us daily with compelling images of various far-flung events, but it was in all actuality a warning to our grand parents that the world was becoming a more dangerous place. "I think the unforgettable picture of the month will come from shots stolen near a French farmhouse by Strasbourg, when the French were countering Hitler's move into the Rhineland...Routine were the crustacean stares of the Italian children in gas masks last week, where they practiced first aid against chlorine and mustard barrages..."
Click here to read about the German concept of Blitzkrieg.
The Boyhood of the Duke of Windsor (Literary Digest, 1936)With an odd sense of foreboding, the very young Edward VIII wrote these words at the age of nine:
"...And here he was, at the end of twenty months, a king out of a berth...sent away from his kingdom almost without a single protest from those who he had tried to aid." "I find great pleasure in my talks with the woman who first aroused me to a sense of my kingly duties." "She jokingly refers to herself as the instigator of my downfall." The primary topic of the article pertains to some hot water that the Duke was stewing in at the time for having attended Catholic services; even as the 'Former Defender of the Faith', this was seen as very bad form. What was Known About Her (Literary Digest, 1936)This article can be divided into two parts: the first half addresses King Edward VIII and his concern for the impoverished souls of his realm who languished daily in squalor, while the second half was devoted to gossip and innuendo as to who Wallis Simpson was, what was her Baltimore life like and when did she first see the king. (She first saw him in 1920). The Art Collection of FDR (Art Digest, 1936)A printable paragraph from the 1936 pages of Art Digest explaining the aesthetic tastes of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his art collection. M.G.M. Casting Director Billy Grady Tells All (Literary Digest, 1936)Back in the day, he was responsible for casting 91,000 film actors each year, he was, "Hollywood's No. 1 casting director, Billy Grady: broad-shouldered, open-faced Irishman, a terror to counterfeits, a down-right softy when he encounters an honest man - or woman." This article tells much of his life story and provides a blow-by-blow as to what his days were like. One of the more interesting aspects of the article addressed the charities that were designed to aid and comfort those many souls who worked as extras in the movies. Today, extra players (also known as 'atmosphere) are extended benefits through the Screen Actors Guild - but this was not always the case. British Civilians Trained to Use Gas Masks (The Literary Digest, 1936)This article appeared in 1936 and reported that the populations of both England and France were being trained in the general use of gas masks in anticipation of a German invasion. "Even babies will be protected in covered perambulators, into which masked 'Nannies' can pump air, forcing it through filter cans. Researchers are working on an infant's mask with a nipple attachment." Bernaar Macfadden (New Masses Magazine, 1936)The Leftists who ran the shop over at New Masses could easily have lived with the muscle-bound posing's of Bernarr MacFadden (1868 1955), but when he grew discontent with mugging it before the cameras and started writing anti-FDR editorials in a popular magazine, they knew they had to shut him down. The Empire-Shaking Romance (Literary Digest, 1936)Attached is an article from the pages of a 1936 issue of THE LITERARY DIGEST that reported on the concerns of British Prime Minister Baldwin in regards to the scandalous love affair between King Edward VIII and Mrs. Simpson:
"Tradition vs. Love, Tory vs. Commoner, Baldwin vs. Nature"
T.E. Lawrence: On Allenby's Right (Liberty Magazine, 1936)"General Storrs said, 'I want you to meet Colonel Lawrence, the uncrowned king of Arabia.'"
"Now it all came back to me!
This was the man Todd Gilney had spoken of - the man who had fostered the Arab revolt against Turkish rule. He was the leader who had singlehandedly welded a hundred warring desert tribes into a compact fighting force which now protected Allenby's right wing." Damaging Businesses was not Helpful (Liberty Magazine, 1936)"Business is just as important to this nation as food and drink is to the human body. And every effort that retards it in any way affects the entire nation... It was [the New Deal's] attack on business that destroyed the confidence of businessmen generally." Grant Wood: Iowa as Muse (Art Digest, 1936)An art review of the American painter, Grant Wood (1891 1942), and his efforts to illustrate a 1935 children's book titled Farm on the Hill . Wood, a reigning member of the Regionalism School in American art, had come into the public eye some six years earlier with the creation of his painting, "American Gothic, is quoted in this article concerning his creative process and the importance his vision of Iowa plays while painting: "...Mr Wood seceded from the neo-meditationists of Paris because when he began to meditate he realized that 'all the really good ideas I'd ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.'" Click here to read a 1942 article by Rockwell Kent on the proper roll of American artists during wartime. A List of German Versailles Treaty Violations (Literary Digest, 1936)This is an interesting article that announced the Germans march into the Rhineland as well as the island of Hegoland. The journalist also listed various other Versailles Treaty infractions.
Click here to read an additional article concerning the Versailles Treaty violations. The Streamlining of Cars (Creative Art Magazine, 1936)Industrial designer Egmont Arens (1889 - 1966) wrote the attached design review covering the American cars of 1937:
"Perhaps it was just one of life's little ironies that overtook the automobile manufacturers a year ago. In their zeal to provide what they called 'streamlined' design, they took the tear-drop for their model, and the results were tearful indeed - to the sales managers. For they all looked alike..."
"The word 'Streamlining' got everybody a little confused, I am afraid, and off the track. Here was a term out of aerodynamics, invented to describe a solid shape that moves easily through fluid mediums, as the wings and fuselage of an airplane. The human eye responded gratefully to the flow of line prescribed by the laws of physics, and thus streamlining became synonymous with modern beauty. Industrial designers sprang up at every hand, and their main business was 'streamlining'."
Read about the Great Depression and the U.S. auto industry...
Remembrance Day at the Cenotaph (American Legion Monthly, 1936)"This chill November morning the Cenotaph is surrounded by serried masses of men. Up and down Whitehall as far as one can see are thousands and thousands packed in so tightly they cannot move...Suddenly from St. James Park comes the sound of a gun. They used to say it was impossible for a British crowd to be quiet. That was before Armistice Day. For the hum of London dies at the sound of the gun...Somewhere in the distance a horse paws the ground and neighs. A flag flaps in the breeze. Never such a silence as this. A King and his people pause sixty seconds in solemn celebration for the dead. It is the Great Hush." Elsa Schiaparelli Recommends...(Photoplay Magazine, 1936)"Elsa Schiaparelli (1890 1973), Paris' leading fashion authority of the 1930s tells how to dress inexpensively and yet look smart as a star.": "Cheap jewelery should never be worn unless it happens to be something that you positively know suits you. Pearls, including cheap ones, are always in good taste." "Women can learn from men and improve their 'chic'. A man wouldn't think of wearing a tight shoe or one that didn't harmonize with his suit." Danzig Nazis (The Literary Digest, 1936)The attached 1936 magazine article presents a picture of the Polish city of Danzig as it was during the mid-thirties. It was a city in which Danzig Nazis, like Arthur Karl Greiser, spoke of making that town a part of Germany once more (it was ordained a Polish city as a result of the Versailles Treaty) and Minister Joseph Beck who liked everything just the way it was, thank you very much. "NAZI PATIENCE: Neither Beck nor Hitler is anxious to come to a break over Danzig. Hitler, a sworn enemy of Soviet Russia, advises his Danzig Nazis to forbear from mentioning their intention of completely abandoning League control for secession to Germany..." Hitler's troops invaded Poland on August 31, 1939. The Living Expenses of the Duke of Windsor (Literary Digest,1936)With the news that he was now dependent on checks from his family,
the newly minted Duke of Windsor had to learn to cut coupons and bargain:
"In the Vienna hotel where he gets a private haircut, he protested that $1.26 seemed a little steep for the brief use of an empty hotel room. The manager sliced the fee in half." Sinai And Palestine: Allenby's Victory (Liberty Magazine, 1936)Attached are two articles by American journalist Lowell Thomas (1892 - 1981) regarding all that he witnessed while reporting on General Edmund Allenby's campaign against Johnny Turk in the Sinai and Palestine Theater during the First World War. This reminiscence was written many years after the war in an effort to make up for the fact that "after eighteen years, no clear-cut account of Allenby's campaign has been set down."
Click here to read about Lawrence of Arabia...
The End of the British Press Black-Out (Literary Digest, 1936)Attached is a 1936 article that addressed the issue of self-imposed censorship that the British press corps practiced during much of the Wallis Simpson scandal:
"Innuendo about King Edward's friend Mrs. Wallis Simpson, previously barred from London newspapers, crept in last week and even colored the august columns of the London Times."
The Birth of the Green Bay Packers (American Legion Monthly, 1936)This is a sports article that summarizes the meteoric course of the Green Bay Packers, from their earliest days in 1918, when Curly Lambeau approached a meat packing plant beseeching their patronage in order that the team could have uniforms, to the high perch they held in 1936.
"Consider for a moment the success this team has had, coming as it does from the smallest city in the pro league. After battling first division teams in the National Professional Football League for many years, the Packers finally came through and won three successive world championships in 1929, 1930 and 1931... If you were to ask most college football stars which pro team they would like to play on, most of them would invariably answer, 'The Green Bay Packers'".
Hermann Goering Named as 'Economic Dictator' (Literary Digest, 1936)"'Uncle' Hermann to the masses, 'Our' Hermann to the army and big business, Col. Gen. Hermann Wilhelm Goering (1893 1946) last week became economic dictator and virtual Vice-Chancellor of the Third Reich."
"Adolf Hitler dropped into his brawny, outstretched arms full power to carry out the gigantic plan which aims at making the Nazi State economically self-sufficient [in four years]."
Read about the American reporter who became a Nazi... Elsie Janis Entertained the Doughboys (American Legion Monthly, 1936)The Americans who fought in the Second World War had Bob Hope to entertain them, and their fathers who fought in the First had Elsie Janis (1889 - 1956). Like Hope, Janis traveled close to the front lines and told the troops jokes, and sang them songs - making it clear all the while that her sympathies and affections for the Doughboys were strong - and they, in turn, loved her right back. In the attached 1936 reminiscence Janis recalls some of her experiences from the six months in which she entertained the American Army in France; she also speaks of her roll entertaining the volunteer American Army of the 1930s, as well.
Click here to read about the U.S.O. entertainers... ''Thanks, America'': French Gratitude
(American Legion Monthly, 1936)Almost twenty years after the First World War reached it's bloody conclusion, Americans collectively wondered as they began to think about all the empty chairs assembled around so many family dinner tables, "Do the French care at all that we sacrificed so much for them? Do they still remember that we were there?" In response to this question, an American veteran who remained in France, submitted the attached article to The American Legion Monthly and answered those questions with a resounding "YES".
Click here to read an article by a grateful Frenchman who was full of praise for the bold and forward-thinking manner in which America entered the First World War. Edward VIII: the Soldier King (Literary Digest, 1936)"Ten days after a would-be assassin had leveled a gun at him in London, King Edward VIII was scheduled to return to the Western Front, where, as a gangling boyish staff captain, he narrowly missed death from a shell that wrecked his car and killed his chauffeur."
"Few in Britain knew, at the time, of his repeated pleas to be allowed to forget his rank, lead the men over the top and, if fate so willed it, die for king and country."
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