WANTED: BAMBINI (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)"Since 1922 Italy's marriage rate has fallen to 7.2 per 1,000 of population, her birth rate to 22.2 per 1,000 and her excess of births over deaths to 8.7 per 1,000. The newspaper IL POPOLO d'ITALIA of Milan has estimated that the steady decline in the birth rate has deprived Il Duce of 15 army divisions." 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..." False Hope for 1937 (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)Perhaps it was the practice of magazine editors during the Great Depression to instruct their reporters to find hope where none existed; that must have been the case for this article. The unnamed journalist who wrote this slender column reported on a few rare cases involving real jobs with real salaries being offered to recent graduates; the reporter wished to believe that this was a sign that the end was nigh - but these few jobs were flukes. The author saw economic growth where there really wasn't any at all, however he certainly made the case for its existence. The title link posted above leads to a passage from FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression by Jim Powell that explains the true situation that existed in 1937, when unemployment stood at 20 percent by Summer. 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. 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... The Old Hollywood Way to Physical Perfection (Literary Digest, 1937)The old "flesh sculptor" himself, Donald Loomis, late Physical Director for MGM Studios, let loose with some 1930s tips as to how he was able to make all those movie stars look so utterly fabulous - some are quite useful (some are pathetic). "Symmetry is the objective of Hollywood body sculptors. For bust-reduction, Loomis has a simple formula: Jump up and down with no support. Exercise in which the arms are forced backward and forward horizontally are used to develop the upper chest..."
Click here to read an article about the demise of a popular 1940s hairstyle.
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."
Fascist Italy Quits the League of Nations (Literary Digest, 1937)Italy's "friction with the League of Nations began May 11, 1936, when her delegates stalked out of a lively League Council meeting after it had voted to continue economic sanctions against her over the Ethiopian war."
Nazi Germany quit the League years earlier, click here to read about it...
Origin of the Term ''Jim Crow'' (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)The first three paragraphs of this article explain the 19th Century origins of a moniker that represents the most hideous institution born on American shores. The term in question is "Jim Crow" - a sobriquet that came into use decades before the American Civil War but was refashioned into a synonym that meant institutional racism. The article goes on to recall one African-American Congressman and his fruitless efforts to "clean up Jim Crow". Preparing for War with Motorcycles (Literary Digest, 1937)A short news piece from The Literary Digest reported on an investment that the Nazi forces were making to insure a lightening-fast attack:
"Motorcycles, a cool million of them, have become a German army specialty. The new Wehrmacht specializes in them. (it knows it will be short of horses; as when in March, 1918, the Teuton cavalry arm was virtually abolished, west front and east.) The British and French have only half a million machines apiece."
Read about the mechanics of W.W. II German motorcycles... ''Ethiopia Smolders'' (Literary Digest, 1937)"Italy's financial and human resources are being heavily drained, not only by a vast [Roman] road-building program in the conquered kingdom, but particularly by the efforts of 200,000 men who compose the fascist expeditionary force to pacify a warlike population of 9,000,000 natives in a territory larger than France and Italy combined." Movie Night in the Worker's Paradise (Photoplay, 1937)Saturday night in Stalin's Moscow: so much to do! If you wanted to take your date to a Russian movie you could go to Battleship Potemkin, or you could take her to Battleship Potemkin, or to Battleship Potemkin! On the other hand, you might choose a foreign movie that was approved by the all-knowing Soviet apparatchik, and in that case the two of you would see a Charlie Chaplin movie - and we'll give you one guess as to which one he liked.
Click here if you want to know what films Hitler liked. A Most Dangerous Man (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)Although Hitler was no mystery to the readers of PATHFINDER MAGAZINE (the editors had been following his trajectory since the early Twenties), the attached article tells of the maniac's impoverished boyhood all the way up to his exulted status in 1937. Meet Joseph Stalin (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937) The Anti-Mussolini Resistance (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)It is terribly chic these days to insist that the presidency of Donald Trump was "Fascist" - no one would have found this statement more hilarious than the fellows who are profiled in the attached article. These are the men who were assaulted on the streets and in their offices by Mussolini's supporters, these are the writers who were censored and blacklisted - these hardy souls were the original Anti-Fa. The Police State (Literary Digest, 1937)Victor Serge (1890 - 1947) was a devoted Bolshevik writer who was highly critical of Joseph Stalin; he spent five years in the gulag for his "subversive activity" and would have no doubt died there had not an international mishmash of humanitarians raised a stink about his incarceration. He was exiled from the Marxist-dream-land in 1936 - the attached column is an extract from his gulag writings concerning the cruelties of Stalin's secret police. Japan Sinks an American Warship (Literary Digest, 1937)"'Bombs rained like hailstones and churned the waters all around the ship like geysers.' said Earl Leaf, United Press correspondent in China and eyewitness of the sinking of the United States gunboat "Panay", by Japanese aviators, in the Yangtze River about 26 miles above Nanking....President Roosevelt stressed the seriousness of the situation..."
Historians are still at odds as to whether or not the sinking of the 'Panay' was deliberate.
*See the 1937 News Footage of the Panay Sinking* 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! Polish Jews Face Dismal Future (Literary Digest, 1937)"The old-style pogroms which made the life of Polish Jews a nightmare under the Czars have died out, yet the terror of Antisemitism still haunts their three million men, women and children, one-tenth of the country's population." "Now they are a race apart, isolated, according to Sholem Asch (1880- 1957), a Yiddish writer who recently visited the country, like lepers. Young women in the Warsaw Ghetto look like dried skeletons, he says. Rickety children save scraps of bread from their free school lunches to feed their parents at night." Her Unpopularity (Literary Digest, 1937)"Over the weekend Mrs Simpson received a letter that could not be dismissed with a shrug. It was from the Scotland Yard detail that guarded her at Cannes during the first weeks of exile, and it strongly advised her to heed the threats and stay out of England." Can The U.S. Stay Out of The War? (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)Even as early as 1937, the dark clouds of war could be seen on the horizon. The U.S. Congress still smarted from the last world war and did not want to be lured in to newest installment. Six months after this article was first read the Neutrality Act of 1937 would be passed - this column explains much of the thought that went into it. 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."
''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..." Trying to Understand Learning Disabilities (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)The kids who are discussed in this article would be called "LD" today - you don't want to know how they were referred to in the early Twenties. Back then there were no Federally-funded commissions thronging with sympathetic PhD candidates to ramble on about "convergence issues", "processing concerns", "the-classroom-learning-environment" and the "Learning Disabled". There were only frustrated kids, frustrated teachers and broken-hearted parents. This 1937 news article reports on the pioneering teachers at Seward Park High School in New York City and the earliest attempts to address the needs of students who suffered from language processing disorders, dyscalculia, dyslexia, dysgraphia and America's favorite - good ol' ADHD. Remembering George Gershwin and 'Rhapsody in Blue' (Creative Art Magazine, 1937)By clicking the blue title link above, you will be treated to a postmortem appraisal of the American composer George Gershwin (1898 – 1937). The article was written by one of his contemporaries; Gershwin is admired in this article, but not idolized: "No one could have been more surprised than George Gershwin at the furor the Rhapsody caused in highbrow circles. He had dashed it off in three weeks as an experiment in a form that he only vaguely understood. In no sense had he deliberately set out to make an honest woman out of jazz." Was Tobé the First Fashion Stylist? (Delineator Magazine, 1937)Here is a 1937 magazine article from the long forgotten pages of Delineator Magazine insisted that they found the very first fashion stylist -some lass named Tobé (born Taubé Coller, a.k.a. Mrs Herbert Davis, 1890 - 1962). They were very insistent on the matter, although they failed to explain the sources used to reach this conclusion: "This woman is the first official stylist...Now she is head of Tobé Incorporated, through which she does for more than a hundred stores in America and some in Canada, England, Australia, Norway and Sweden." The First Lady's Story (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)A column from a 1937 issue of PATHFINDER MAGAZINE included these two seemingly random tales from the life of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The brief remembrance on the second page is a bitter-sweet story about young Eleanor and her mother's vision of her as a hopelessly plain-looking girl.
Read a 1951 profile of a future First Lady: the young Nancy Reagan.
Going Where the People Go (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)Fed-up with empty pews, a British pastor discovered that when he held services in a movie theater - where he discussed whatever Christian content was encapsulated within the story, he attracted a far larger crowd. The numbers were so impressive he continued this practice and even began producing Christian films in the subsequent decades. ''It was a Nice Depression'' (Scribner's Magazine, 1937)I always knew that I would one day find a reminiscence of the Great Depression - what I didn't expect is finding it in a magazine from 1937. As mentioned in another part of this site, 1937 saw some measure of economic recovery (until it didn't) and this reminiscence was penned by a fellow who wanted so badly to believe that the whole thing was finally over. He wished so earnestly that the Depression had ended that he listed just what he was missing about it already. Little did he know he had three more years to go. Anticipating Elizabeth II (Literary Digest, 1937)When Edward VIII chose to abdicate, the world's attention shifted to the new heir, the Duke of York (George VI: 1895 – 1952) and his daughter, Elizabeth (Elizabeth II: b. 1926). This magazine article served to introduce the future queen to American readers - making clear that the princess was something like a British version of the Hollywood child star, Shirley Temple - often imitated and recognized as the gold standard of girlhood. Written during the depression, her lavish, story-book existence seemed unreal to many.
Eleanor Roosevelt and Her Many Firsts (The Literary Digest, 1937)This magazine article explains what a unique force in presidential history Eleanor Roosevelt was. She defied convention in so many ways and to illustrate this point, this anonymous journalist went to some length listing fifteen "firsts" that this most tireless of all First Ladies had racked-up through the years.
Those councilors who advised FDR and the First Lady on all matters African-American were popularly known as "the Black Brain Trust"...
Justice McReynolds (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)One of FDR's primary targets was the 75 year-old Justice James Clark McReynolds, attached you will find a four page profile of the man. The Coronation of George VI (Stage Magazine, 1937)An article by Rebecca West (1892 – 1983) in which she listed an enormous number of reasons as to why May 12, 1937 (the coronation date for George VI) will not be a good day to be in London. From time to time throughout the article she throws-in some bon mots:
"This is a crucifixion as well as a coronation. The best kings we have ever had have been Queens, and every year Kingship becomes less and less suitable for a man. A constitutional monarch has constantly to behave as if he were a mindless puppet in circumstances which would prove fatal to everybody, including himself, if he really were a mindless puppet."
The King's Speech
Mickey Mouse Banned in Yugoslavia (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)Due to a highly involved and convoluted Mickey Mouse comic strip plot that we can't possibly begin to understand in the least - but in 1937 managed to offend the crowned heads of the Karađorđević Dynasty in far-off Yugoslavia, all matters Mickey (films, books, comics, etc) were soon banned from the kingdom. Military Buildup in Switzerland (Literary Digest, 1937)"Little Switzerland will not be caught as Belgium was in 1914. The 'Isle of Peace', home of the League of Nations that was to forge all nations of the world together into a chain of amity, is fortifying her frontiers to the tune of war-rumbles. The army and air forces are being expanded in preparation for that 'inevitable' war Europe seems to be resigned to. She realizes that the only way to preserve her peace is to be prepared to fight for it." "A Swiss statesman, in an interview with correspondents, summed up his individual reaction, which probably holds good for the majority of the population, when he said:
"War will come. We will try to stay out at any price, save our liberty. The moment a foreign soldier crosses our border, we will fight."
"And you may rest assured that we shall fight to the last man." Who Was Mussolini? (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)A semi-flattering profile of Benito Mussolini that explains his difficult childhood and the periodic beatings he suffered at the hands of his Marxist father. No references are made to his favorite pastimes - beating up editors and closing newspapers:
"Significantly, his god is Nietzsche, the German philosopher who wrote: 'Might makes right.'"
You can read about his violent death here...
Fascist Rome fell to the Allies in June of 1944, click here to read about it...
More on Birth of a Nation (Scribner's Magazine, 1937)An appreciation of Birth of a Nation written 20 years after its opening. Catholic Hierarchy Pressured in 1930s Germany (Literary Digest, 1937)"With every organization in Germany gobbled up, the Evangelical and Roman Catholic churches continue their valiant, tortured struggle against absorption in the totalitarian state." "Last week Michael Cardinal von Faulhaber (1869 - 1952), Archbishop of Munich, mounted the pulpit of old St. Michael's and basted Nazi violations of the Concordat, the 1933 treaty between the Reich and the Vatican under which Catholics agreed to a ban on the political activities clergy and lay leaders, in exchange for religious liberty in their churches and schools."
He Re-Organized (Literary Digest, 1937)"Congressional eyes bulged last January when President Roosevelt handed Congress his plan to streamline the executive branch of the Government. He asked for sixspecial assistants, two new cabinet officers, an auditor general (to supplant the all-powerful Controller General), a reshuffling and consolidation of boards and bureaus" and an expansion of the civil service in all directions. The Doomed Amelia Earhart (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)Published one month before her disappearance, this is one of the last interviews Amelia Earhart was to give. Looking Back (Literary Digest, 1937)When FDR saw fit to nominate a Klansman to the Supreme Court, Hugo Black, it prompted the editors at Literary Digest to recall the history of those terrorists and how they came into existence, their customs and practices, etc. The End of the NRA (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)During the Spring of 1935 the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously proclaimed FDR's National Recovery Administration null and void - and the names of some 5,300 of its Washington, D.C. functionaries were immediately entered onto the unemployment list. All except one: Diana Rogovin; she was the "sole survivor" of the bureaucracy. To her fell the task of dotting the i's and crossing the t's as the great ship went down. She completed her last duty in February of 1937.
Seeing the ''Wonder Machine'' for the First Time... (Delineator Magazine, 1937)This is one of the most enjoyable early television articles: an eye-witness account of one the first T.V. broadcasts from the R.C.A. Building in New York City during the November of 1936. The viewing was set up strictly for members of the American press corps and the excitement of this one journalist clearly could not be contained:
"In the semi-darkness we sat in tense silence waiting to see the premiere demonstration of television... Television! What would it be like?" The Marx Brothers & the Joke Development Process (Stage Magazine, 1937)A late Thirties article by Teet Carle (the old publicist for MGM) on how the brothers Marx figured out which gag created the biggest laughs; a few words about how the movies were tested in various cities prior to each release and how assorted jokes were recited to all manner of passersby for their effect.
Click here to read a 1951 article that Harpo Marx wrote about Groucho. High Society Ladies' Rooms (Stage Magazine, 1937)The New York café society of the Thirties was well documented by such swells as Cole Porter and Peter Arno - not so well-known, however, were the goings-on in the ladies' bathrooms at such swank watering holes as El Morocco, Twenty-One, Kit Kat, Crystal Garden and the famed Stork Club. That is why these columns are so vital to the march of history - written by a noble scribe who braved the icy waters of Lake Taboo to report on the conversations and the general appearance of each of these "dressing rooms". "The Rainbow Room, Waldorf, and Crystal Garden are modern and show a decorators hand, but the only really plush dressing room we know is at Twenty-One."
"Strangely enough, it doesn't matter whether it's the ladies' room of El Morocco, Roseland, or a tea room; the same things are said in all of them. First hair, then men, then clothes; those are the three favorite topics of conversation in the order of their importance." ''The Plainsman'' by Cecil B. DeMille (Stage Magazine, 1937)Why should a director risk it all with some anonymous film critic when a he is given the chance to review his own movie? With this thought in mind, Cecil B. DeMille (1883 - 1959) typed up his own thoughts concerning all his hard work on the 1937 film, The Plainsman, which starred Gary Cooper:
"I think 'The Plainsman' differs from any Western we have ever seen for many reasons"
- it is at this point in the article that DeMille rattles-off an extended laundry list
of reasons that illustrate the unique qualities of his Western. One of the unique aspects of the film mentioned only by publicists concerned the leading man Garry Cooper, who, being a skilled horseman from his Montana youth, chose to do most of his own riding stunts in the film, including the shot where he rode "hanging" between two horses.
Click here to read a 1927 review of Cecil B. De Mille's silent film, "King of Kings". Waiting for Television (Literary Digest, 1937)Written in response to the loud cries generated by those would-be pioneering couch-potatoes, this article presents a lengthy list of all the technical difficulties the young television broadcasting industry had to deal with in 1937.
"First to have commercial television, it is agreed, will be New York City, then Philadelphia. In both of these cities transmitting-stations already exist. Advancement to other urban centers will be slower. Chicago, for example will have commercial television only after it has been made to pay in New York and Philadelphia. As each city's television enterprises become self-supporting, installation will be begun in a new center." *Watch Some Clips from 1939 German Television* WPA and the States (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)In early March, numerous governors convened and agreed that the WPA was dropping too many dependents from their rolls who were then becoming burdensome to their respective states. The executives then wrote a telegram to the White House insisting that the Federal program stop this practice. Catholics and Nazis (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)Shortly after Hitler assumed power, he struck a deal with the Catholic Church in Germany allowing their schools to remain open. On May Day, 1937, he nullified the agreement, saying:
"We made a start with the nation's youth. They shall not escape us. We will take them when they are 10 years-old and bring them up in the spirit of the community..." ''German Ersatz'' (Literary Digest, 1937)Speaking of Evil Geniuses, let's not forget all that the German chemists did to dream-up efficient substitutes for motor fuel, rubber, coal and various metals just before Hitler launched the war in Europe.
"The most significant little word in the German vocabulary of 1937 is Ersatz. In two syllables, which, literally translated, means 'substitute', it summarizes the bold experiment in rigged economy which is Adolf Hitler's Four Year Plan... The Reich's great chemical industry went into high gear immediately, and at this point Ersatz became the big little word of the German language." The Arms Race (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)"Stirred by [the] Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and by subsequent German scrapping of the Versailles Treaty, military experts of every nation have been altering the smallest details of army life to make their forces bigger, faster and more deadly than those of their neighbors."
"Nowhere was there any indication that the pace of armaments might slacken. No nation gave any sign of dropping out of the race."
The economist who made the German rearmament possible was named Hjalmar Schacht, click here to read about him...
The Taboos (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)Radio executives hated any controversy - as you will see in the attached list of subjects all writers and broadcasters were instructed to veer away from at all cost. The Hollywood Leg Gag (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)Here is a 1937 article that reminds us that there wasn't anything left to chance or improvisation under the old studio system:
"One of the oldest newspaper publicity devices is the 'leg display'. Resorted to chiefly by actresses whose press agents want them to break into print, it consists of nothing more than arriving in New York aboard an ocean liner and letting news photographers do the rest."
The adoration of the Feminine Leg began some twenty yeras earlier with the flappers; click here to read more on this topic...
Dance International (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)"In New York last week, on the polished floor of the Rainbow Room, Rockefeller Center's skyscraping night club, Hawaiians, Chinese, Scandinavians and Africans stamped whirled, leaped, and gesticulated to a dozen different kinds of music...it was an exposition of no little cultural and social importance - 'Dance International,' a festival showing the progress of the dance in all nations since 1900."
In their quest to document the evolution of dance in the United States, the audiences were treated to Modern Dance performances by Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Paul Weidman and Paul Haakon. A German Listening Post North of Verdun (American Legion Monthly, 1937)Appearing in The American Legion Monthly some nineteen years after the end of the war was this nifty article written by a German veteran. The article explains quite simply how his forward listening post operated in the German trenches North of Verdun during the early Autumn of 1918.
Click here to read about the American invalids of W.W. I.
Japan Sinks an American Warship (Literary Digest, 1937)"'Bombs rained like hailstones and churned the waters all around the ship like geysers.' said Earl Leaf, United Press correspondent in China and eyewitness of the sinking of the United States gunbpat Panay , by Japanese aviators, in the Yangtze River about 26 miles above Nanking; "....The British gunboat Ladybird and Bee also were fired on, and soon Foreign Minister Anthony Eden was telling an angry House of Commons that:
"His Majesty's Ambassador to Tokyo has made the strongest protest to the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs.'" Click here if you would like to read more about the sinking of the U.S.S. Panay. ''Fascism in America'' (Literary Digest, 1937)With the opening of Camp Nordland (Dorkland?) in Andover, New Jersey, the two streams of American fascism saw fit to convene there and join hands. The Italian side was lead by the American Duce Salvatore Caridi and Yankee Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn stood at the head of the American Bundists.
"Amidst much heiling, drinking of imported beer and assorted flag-waving, was celebrated the cementing of the twenty-first link in a chain of camps which has been gradually growing. By car they came and by train, until the countryside was increased by ten thousand inhabitants." FDR's ''Pack The Court'' Proposal (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)Attached is a break-down of President Roosevelt's proposed legislation to rid the Supreme Court of six ornery justices by imposing a mandatory retirement age for the whole of the Federal Government. Failing that, FDR's legislation would have granted the President power to appoint an additional Justice to the U.S. Supreme Court, up to a maximum of six, for every member of the court over the age of 70, in order to assure passage of all New Deal legislation. Farmers in Flight (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)A report from the regional directors of the Resettlement Administration (an arm of the FDR's Department of Agriculture) stated that:
"15,000 farmers have moved out of the Dakotas, Western Kansas and Eastern Montana, leaving soil which because a aridity or exhaustion could not yield any crop... [Having moved to the states of the Pacific Northwestern] Some of them are squatting in shacks and makeshift dwellings made of tree branches, stray boards [and] strips of tin." Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)Here is a very thorough profile of Mustafa Kamel Atatürk (1881 - 1938), the first president of the Republic of Turkey (1923 - 1938). The article goes into some detail concerning his humble beginnings, his vices and his secret writings for the revolutionary Vatan ve Hürriyet (Motherland and Liberty) underground movement. His rise to power came with his assorted military triumphs in the Italo-Turkish War, the Balkan War, the First World War and most notably, the Greko-Turkish War. He came to power in 1922 and began reforming Turkish society in ways that rocked the nation to its very corps.
Click here to read a 1922 article about the Turkish slaughter of Christians.
Massacre (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)"Late last week 30 prominent Ethiopians were tried as ringleaders in the attempted assassination [of Marshal Rodolfo Graziani]. They were to serve as "public examples" of Italy's determination to rule over her new African domain. All other natives found in possession of arms were shot by Fascist firing squads, more than 1,000 terrified men being mowed down in a bloody Mussolini-ordered revenge." Dumping Justices (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)The attached editorial was intended to serve as PATHFINDER MAGAZINE's introduction to six pen-portraits that follow on the next webpage. In order to better serve their readers the editors provided profiles of the oldest Supreme Court justices who FDR wished to remove.
"[Justices] McReynolds, Sutherland, Van Devanter, and Butler are generally conceded to be the court's consistently conservative bloc. In some cases, this bloc is viewed as not only conservative but also reactionary."
Click here to read the profiles of the six justices...
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." Low-Wage Pay Scales for Working Women (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937) ''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. Unholiness in the Holy Land (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937) America's First Shot (Various Sources, 1917 - 1937)The three articles attached herein were printed five years apart and collectively recall three different events by three different arms of the American military, each claiming to have fired the opening salvo that served notice to Kaiser Bill and his boys that the U.S.A. meant business:
• The first article chuckles at the Army for insisting that the First Division fired the premiere shot on October 23, 1917 in the Luneville sector of the French front;
• The second article recalls the U.S. Merchant Marine freighter MONGOLIA that sank a German U-Boat on April 19, 1917 while cruising off the coast of England.
• following up with the absolute earliest date of American aggression being April 6, 1917 - the same day that Congress declared war - when Marine Corporal Michael Chockie fired his 1903 Springfield across the bow of the German merchant raider S.M.S COMORAN on the island of Guam.
Hitler's Earlies Years In Power (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)"When Adolf Hitler was made chancellor of the Third Reich on January 30, 1933, he pledged his government would (1) unify the German people; (2) eliminate class distinction; and (3) secure equal rights abroad for Germany. At that time the Nazi leader addressed the nation: "Now, German people, give us four years and then judge us!"
"That was four years ago." Federal Housing (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)"At present the Federal Housing Administration is sponsoring the building of more than 1,000 small demonstration houses in as many cities, with the cost to range from $2,500 to $3,500. It is the belief of the belief of the FHA that 71.2 percent of American families have incomes permitting the purchase of homes costing less than $5,000.
Yet, regardless of the degradation of the Great Depression, the United States was still an enormously wealthy nation...
Errol Flynn: Defender of Hollywood Morality (Photoplay Magazine, 1937)A sly little grin must have come to the lips of the editors of Photoplay when they asked Hollywood's reigning scandal-monger, Errol Flynn (1909 – 1959), to write a small treatise concerning Hollywood morals - and he accepted their offer. Flynn sharpened his pencil and scribbled the following lighthearted defense of Hollywood hedonism; contradicting himself at several points, he opined that Hollywood was not much different than any other neighborhood - and actors are always good because they're too closely monitored to do bad - and if you don't believe that, then you should know that the acting trade brings out in all who heed the call a certain character trait that makes any monogamy highly unlikely.
Youth at Risk (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)By the year 1937 it became a concern that an eighth of all those admitted to the nation's state-run mental hospitals were between the ages of 15 through 24. On a similar note, it was revealed that 40% of employable youth were entirely unable to secure positions during this this same period. These matters were made known as a result of the efforts put forward by the Youth Commission of the American Council of Education - a group that began compiling such data in 1935. The High and the Mighty and the Movies They Loved
(Photoplay Magazine, 1937)"Royalty and rulers of the world are movie fans. The cinema tastes of the great are disclosed for the first time in this article."
Listed in the attached 1937 Hollywood fan magazine article are the names of the favorite movies of Gandhi, Stalin, Mussolini, Franco, Hirohito, Roosevelt and many more.
Click here to read about happy Hollywood's discovery of plastic surgery... Social Washington During the Depression (Literary Digest, 1937)"Washington Society, long shackled, kicked the lid off last week, swung into the most dazzling season it has had since the Depression spawned bread lines, and knocked the wealthy back on their heels." "Money is spinning again; hostesses are plotting major campaigns; diamonds and pearls are coming out for renewed display; caviar and terrapin reign supreme once more..."
Click here to read about American high society during the Depression years.
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." 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. Repeal + Four Years (Literary Digest, 1937)"With the [Prohibition] Repeal, approximately one million people went back to work, making wine, beer and distilled spirits, bottles and barrels; transporting, selling and serving and advertising it. Innumerable industries indirectly connected with liquor, such as printing, building and machinery-making, received a sharp stimulus. With Repeal also, sorely needed tax money started to roll into the public coffers. Since 1933 more than two billion dollars in liquor taxes has gone into national, state and local treasuries..." The Monument at Montfaucon (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937) One Year in the Life of NYC (Literary Digest, 1937)"Within twelve months time the following things happen in New York":
• One hundred thousand New Yorkers are born.
• Five thousand of them die.
• Twelve thousand New Yorkers die in car accidents.
• Sixty thousand New Yorkers are married.
• 1,350 New Yorkers commit suicide etc., etc., etc., President Roosevelt and the Panay Incident (Literary Digest, 1937)Attached, you will find a survey of opinions drawn from diverse corners of the fruited plain regarding the restraint exercised by President Franklin Roosevelt in the wake of Imperial Japan's sinking of the U.S. gunboat "Panay": "[President Franklin Roosevelt] should be sustained in his effort to make Japan realize that she cannot continue a policy of aggression with disregard of treaties and international law. A firm policy now for law and order will save many lives." -Russell J. Clinchy,Washington Council for International Relations
I936 Saw A Wee-Bit of Prosperity (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)This article sums up the income data that was collected by the U.S. Department of Commerce and published in June of 1937. The report stated that
"The national income increased in 1936 by a larger amount, absolutely and relatively, than in 1935. Income produced rose to 63.8 billion dollars, an increase of 8.8 billion dollars, an increase over the 1935 total."
A chart has been provided.
Click here to read about the economic disaster that 1937 was George VI: Corrections were Made that had Consequences (Literary Digest, 1937)With the revelation that Britain's King George VI was left-handed came this column by an uncredited journalist listing all the various unseemly elements that are associated with with left hand usage (most importantly, Lucifer). In light of the fact that a British king is also assigned the title "Defender of the Faith" in the Anglican Church; steps had to be taken in his youth to train him how to use his right hand. These lessons came at a cost, and the result was his sad stuttering speech - which also involved additional lessons with a speech therapist. A Day in the Life of F.D.R. (Literary Digest, 1937)The attached article presented a dusk till dawn account of one day in the life of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 – 1945).
Written during his first term (prior to the war), the journalist recounted who the reoccurring players in his life were, the time of his rising, the preferred meals, the length of the meetings, distractions, recreations and other assorted minutia -but you'll not read the word "wheelchair" once. This is a fine example of the press black-out that was in place in order to prevent the public any knowledge whatever of Roosevelt's paralytic illness, which rendered him paralyzed from the waist down (he suffered from Guillain-Barré syndrome which he contracted in 1921). Read a 1945 interview with FDR's economic adviser, Bernard Baruch; click here.
Click here to read about the four inaugurations of FDR. ''The Equal Rights Amendment'' Voted Down (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)The author of this 1937 column pointed out that the Equal Rights Amendment had been submitted before Congress for passage each and every year since 1923, and each time it received a "nay" vote. The Windsors in Hitlerland (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)An eyewitness account of the Windsors on their visit through Germany in 1937. The journalist reported that the two seemed nervous - reluctant to sign guest ledgers or photographed with Nazi leaders (except with Hitler, they seem very pleased in that photo). Gahndi and American Movies (Photoplay Magazine, 1937)Roving Photoplay correspondent Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr. traveled far afield to Yerovila Jail in Poona in order to ask the incarcerated Mahatma Gandhi (1869 – 1948) a question of an entirely trivial nature:
"What is your favorite American movie?"
Lillian Gish Recalls Making The Birth of a Nation (Stage Magazine, 1937)Twenty-two years after wrap was called on the set of The Birth of a Nation, leading lady Lillian Gish (1893 - 1993), put pen to paper and wrote this reminiscence about her days on the set with D.W. Griffith.
*Watch the Trailer for BIRTH of a NATION* ''He Let Us Down...'' (Literary Digest, 1937)Eleven months after the abdication, mixed feelings prevailed as to which king was preferred, George VI or the exited brother, Edward VIII: "King Edward was of my generation. I do not know how your parents feel about him, but I think I am right in saying that those of my generation feel that King Edward has let us down! Now let us stand and pray silently for two minutes for King George and Mr. Baldwin." *Watch a Duke of Windsor Fim Clip* Justice George Sutherland (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)Justice George Sutherland (1862 - 1942) was consistently on the reactionary side in votes against New Deal legislation. It was he who wrote the decisions invalidating the Guffey coal-control act and the powers of the SEC to interrogate witnesses. His NRA and the Municipal Bankruptcy Act, railroad pensions and "hot oil" legislation. He voted in favor of the TVA and old-age pensions." ''The Madhouse'' (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)"The party purge had been widened to include the Soviet Secret Police itself, with 50 of its number being arrested." Her Favorite Movies (Photoplay Magazine, 1937)The cinematic tastes of ER II are, like the sovereign herself, deep and complicated. A vast number of geeks employed by this website were sent forth far across the deep green sea in order to find out what her favorite movies are, and we were not at all surprised to learn that she favors the James Bond films. Contrast those movies with the earliest of her film choices and you will be able to trace her development through the years - another article on this page makes clear that she enjoyed the Shirley Temple series - but hold the phone: the attached article from THAT SAME YEAR indicates that she enjoyed A DIFFERENT MOVIE AS WELL! Click here for a related film clip Inequality For Female Barflies (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)This column concerns a 1937 bill sponsored by New York State Senator Edward Coughlin. The senator's bill provided for the arrest of any woman who stood "at or in front of the bar of any club, hotel or restaurant licensed to sell alcoholic beverages". Coughlin held that any woman found guilty of this pastime should be charged with disorderly conduct. A few other states were also attracted to this legislation; it passed a year later only to be repealed in the early Sixties.
Click here to read about that moment in 1920 when American Women attained the vote.
Colorful Menswear (Literary Digest, 1937)This 1937 fashion report let it be known that men's fashions were getting more colorful; items that we associate with the Fifties such as plaid cummerbunds made their appearance first in 1937. The first clothing item to cross the color line was, in all probability, the Hawaiian shirt - which came into vogue some five years earlier.
Click here to read a related article from 1919.
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. Hitler's Economist (Literary Digest, 1937)Horace Greeley Hjalmar Schacht (1877 – 1970) was the German economist who is credited with having stabilized that nation's currency following the Wiemar Republic and made possible the Nazi quest of military rearmament:
"Germany lacks the stuff of which tanks and guns and explosives are made . It lacks rubber, cotton, silk, copper, tin and iron ore. It lacks food for its 65,000,000 people and fodder for it cattle. So Dr. Schacht has laced German business and industry into a straight-jacket of rigid control, to conserve materials and exchange."
Although he never became a Nazi Party member, he was highly placed in the Reich. In the attached 1937 profile, you will learn that Schacht cautioned Hitler numerous times to remove the Socialist regulations that restrained the German economy from kicking in to high gear.
Click here to read an article that explains in great detail how the Nazi economic system (with it's wage and price controls) was Marxist in origin.
Hitler Was At Chateau Thierry? (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)Having read a Hitler article that appeared in Pathfinder Magazine during the winter of 1937, a previously unknown German immigrant in New Jersey wrote to the editors and revealed that he had served with Hitler during the Battle of Chateau Thierry (May 31 - July 18, 1918). Perhaps the writer, Hans W. Thielborn, suffered some memory loss as a result of a head wound during the battle - but records show that the fight had been over for some ten days by the time the two interacted. 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.
Deported From Ellis Island (Literary Digest, 1937)Here is a 1937 article concerning those stout souls who thought they'd make their way into the United States illegally - but made it no further than Ellis Island:
"Aliens who have sneaked into the country are, by the fact of their entry, lawbreakers... Out of gratitude to a country which has welcomed them, is it too much to ask the properly qualified alien to register, in order that his fraudulent countrymen me be detected and sent home?""
Hugh S. Johnson of the NRA (Literary Digest, 1937)Published some time after the demise of the NRA, this article presents a thumbnail profile of Hugh S. Johnson (1882 – 1942), FDR's fair-haired boy who ran that shop from start to finish. He was once again in the news after having compared the New Deal to a fascist dictatorship during the Fall of 1937. ''Duce: Peeve No. 3 (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)"A sore humiliation to dictator Mussolini of Italy lies in the fact that what should have been a proud conquest has turned into a diplomatic white elephant. Only one democratic nation in the world - Switzerland - has recognized Italy's claim to Ethiopia."
You can read about his violent death here...
Hitler Rejects Old Treaty Obligations (Literary Digest, 1937)This magazine article covered a speech made by Hitler four years into his rule:
"In his efforts to wipe out the country's status as a pariah among the nations, Hitler boasted Saturday, he had rearmed the Reich and seized the disarmed Rhineland. Still denouncing Versailles, he last week erased one of the most painful of the treaty's blots on German honor with a few words:"
'I hereby and above all annul the signature extorted from a weak and impotent Government against its better knowledge, confessing Germany's responsibility for the late war.'
Click here to read about Germany's treaty violations... 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. Nanking Falls (The Literary Digest, 1937)"'Exactly four months after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese hostilities on the Shanghai peninsula' a New York Herald Tribune correspondent cabled from Shanghai last week, 'Nanking, China's abandoned capital, for the third time in it's more than 2000 years of history, was captured by an alien foe when the Japanese military forces completely occupied the city.' ...To this, Quo Taichi, Chinese ambassador to England, replied defiantly: 'Capture of Nanking will by no means mark the end of China's resistance.'" 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.
Justice Willis Van Devanter (Pathfinder Magazine, 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 Twentieth Anniversary (Literary Digest, 1937)Here is a 1937 article marking the significance of General Edmund Allenby's (1861 – 1936) march into the ancient city of Jerusalem in 1917. Written twenty years after the event, the article also marks the twentieth anniversary of the the Balfour Declaration - the British edict that declared British Palestine as the home of world Jewry. The Era of the Dictators (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)"If necessity can be called the mother of invention, then deep public dissatisfaction can be called the mother of the authoritarian or 'totalitarian' state. In Europe, the [First] World War resulted in post-war conditions that walked arm-in-arm with profound social change. The aftermath was a great political and economic headache that grew slowly in intensity until it lead people to embrace anything that promised a cure... In Europe there are no less than 11 nations operating under systems far removed from democracy as we know it in this country." The Italian Conquest of Ethiopia (Literary Digest, 1937)A column about Mussolini's Minister of Colonies, Emilio De Bono (1866 – 1944) and his popular book, "La Preparazione E Le Prime Operazioni:
"Last week, with the appearance of a third printing, following a sold-out second edition (both of which were marked for publication in 1937), Italians at home and abroad noted certain deletions, including the passage which intimated that Mussolini had been on the point of abandoning his campaign in the face of British armed intervention." Enter Plastic (Literary Digest, 1937)This article is about the chemist Dr. Leo Hendrik Baekeland (1863 - 1944) - who left the world a far more plastic place than when he had found it. The Interior Design of the Hindenburg' (Creative Art Magazine, 1937)This article from a 1937 issue of The Magazine of Art addressed the over-all aesthetic appeal of the Hindenburg' . Written by Blanche Naylor, no stranger to all matters involving industrial design of the Thirties and Forties, the article goes into some detail as to the color scheme, upholstery, paintings and the names of the assorted German designers responsible for the beauty of the air-ship. The article is accompanied by seven photographs and one diagram of the public rooms accessible to the Hindenburg' passenger's. The World Navies Expand (The Literary Digest, 1937)Here is a concise report illustrated by a chart that indicates the size and tonnage of the leading naval powers in 1937.
"In 1922, when a halt was called on the vicious race for bigger and better battleships by conclusion of the Washington Naval Treaty, later supplemented by the London Pact of 1930, there were but five major sea powers: America, Britain, Japan, France and Italy. Today, the world picture has changed and two new faces are on the list, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia." "All in all, as the treaties end, the United States Fleet stands on par, if not superior to, the armada of the British Empire..."
Click here to read more about the expansion of the U.S. Navy.
Click here to read another article about the pre-WW II expansion of the world's Naval powers.
Click here to read more about the demise of the Washington Naval Treaty. Starvation in the San Joaquin Valley (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)"Renowned as an earthly paradise from whose rich soil the brilliant sun draws abundant crops of semi-tropical fruits, the Great Valley is today the state's principal source of wealth. Last week, Californians were acutely conscious that the valley could also produce squalor, misery, disease and death...[The San Joaquin Valley] is host to 70,000 jobless, homeless families living in frightful squalor and privation....hopeless men and women sprawled in the sun as their ill-clad children played in the dirt."
Read about the the mood of the Great Depression and how it was reflected in the election of 1932 - click here... The Duke Went After An Author (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)Perhaps one of the unmentioned reasons for America's revolt against the crown in 1776 was our revulsion of their power to cancel publication of any book of their choosing (there have been exceptions) - primarily books they deem slanderous of The Firm. This certainly was the case in 1937 when the newly minted Duke of Windsor (previously Edward VIII) sought to block all further publication of Coronation Commentary (1937) by Geoffrey Dennis. He succeeded in doing so on grounds of libel - but not before hundreds of copies could be published. Speculation About Hitler's Sexual Frustrations (Physical Culture, 1937)Attached is a 1937 article from the long-forgotten magazine
Physical Culture (1899 - 1950). The article is a psycho-graphic study by psychologist Lawrence Gould, who believed that the Fuhrer was an odd pervert who's sexual grief could only trigger a global war.
Read about Hitler's expert on sex and racial purity...
Justice Pierce Butler (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937) Volksbund, USA (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)"The Volksbund early identified itself with Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. Furthermore, its members at times have indulged themselves in parades, Nazi salutes and loud 'heils'. For these reasons the organization has drawn much criticism for 'un-American' activities." The Invention of Rayon (Literary Digest, 1937)This magazine article reported on the Miracle Fabric of the 1930s: rayon - and rayon cannot be deleted from any study dealing with Thirties fashion any more than the word "polyester" can be separated from a discussion of 1970s fashion. The article presents a history of the fabric but makes it quite clear that the fabric was immediately embraced by all the fashion houses at that time.
Read about the 1930s revival of velvet.
Click here to read about feminine conversations overheard in the best New York bathrooms of 1937. Henry Travers as 'Clarence the Guardian Angel' (Stage Magazine, 1937)Ten years prior to being cast in the roll as George Baily's guardian angel, "Clarence", the actor Henry Travers (1874 – 1965) appeared in the Broadway play "You Can't Take it With You". Playing the part of "Grandpa Sycamore", he was singled out for praise by the editors of "Stage Magazine"; the review is attached herein. Reform (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937) The Critics of FDR's Supreme Court Scheme (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)Attached are seven thumbnail arguments against FDR's court scheme that were circulating around the country at that time:
"[The President's] move is dictated by expediency and not by a long-range view and that it comes only because the Supreme Court has decided against New Deal legislation 11 out of 16 times." George Gershwin: Tin Pan Alley and Beyond (Magazine of Art, 1937)An interesting two page article about George Gershwin (1898 - 1937), written within days of his death and filled with fascinating bits about his career, education and his instant popularity:
"The Gershwin invasion of Tin Pan Alley came at a time when history was being made. The Broadway-Negro tradition that stemmed from Stephen Foster and the anonymous tune-smiths who wrote old minstrel shows, was being carried on by bards like Paul Dresser, Harry von Tilzer, and the amazing Witmark family. Jerome Kern and Irving Berlin labored in the Alley cubicles. Something called ragtime was in the air and jazz was about to be born."
More about Gershwin can be read here Justice Charles Evans Hughes (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937) Justice Louis D. Brandeis (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)"Part of the personal tragedy inherent in President Roosevelt's suggestion to rid the Supreme Court of men over 70, part of the uncertainty with which liberals greet his plan, must arise from consideration of Louis Demblitz Brandeis. At 80, Brandeis is the oldest of the nine justices... Liberals cherish him, conservatives respect him and the [FDR] administration is grateful to him".
They Were Their Own Favorite Stars...(Photoplay Magazine, 1937)An interesting little excerpt from a much longer article revealed that the Windsors preferred gazing at their own newsreel footage for thirty minutes each night rather than gawk at the current movie offerings of the day: "From their 16mm films of themselves, extra prints were made and rushed to England, where the Duke and Duchess of Kent and other friends and admirers of the exiled ex-king devoured them from time to time."
If you would like to read the longer article, click here.
Putting An End To Child Labor (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)A column that recalls the failed efforts to banish child labor by adding a prohibitive amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The effort had the backing of the the American Federation of Labor and the National Child Labor Committee and was opposed by forces on Capitol Hill who felt that the issue was best addressed by each individual state. The opposition was composed of the American Bar Association, The Farm Bureau Federation, the Daughters of the American Revolution and Cardinal William Henry O'Connell of the Boston Archdiocese. Silent Film Library Established (Delineator Magazine, 1937) This article is about the 1935 founding of the Museum of Modern Art Film Library. Established with funding by the Rockefeller Foundation, today the MOMA Film Library is comprised of more than 14,000 films and four million motion picture stills. Stalin Puts Trotsky ''On Trial'' (Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)In response to Stalin's Moscow "show trial" convicting Leon Trotsky of anti-revolutionary sedition - a second kangaroo court was convened in Mexico in which Trotsky and his fellow travelers offered a public defense on behalf of the accused. 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."
Stalin's bloody purges had their own Hollywood propaganda film: Mission to Moscow (Warner Brothers, 1943)
A Bewildering American Phenomenon (Scribner's Magazine, 1937)This well-read writer recalls the great novels leading up to the publication of Gone With The Wind (1936). Along the way, she lists some of the many foibles of The Great American Reading Public - in the end she recognizes that she shouldn't have been surprised at all that the historic romance was an all-time-best-seller and that Margaret Mitchell was awarded a Pulitzer. ''The Pleasures of Gas Warfare'' (Literary Digest, 1937)"Gas, even in its most virulent form, is the most rational as well as the most humane weapon ever employed on the battlefield. It is also - and this should certainly be of interest to the advocates of strict neutrality - the only weapon in the arsenal of Mars which can truly be called defensive." Andrew Mellon's Gift (Art Digest, 1937)A 1937 news column announced the very generous gift to Washington, D.C. and the nation made by billionaire philanthropist Andrew W. Mellon (1855 — 1937): The National Gallery of Art:
"A long, low, classic structure, tailored in lines that harmonize with the neighboring white Beaux-Arts buildings, will house the new National Gallery made possible for the nation's capital by Andrew W. Mellon. The plans, designed by John Russell Pope have already been accepted by the Fine Arts Commission and construction... will get underway as soon as congressional authorization is made... The cost of the building, which will be borne entirely by Mr. Mellon, is estimated at $9,000,000."
(The cost was actually $10,000,000)
Click here to read additional articles from the Twenties and Thirties about art. Dr. Seuss Tried His Hand at Grown-Up Fiction (Stage Magazine, 1937)Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel: 1904 – 1991) was all of 33 years of age when this one page piece of fiction appeared in The Stage Magazine; that same year his first book went to press, And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street .
The article is illustrated by one of his delightful drawings that future generations would come to know so well. The Out of Date Red Navy (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." "The five-times divided Red Navy operates four 1911 battleships, seven cruisers, 35 destroyers, between 30 and 60 submarines, 60 gunboats, etc. Total tonnage: 200,000."
Click here to read about a Soviet submarine called the S-13... | 
by Jim Powell that explains the true situation that existed in 1937, when unemployment stood at 20 percent by Summer. 
have already been accepted by the Fine Arts Commission and construction... will get underway as soon as congressional authorization is made... The cost of the building, which will be borne entirely by Mr. Mellon, is estimated at $9,000,000."