''Beginner's Guide to the Civil War'' (Pageant Magazine, 1958)As the one-hundredth anniversary of the War Between the States grew ever nearer, a Pulitzer Prize winning Civil War Historian, Bruce Catton, wrote the attached article concerning the overwhelming popularity that the nation was finding in their study of that remarkable contest:
"The requirements for becoming a Civil War Buff are very simple. All you need is a desire to join. If you are interested in the Civil War, you're in... You may get to the point where you want to join a Civil War Round Table. [Overtime] commonplace words like Appomattox and Antietam and Perryville take on a new meaning for you; a good deal of the monotony and routine of modern life somehow evaporates, as you escape into a period of profound and haunting significance."
"All in all, it's quite an experience.
Welcome to the Army!"
The Bad Generals (Pageant Magazine, 1958)Attached herein is a list the five lamest Generals of the American Civil War.
This two page compilation is made up of thumbnail descriptions outlining just how far from awesome these men were, and why, one hundred years later, they continue to be recognized as failures to the succeeding generations of Civil War historians.
Assemblies of God (Coronet Magazine, 1958)"The fastest-growing Protestant religion today is the Pentecostal movement... In barely half a century this dynamic young version of old-time fundamentalism has produced spectacularly successful leaders such as Oral Roberts and the late Aimee Semple McPherson, has won the devotion of at least 2,000,000 Americans of every racial and religious origin and through zealous foreign missionary work, has gained thousands of converts on every continent." Yves Saint Laurent Takes Over the House of Dior (Coronet Magazine, 1958)When Christian Dior died quite suddenly in 1957, the eggheads of the fashion world got their knickers in a twist as they wondered who would serve as the creative force for the great fashion house that he had established just ten years earlier; all eyes turned to his very young assistant, a 21 year old man named Yves Saint Laurent (1936 2008).
Click here to read a 1961 article about Jacqueline Kennedy's influence on American fashion.
The Great Civil War Battles (Pageant Magazine, 1958)The second portion of Bruce Catton's article (see above) concerning the necessary knowledge required in order to justifiably call your self a "Civil War Buff" was this short piece listing the greatest battles of the war. Accompanying the five brief thumb-nail summaries is a map of the South Eastern U.S., highlighted with red stars, which serve to identify where the blood poured.
Haunted White House (Sir! Magazine, 1958)In the 218-year history of the White House, only ten people have died within its walls - yet everyone who has ever perceived the presence of a ghost insists that the spirit was that of Abraham Lincoln (who died a few blocks to the east). President Eisenhower was no exception. ''The Low State of High Society'' (Coronet Magazine, 1958)Another article by a highbred, woebegone, blue-blood who, plagued by a boatload of distinguished primogenitors and over-burdened by a lavish trust fund - to say nothing of a bad case of affluenza, could take no more of it; she broke-down and scribbled the attached expose in hopes that the whole highfalutin' plutocracy would come crashing down on top of all those icky, pompous know-it-alls.
"Life for America's so-called social aristocrats is colorless and uninspired. Our education, now that I look back at it, seems to have produced a frightening number of properly mannered, emotionally passive and intellectually sterile young snobs... This training is not easily overcome."
Gosh. We thought only Howard Zinn wrote like that.
The Submarine that Killed 9,400 People (Coronet Magazine, 1958)This article recalls an event in W.W. II history that is still remembered today as the greatest maritime disaster of all time: January 30, 1945, when Soviet Navy submarine S-13 sank the German liner Wilhelm Gustloff as she fled the Danzig port overloaded with fleeing refugees.
Written 18 years after the attack, this article erroneously attributes the sinking to two submarines and killing 8,000; but this was not the case.
PR from the Jungles of Cuba... (Coronet Magazine, 1958)The last thing the aspiring Communist dictator Fidel Castro needed in the Fall of 1958 was to have the dreaded "Yanquees" breathing down his neck; and so to buy some time, he penned this seven page article for the easily-bamboozled editors of Coronet magazine and packed it full of hooey, with lines like:
"A million unemployed bespeaks a terrible economic sickness which must be cured... lest it fester into communism." It was this article, among other deceptions, that made President Eisenhower believe that the new government of Cuba was deserving of diplomatic recognition in February of 1959. Less than two years later the Kennedy administration severed ties with the Cuban regime and shortly after launched an ill-fated attack on the island kleptocracy.
Watch this Film Clip About Soviet Intelligence and Communist Cuba The Accomplished Civil War Generals (Pageant Magazine, 1958)Five thumbnail portraits of the most consistently victorious generals of the American Civil War; three Union and two Confederate:
Ulysses S. Grant
Phillip Kearny
George B. Thomas
Thomas J. Jackson
Robert E. Lee
Princess Margaret and Captain Townsend (Coronet Magazine, 1958)This snippet is about a major crisis (and a colossal media event) that took place in the life of Queen Elizabeth's sister, Princess Margaret Rose (1930 2002) - when she was told in 1955 that the man she loved, Captain Peter Townsend, was not suitable for marriage. The Germans Tried to Secure a Peace (Confidential Magazine, 1958)George F. Earle, a former Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania, recalled his days in the White House during W.W. II when a secret German delegation came around wishing to bring an end to the war. Roosevelt rejected the conditions and Earle openly chastised him for it.
Click here to read an assessment of the late-war German soldier...
Watch A Clip About Hollywood and Confidential Magazine Deepest Regrets (Pageant Magazine, 1958)A young wife gets swept up in the whirlwind of blind compliance that was the condition of her marriage. Her husband forces her onto the abortionist's gurney and she awakens an hour later with profound sorrow:
"I had degraded myself and betrayed my baby..."
Henry Miller (Pageant Magazine, 1958) E-Learning in the Fifties (Pageant Magazine, 1958)This article from the late Fifties refers to the educational benefits that existed in the form of tape recordings, television, films and slide shows and what a glorious discovery it was that they came along when they did to aid in the teacher shortages of the time. Today we have decades of studies that show what among these tools has been useful and what has failed.
In the 1940s Color TV was Anticipated as a Tool with Which Art Students Could Learn... Mobsters and Their Nick-Names (Confidential Magazine, 1958)An article about Irving "Izzy the Eel" Cohen, Joseph "Socks" Lanza, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik and Albert "Tick Tock" Tannenbaum (among others) and how they earned such colorful names.
(This article was brought into the digital world by Matt "the Mad Scanner" Jacobsen)
An Al Capone article can be read here...
Watch A Clip About Hollywood and Confidential Magazine The Onslaught of Standardized Tests (World Week, 1958)Written in 1958 with the aid of the Educational Testing Service, (Princeton, New Jersey), the article attempted to persuade America's high school students to get used to standardized tests because they're a really cool idea and they'll make your life better. Illustrations are provided to indicate how the testing work and how well such tests had proved useful to the Air Force in weeding out sub-standard candidates for flight training. The journalist seemed to imply throughout these columns that the egg-heads were really doing us all a big, big favor by creating these tests. ''They Dropped The A-Bomb On Me'' (Tab Magazine, 1958)During the Cold war, as many as 400,000 American military personnel were forced to witness Atomic explosions. Having been sworn to secrecy, this veteran wrote his testimony under the penname, Soldier X:
"Then I saw the true power and fury of nature as a giant fireball sluggishly rolled upward through the thick layer of dust: I estimated its distance at about 1500 feet up. Surrounding the red mass are twisting white snakes of clouds....This is color as few humans have ever seen it, magnificent, threatening and horrible." The Lot of the Fighting Man (Pageant Magazine, 1958)Both Northern and Southern armies were composed predominantly of very young men. Almost all the generals were highly bewhiskered, but the enlisted men were almost all too young to shave.
Both sides carried a muzzle-loading rifle, cumbersome by modern standards, but nevertheless a highly effective weapon. It would kill at more than half a mile, and was deadly when used by veterans... | 
