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"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."


Flappers Defy the Paris Dictators (Flapper Magazine, 1922)

"Will Paris succeed in imposing long skirts on the flappers of America?"

"Not if most of them have their way! When Paris started the short skirt fad and America eagerly aped it, the dressmakers figured that it would probably run its course and then die a sudden death. But no! For American flappers may be fickle but they know a good thing when they see it. And they intend to hang on to it."

Click here to read about another icon of the Twenties: Rudolph Valentino.


The Old Southern View of Integration (Pageant Magazine, 1959)

In this 1959 article Alabama wordsmith Wyatt Blasingame did his level-headed best to explain the sluggish reasoning that made up the opinions of his friends and neighbors as to why racial integration of the nation's schools was a poor idea. He observed that even the proudest Southerner could freely recognize that African-Americans were ill-served by the existing school system and that they were due for some sort of an upgrade - they simply wished it wouldn't happen quite so quickly. The journalist spent a good deal of column space explaining that there existed among the Whites of Dixie a deep and abiding paranoia over interracial marriage.

Their line of thinking seems terribly alien to us, but, be assured, Southern white reasoning has come a long way since 1923...

''The Strange War the U.S. Is Not Winning'' (United States News, 1963)

"It's a dirty, vicious war that Americans are [waging] in the swamps of South Vietnam. Men forget about the politics of Saigon when they stand gun to gun with the Communist guerrillas..."


The U.S. Army's Cannabis Study (Newesweek Magazine, 1945)

Posted herein is a report on the seven-month study on the effects marijuana has on military personnel that was conducted in 1944:

"A great many of [the participants] attempted to form a compensatory image of themselves as superior people. 'I could be a general like MacArthur. He looks smooth - like he's high all the time.'"


The Black Women Who Pass For White (Liberty Magazine, 1949)

"In most of our larger cities and many small towns there are thousands of Negroes who have successfully 'gone over the line' and are now living as white. Among them, it is said, are several well-known athletes and members of Congress - But you don't hear much about the Negro women who pass. The roving male nature makes it easier for a man to pass completely, though it involves giving up his family as well as his friends. A woman finds passing harder to take."

Click here to read about the social differences between darker skinned and lighter skinned black people.

''God and Alcoholics'' (Liberty Magazine, 1939)

"Somebody said the Lord's Prayer, and the meeting broke up. I walked three blocks to the subway station. Just as I was about to go down the stairs - BANG - It happened! I don't like that word miracle, but that's all I can call it. The lights in the street seemed to flare up. My feet seemed to leave the pavement. A kind of shiver went over me and I burst out crying...I haven't touched a drop since, and I've since set four other fellows on the same road."


Pants for Women Become a Thing (Spot Magazine, 1942)

In the Digital Age we simply don't think much about pants on women - but they sure thought about it in the Forties - and everyone was expected to have an opinion on the subject. This article is about the dust-up that was caused at a new Jersey high school when some of the girls came to school in pants.


The Strategist (Collier's Magazine, 1944)

Here is a Collier's profile of U.S. Admiral Raymond Spruance (1886 - 1969):

"Outside Navy circles, very few know much about the man who bosses our task forces in the Pacific and has never lost an engagement. But Admiral Nagano knows of Spruance; so does Tojo - because, if it weren't for Spruance at Midway, Japanese carriers might now be based at Pearl Harbor."


Ode to Feminine Knees (Flapper Magazine, 1922)

When the skirt hems began to rise in the Twenties, it was widely understood that the vision of a woman's leg was a rare treat for both man and boy; a spectacle that had not been enjoyed since the days of Adam (married men excluded). The flappers certainly knew this, and they generally believed that suffering the dizzying enthusiasm of the male of the species was a small price to pay in order to secure some element of liberty. The flappers liked their hem-lengths just where they were and, thank you very much, they were not about to drop them. Attached are some verses by an anonymous flapper who expressed her reaction regarding all that undeserved male attention her knees were generating.