Cliff Aliperti

Our Random Issue this month is the June 1932 issue of Vanity Fair. While putting this issue together I also created a page giving a brief history of the 1914-36 version of Vanity Fair as it was under Frank Crowninshield.

The June 1932 issue of Vanity Fair comes with a 35 cent cover price, or you could subscribe for $3.00 for the entire year. The issue is 72 pages plus covers. Advertising is split between the front and back of the issue, with all of the editorial content coming in between. At the beginning of the issue are 11 full-page ads plus various guides which include both text and display advertising. “The Dog Directory” page includes a short article, “The Pug Comes Back”, which is just under a half a page with ads surrounding it. The “Vanity Fair Travel Directory” contains a page of what looks like classified ads followed by another 3 pages of larger ads. Finally, “The Shoppers’ and Buyers’ Guide” is a single page including both text and display ads.

At the back of the issue, after most of the content but interspersed with the continuations of several stories are another 10 pages of full-page ads, plus a total of 5-3/8 pages of ads totaling a half page or less. The covers have a colorful Ethyl Gasoline ad illustrated by Karl Godwin on the inside front cover, a Goodyear ad on the inside back cover, and a Lucky Strike Cigarettes ad on the back cover featuring a large image of Douglas Fairbanks Jr. If you include the covers as pages, which you really must since that space costs more than inside pages, the June 1932 issue of Vanity Fair contains a total of approximately 35-1/4 pages of advertising over 76 pages total, leaving us with 40-3/4 pages of text, photos and illustrations with which we can travel back in time.

Unlike other periodicals of this time, Vanity Fair made use of the photograph as an art form rather than as just another tool of reportage. Several photographs in this issue are by Edward Steichen, who was the chief photographer for Conde Nast publications from 1923 through 1937. At the bottom of that Steichen page are several examples of his photographs from various issues of Vanity Fair that I have had for sale. The first such photo is from this June 1932 issue, and is of movie actress Lupe Velez. While most associated with Vanity Fair for his photographs of movie stars such as Mexican Spitfire Velez, Steichen’s Vanity Fair photos were more accurately a Who’s Who of the public and pop culture of his time. Yes, there’s a Steichen photo of starlet Dorothy Jordan in this issue, as well as German import to Hollywood Dita Parlo, but also found in this issue are photographs of senior partner of J.P. Morgan & Company Thomas W. Lamont and from the world of sport, Pacific Coast swimming champion Olive Hatch.

Another interesting feature in this issue is an article about the man himself, “Edward Steichen” by Clare Booth Brokaw, who would yes, soon through marriage come to be know as Clare Booth Luce. The Steichen article was excellent and informative, so much so that I won’t detail it here because I relied on it to great degree for the Steichen page of CollectingOldMagazines.com that is referenced above.

Other portraits in this issue are by Baron George Hoyningen-Huene, originally of St. Petersburg Russia, and by this time chief photographer for the French Vogue. Hoyningen-Huene’s photos in this issue are of actress Ina Claire, winking while holding a drink as the caption explains she is “celebrating her proposed return to the Manhattan stage this autumn, after serving out a three-year sentence in Hollywood.” More notable by Hoyningen-Huene this issue is the page titled “Tarzan of the pools” which contains a large full-length photo of Johnny Weissmuller of whom the caption says he had “retired two years ago from active sports to take a job as salesman for the B.V.D. Bathing Suit Company.” While noting the possibility of a sequel, it’s no surprise to hear Vanity Fair speak somewhat mockingly of Weissmuller’s most recent endeavor, the “gorgeous piece of hokum” which was Tarzan the Ape Man.

Beyond the sharp shadows and deco settings of the black and white photography featured throughout Vanity Fair, every so often color blazes across the page as you stop to stare at a detailed full-page caricature. The opening article of this issue, “The Taxpayer’s Orgy”, is the right hand page facing William Cotton’s caricature of Secretary of the Treasury, Ogden L. Mills. But even more interesting nestled into the middle of the issue is #7 of the “Impossible Interviews” series by Miguel Covarrubias. I’ve created a page on the site similar to the Steichen page for Covarrubias, which includes several samples of his work including this issue’s “Marie of Roumania versus Mae West” feature.

The captions for “Impossible Interviews” were written by Vanity Fair contributor Corey Ford. In this issue the Romanian Queen laments her neglect by the public, to which West replies “What I mean, Sister, lemme put you wise. Royalty don’t get you any place, any more. Today they only want the kind of a Queen they can hold on their laps. Lookit, me, for instance. Every other inch a Queen, from hips to whoozis.” The conversation is only a few inches of text, though Covarrubias’ art tells the whole story.

There are smaller images, both photographic and illustrated, throughout the issue accompanying the articles, and we’ll take a look at those as we cover them. Which we are now about to do. As mentioned, there is the article about Steichen in this issue authored by Clare Booth Brokaw (Luce) and the lead article was already mentioned as well, “The Taxpayers’ Orgy” was written by Marcus Duffield and is about the expense of democracy, especially as the U.S. pulls itself out of Depression. Also included on the pages of the Duffield article are photographs of Paul Manship’s monument of Abraham Lincoln “The Hoosier Youth,” which is to be officially unveiled in Fort Wayne on July 4th. It will stand in the forecourt of the Lincoln National Life Insurance Company’s new building.

But even mentioning those two articles is skipping a little ahead of ourselves. Beyond the advertising found up front, but before the contents page, is “The Editor’s Uneasy Chair”, which I assume was actually penned by Frank Crowninshield. The construction of this editor’s page is interesting, as it alternates Crowninshield’s text about items found inside this issue, such as a little bit about Edward Hopper, who has two of his paintings reproduced in full-color inside, followed by a letter from a Vanity Fair reader. The editor does not reply to the reader’s letters, he just allows them to stand on their own whether they be flattering to Vanity Fair or antagonistic enough as in the case of one found here that is signed “Yours disgustedly.”

Turning the pages we then see the contents page, the Duffield article and Hoosier Youth photos, and then Steichen’s portrait of Lamont. Following this is Jefferson Chase’s article “The national straw-vote season” which is mostly about straw-votes in general, but more interestingly comments specifically on The Literary Digest and it’s popular straw polls which had correctly choose Coolidge in 1924 and Hoover in 1928. The Digest would be correct again for this election, but would bring disgrace upon itself in 1936 when it notoriously chose Alf Landon to defeat F.D.R. in a landslide.

Chase’s article, satire dripping with sarcasm, then suggests that the American public, sick of having its time wasted, should prefer to have the straw-vote represent the popular will. At the close of the article Chase asks 14 pairs of questions of which he would only require one of each pair to be answered, such as “Do you want a war with Japan?” or “Do you want to starve Japanese babies by an economic boycott?”, along with “Don’t you think it’s silly that, after fifteen years of trial, we still don’t recognize Russia?” paired with “Do you want to recognize Russia and see Communist propaganda broadcast throughout the United States?” After including his entire ballot of questions, Chase closes the article noting, “The great merit to this form of straw-vote would be that the answer to every question is ‘No;–a type of balloting which appeals to everyone–and that the results would be clear-cut and decisive.”

Next up we have an article about and titled “Hindenburg of Germany” by Richard Von Kuhlmann which includes an interesting group of photos of Hindenburg surrounding the text, each dated and titled ranging from “The Cadet, 1860,” through to “The Field Marshall, 1917,” and ultimately “The President, 1932.” There’s an editor’s note informing readers that von Kuhlmann was Germany’s Foreign Minister at the close of World War I, and his article appears to be an insider’s history of von Hindenburg from the war years up through his Presidency. Paul von Hindenburg is also found on the cover of this issue, illustrated by Jean Oberle, illustrator, painter, portraitist, who would go on to be a journalistic for the French Resistance in World War II.

Steichen’s portrait of Lupe Velez stares across the page at “The Theatre” by George Jean Nathan, usually associated with H.L. Mencken as co-editor of both The Smart Set and The American Mercury, critic Nathan was known for his being very rough with his criticism for his time. In this article Nathan compares criticism to reviews noting the difference as the critic doing his work in retrospect while the reviewer must crank out regular reviews as quickly as he can to meet deadlines for his newspaper. Doing so, the reviewer trashes about two-thirds of all plays while praising a third, considered by Nathan to be an honest and accurate amount, but with the problem being that the casual theatregoer seems then to read nothing but negative reviews and comes to the conclusion that the theatre as a whole is suffering while that not be the case at all. To prove his point, Nathan closes his article by recommending two of the better current productions, Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra and Denis Johnston’s The Moon in the Yellow River, while at the same time taking them down a notch in doing so:

“…the former, while attesting anew to its author’s preeminence among American dramatists and while still another example of his uncommon dramaturgic virtuosity, impresses me as being comparatively a less important work in his canon than his directly antecedent play, Strange Interlude. The Johnston play, while here and there regrettably diffuse, is nevertheless, it seems to me, the worthiest and certainly the most beautifully sensitive play that has come out of Ireland in a number of years.”

Next is a full page of photos showing cast members from four stage versions and the classic film version of Vicki Baum’s “Grand Hotel,” including an image of Garbo alongside her Broadway equivalent Eugenie Leontovich, and of Joan Crawford with Wally Beery alongside their Paris counterparts, Suzet Mais and M. Berley.

“Speakeasy of Love” appears to be a short story by Frank Lynn Parke. Only a little over half a page long, it is an interesting period piece with text such as “They were drinking from small glasses containing a liquid served by the proprietor as his interpretation of gin”; and “Having been, in her youth, an eager student of history, she had observed to her own satisfaction that while drunkards have preformed the greatest feats they have not performed them while they were drunk.”

“This was their year of grace” is a full page of a dozen small personality photos, each with a brief paragraph of text next to them. Such as: “Clark Gable tried to break into the movies a few years ago and was gently but firmly repulsed. Last year he appeared with Norma Shearer in A Free Soul, in the role of a racketeer, and over night became a sensation. Now the feminine hearts of the nation beat only for him”; and “William ‘Alfalfa Bill’ Murray, governor of Oklahoma, blossomed in the limelight when he announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. Since then, his campaign tactics–often crude, always colorful–have kept him consistently in the public eye.” The other ten making up this dozen: Yusuke Tsurmuri, Samuel Seabury, Pepper Martin, Ellsworth Vines, George Davis, The Grand Duke Alexander, Goeta Ljungberg, Hal LeRoy, Jackie Cooper, and Ely Colbertson.

The campaign season doesn’t appear to have opened to well for F.D.R as the page “Debit and credit items in the balance sheet of the Democratic Party” features Smith vs. Roosevelt and summarizes itself as: “Governor Roosevelt opened his Presidential campaign with his ‘radio speech’. That address was promptly answered by former Governor Smith, in his Jefferson Day speech. Five days later, at St. Paul, Governor Roosevelt delivered a second speech in which–as a result of Mr. Smith’s castigation–he reversed himself. The quotations from these three speeches will illustrate Mr. Roosevelt’s volte-face.” A little historic flip-flopping for us. Sure is strange to read Governor Roosevelt!

Paul Gallico authors “Everlast, 1932”, a review of the Everlast Boxing Record for 1932. This is followed by the Hoyningen-Huene photo of Ina Claire. The following page contains an item under the “Literary Hors D’Oeuvres” section, and thus I assume fiction, “Friday to Monday” by Sylvia Lyon.

Two of Edward Hopper’s paintings are featured on the facing page, “The Lighthouse at Twin Lights, Maine” at the top, and under that “Camel’s Hump–Cape Cod.” A little text under the Lyon story notes this as the third entry to “A Series of American Artists” and gives a little biographical text about Hopper comparing him to Winslow Homer and George Bellows. The trio are referred to as being purely American painters.

“Wanted: A Dictator” is by the Editors and is a proposal to solve the national difficulty. The article picks on four fields of national policy which the Congress has failed and surmises “There is only one answer to this predicament. Appoint a Dictator! Give to the next President the powers he would enjoy in time of war for the duration of the present emergency! At least one-third of Wilson’s war-time measures were in a strict sense illegal and unconstitutional, They were taken because they were necessary. Similar measures are necessary now.” Whether you loved him, hated him or only think of him as a historical figure, it is interesting to note that while far from being a dictator, Roosevelt would exert as much power over the American Presidency as anyone.

While calling for a dictator sounds completely over the top we must remember the time period and only turn back to the front of the issue to see a large ad proclaiming “Money Travels Further in Italy” in the travel section and recall the earlier article about Paul von Hindenburg, then President of Germany to remember it is early 1932 and Hitler is only on the cusp of coming to power while Mussolini is still viewed positively by many Americans. Vanity Fair concludes:

“In this country, Congress has failed utterly to meet the test. Representative Government has collapsed before the clamor of special interests. The American people can give no mandate before November, and the situation is critical. We must declare and immediate truce on party politics and create legally or illegally, an emergency organization, if the executive power is to rescue the national finance and the national credit from the nerveless hands of a lobby-ridden Congress. The alternative is chaos.”

“Argentine Blues” is by Paul Morand with color illustrations by William Bolin, who is one of those figures covered in the opening “Uneasy Chair” where it is noted that he is, “generally known as a ‘fashion’ artist (his work in this field has for years appeared in Vogue) Mr. Bolin’s interest in art covers a wider field. He is a portraitist and a sculptor of ability.” There is also a small photo of Bolin in the editor’s section.

“International week-enders” by Jay Franklin includes several photos of world leaders at the London Conference. The opening line of the article was actually pretty funny: “Ever since two million young American voters took free passage to Europe to make America safer for the Prohibitionists, Washington has been a world capitol.” Franklin goes on to argue in favor of the American delegations presence at the London Conference and debunks “the idea that an American diplomat cannot sit down at the same table with a foreign statesman and arise thence until he has parted with the Monroe Doctrine, American isolation, the national savings account and the family portraits.”

“Bootlegging for Junior” is about bootlegging and the current state of the liquor business, but is more interestingly authored by Dalton Trumbo, then just twenty-six years old. Fifteen years later Trumbo would find himself one of the Hollywood Ten, perhaps the most accomplished and famed of those blacklisted in Hollywood for refusing to testify before HUAC and certainly the one most able to pull his career back together in the aftermath of his blacklisting. Originally working under various pseudonyms, Trumbo finally worked under his own name again in 1960 as screenwriter for Exodus and Spartacus.

“A Man Must Write: An Autobiography of a Heavyweight Novelist” is parody by John “Gene” Riddell, actually the pseudonym of Corey Ford, who has already been noted as writing the text for Covarrubias’ Impossible Interviews. This was a funny article, no kidding. The author’s note tells us that this piece was “encouraged by the popularity achieved by several recent autobiographies of our pugilistic champions–such as Gene Tunney’s A Man Must Fight in Collier’s, and Eddie Eagan’s Fighting for Fun in the Saturday Evening Post. The author, obviously disgusted by fighters treading into his territory, proceeds to discuss his own writing career as though he were a fighter and recounts his rise to become “heavyweight novelist of the world.” Riddell/Ford even manages to rip other writers along the way: “This was of course my first public appearance in the sub-novelist class. I remember that both Dell and Kreymborg were appearing on the same card, as well as a tough newcomer named Harry Kemp, who, I believe is still writing today in the ham-and-egg class.” There are some puns that are groaners, such as “Billy was confident I was a great writer. He used to say even in those early days: ‘Gene, you are the greatest writer I ever Shaw.'” Riddell/Ford takes us through his career up until the famous contest he was to have in Chicago with Dreiser to become heavyweight writer of the world. Of course, if you know your boxing history, you have an idea how this bout would end: “The final count showed I had beaten Jack Dreiser by well over 100,000 words. This became known to fame as the ‘long count’, owing to the fact that it took the referee and two judges well over six months to reach this total.” All in all, puns aside, it’s an excellent piece of writing.

“We nominate for oblivion” has four photos of figures Vanity Fair just wants to see go away. The most notable of this group by far is Adolf Hitler, labeled demagogue under a photo of him raving with both fists clenched. The text explains the nomination: “Adolf Hitler, because his Jew-baiting campaign is medieval in its intensity; because in his efforts to gain votes he played on the strings of feminine hysteria; because, although he advocates strong-arm methods of Change, he has proved to be a sheep in wolf’s clothing; because his gains at the April polls further endanger Germany’s rapport with France.” The other three nominees, far less important, were Floyd Gibbons, Samuel Roth, and William I. Sirovich.

Could you imagine being one of these men a few years later recalling how Vanity Fair had pretty much compared you to Hitler? I don’t know too much about any of this then notorious (to Vanity Fair at least) trio myself, but I certainly don’t find myself thinking kindly of them, which is so wrong, total guilt by association and this is pretty loose association!

“Laying out the garden” is by Corey Ford, under his own name, and illustrated by Dr. Seuss, who Ford refers to in the article when discussing the main problem of laying out a garden–location: “In our effort to settle every question pertaining to the Home Garden once and for all, therefore, Dr. Seuss and I have made a careful study of this neglected phase of the matter.” I will say this, after reading Ford’s piece as “Gene” Riddell above, I don’t think I’m going to take serious gardening tips from him and Dr. Seuss!

On the more serious side, Walter Lippmann writes “Vicious spiral” about how American citizens must eventually end the Depression.

This is followed by “Gebruder Gershwin” by Isaac Goldberg about George Gershwin with illustrations by Constantin Alajalov, best known for his cover illustrations for The New Yorker and Saturday Evening Post, taken from and credited to soon to be published George Gershwin’s Song Book.

“Is Washington done with mirrors” is by “well-known puzzle-maker” Gregory Hartswick and is a series of puzzles combined with political cartoons such as an optical illusion taking the place of Hoover’s brain.

Next up is Clare Booth Brokaw’s piece on Edward Steichen. Again, see the Steichen page on the site if you’re interested in more detail of this article.

“The one over one vs. Culbertson” is about Contract Bridge and by a member of the famed “Four Horsemen,” David Burnstine, who Vanity Fair credits as being “among those chiefly responsible for the perfection of contract bidding and play which the members of that team have demonstrated in winning seven out of a possible eleven national championships in 1931.”

And the last piece to open before the advertisements at the back of the issue begin to filter in is “Query on!” which is a list of 59 trivia questions proposed by Vanity Fair because “the majority of question games confine themselves too rigidly to technical date and remote historical facts, such as how many eggs a sunfish lays in her off years.” Vanity Fair feels it must step in with a more interesting series of questions because “a display of this sort of knowledge doesn’t go very far in adding to your social charm. On the contrary–if nobody stops you–you soon become a handicap at every party.” Among the questions asked are #30 “What is the length of residence required before filing divorce proceedings in (a) Nevada (b) South Carolina (c) Alabama (d) New York and (e) District of Columbia?; and #39 “Who was the male sensation of Hollywood in 1931?” Now the answer to #30 is/was (a)Six weeks (b) no divorce (c)one year (d) Parties must have married in state, or reside in stat when the offense–i.e. adultery–is committed (e) three years. The answer to #39 is actually given elsewhere within this Random Issue, and so I’ll leave it to you to solve!

All right, it’s been a long Random Issue, the answer to #39 is Clark Gable.

How did I make it this far without featuring LIFE? I don’t know, but to be honest it is a back-up choice. I was originally going to do an earlier issue of Cosmopolitan, had read through the issue and made some notes even, but decided that I hadn’t had enough experience with the title yet to do it overall justice. I wanted something safer, yet fun, and so this issue becomes the LIFE issue. I purposely chose an early issue because LIFE was a little bit different early on and so I figured an early issue now would provide a nice contrast to coverage of an issue from the 40’s or 50’s later on.

After going through our Random Issue a few times I decided that before I planted us back in 1937 it would be interesting to take advantage of our position in time to at least do a basic comparison with a later issue of LIFE. The January 11, 1937 issue is pretty thin on advertising, either because of the time of year (post-Christmas) or more likely lack of interest from advertisers — I say this is more likely because two of the most sought after pages, the inside-front cover and inside-back cover, carry in house ads for LIFE itself up front (LIFE comes out on Friday…) and for sister publication TIME in the rear (Spotlight on China!). The back cover does carry a bland advertisement from the Addressograph-Multigraph Corporation, who were a common advertiser at the time. Still, I thought it would be wise to use a later issue from around the same time of the year and ended up settling on the January 28, 1952 issue from LIFE’s hey-day just over fifteen years later.

Not including the covers our 1937 issue contained 64 pages, 9 of which were advertising leaving 55 pages of editorial content. In the 1952 issue, which incidentally does have advertising on the inside covers, there are 96 pages not counting those covers, with 38-1/4 pages of advertising leaving 57-3/4 pages of editorial content — just a couple more than the 1937 issue.

The 1952 issue features several color advertisements while the 1937 issue has two. As to editorial content the 1952 issue has one page featuring a color photo from the Rose Bowl plus a 12-page color photo essay showing the Everglades by Alfred Eisenstaedt. The earlier issue contains just two pages with Winslow Homer paintings reproduced in color, plus four pages featuring color photographs from current stage hits. Most of the photographs credited in the 1952 issue are credited to freelance and staff photographers, while the large majority in the 1937 issue are credited to news services, as even with their famous five photographers on board LIFE still took most of its material from these outside services. The 1952 issue contained several large photos, often a full-page, sometimes even two (including in the color feature), while the 1937 issue has several smaller photos on most pages. These pages have a lot of white space and are very attractive layouts.

By 1952 the content of LIFE was much more serious than its earlier days. Not to say LIFE was no fun, that Everglades feature was exciting for example, but it was aimed at a more middle to upper-middle class audience, while back in 1937 LIFE was not afraid to cater to the lowest common denominator as it tried to find its exact niche. This was best summed up in “LIFE: The First Fifty Years 1936-1986” by a quote from Bernard DeVoto:

“LIFE, whose original formula called for equal parts of the decapitated Chinaman, the flogged Negro, the surgically explored peritoneum, and the rapidly slipping chemise, has decided to appeal to more normal and more intelligent minds. It now spends much more energy on the news and on a kind of visual journalistic investigation, which becomes increasingly interesting as it becomes more expert” (15).

Well, our issue definitely fits the mold of that earlier period. To show you what I mean I’m going to toss the 1952 issue aside as though it did not yet exist and peel back the cover on the January 11, 1937 issue of LIFE.

The issue opens with the “Speaking of Pictures” column, which takes a look at photography from a historical view by reproducing six photos from 1886 taken by Paul Nadar of Paris of centenarian chemist Michel Eugene Chevreul engaged in conversation with the photographers father, Fritz Nadar and others. A couple of the photos include a secretary in the background, who is taking notes on the conversation — the notes appear in the original French beneath each photo and are translated on a separate area of the page. The significance? LIFE claims that these 1886 photos are the first ever candids.

The lead story opening Volume 2, Number 2 of LIFE concerns the recent elections and more specifically the 48 governors representing each state. Over five pages LIFE shows every current governor within the U.S., mostly head shots with a few candids. Each photo has a short caption beneath it such as, “Georgia on Jan. 12: Democrat Eurith Dickinson Rivers, who waves a musket and a book of law, beat Talmadge in the primary.”

While a layout featuring the governors is more typical of what LIFE would come to be known for, turning the page leads us to a little of that early sensationalism. There’s a wedding photo of Edward T. Ford Jr. with his bride Charlotte Hall, and before I could focus on the other photos on the page I was somewhat shocked to finish reading the text next to this photo: “Their transport plane crashed. Both were killed.” Well, that’s depressing. LIFE includes photos of the rubble from the crash and even shows bodies both laid-out on the ground and being carted away, including that of Mrs. Ford. Time to turn the page.

Those two-pages covering the plane crash are part of “LIFE on the American Newsfront” which covers a few other topics on the next page, somehow managing to include another fresh but unrelated corpse in doing so, and then gets a little more light-hearted with a page of hockey brawls. Kind of violent stuff on the “American Newsfront” though.

Up next is a profile of famed birth control advocate Margaret Sanger. This is an interesting four pages, typical of LIFE, with a paragraph of text explaining to the reader exactly who Sanger is and what she is known for. The photos go back in time as far as possible to show Sanger at ages 13, 16, 17, etc., right up to how she looks in 1937. The text accompanying the photos both describe the photo and give more information on the subject where possible: “For starting in Brooklyn this first U.S. birth control clinic in 1916, Mrs. Sanger was arrested.” The second two pages of this article includes a little more text telling of the famous folks who stand behind Sanger and includes photos of some of them such as Havelock Ellis. Another photo shows Sanger with Gandhi, about whom the caption comments that she “failed to convert him.” Another picture is of Sanger with Mrs. Thomas N. Hepburn (Katharine’s mother) and friend H.G. Wells. Also shown are Sanger’s second husband, James Noah Henry Slee and a photo of their beautiful home on a small lake in Fishkill, NY.

LIFE uses color to reproduce three paintings by Winslow Homer over two pages. The Homer paintings are topical because they were part of an exhibition of over 150 of his works currently showing at the Whitney Museum.

And from the arts we return to the gutter, this time a little more literally, with a single page feature titled “Bum.” “Bum” is a series of seven photos showing a man passed out on a San Francisco sidewalk. LIFE claims that a hundred pedestrians passed by the man before one became curious enough to gather a crowd who eventually “aid” him by gathering the man to his feet. The final photo shows the man sitting on some steps and it captioned “The Bum Rests at Hotel Comfort”. LIFE seems to be calling out the pedestrians for not wanting to get involved, but still, I can’t imagine they have much sympathy for the man when they title these photos the way they did and speculate on whether he’s dead or drunk.

The next four pages are fun, but they’re science too, as LIFE takes a look at the dinosaur. The first two pages show photos of the area that is to become Dinosaur National Park in Utah, while the other two pages show several bones including one complete Brontosaurus skeleton.

Next up are two pages exclusively devoted to baths. More specifically new trends such as milk, foam, and wax baths, though LIFE does use the opportunity to include some female nudity in its mud bath photo. Marlene Dietrich is also pictured “in plain soap and water in the British film, ‘Knight Without Armor.'”

The 1936-37 season on Broadway is covered next and includes color photographs of the most popular plays of the time including two from Tobacco Road, which is on a three-year run, a large shot from Tovarich, another with film stars Margaret Sullavan and Phyllis Brooks in Stage Door, and finally a large shot from Dead End showing the death of Babyface Martin.

The cover story takes up the next seven pages, most of which LIFE spends making huge generalizations about the Japanese, mostly negative, some attempting to be positive. Comments include:

• No soldier in the world takes so readily to discipline as the Japanese. He can march 50 miles per day on a diet of fish and rice. He will commit suicide in action. He inherits from his father the blind obedience of a feudalism which Japan’s ruling class has painstakingly carried over to an industrial civilization.
• The Japanese are an artful race and the one phase of modern warfare that all its soldiers instinctively delight in is camouflage.
• The typical Japanese body is square, chunky and thick-legged, male and female.
• With his clothes off, a Japanese country gentleman is practically indistinguishable from a peasant’s son. Both are gluttons for exercise and clean-living.

“The Camera Overseas” continues on to England with a photo of the Queen Mother Mary; to Moscow with Paul Robeson who has announced that he wants to send his son to Soviet schools (“He found the most social equality in Austria until he went to Russia where a Negro is even more of a novelty than in central Europe”); Next to Italy, where Mussolini is shown overseeing production of the classic “Scipio Africanus” a typically nationalistic effort of the time which showed Rome conquering Carthage. LIFE points out “The tacit point of all current Italian movies is to tell Italians what a great race they are.” They also draw comparison of ancient Carthage to modern Ethiopia, which Mussolini has recently conquered.

The final main feature of the issue is an entertainment personality profile, in this case, skater-actress Sonja Henie, who is covered over four pages and shown in the film One in a Million on the opening page. Henie is shown exercising over the next couple of pages and with boyfriend Tyrone Power as well as her father, former bicycle racing champion, Wilhelm Henie, described by LIFE as being “old, fat, and obliging.”

The issue ends with “Pictures to the Editors” which includes a graphic six photo spread of a hernia operation being completed with “living thread” from the patient’s own thigh.

So we find this issue contained politics, science, art, film, stage, and biography, all of which can be found as key components of later issues, and as they say in one of my favorite films, Sullivan’s Travels, “but with a little sex” in this case our 2-pages of baths. Plus we had those photos of dead bodies, and an article none too friendly towards the Japanese. LIFE certainly could have veered off course in the future and concentrated on sex and corpses, but chose the high road instead leaving the sensationalism to lesser publications.

Surely much of the callousness with which LIFE treated subjects none so dear to its heart was a product of the times — I’m referring to their Japanese stereotypes and the exploitation of the homeless man as the main examples, while their willingness to show a little skin and as many dead bodies as possible would seem to be a part of their personal growing pains. While 1937 was certainly a less sensitive time, that had a lot to do with who was running and writing the publication as well as the ruling class in general. LIFE, like most of the rest of American culture, would become more sensitive as time went by. Still, whether or not some of it rubs you the wrong way or just out and out offends you, there’s no better way to get a peek into the period than to open up an old issue of LIFE and look at their pictures. Skip the captions if their writing style bothers you too much.

The American Magazine debuted in 1906 when Ida Tarbell, Ray Stannard Baker, Lincoln Steffans, Peter Finlay Dunne and a few other editors at McClure’s purchased Leslie’s Monthly Magazine and renamed it The American Magazine. It was published by the Phillips Publishing Company organized by McClure’s partner John S. Phillips, who would sell The American to Joseph Palmer Knapp, majority stockholder of the Crowell Publishing Company in 1911. There will be a page coming in the future detailing the complete history of The American Magazine along with notes on collecting it. Our issue from June 1928 carries Merle Crowell’s name at the top of the masthead as Editor with James C. Derieux as Managing Editor.

As I mentioned in the opening I’ve been having a lot of fun reading through this issue of The American. No, I did not read any of the fiction, I have too many books waiting to be read when I can break myself away from research material, but I did read a few of the articles. The personality of The American Magazine as it strikes me is one very similar to the Saturday Evening Post, extremely so in its choice of authors and illustrators of its fiction, a little less so in it’s articles, at least in this issue, where the success story seems to be the favorite subject.

The June 1928 issue of The American Magazine contains 198 pages in between its covers, 85 of which are filled with advertising plus another 8-2/3 pages of a Schools Directory — I’m not sure if this was handled as a special advertising section or if it was provided as a service for readers — and a single page with an in-house ad titled “A Doctrine: in which some Notable Advertisers have discovered profit possibilities,” which, as you may figure, is basically soliciting more advertising with its conclusion: “Therefore, it is obviously an economy for advertisers to use those publications which reach two or more members of the family. By every test, The American is the magazine which does that most effectively.” So taken all together this issue contains just under half advertising, most of it situated in the back of the issue.

Some of the more notable full-page advertisers in this issue are Ivory Soap, Campbell’s Soups, Chrysler, Prince Albert, Bell, Chesterfield Cigarettes, Firestone, Wrigley’s, Camel Cigarettes, Lucky Strikes, General Electric Refrigerators, and a beautiful Coca-Cola advertisement illustrated by Norman Rockwell. After running across that one I put together a new page on CollectingOldMagazines.com titled Norman Rockwell Ads: Collecting Rockwell with a Focus on the Ads He Illustrated.

Albert Payson Terhune vs. Harold Bell Wright: The most interesting article in this issue are the point/counterpoint articles “They Are Hell Bent!” by Albert Payson Terhune and “They Are Not” by Harold Bell Wright. They refers to the Present Generation, or more accurately according to Terhune the Next Generation. What was fascinating about this pair of articles was the way both Terhune and Wright wrote about their current time in such a way that the articles present themselves today as a history of a very exciting period in America.

As you can likely tell by the titles of the articles, Albert Payson Terhune does not care for the excesses of the Next Generationers, while Harold Bell Wright comes to their defense. Terhune begins his article by trying to establish himself as level headed and reasonable about the excesses of young people to some degree. He even writes “I am not a fanatic. I am not a second Mrs. Dry (referring to a woman from the temperance movement in a story he told from his youth). I don’t think I have the energy or the nobility of purpose to be a fanatic. Certainly I have not the desire to be one. …I have no mission or wish to reform the world.” This is kind of a dangerous strategy to take when writing a piece like this, because nothing establishes you as something so much as distancing yourself from it — “I am not a fanatic” usually equals I am a fanatic.

Wright on the other hand begins his article by condemning the very group which he is then going to try and prove innocent. He writes “Lest you lose interest at this point, I hasten to say that I believe the worst that is reported about our young people. I doubt if there was ever in the history of our civilization a period when mere children were so experienced in those immoralities which matured men and women are supposed to spend years in learning.” Wright has more or less set up his argument by using the same method as Terhune. While Terhune rants against the Next Generationers after claiming that he is no fanatic, Wright first condemns them before spending the bulk of his article defending young people.

Terhune’s argument is the present generation of youngsters have broken free of their solid backgrounds, “risen above all that, you Next Generationers. Booze, tobacco, petting parties, half-portion skirts–those are part of the price of making a social hit,” he writes. The current generation of young people is so off the that he does not have much optimism of them growing into the responsible and respectable crop of adults that make up Terhune’s own generation. He writes:

“Mrs. Nineteen Forty will be grimly strict and prudish, perhaps. But she will have a less vigorous constitution than if she had not gulped down so much rank bootleg booze and smoked so many cigarettes in 1928.”

Harold Bell Wright never wavers from his claim that these kids are the worst generation in history. He instead modifies this extreme view by pointing out that they are also “the best and most promising generation in our history.” Wright explains why this generation has become so bold against established morals:

“The younger generation has nothing against Volstead. Why should they have? They are not confirmed old topers who must have their drink, though they go down into the shadow of death to get it. This rebellion against prohibition is a rebellion of our generation–the generation of the parents of these young people. We oldsters incited this revolt…These youngsters are merely being swept along with our crowd.”

Also: “Immorality? Do these boys and girls make our motion pictures which develop and present in revealing details and frankness nearly every sex situation possible to human beings?”

So Wright lays the blame on his own generation even going so far as to explicitly finger parenting methods of the time as a cause: “I can’t help wondering, too, if the rod wielded so unsparingly by our parents was so potent for righteousness, how does it happen that we are what we are? As I see it, when we oldsters point to our generation as an example of hickory-stick training, we prove conclusively that there was something wrong with that system.” He concludes his point in writing that “these New Generationers are what we, their parents, are making them.”

Terhune raises this same point though his conclusion is the opposite of Wright’s. He recalls that “We were taught to respect and follow the dictates of our elders. Usually we did so. When we didn’t, we were whipped, or sent to bed or otherwise penalized.” He then recalls that this attitude changed around twenty years ago with new thinking such as “Don’t brutalize your child by punishment. Don’t seek to form his character. Let his budding Ego develop along its own heaven-directed lines.” Terhune obviously thinks this is all bunk, but just in case you didn’t pick up on that he further compares the new attitude as being akin to taking away a jockey’s whip and even the jockey to let a race horse run on his own so that “His naturally fine impulses will teach him to win.” Terhune leaves no doubt that he believes in a strict hand.

As to the cause of this malaise, Albert Payson Terhune blames the recent environment: “Just now we are paying the bill for the World War. We are paying it most heavily in the conduct of the Next Generationers.”

So in the end we have an argument of nature vs. nurture set in the Roaring 20’s with misbehaving flappers and lawbreaking drunkards being the the end result. Terhune blames the war, Wright blames his and Terhune’s generation for raising them poorly. Terhune argues spare the rod, spoil the child, Wright says the parents were warped by their upbringing and were left unprepared to raise the child correctly. While Terhune has his points, Wright’s argument makes a lot more sense to us today. Though still I wonder what Albert Payson Terhune would think of our current crop of Next Generationers as well as we who proceeded them? In my mind, both men would likely make similar arguments today, though Terhune would probably tone his down a little!

Also: Plenty of other articles inside this issue, some I read, some I glanced at, others I ignored. Webb Waldron writes about Chase Salmon Osborn, the former Governor of Michigan turned iron-hunter. The article includes a full-page portrait of Osborn from a painting by Robert W. Grafton and a sidebar by Osborn himself titled “My Philosophy of Life” in which he writes:

“My greatest inheritance was poverty. With poverty came gibes and slurs from children who had more. It made me bitter for years. But it stimulated me to do things, for poverty is ambition’s stepladder…I made up my mind to give back whatever I had that I did not need to live upon…Socialism will not cure the pig habit. The way out is for those who take more to consider themselves as trustees for the surplus…It must not be called charity, The name for it is JUSTICE. Add to it human love, and the world is made safe and happy for all mankind.”

This is followed by the first piece of fiction in the issue, “White Birches” by Nelia Gardner White and illustrated by Hanson Booth. Since I didn’t sit down to read any of the stories, I’ll just note the other fiction here as well: “Grindstoned” by Hugh MacNair Kahler and illustrated by Victor C. Anderson which is subtitled “The story of a man who hitched his brother’s wagon to a star, and of the girl they both loved.” Looks to be a western-romance. By the way, Anderson is the same illustrator of the cover of this issue. Next is “The Frame-Up” by Octavus Roy Cohen, a very common author to find in magazine issues of this period, with illustrations by George Brehm (shown at right). This story is about Cohen’s character Jim Hanvey, described as “defender of crooks who want to go straight, (Hanvey) fights fire with fire.” Next is “Dot Tries to Help Poor Mattie Coates” by Fannie Kilbourne with illustrations by T.K. Hanna (shown below), followed finally by “Star Dust” by Howard Brubaker with drawings by R.M. Brinkerhoff. This issue also includes part three of a serial by the noted western author Zane Grey, titled “Sunset Pass” and illustrated by W.H.D. Koerner.

Next up, is an article about “Doc Kinkade–The Man Who Put Us Across” written by Commander Richard E. Byrd, U.S.N. There is a photo of R. Harold “Doc” Kinkade under the title and a concise explanation of who he is: “motor wizard of the Wright Aeronautical Corporation, is the man who tuned the engines that carried Lindbergh, Chamberlin, Byrd, and Ruth Elder on their historical flights across the sea.” A somewhat amusing sidebar with this story is titled “It Is a Pleasure To Grant a Favor Such as This” and reads in whole:

“When Commander Byrd sent in the accompanying article he asked what he termed a ‘favor.’ Here is is: ‘Would THE AMERICAN MAGAZINE,’ he said, ‘be willing to run an editorial box in the middle of the story, pointing out that, despite the great progress in aviation and the fine records of many flyers, the real men behind all this success–the men who put the engines in commission–have never received their full due?’ We are glad to carry out this generous and justified suggestion. THE EDITOR.”

The next article was “Divorved! Prosperity and political campaigns can go their separate ways in this election year” which is billed as “an interview with Colonel Leonard P. Ayres, famous business statistician” by Keene Sumner with drawing by Rollin Kirby.

“Back Up Now and Then–You May Get a Better Start” is by Helen Christine Bennett about William Adger Law, who is pictured with his dog. Again the photo-caption tells us who Law is, “William Adger Law is president of the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, of Philadelphia. Mr. Law, a native of South Carolina, began his career as a court stenographer, went from that to banking, and then into insurance.” It appears to be another tale of a successful businessman about his rise to his current heights.

“These Swift Couriers Are Always Homeward Bound” by Appleton Street is about messenger carrying pigeons and includes a drawing of the birds in flight by noted nature illustrator Lynn Bogue Hunt.

“The Greatest Bridge in The World and the Man Who Is Building It” is by M.K. Wisehart about Othmar H. Ammann and the Husdson River Bridge. Photos show Ammann along with a picture at the top of the page showing the bridge as it will look upon completion and below is a shot of an approach to the central span.

I enjoyed the article “Advice Is All Right If You Don’t Take Too Much of It” by horse-wrangler/artist/writer Ross Santee. This is another rags to riches tale where Santee recalls wanting to be a cartoonist because of the work of John T. McCutcheon in the old Chicago Record. Santee writes about his slow rise and difficulties in making sales, and most interestingly notes some of his friends and fellow-students from art school such as Neysa McMein, Anita Parkhurst, and his good friend Rolf Armstrong. Out west Santee was a wrangler who would work on his drawings in his spare time. It was Armstrong who convinced him to come back to New York where he would have his cartoons published by the old Life and Century. It was Boy’s Life who first published his writing about the west, and Leslie’s who paid him two hundred a story for it. Santee sums up his feelings on his career at the end of the article: “Writing still comes hard to me, an’ I expect it always will, An’ the real fun in doing a story is drawing the pictures for it.”

Next up is “Paine’s Career Is a Triumph Of Early American Virtues” by Frederick L. Collins, with again a photo caption giving us a nice summary of the subject of the article: “William Alfred Paine is one of the outstanding business leaders of New England. He organized, and is president of Paine, Webber and Company, of Boston; he is also one of the big men in the American copper industry. Mr. Paine is seventy-three years old.”

“The Strange and True Story of One Modern Girl” is by Mary B. Mullett about Rosamond Pinchot, who “was born, as the old-saying goes, ‘with a silver spoon in her mouth.’ Yet for the past four years, ever since she was eighteen, she has worked as hard as if she hadn’t a penny–Part of her story reads like a fairy tale; but the rest is very different.” There is a photo of Pinchot, whose uncle had been Governor of Pennsylvania and whose father was well-known in New York. Pinchot’s chosen career path was the theater and this article recounts her meeting with Max Reinhardt and her playing in “The Miracle.”

“Houdini’s Conquest of America” is part four in a series of articles about Harry Houdini written by Harold Kellock. This particular article is summed up under the title as “He gives a seance that baffles Theodore Roosevelt; he gratifies a lifelong ambition by filling his mother’s apron with gold; he escapes from a Federal prison cell, releases the prisoners and then locks them up again; he is buried under six feet of earth, but comes to the surface.” Top that, David Blaine!

“There’ll Be 9,000 Earthquakes This Year” by George W. Gray is about respected earthquake predictor, the Rev. Francis Tondorf, a Jesuit Priest from Georgetown University. Included is a photo of Tondorf and an image of the “earliest seismograph” which is said to be invented by “Choko, a Chinese smith in the second century.”

“The Interesting People” section includes photos and articles about interesting personalities. To give you a taste the photo-captions from each interesting person follow. Each caption seemed to give a nice summary of why these people were deemed interesting by The American:

• “During the past fifteen years, Tommy Luther, lumberman of the Saratoga Lake section of New York State, has planted more than six million trees. On his sixty-third birthday, he planted 70,000 between sunrise and sunset.”
• “Norma Bamman, of Plainfield, New Jersey, known to her friends as ‘Pinkie,’ and her ‘Pantry,’ filled with good things of her own making. This little shop took firstprize in the Better Wayside Refreshment Stand Contest. Pinkie bakes her pies and cakes and bread before the very eyes of her customers.”
• “M.F. Chapman bought a pair of chinchillas from an Indian hunter in the Chilean Andes, and now he has a chinchilla farm in southern California. He is said to be the first an able successfully to remove the delicate animals from their mountains.”
• “Mrs. Minna Schmidt, of Chicago, Illinois, is an authority on costumes of every period, and has dressed a collection of dolls representing famous people.”
• “Captain Charles Bruder, 68-year-old river captain, has missed but one day from his run in fifty years. In the summer season he commands a boat running between New York and Albany, on the Hudson River.”

The last article is “Dime Wise and Dollar Foolish” by Clarence Budington Kelland, which inspired the newest page on CollectingOldMagazines.com. The title of the article is referring to Kelland’s own ways of spending, especially since he has found success as an author, but the new page actually relies more on another article written by Kelland for The American, one is which he details a good portion of his life.

See, when I originally planned this issue I wanted to do as I had in a previous Random Issues and give a brief summary of each writer and artist included in the issue. My mistake, or my reward, was beginning with Clarence Budington Kelland, who I figured would be the easiest choice to start with because his name so commonly crops up in old magazine issues. Not so. Most of the info about Kelland on the net refers to the fact that he is forgotten and nobody knows much about the man now. So, due to the length of this issue, I’ll only include the link here to what I hope is now the best Clarence Budington Kelland page available on the net.

The Post gives us 60 pages plus covers for our nickel this time around, but they’re doing fine with profits as 27-1/4 of the 60 pages, plus 3/4 covers contain advertising, so there’s plenty of revenue coming in the Curtis door during this period. The 32-3/4 pages of text and illustration is split almost down the middle between fiction and non-fiction. I didn’t read the stories, but I did take a closer look at the non-fiction articles and have even put together a brief bio on this issue’s all-star writer.

Speaking of bio’s, this issue’s cover was illustrated by Penrhyn Stanlaws, who led a very interesting and artistic life.

In brief, the fiction contained within this issue is as follows:

• “Suspicion” by Harris Dickson and illustrated by Arthur William Brown looks to be a mystery involving the upper crux of society.
• “A Little Taste of Business: Matt Has it and Asks for More” by Peter B. Kyne and illustrated by Harvey Dunn is about Cappy Ricks (illustration shown), the “president and principal stockholder of the Ricks Logging and Lumber Company and Blue Star Navigation Company.” Kyne wrote several Cappy Ricks stories and Cappy would later make his way to the big screen in 1921’s Cappy Ricks starring Thomas Meighan, 1935’s Cappy Ricks Returns and 1937’s Affairs of Cappy Ricks which starred Walter Brennan. Kyne, 1880-1957, worked as a reporter in San Francisco where he would become familiar with the merchant marines.
• “The Phoenix” by Richard Washburn Child and illustrated by Irma Deremeaux
• “H.R.” by Edwin Lefevre and illustrated by Clarence F. Underwood. This one is a serial picking up at Chapter 2. Lefevre is best known for his “Reminiscences of a Stock Broker” series of fictionalized stories about Jesse Livermore which appeared over eleven issues of the Post in 1922-1923. Underwood also illustrated several covers for the Post during this period and was especially known for his portraits of women “with suggestions of action. His elegant women were often engaged in sports, or so the combination of costume and prop suggested” (Cohn 46).

This issue carries automobile advertisements from Dodge Brothers of Detroit, who none too succinctly proclaim “Its style is so attractive that frequently the car sells itself solely by its appeal to the eye.” There is no specific model advertised, just “Dodge Brothers Motor Car” but the price is listed at $785, or $1100 Canadian. Dodge only shelled out for half a page, but the Milburn Wagon Company sprung for a full-page, half of which contains a photo of the Millburn Light Electric Coupe at $1485, Roadster at $1285. “With a garage full of all kinds of cars, you would drive your Milburn a hundred miles for every ten you’d drive other types of car. We have observed it carefully–it is an invariable fact.” Oldsmobile also goes for the full-page, but they use all of their space on text. The headline declares “Oldsmobile sets the pace with an Eight – Alive with Power — Light in Weight — Exquisite in Beauty” and italicized but also buried in the text “A Most Surprising Thing is the Price, $1295.” That’s it for autos, though there are plenty of related ads especially from tire companies such as Fisk.

Tuxedo Tobacco takes an interesting step with photos and quotes from six celebrity pitchmen, two of whom I was familiar with. There’s Brig. General C.C. Sniffen and Prominent Chicago Physician and Surgeon Clement W.K. Briggs, M.D. who says “Physicians give their approval to Tuxedo because it’s harmless and wholesome.” Also featured is Congressman R.F. Broussard of Louisiana and Herman Nickerson, who I should know but I don’t, as he is Secretary of the Boston Braves, defending World Champions of Baseball. Those I do know are the writer Irvin S. Cobb who really didn’t sit at his desk too long to come up with “I can’t think of any reason why I shouldn’t say I like Tuxedo–because I do like it, very much.” And the most famous of these half-dozen smokers, director D.W. Griffith, who says “A pipeful of Tuxedo is a wonderfully pleasant form of tobacco enjoyment, mild and soothing.”

I found this pretty interesting because it either points out that the ad agencies of 1915, or at least the one that designed this ad, were completely ignorant regarding who the public would respond to pitching products, or the public was very different than it would soon be in who it would respond too. The military man is the only one I can see the buying public responding too any time in the near or more distant future. The most interesting choices to me are Nickerson, the Braves’ Secretary, and D.W. Griffith in that it’s pretty obvious the public would spend its reverence on a baseball player rather than secretary and a movie star rather than director. Outside of a TV commercial today with George Steinbrenner or that one with director M. Night Shyamalan, it’s a pretty universal choice to go with the player or the star. As for the Congressman, that doesn’t seem appropriate outside of a PSA and I guess the physician is there to calm your fears over that cough you recently developed somewhat coincidentally after beginning to smoke Tuxedo brand products. In a pre-Marlboro Man world the tobacco company tries to entice the public by showing that smart people smoke, not tough guys.

And just a quick note to finish up looking at the advertising, the most eye-catching ad in the issue is a quarter-page ad from 2 in 1 Shoe Polishes, only because it is so racist. The caption on this one is “Dat sho’ly am SOME Polish.”

I only mention the shoe polish ad as a segue into the half-page article “White Hopes.” At first glance I had no idea what this would be about, and then reading the first paragraph and I thought it had something to do with harvesting and basically just didn’t get it. Finally, I read the entire article and it’s reporting Jack Johnson losing the Heavyweight Championship of the World to Jess Willard. This is written pretty strangely. It is extremely flowery prose, and would have taken me almost a full column to figure out what it was even about if I hadn’t known who James Jeffries was, as his was the only name mentioned to this point. Johnson is not mentioned until the last paragraph and then only by his last name. I’d like to think the article was intended to be sarcastic as it lists the long line of “White Hopes” who stepped up attempting to take the title from Johnson and failed, but in the end it just seemed to be celebrating the fact that Willard finally knocked off the old champ.

The anonymous writer writes: “The real White Hope had at last been found! All was excitement and enthusiasm reigned supreme. At the evening cocktail hour loud cheers were heard resounding and swinging doors swung again to the reverberating echoes.” Though only overtly racist in the repetitive use of the “White Hope” term, though then again I can recall this same term being applied to Gerry Cooney as recently as 1981 or ’82 when he challenged Larry Holmes, there is no doubt that the conservative Post was quite happy to see Johnson, thought of as a trouble-maker, finally succumb to one of the hopes. Every pretender along the way is referred to by full name in the article, yet there is reluctance to write out the full name of the former champion … Jack Johnson. By the way, Johnson’s story is very interesting and if you missed the PBS special on him released within the past year or so, it is available on DVD. A very entertaining couple of hours.

“Made in Japan” by Samuel G. Blythe is a long article about the expanded Japanese trade. I read this entire article and found it pretty boring on the whole. Basically the Japanese took advantage of the market created for hats when the Chinese cut their queues. Blythe stresses over and over again how the Japanese “must have more trade. They must expand.” He also drives home the point that the Japanese will gladly accept a small mark-up in order to sell a great quantity of items. He mentions that the telephone and telegraph in Japan are government controlled, as is the tobacco market, and paints a picture of a hard-handed government putting the squeeze on Japanese citizens.

A couple of other snoozers for me that I started out intending to read but found my mind wandering were “The Mind Reader” by Edward Mott Woolley, which is about bosses and employer-employee relationships and “Rubbing the Lamp: How the Specialty-Shop Aladdin Makes His Profit” by Corinne Lowe, about specialty clothing shops for women (with money). There is also a half a column article titled “Printing Telegraphs” which was interesting but probably just used as filler (maybe an advertiser dropped out late or they just had a little space leftover).

The highlight of the issue was “For King and Country: I Nibble Them” by mystery and short fiction writer Mary Roberts Rinehart, who was also a war correspondent in World War I.

Rinehart writes from the battlefield of Ypres where she mingled with the French soldiers in the trenches. The article contains a lot of dialogue between herself and the soldiers such as the Captain’s response to her wondering why the soldiers were so cheerful one morning: “They have been in a very bad place all night…They are glad to be here, they say.” “You mean that they have been in a dangerous place?” Rinehart asks, to which the soldiers’ response was laughter and a few proffering their caps forward to display bullet holes. “You see,” the Captain said, “it was not a comfortable night. But they are here, and they are content.”

Rinehart mentions how she was told that the horses were American like her, and by the end of the article she seems to comfort in this fact. When a battery is fired she is concerned that it is being done to show off for her, but the soldiers assure her that they were firing to disable a German battery which had been located. Rinehart writes:

“There is a curious feeling that comes with the firing of a large battery at an unseen enemy. One moment the air is still; there is a peaceful plain round. The sun shines, and heavy cart horses, drawing a wagon filled with stones for repairing a road, are moving forward steadily. their heads down, their feet sinking deep in the mud. The next moment all hell breaks loose. The great guns stand with smoking jaws. The message of death has gone forth. Over beyond the field and that narrow line of trees, what has happened? A great noise, the furious recoiling of the guns, an upcurling of smoke–that is the firing of a battery.”

I thought that paragraph was well-written and gave a good feeling of what Rinehart saw over there. The article is filled with descriptive entries such as this. Another portion that I particularly like is when Rinehart explored the trenches, of which she wrote:

“It was odd to stand there in the growing dusk, looking across to where was the invading army, only a little over three thousand feet away. It was rather horrible to see that beautiful landscape, the untraveled road ending in the line of poplars, so very close, where were the French outposts, and the shining water just beyond, and talk so calmly of the death that was waiting for the first Germans who crossed the canal.”

The Captain told her, “They represent the latest fashion in trenches!” as he showed her around. Rinehart took in all of the details, the mud and water, the barbed-wire rabbit trap (shown at right), and then: “Suddenly the rabbit trap and the trench became unspeakably loathsome to me. What a mockery this business of killing men!” She writes of her German gardener, Wilhelm, and reasons how easily he could have been here, could have been the enemy, had he delayed coming to America to be her gardener. She reflects on his smile and other things that she likes about him, and she knows he was a loyal German citizen when he was here, knows that he was a Sergeant in the German Army for five years, and then realizes how many more Germans are like her Wilhelm, except that they are still in Germany. Rinehart injects some patriotism into her argument writing of the many Wilhelms: “Men who have followed the false gods of their country with the ardent blue eyes of supreme faith.” Somewhat disgusted, she soon then says, “I asked to be taken home.”

The Mary Roberts Rinehart article surely had to be the most exciting part of this issue then as it was now. With America a couple of years from entering the conflict, Rinehart presented them with a detailed and realistic, though perhaps at times romantic, picture of the war from one of its most central battlefields.

Taken as a whole The Saturday Evening Post of 1915, while being sold to the masses attends more to the white-collar world, and reports on this world from a Republican perspective. Articles geared towards bankers, manufacturers and wealthy wives looking to shop are interrupted by entertainment such as the Johnson-Willard article and the report from Ypres. Remember though, this is 1915, not 1951 — those tossing their nickel across the counter were for the most part educated people of the business class. The mass public was for the most part not yet an educated population. Lorimer’s Post tailored from his perspective on the right was not meant for the “huddled masses”. Lorimer, in fact, would resign from the Post after becoming disenchanted with his audience upon their reelection of FDR. The Post would then tailor itself more towards mainstream America. Rockwell’s America.

Source:

• Cohn, Jan. Covers of the Saturday Evening Post. New York: Penguin Books, 1995.

I really wanted to do a good job on this issue! After all, I promised it to you for last issue, changed it at the last minute and promised it to you again for this issue. In fact, I said I was going to act like a 1927 subscriber to the Atlantic and read a little of the issue day by day throughout the month. Well I tried, and I hate to admit this, but I found at least this particular issue of the Atlantic to be extremely — boring.

So I’ll say from the start that my heart was not in this like it was in my little cover jinx article, but I did do my best. Is it really horrible for me to say that I found the most interesting part of this issue to be the advertising?

Did I read this issue cover to cover as promised? I’m sorry to say, no, I did not. But I did page through it cover to cover enough times to give you a general idea of both the layout and the contents, and that is largely what the purpose of Random Issues is.

When dealing with the Atlantic from the perspective of collectors we must remember that the covers offer us nothing during this period. They are a solid orange-brownish background with the Atlantic banner at the top and a text listing of the contents filling the page. This issue would be a little more collectible than unremarkable issues from the same period, as it does contain a short story by novelist, D.H. Lawrence. That is definitely the high-spot in this issue.

First I noticed a strange lay-out, that is in terms of the page-numbering. My copy is a stand-alone issue, not part of a bound collection, and appears to be complete, though maybe not. It’s pretty thick and it seemed a little queer from the start that the last page of this thick issue is number 116.

Advertising sandwiches the reading matter inside the issue, so that the issue begins on page 1 and the pages run consecutively through page 52. The front matter is all advertising except for the section titled “The Atlantic Bookshelf” which is five full pages of book reviews. I assume this is mixed into the front advertising area because most of the ads are from publishers, book clubs, and booksellers. This issue reviews Galahad by John Erskine, You Can’t Win by Jack Black, Israfel: The Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe by Harvey Allen, Dark of the Moon by Sara Teasdale, Streets in the Moon by Archibald MacLaish, and Constantinople Settings and Traits by H.G. Dwight, plus makes mentions of seven non-fiction titles and five novels including The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, which “have received definite commendation from members of the Board.”

Returning to page count, immediately following page 52, the last of the advertising up front, is page 145 which includes The Atlantic Monthly banner and February, 1927 issue date and can only be assumed to be the first page of this issue’s editorial. Skipping ahead of the meat of the matter for a moment, the original contents then run consecutively through page 288. Following page 288 is page 53 which is a continuation of the advertising. My last page is page 116, which leaves me wondering where are pages 117 through 144. My issue is a bit tattered, so the best that I can come up with is that this section, pretty obviously containing advertising if it does exist, had been torn out and discarded. Hopefully there weren’t any really neat ads!

Advertising for the most part is placed thematically throughout the issue. Other than the cover the only images accompanying this profile are those of ads, because, well, those are the only images that the Atlantic offered us at this time. First we have all of those literary related ads that I’ve already mentioned from a page announcing the Atlantic‘s own recently released titles, to a collection of Conrad’s works from Doubleday, Page, and Company, a full-page ad for “The Lazy Colon” which was probably as exciting to read as the Atlantic at this time, Modern Library offering its newest titles, an in-house ad for the Atlantic College Essay Contest and another for the Atlantic High School Essay Contest, and The Literary Guild of America, which has a sketch and a message from editor-in-chief Charles Van Doren. This is followed by a section titled “Educational Directory” which has business-card sized ads for schools around the country.

The back of the magazine has quite a few ads for pianos in addition to the more usually advertised products of the time such as Camel Cigarettes, Cadillac, Listerine, Frigidaire, Marlboro Cigarettes, RCA-Radiola, and then several investments-related and travel-related ads surely targeted at the more highly educated and assumed to be better employed readers of The Atlantic.

The best part of the text inside this issue was, for me, “The Contributers’ Column” which includes a short summary of each of the contents in this issue along with letters from readers.

First, an aside. Where did my dissatisfaction come from with this issue? I think I was expecting too much. Personally, 1927 sounds like about as exciting of a time in recent American history that I could think of. Readers and editors of the Atlantic seemed to missed out on the fun. No references to Babe Ruth, Clara Bow, bathtub gin, mobsters or the Charleston, or what I more likely expected to find: commentaries about the social consequences of these or similar people/events of the time. This leads me to believe I would have been too busy having fun in 1927 to bother with the Atlantic, a publication I liked well-enough to subscribe to for a few years in the early 90’s and then make a regular newsstand purchase when I was commuting to Manhattan a decade later. The bits and pieces that I read were very dry, more stuffy than expected, and surely aimed at a completely academic audience and not targeted towards a more general cosmopolitan audience as I’ve found them to be more recently. Anyway, that was my overall impression of this always highly-regarded publication.

That said, I’m going to give you the title and author of each of the pieces inside this issue of the Atlantic, just not very much more other than any summary from The Contributors’ Column or the brief impression any article made upon me when skimming though:

• The issue starts out with “The Stump Farm: A Chronicle of Pioneering” by Hilda Rose, which I assume to be non-fiction in the form of letters regarding her pioneering family.
• This is followed by “Hardscrapple Hellas” by Lucien Price, who the Atlantic notes had been previously published by them in their April 1926 issue.
• “The Modern Temper” by Joseph Wood Krutch appears to be an article about psychoanalysis with mentions of Freud in the first paragraph and talk of consciousness and the libido later on.
• “A Story of Conversion” is by Oswald Couldrey seems to be about Hinduism and a Protestant Reverand in India.
• This is followed by “The Christ and the Buddha: A Challenge Accepted” by Kenneth J. Saunders who writes from Tokyo to answer “The Challenge” by L. Adams Beck which had appeared in the May 1926 issue of The Atlantic.
• “The Bestiary” is a two-page twelve stanza poem by Lillian White Spencer.
• “The Witches of Andilamena” is by the Captain of the Marshall Field Expedition to Madagascar, Ralph Linton, and is published courtesy of the Field Museum of Natural History. It is obviously about Linton’s adventures in Madagascar.
• “Mercury” is by D.H. Lawrence, referred to by The Atlantic as “one of the most individual and distinguished writers of the modern school”. The Lawrence story covers a little more than three pages total.
• “Doomsday: A Saga of To-Day” by Carl Christian Jensen looks like it was a serialized piece as “The Contributors’ Column” mentions that “all that has appeared in the magazine and more than as much again, will be published in the spring as an Atlantic publication.
• “The Golden Asse – A Tribute” by Mary Ellen Chase “reassures our belief in the intellectual attainments of Balaam’s ass.”
• “The Tiger’s of Wrath” by Edward A. Thurber makes reference to William Blake’s line “But the tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.” Thurber uses this as a starting point to examine the “horses of instruction.”
• “Bobbie Shafto” by Isabel Hopestill Carter is fiction, apparently a sea story, and looks to be the longest entry in this issue at 14 pages.
• “On Staying at Home” by Elizabeth Choate. From “The Contributors Column”: “Had Elizabeth Choate stayed at her home in Southborough, Massachussets, she would never have known the force of the Florida winds and waves–and never written her essay. It is a wise writer who disregards her own advice.”
• “The Perils of Magnamity: A Problem in American Education” is an essay by Dr. Hans Zinsser, who “is in the front rank of the world’s bacteriologists.”
• “The Greek Spring” is a poem of only about half a page in length by John Finley, Jr.
• “The Missing Rooms” by John Carter is about the high cost of living: Carter writes, “The rise in rents sliced two rooms off the average post-war city home.” Carter is noted as an editor of the New York Times literary supplement.
• “Teach Us to Pray” by Margaret Stuart Lloyd, who is a deaconess in the Episcopal Church.
• “The Causes of Political Indifference To-Day” is by Walter Lippmann, editor of the New York World. Lippman’s article seems to discuss how national politicians target specific states and ignore the rest of the populace…which leads to an indifference to them in return.
• “South Africa: Briton Versus Boer” by Stanley High is a report from the Assistant Secretary of the Methodist Board of Foreign Missions who had stayed in South Africa for three months.

This finally leads into “The Contributors’ Column” which makes brief mention of each article or its author and includes letters from readers of the Atlantic which were for the most part entertaining. One has the headline: Who’s a bibliomaniac?” and was written by a Madge Barton Feurer of Philadalphia in response to an article titled “On Finishing Collector” in the November 1926 issue. The author of the letter talks about her hobby of collecting Whitmaniana, items by or relating to Walt Whitman, over the past fifteen years. She found the article about the finishing collector discouraging to those wishing to collect for fun remarking on the finishing collectors “practically unlimited funds”. She mentions memories of acquiring her second-edition copy of Leaves of Grass which “reminds me of the winter I gladly wore an old coat to buy it. The family said I was a disgrace to them that year, but I was warm–warm with affection for my longed-for book.” Mrs. Feurer recounts the joy of receiving the “autographed ‘Birthday Edition,’ with its personal dedication” from her children who gathered their funds together to give it to her as a Christmas gift one year. She went without a new hat, “amid more groans from the family,” in order to purchase her second volume of the two-volumed Centennial edition. She finishes her letter proclaiming “Your finishing collector knows nothing of the real joys of the book hunter. She is merely ‘possessed with a mania for owning things'” (The quote inside the quote is presumably from the original article about the finishing collector). The way Mrs. Feurer’s complaint reads I would have to assume that the “On Finishing Collector” article which caught her ire was about the collector-speculator, who collects as an investment rather than a passion.

The contents of that letter is an example of the passion I was hoping to find inside the content of The Atlantic. I was let down. But, hey, it was just one issue. Better luck next time!