Presented in the belief that divorce is America’s greatest danger to the home and the community...

January 28, 2008 6:26 PM

Divorce Hearing was a television program where couples aired their grievances to Dr. Paul Popenoe, who would attempt to help them figure out how to make things work. Popenoe is notable for few things: he wasn't a real doctor - his highest academic achievement was receving an honorary degree from Occidental College; he founded the first "marriage clinic" in the US in Los Angeles in 1930 and created and authored the long-running "Can This Marriage Be Saved?" column for Ladies Home Journal. Oh yeah, he was a eugenics proponent, too. (Discovered via.)
posted by beaucoupkevin (8 comments total)

I remember my grandma would give me all of her magazines when she was done with them and LHJ was one of them. This would have been the ages of 12-17. "Can This Marriage Be Saved" was the first thing I would look for. Someone please tell me there's an online archive of all of those somewhere.
posted by pieoverdone at 6:53 PM on January 28, 2008

However his family focuses -- primarily concerned with preserving traditional roles of masculinity, heterosexuality, and arguing for preserving of strict racial and class boundaries in reproduction -- can be interpreted as being veiled extensions of his original eugenic ideas. Popenoe's approach to marriage counseling fell out of favor in the 1960s with the popularity of feminism and the sexual revolution.

*cough*
posted by DU at 6:59 PM on January 28, 2008

Oh yeah, he was a eugenics proponent popenoenent, too.
posted by hermitosis at 7:08 PM on January 28, 2008

Thank god for feminism.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 7:19 PM on January 28, 2008

pieoverdone > check your mefimail
posted by Lucinda at 7:24 PM on January 28, 2008

Nice find, showbiz blog bookmarked, thank you. what a treasure
posted by hortense at 7:52 PM on January 28, 2008

Wow, Oxy (my alma mater) has changed since the early 20th century. Dunno about now, but when I was a student, late 1990's, it was very very very far on the left. What a difference seven decades make.
posted by Bugbread at 3:21 AM on January 29, 2008

He also bit the heads off of live kittens in front of children.

Now how do I update this "wiki" thingy...?
posted by LordSludge at 9:22 PM on January 29, 2008