The Ropes at Disney's - 1943 Employee Handbook. The good old days when women got twice as much sick leave, the Penthouse club was accessible by "men only! - sorry gals...", and a violation of the U.S. Espionage Act could get you fired.
posted by madamjujujive
on Sep 26, 2011 -
52 comments
Leonard Michaels' "The Zipper":
Rita Hayworth is never seen disrobed in the movie, though it is threatened more than once. The atmosphere of dark repression and mysterious forces – the mood or feeling of the movie – might be destroyed by the revelation of her body. It scared me as she began her striptease dance in the nightclub. I didn’t want everybody to see her body, or even to see that Rita Hayworth had a body. [more inside]
posted by Trurl
on Sep 5, 2011 -
14 comments
From 1935 to 1951, Time Magazine bridged the gap between print & radio news reporting and the new visual medium of film, with
March of Time: award-winning newsreel reports that were a combination of objective documentary, dramatized fiction and pro-American, anti-totalitarian propaganda. They “often
tackled subjects and themes that audiences weren’t used to seeing —
foreign affairs,
social trends, public-health issues — and did so with a combination of panache and subterfuge that today seems either absurd or visionary.”
(Previous two links have autoplaying video.) By 1937, the short films were being seen by as many as 26 million people every month and
may have helped steer public opinion on numerous issues,
including (
eventually) America’s
entry to WWII. Video samples are available at
Time.com, the
March of Time Facebook page and the entire collection is available online,
(free registration required) at
HBO Archives. [more inside]
posted by zarq
on Aug 22, 2011 -
8 comments
Home Kinks, part 1 and
part 2 - for years, Popular Mechanics Press published a series of tips, many from readers, in a special edition format they called "Household Kinks."
Scanning Around With Gene has posted a collection from 1940s and '50s editions.
posted by madamjujujive
on Feb 20, 2011 -
40 comments
Robert F. Gallagher served in the United States Army's 815th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion (Third Army) in the European Theater during WWII. He has posted his memoir online:
"Scratch One Messerschmitt," told from numerous photos he took during the war and the detailed notes he made shortly afterwards.
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Nov 23, 2010 -
7 comments
The entirety of the Fleischer/Famous Studios Superman Film Series. In the early 1940s, this series raised the bar for theatrical shorts with its fluid animation and action-packed storylines. It remains a classic series thanks to its high production values and historical significance not only as the first comic-to-film adaptation, but also as an occasional vehicle for American propaganda during the war.
posted by cthuljew
on Nov 25, 2008 -
21 comments
Before music videos on MTV, even before Scopitones (previously on MeFi
1,
2,
3), there were Soundies. In a brief period during the early 40s, patrons of bars, diners and bus stations could slip a dime into a Panoram jukebox and see a three-minute 16mm video clip projected inside the machine. Soundies featured popular musicians of the era including
Duke Ellington,
Fats Waller,
Nat King Cole, and
Louis Armstrong. You can also find
Soundies at Archive.org, including a great one from
Reg Kehoe and his Marimba Queens.
posted by Otis
on Dec 1, 2006 -
7 comments
British public information films. A couple of months back, there was a
post about an online exhibition of British propaganda films from WWII. Now, the UK National Archives, who appear to be slowly working their way through the decades, have posted some public information films from the 40s and 50s. BBC News
discusses the history of public information films, particularly the famous "Coughs and sneezes spread diseases" (available in Windows Media (sigh)
here).
My favourite is
this optimistic look at how the new towns developed after the war were going to be just *great*. I grew up in a new town -
Hemel Hempstead. Let's just say it
didn't quite work out that way.
posted by athenian
on Oct 24, 2005 -
2 comments
The Pin-up Files :: Hundreds of
classic and
modern drawings of glamorous and beautiful women. Also includes artist bios, notes on many of the images, and a great list of links to other sites. I find it interesting to see how our idea of what is erotic or beautiful have changed (and remained the same) from the '40's to today.
This site contains some material which might be considered of an adult nature. Viewer discretion is advised.
posted by anastasiav
on Jun 21, 2004 -
13 comments
Irwin Norling of Bloomington, Minnesota was a more modest version of Man Ray – with his family in tow, he documented crime and accident scenes for the local police. (The photo gallery is probably
NSFW and not safe for delicate stomachs.) He also prolifically documented everyday Bloomington life from the 1940s through the 1980s.
City Pages writer Brad Zellar (
weblog) stumbled across Norling's photographic archives while visiting the historical society, tracked down the man himself, and wrote
this terrific article ... unfortunately Norling passed away a month before its publication.
posted by kmel
on Mar 21, 2003 -
5 comments
