Multiple Writers 9A

Part of me is a historian, and recognizes a basic truth: To learn about a time, a people, go to what they went to for news, entertainment, art, culture, sports, ideas... Read the magazines of the time. Watch the movies, the TV shows. Read the books that they read, listen to their music... and read their newspapers. This is a bound collection of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, for many years the second daily paper in St. Louis, from October 1939. Much of the news dealt with the European war, which we would not enter for two more years. Oct. 1, pg. 2B has a story about the murals for the new Post Office downtown. The "Features" section carries burlesque ads, surprising for the prim and staid Globe-Democrat. The want ads were enlightening; Jim Crow hits you full in the face when you read ads for white men or colored women, and realize how striated society was then compared to now. A typical price for city houses like my old one seemed to be around $5000. And the Sunday comics included the Gumps, Apple Mary (later Mary Worth), Tillie the Toiler, Little Orphan Annie and Gasoline Alley. Oct. 8, pg. 1B has an ad for RCA Victor televisions. A lot of interesting stuff here, but the poor condition of the paper is distressing.… (more)