Pictorial Review

The Journal-American had a second Sunday magazine, The Pictorial Review, that included Hearst columnists and humor. Glamorous 1940s actress Ella Raines was the cover girl. Inside was a short story by Damon Runyon, best known as a chronicler of New York street types, set in a Brooklyn neighborhood where one of the residents has decided to organize his neighbors to sue the radio networks for turning their kids into rock-throwing juvenile delinquents. Runyon died in December 1946 of throat cancer. Former theater critic-turned- Hollywood producer Mark Hellinger contributed a short story about a tough guy and a nightclub singer.

An opinion piece by Channing Pollock, an Old Guard playwright and critic born in 1880, called on returning vets to reject the “alien ideologies” that were responsible, in his opinion, for the current wave of strikes. He was an early correspondent of Ayn Rand. More surprisingly, Pollock, who had adapted one of the racist novels of Thomas Dixon (“The Klansman”) for the Broadway stage, had an interest in the role of African-Americans in the theater and left his collection of theater-related papers and books to Howard University when he died in August of 1946.

The supplement covered Hollywood extensively. One article revealed that June Allyson, then appearing on screen in “The Sailor Takes a Wife,” had the tiniest waist in Hollywood (19 ½ inches). The supplement ran a pin-up shot of Dolores Moran, then appearing in “The Man I Love,” whose acting career never took off despite promotion by Warner Brothers. Two Hollywood columns, “Visiting the Studios with Neil Rau” and “In Hollywood” by Louella Parsons, also ran in the magazine.

In his column “The Drama,” Journal-American theater critic Robert Garland quoted a letter from Queenie Smith, former Broadway musical star turned Hollywood character actress, who had attended the world premiere at the Pasadena Playhouse of Gertrude Stein’s “Yes Is for a Very Young Man,” about a family divided in Nazi-occupied France. Smith approved of the play and the production.

Carnegie Hall announced in an ad that its “Pop” concerts would begin May 4 in air-conditioned Carnegie Hall.

Humor features included “Trial Balloon” by Arthur “Bugs” Baer, devoted this week to jokes about drunks. Baer was a sportswriter as well as humor columnist and, it is said, the source of jokes for many comedians, including Milton Berle, then playing the nightclub circuit.Jokes and anecdotes also were the bailiwick of E.V. Durling, who noted in his column this day that the older generation generally spoke better than their children because they had to take elocution lessons in school, including the recitation of tongue twisters. Bruce Patterson led “The Cheering Section,” which was a collection of jokes, limericks and cartoons, primarily culled from college humor magazines. Hearst columnist George Dixon wrote about the lighter side of politics in the nation’s capital in “Well That’s Washington.”

“Mirror of Your Mind” was a Q&A section by well-known consulting psychologist Lawrence Gould. "Is a year-old baby too young to notice things?" Not according to hypnotic regression, wrote Gould. "Are crimes of violence usually the work of hardened criminals?" Gould said according to the FBI the average age of violent criminals is 17. "Do shy people usually make good wives or husbands? " Not at all, Gould said, placing them in the pariah class of those who lack confidence. Shy people are not stand-offish or proud but scared. Their only interest in others, he warned, was the momentary relief to their aching ego if someone seemed to like them.

In “Here’s Howe,” Peter Howe answered trivia questions.