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These pictures are most interesting because they are mostly taken from issues directly
following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
The frivolous content of advertisements in the magazine drops off significantly from before.
In earlier issues, there were many ads specifically targeting female vanity with products such as corsets
and Elizabeth Arden makeup. These appear seldom after the bombing.
(An exception offered here is a fashion print of a dress dubbed the "Beaucatcher".) By contrast, the content and method of whiskey and cigarrette ads from the period did not seem to change at all. Cruiselines began to justify their existence with the claim that the relaxation they offered would help you do a "better wartime job!". Patriotic war bond advertisements and Red Cross pleas for donations proliferated. Interestingly, previous to the bombing, there had been advertisements urging Americans to help the British war effort by "buying British" as much as possible. The cartoons are particularly revealing, as humor can tell us much about a culture. In the "gentlemen of Japan" cartoon, we find the American sentiment that the Japanese were Hitler's pawns, without any agenda of their own. They appear wearing swastikas and Asian masks to cover their presumably German faces. The cartoon of Hitler sniffing out his orders for the day is another example. The author's view of Hitler here is that he is mad, and thus ridiculous and less threatening. (We did the same thing with Saddam Hussein aka "Saddam Insane" during the Gulf War.) The purpose of these cartoons is to reduce national tension by poking fun at the danger--"gallows humor". The most puzzling of these cartoons is the depiction of a group of African-American soldiers as the bumbling Red Army talking to a British soldier. The author compares these men, whom he seems to regard as incompetent, with the Red Army. Perhaps the author sees the Red Army as the poorly-trained slaves of the British. Nonetheless, this cartoon does not translate well to modern audiences, in part because of its racial content, and in part because it probably references a specific event with which we would not be as familiar. |