The Dragon Lady Conquers America, Part 2
On Thursday morning, February 18, 1943, crowds of curious onlookers huddled together near Capitol Hill. Every ten feet on the road leading to the...
Broadcasting from the Bottom of the World
A collapsible organ, a piano, and a man who could do “double tremolos on the harmonica.” If you guessed a 1930s evening by the...
Tragic Tale of the Normandie Part 1: Smoke Across the Skyline
Admiral Adolphus Andrews, commander of the U.S. Navy’s Third Naval District, sat behind his desk at 90 Church Street in Manhattan; had he the...
The Middle of an Era
Sometimes the best place to start is in the middle. By the Spring of 1937, half of this fascinating era had already unfolded and...
America’s First Winter Olympics
Fear and apprehension gripped the officials at Lake Placid, New York, on the afternoon of February 4, 1932. Even New York’s governor, although grinning...
The Bund
A 60-foot likeness of George Washington hung from the rafters at Madison Square Garden on the night of February 20, 1939. Also hanging from...
The Egg-Boiling Experiment
On Wednesday, December 2, 1942, Chicago’s weather turned frigid — ten degrees Fahrenheit and a howling wind. Underneath the unheated west stands of the...
Tragic Tale of the Normandie Part 2: Salvaged in Vain?
Like metals to magnets, are humans to tragedies. On Tuesday, February 10, 1942, the day after the Normandie fire, the New York Times estimated...
The Dust Bowl
An eerie darkness enveloped the city of Chicago on the afternoon of November 12, 1933. The previous day this darkness had been a massive...