Fan Magazine Fun: “If I Were a Man…”

1920s fan magazines are an endless source of trivia, fun anecdotes, touches of serious journalism, and of course, oodles of fluff pieces. Take the following irresistible article from Picture-Play Magazine, from the March 1927 issue:

Here’s the headline on the opposite page (as you can see, the article was compiled by Dorothy……………Wooldridge):

A bunch of actors and actresses were asked what annoyed them about the opposite sex the most–and who knows if they were asked personally, or if their publicists responded. Either way, some of the answers are most amusingly 1920s. 

Fan Magazine Fun: Kneeology–It’s The Bees Knees!

Part of the fun of spending an unhealthy amount of time perusing old movie magazines is finding…well, stuff you can’t make up. From a June, 1926 issue of Film Fun:

Fan Magazine Fun: “Can You Tell Them By Their Hair?”

Happy month of May, everyone! I’ve got a few shiny new posts in the works, but until they’re fine-tuned here’s something fun that you don’t see everyday. This is some filler from the September 1926 issue of Picture-Play Magazine. How many, err, pomaded scalps can you name?! I felt confident about four of them, but the others? Err… (You can right-click the image and hit “open in new tab” to see it extra large.)

Click “continue reading” to see the answers!

“What’s the matter with the Talmadges?”–Some Fan Magazine Letter Drama

As I lovingly covered in a previous article, one of the best parts of sifting through early movie magazines is getting to see all those priceless letters to the editor. (And of course we have our dearest friend Lantern to thank for getting to see all those magazines in the first place!)

We love thee, Lantern!

Month after month movie fans would send in their opinions on anything and everything relating to the film industry: which films they enjoyed, which films let them down, which stars they adored, and even, at times, which stars they didn’t adore at all.

Some Fantastic Old-Timey Magazine Ads

You know how you page through those coupon magazines and the pages toward the back are always stuffed with silly ads for everything from creepy porcelain baby dolls to bunion removers? Or how you spend several minutes furiously paging through dozens of full page clothing ads in fashion magazines until you finally find some articles?

Well, I’ve discovered that times haven’t really changed. Fan magazines back in the Roaring Twenties and Edwardian times were also full of silly ads, although admittedly with very charming fonts.

Circa 1916, Motion Picture Magazine.

The Addictive Fun of Reading Old Fan Magazine Letters

While reading through ‘10s and ‘20s movie magazines (like Photoplay, Moving Picture World, etc.) I began to get addicted.  Not just to the rare photos, the goofy old ads, or the almost equally goofy fluff articles, but to the Letters to the Editor. They are, I kid you not, absolute gold, and if the printed letters had any weight to speak of you bet they would be worth that weight in absolute gold.