Category Archives: 1940s

The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie was the first major success by playwright Tennessee Williams, first produced in 1944. It’s based on an earlier short story by Williams (published a few years later). It is a reminiscence by amateur poet Thomas Wingfield (think … Continue reading →

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Captain America

Captain America was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, in the early years of World War 2, before the U.S. formally entered the war. The character is a study in irony.  His creators were Jewish, but Steve Rogers and his … Continue reading →

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“No. 5, 1948″

Love it or hate it, the work of Jackson Pollock revolutionized the world of art. He didn’t invent total abstraction, but he pushed it further than before.  He developed the idea of splattering liquid paint on a canvas on the … Continue reading →

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The Love of the Last Tycoon

The Love of the Last Tycoon: A Western is the last novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, left unfinished at the time of his death in 1940. His friend Edmund Wilson compiled the completed material, and published it the next year … Continue reading →

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“The Shower”

“The Shower” is one of many groundbreaking paintings and illustrations by Paul Cadmus. It depicts three figures at a beach: one nude male using a semi-open shower, a nude male seated facing away from the shower, and a woman wearing … Continue reading →

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I Was a Male War Bride

I Was a Male War Bride was a low-key screwball comedy starring Cary Grant and Ann Sheridan, directed by Howard Hawks.  Based on a true story, Grant and Sheridan play a French captain and an American WAC lieutenant assigned to … Continue reading →

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Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nineteen Eighty-Four is one of two great dystopian social-science-fiction novels by George Orwell (the other being Animal Farm. Although the title of the book (chosen without a lot of thought, by transposing two digits of the year in which it … Continue reading →

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