I chose to read the July 17, 1933 issue of Time magazine. The first aspect that caught my attention was the overwhelming amount of advertisements in the issue. A great majority of those advertisements were directed to the attention of men; cars, dictaphones, and alcohol were the main focuses of many of the articles. One advertisement specifically caught my attention in the beginning of the issue. Budweiser published a full-page ad that said the American people achieved their freedom in 1776, exiled Budweiser in 1876, but finally brought both back in 1933 as the resurgence of the art of good living. To this day, especially around events like the Super Bowl, Budweiser still holds true to that idea that they are the “American beer” which is a public relations tactic that dates at least as far back as 1933. It’s weird to see that although there are obvious differences from the advertising in this issue from current advertising, there are definite characteristics that are still prevalent in modern advertising.
Each Time magazine around that time period was broken down into a few categories like business & finance, music, national affairs, medicine, religion, foreign news, as well as a few others. The first article in this issue was basically a detailed description of the past week that the President had had. There was, or at least seemed like there was, a greater transparency of the Federal government at that time than in modern times. The article goes from talking about the mosquitos flying around Roosevelt’s head, to almost a daily log of his Presidential activities, to the phone conversations he was making throughout the day. There was also a logical progression of the decisions the President was making, so the reader could see why the President chose what he did, how that will affect the present and, ideally, where it would go in the future. In present times, reports usually reference obscure legal documents or simply speculate about why it all is happening the way it is. I think it’s much more difficult to get a purely factual description of a political event in the news today without getting some “spin” on it to make it more interesting or draw attention.
However, not all of the articles were as serious as that one. The previous week had been the fourteenth British Open Championship held historic St. Andrews Links course. For the first time in history two Americans had been atop the leader board heading into the final day. Denny Shute ended up edging Craig Wood for the tournament, but it was the random facts throughout the article that caught my attention. Craig Wood had the most earnings in 1932 with just over $7,000 in tournament winnings. That number is a stark contrast to someone like Tiger Woods who is on track to become the first athlete to earn one billion dollars. Obviously inflation plays a role in those totals, as well as endorsements, but to think that athletes have become so well played in our culture is an astonishing fact. I also think its interesting to see something as trivial as a golf tournament have such a long lasting effect on our culture by continuing for over 100 years. It’s cool to see how an event like this, or the Olympics, can transcend whatever competition is taking place and become an international event that bring people together.
The last comment that caught my attention was in the letters written to the editor. A doctor had written to TIME criticizing some of the articles that had been written over the past couple of weeks in the “Field of Medicine” section. The doctor had this to say: “It is my opinion that there is altogether too much loose writing and talking in the Field of Medicine. We of the Profession are the worst offenders—but we reserve the privilege.” I can’t exactly say why this sparked my interest, but it made me think of all my different teachers throughout my education who have just made gross oversimplifications or general statements because they knew the most about the topic in that setting. I will be the first to admit that I do this just as much as anyone, but with intention of going into medicine myself, it’s an interesting observation of human behavior.
