For our writing assignment on choosing a popular magazine from the 50s or 60s, I decided to choose the January 3, 1964, edition of Life magazine. I chose this edition since it was right after the New Year holiday, and most magazines nowadays have a big New Year’s edition that informs people on what to look forward to over the next year.
Since this edition came out right after New Year’s Day, I expected it to be a New Year’s edition as are present in magazines today. However, after looking through the magazine I noticed that it barely focuses on the holiday at all. I expected at least a recap of the New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square since that is a major event for the holiday nowadays, but the only thing related to the actual holiday is a segment on the fanfare that took place during the bowl games on January 1. I did find it interesting to see the tradition of the Rose Bowl in the article and the differences of the Sugar Bowl, but I also thought that it was kind of strange that the article never actually talked about any of the football played. The only other item that mentions the holiday is a two page advertisement for Life. This advertisement shows the benefits of subscribing to Life for the New Year by listing eight major events that are coming up throughout the year.
There were a few articles throughout this edition that intrigued me. The first of which was written about a fire on the Lankonia, a cruise ship, that killed over a hundred people. I was surprised by the amount of pictures that the article showed of the disaster, and how these pictures were actually taken during the disaster. There were twelve pages on the article, and all of them had numerous pictures of the actual scene. I was also surprised by the speed at which the news of this story traveled. I underestimated the speed at which the news was able to be published in the magazine since the ship caught on fire December 22, yet Life already had the full story published even including interviews from survivors. Also, when reading the article I was surprised by the speed and effectiveness of the rescue team. There were numerous countries with ships picking people up, and planes dropping off smoke signals and rescue boats. There were two other major articles, but neither of them really caught my attention. One dealt with some American miners that were taken as hostages in Bolivia, and the other was the third part of a series on the events leading up to World War I in 1913.
Another article that caught my attention was one titled “Aeroboatmobile.” The pictures alone of this machine surprised me. The article talks about a hovercraft that the British have built and its American counterpart, the hydrofoil. This hovercraft can reach speeds of 80 mph on “favorable terrain.” I had mixed feelings when I saw this article considering there are no prevalent hovercrafts around today, but nevertheless this article definitely amazed me. I cannot help wondering why there are no practical or common hovercrafts in use today when they talk about having the technology fifty years ago. After seeing how far other technology has come in fifty years, it is kind of shocking that there have not been greater advancements in this field.
There were two subjects that came up more than once over the course of the magazine. One of these subjects was the death of John F. Kennedy. The first article describes how President Johnson officially ended the period of mourning, and the second describes a sculptor’s efforts of creating his bust. The sculptor gathered over 800 pictures of Kennedy from every angle before beginning to create Kennedy’s “determination and earnestness” in a statue. The recurrence of Kennedy’s assassination placed a value on how great the feeling of despair in the United States was about the tragedy. The other theme was one attacking communist regimes such as Russia and China. One of the articles described riots by Africans in Russia. The article essentially called Russia’s Communist philosophy a bit of hypocritical, since the riots were a visible sign of inequality present in the society. However, later in the article the author claims that racial tension is a flaw in human nature rather than social systems and the best way to face it is acknowledge that it is there and work through it. But then says that Russia needs “to admit a defect in their unrealistic ideology.” Another article warned of the Chinese Premier Chou En-Lai’s visits across Africa and acknowledging reports of “a real crowd-pleaser” visiting in the spring. I found this last comment rather comical because of his use of sarcasm. These two articles show the anti-communist feelings prevalent in American society that were common in this time of the Red Scare. The last theme that appeared was leisure. There were numerous articles that could be seen such as a fashion article, a list of upcoming events in several states, the bowl game fanfare, and a review of a play among others.
The advertisement’s present throughout this magazine tend to be pointed toward a specific audience. For the most part, the advertisements are designed for a family, more specifically mothers and fathers. There are two articles on cars and one on cologne for the dads, while there are two on easy dinners and one on a cold medicine. Life also includes two ads promoting itself. One of them was mentioned above, and the other is trying to sell a volume entitled The New World. These advertisements are similar ones prevalent today; there is a big picture of the item usually accompanied by a catch-phrase or description.
Overall I enjoyed the magazine. I thought there was a good balance of serious news articles and casual reading. Once again, I was surprised by the lack of attention given to the holiday. The pictures that accompanied the articles were usually the items that brought my attention to read certain articles that I normally may not have read.
No comments:
Post a Comment