Today’s post comes from Archivist Gwen.Because we like interesting things and because we love

Today’s post comes from Archivist Gwen.

Because we like interesting things and because we love the past, archivists always have their eyes open.  For me, this is how it usually goes: while looking in the records for one thing, something else jumps out.  This time it was an old civil case file, Conde Nast v. Jean Swartz, et al., which I located while searching the index for a labor case.  Publishing meets old Hollywood fashion, I’m in!  So up the ladder I scrambled to find the file and, to my eternal joy, entered as an exhibit in the case, a copy of “The Playgoer” for Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles.

The case was about an article published in the magazine by Swartz that had originally been published in the August 16, 1930, issue of Vogue magazine.  Conde Nast, the publishers of Vogue were not amused and sued for $5,000 (of which they recovered $250).

But the magazine was the program for the blockbuster film, Hell’s Angels, which premiered at the theater on May 27, 1930.  Published weekly, this edition was for the 14th week of Hell’s Angels run and included lots of great publicity about the production, and fabulous advertisements for cars, furs and all things fashionable.  

Interested in vintage Vogue?  The complete Vogue Archive is online.  Start with the August 16, 1930 issue!

Image of Hell’s Angels premiere from the California Historical Society Collection at the University of Southern California.  

Series: Civil Law Case Files, 1913-1938. Record Group 21: Records of the District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009. (National Archives Identifier 613585)