Your Saturday history briefing

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Welcome to the "This week in history" newsletter, part of Afternoon Edition! Every Saturday we take a break from recapping the day's news to bring you a deep dive into Chicago's world war-starting, art-loving and always Beatlemaniac history. For more historic photos, follow us at @CSTphotovault on Facebook and Instagram.

— Alison Martin (@miss_alison_m, follow for extra history plus rants and dogs throughout the week)

This week in history: Nazis invade Poland

The front page of the Chicago Daily News on Sept. 1, 1939, proclaimed the news of the Nazi invasion of Poland. From the Sun-Times archives.

On Sept. 1, 1939, all news in Chicago stopped. Whatever Chicago Daily News editors had planned for the front page of the afternoon paper, which would hit newsstands about 5 p.m., it all seemed far less important as bulletins arrived from foreign correspondent Wallace R. Deuel in Europe.

"Adolf Hitler today threw down the supreme challenge," he wrote that day. "Told by France and England that to use force against Poland would mean a European war, the Chancellor acted with the same blind faith in his mission that has marked him throughout — rather than surrender, he ordered the armed might of the Reich into action.

"The German army and air force struck Poland this morning."

The Nazi invasion of Poland catapulted the globe into World War II. Though it would be another two years until the U.S. officially joined, the action shattered the safety millions of Americans felt as the United Kingdom, France and other countries fell victim to Nazi bombings and invasions.

As the attack on Polish cities continued, Hitler called the Reichstag to a session, Deuel reported. He and every major political figure in Germany, not to mention ambassadors from the U.K. and U.S. attended. If the building had been bombed, history would have turned out quite differently.

Check out more of what Chicagoans of 1939 would've read that day. In Germany, residents might've seen this propaganda film, which attempted to justify the Nazis' crimes. Learn more about why Germany invaded Poland and what it looked like from inside the now-occupied country in this Armchair Historian video.

ALSO THIS WEEK IN HISTORY:

Snapshot

In late August 1964, most Chicagoans knew that if they didn't love The Beatles (and how could you not?), then it would be best to stay away from Woods Theater at Randolph and Dearborn in the Loop. Unless, of course, you wanted to be trampled by a hoard of mostly screaming teenagers waiting in line to see "A Hard Day's Night."

The film, now considered a classic, hit Chicago theaters on Aug. 28, 1964, and created quite the stir all over the city as "Beatlemania" took hold. No doubt, the Fab Four's upcoming concert at the Amphitheater later that week also added to the excitement.

Outside Woods Theater, teenagers started lining up as early as 2:30 a.m. if they hadn't booked reserved tickets, theater manager Jack Belasco told Chicago Daily News reporter July Klemesrud.

"When the doors opened at 9, the line of Beatlemaniacs extended from the theater north to Lake, and west almost to Clark," Klemesrud wrote.

While standing in line, fans held "Beatles 4-Ever" signs and wore shirts and buttons with slogans, "Paul [McCartney] for President" and "John [Lennon] for President." The girl wearing the Lennon shirt even admitted to really being for McCartney.

Not all of the people in line were teenagers. One woman, a self-described "35-year-old mother" wearing black stretch pants, told Klumesrud, "Ringo is a living doll … just like a little koala bear. I'd hug him to pieces."

When the movie let out around lunchtime, "about 1,200 teenagers streamed out of the theater," the reporter witnessed. They stopped traffic and inspired 500 spectators to stop and watch ushers and police offers trying to control the crowd.

Views of the film were overwhelmingly positive.

"It was fab … terrific. Oh, those close-ups," 14-year-old Jancie Hardy said.

"They're great comedians. Like the Marx Brothers, plus one," Shari Marcantonio, also 14, said.

One super fan said, mildly menacingly, "This is just a preview of what the whole town can expect next weekend," clearly referring to the band's upcoming concert.

Check out these photos for a look at the Beatlemania happening in the Loop.

A group of fans wait anxiously to get inside the Civic Center theater to see the Beatles movie, "A Hard Day's Night," on August 28, 1964. Photo by John L. Tweedle Jr./Chicago Daily News.

Parking attendent Mark Elsenstein wears a Beatles wig and directs traffic outside Woods' Theater in the Loop. Photo by John L. Tweedle Jr./Chicago Daily News.

Elsenstein points cars towards the nearby parking garage. Photo by John L. Tweedle Jr./Chicago Daily News.

Relive Beatlemania with the best scenes from the movie or watch it for yourself on HBO Max. Roger Ebert later reviewed the film in 1996 — a little late, but better than never. Go behind the scenes and learn more about the making of the film or just rock out to the album.

City of arts

Archibald Motley, Jr. works in his Chicago studio painting a work titled, "He Amongst You Who is Without Sin Shall Cast the First Stone. Forgive Them, Father, For They Know Not What They Do," on August 29, 1971. From the Sun-Times archives.

For decades, South Side residents lived next to a quiet artistic genius — and many of them probably never knew visual artist Archibald Motley, Jr.'s intense impact on the art world.

Born in New Orleans but a Chicagoan since he was 1 and a half years old, Motley spent the majority of his long career in the same South Side home of 65 years, but his portraits and paintings of Black residents living in Bronzeville captivated audiences all over the country. In fact, he became the first Black artist to have a solo show at the New Gallery of New York in 1928 when he sold 22 of the 26 paintings on display.

In late August 1971, Chicago Sun-Times reporter Harold Haydon profiled the prolific artist in his Chicago studio, where he found Motley as dedicated to his craft as ever.

"I have the patience of Job," he said of himself.

Part of the Black Renaissance Movement in the 1920s and 30s, Motley chronicled everyday scenes in Bronzeville, depicting Black men and women as beautiful, vivacious and full of life. Though he studied art in the European traditions and styles at the School of the Art Institute, he emerged with a modernist style completely unique for its time, according to the Whitney Museum of American Art.

"Portraits, street scenes, cabarets and especially the effects of lights at night interested Motley," Haydon wrote. His works often featured "light life, indoors and outdoors, always with people walking, dancing, carousing weaving rhythmic patterns through them."

And in all of his paintings, Motley placed a "fat man in the crowd, symbol of happiness."

Motley's art racked up acclaim from critics quickly, the reporter noted. In 1925, his canvas, "The Mulatress," won the Logan medal and prize at the Art Institute. Three years later, the Harmon Foundation awarded him the gold medal and prize, and then in 1929, the Guggenheim gave him its Foreign Traveling Scholarship, which Motley used to spend six months painting in France. His best-known painting, "Blues," captured the Black community in "Jazz Age" Paris.

Like his contemporaries, Motley used his art to explore issues of race, specifically those of biracial Black Americans like himself. "Blues" shows so many skin tones dancing freely together. The title of "The Mulatress" itself is a now-outdated term for a biracial woman, but as Amy Mooney, associate professor of art and design at Columbia College, told the Whitney:

"When we think of someone of mixed race during this time period, we frequently are concerned that there are these elements of not fitting in one group or into the other group. Instead, when we look at the Mulatress, she does fit in. This is her setting. She is confident. These are her elements. There's no crisis here. This reflects some of his own discussion of his own background. Motley was a person of mixed race. He is interested in exploring that through this series of portraits that he does here."

Motley himself told "Art of Today: Chicago, 1933" that his subject matter "plays a most important part in my art. It is my earnest desire and ambition to express the American Negro honestly and sincerely, neither to add nor detract, and to bring about a more sincere and brotherly feeling, a better understanding, between him and his white brethren. I sincerely believe Negro art is someday going to contribute to our culture, our civilization."

When Haydon interviewed Motley in 1971, he was hard at work on "He Amongst You Who is Without Sin Shall Cast the First Stone. Forgive Them, Father, For They Know Not What They Do." The painting would not be complete for another year, according to the Whitney.

"Whatever he does in the future," Haydon concluded, "Archibald Motley, Jr., has a permanent place in American art, with major recognition yet to come."

Take a virtual tour of the Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist, which was displayed at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University on January 30, 2014, before beginning a national tour.

Thanks for reading! Want to share your thoughts? Your favorite moment in Chicago history? Your complaints? Send them to amartin@suntimes.com.

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