The first issue of "Life" magazine in its current photodocumentary form, cover price 10 cents. I have always felt that one can best learn about the people of another time, their thoughts, feelings, hopes and fears by seeing the movies of their time, reading their books, listening to their music - and reading their magazines. "Life" was an American tradition, an icon, found in every home, read by every American. Or so it seemed. The cover is a photo of the Columbia River Basin by Margaret Bourke-White. The first inner photostory is, appropriately, the first breath of a newborn baby. Pg. 9 has a famous photograph of Montana relief workers relaxing on a Saturday night, by Bourke-White again. Pg. 22 has a feature on the attempt to learn how to get transport planes above 35,000 feet, where weather is always clear and a transcontinental crossing can be made in 8-10 hours. Pg. 28: a feature on Kansas painter John Steuart Curry, currently working on a mural for the U.S. Supreme Court. Several paintings are shown in color. Pg: 32: the "greatest living actress", Helen Hayes. Pg. 36: Ten-year-old NBC at Rockefeller Center, and some of its regular performers: Walter Winchell, Gypsy Rose Lee, Jack Benny, Rudee Vallee, Helen Hayes and Dorothy Thompson. An hour of air time cost an advertiser $6,000. In a story on Brazil: "Brazilians are charming people, but are incurably lazy. The original Portuguese conquistadors did not bring their wives, married Indian aborigines, and their descendants added the blood of Negro slaves to the strain. The mixture did not work". Pg. 44 ad: "For digestion's sake - Smoke Camels". Pg. 50: First-ever air photograph of the future Fort Knox, to hold $10 billion in bullion. Pg. 72: a photo of the capture of two members of Bonnie and Clyde's gang, almost a mirror image of the same scene from the movie. Some minor inner page separation from centerfold. Franklin Roosevelt's Wild West: pg. 9. LIFE on the American Newsfront: pg. 18. "Overweather": pg. 22. Chinatown School: pg. 24. The President's Album: pg. 26. Curry of Kansas: pg. 28. "Greatest Living Actress": pg. 32. ...and Helen Hayes' Child: pg. 35. N.B.C.: pg. 36. Brazil: pg. 40. Cheerleader: pg. 47. Fort Knox: pg. 50. Fort Belvedere: pg. 53. The Camera Overseas: pg. 54. Robert Taylor: pg. 60. ...into "Camille": pg. 62. One-Legged Man on a Mountain: pg. 69. LIFE's Pictures (An Index): pg. 72. Russia Relaxes: pg. 76. Private Lives: pg. 78. Black Widow: pg. 84. Gooney Golf: pg. 86. LIFE Goes To a Party: pg. 90. ( )