World War I at 78 RPM

it's b we all know the november eleventh is set aside as a day to honor those who have served in our nation's armed forces but many may not remember that before nineteen fifty four november eleventh was celebrated as armistice day the anniversary of the end of the first world war november eleventh nineteen eighteen most americans know relatively little about the armistice and award and maybe that's because it was sandwiched in between two other wars that captured the american imagination namely the civil war and world war two maybe it's because there was a world war to so the first world war a scene is inconclusive a prelude or maybe it's just because the great war seems to americans a small war after all we only fought in it for about a year but think of this in that one year of combat from october nineteen seventy to november nineteen eighteen one hundred and twenty six thousand american soldiers died that's more than twice as many they would die in ten years of fighting in southeast

asia and yet our casualties were minimal compared others by the time the shooting stopped in november nineteen eighteen ten million europeans had been killed another twenty million were crippled or maimed for life their continent lay in ruins most of their monarchs had been deposed their empires dissolved millions found themselves living in countries which had not existed four years earlier the great war changed europe forever and though we may not remember it now the war changed us forever too if you want to know what america was like before during and after world war one you can go to the source but you better hurry up any soldier who fought world war one is at least ninety now and aren't many of them left all of our great finances of oregon has or those who shape the conflict who made the decisions lay out the battle plans negotiated peace the actors in this drama have almost all passed from the stage but we have their records their written records of course and we have

their phonograph records and richard room for the next hour or so like at seventy eight revolutions per minute last long the america of nineteen fourteen was a vastly different country it was a provincial conservative place where many people live their entire lives without leaving the county in which they'd been born it was in many ways a land of naive innocence radiohead not yet entered the home the car in the telephone were still novelties most americans had neither the aeroplane and moving pictures war for the most part your curiosities that one modern invention was really starting to come into its own the photograph by nineteen fourteen as his great invention could be found in millions of homes across the country the photograph brought the city to the country and the country to the city ten inch

wax discs took the sounds of the opera and vaudeville to every corner of america and revoke russo al jolson sang in the parlors of towns they've never heard of companies like edison victor columbian brunswick entertained and educated america and in some ways in those years before the movies they helped define it people work long hard hours on farms and plantations or in sweat shops and factories could slake their patrol was for giving them a glimpse of something better if they were living the underside of the american train their phonographs kept reminding them that they were working to get to the real america a simpler easier more beautiful place favorite things things with these male heir with

a daycare and vote for them again and eight and today show and viva fidel and at

the point the pain this was a popular vision of america and nineteen fourteen a land of milk and honey where the streets were paved with gold this was where hard work and intelligence for guarantees of success the self made man not the aristocrat was the american ideal

a college professor set in the white house people of humble origins even immigrants served in congress or any huge corporations in america you could say and think whenever you wanted these promises to millions of european immigrants to the sky tree they were greeted at the gate way by an immense statue of liberty which welcome them to share our blessings the countries they've left behind were being torn apart by ethnic and political differences but the american ideal held that our strength when our diversity this was supposed to be the great melting pot where all different kinds came together in harmony to form a greater whole everyone contributed and everyone was appreciated in weber and fields jubilee vaudeville star billy murray sign a tribute to the immigrants or at least two groups of them with a

maybe maybe i think maybe at me my own life ms

beulah land yet anyway dave and i'm

david greene right right for this is america and nineteen fourteen as the year progresses americans find more reasons to be glad they're in america on june twenty eight some european nobleman as assassinated somewhere in the balkans it doesn't seem like much to us but in europe threats fly back and forth and by august the whole continent is at war with each other of course horrified america wants no part of the whole mess after all it has nothing to do with us from the beginning there are those who do want us dead drum side great britain and our allies especially jp morgan and other backers who want to protect the billions they've loaned a great britain their cause gets a boost in may nineteen fifty when a german u boat sinks the british

luxury liner lusitania trying one hundred twenty american tourists and eighteen minutes a ruthless and cunning british propaganda machine also makes many americans sympathetic to the allied cause but reports of horrible casualties are places like deep and philippa lee feed isolationism here ever done in nineteen sixteen seven hundred thousand were killed and five months of fighting at the somme on july first of that year fourteen thousand british soldiers fall in the first ten minutes by the time the balance in november there will be one point three million casualties in january germany starting behind a merciless our blockade begins unrestricted submarine warfare in the atlantic that same month british intelligence intercepts a note from the german high command to their ambassador in mexico instructing the ambassador to offer mexico a deal if the us enters the war mexico should formalize with germany when the war's one germany will carve up the us and give texas new mexico and arizona back to mexico when the zimmerman note is

made public in march it sent shockwaves through the us washington severs ties with berlin german u boats sink several on armed american merchant ships which are running supplies to england finally on april six nineteen seventeen the united states formally declares war on germany and her allies president wilson tells congress that this is a war to make the world safe for democracy and the phrase appears in headlines everywhere fifty seven year old general john j black jack pershing became a hero leading black troops in the spanish american war it's now called for mexico where he's chasing after poncho via he's now appointed to head the american expeditionary force as america gears up for its first major war on foreign soil the country is swept up in a wave of patriotism the likes of which is rarely seen millions of young and not so young men join up everyone wants to do their bit including the country's most popular songwriter george m cohan cohen is thirty nine years

old tool to fight but he makes his contribution in the form of this song which soon becomes the anthem for the law oh the pope but the point is because of the pain the

purpose but the peace by the public make the world safe for democracy is that it's a bit too long and bulky to be a rallying

cry decides for many the war is about saving finance not democracy after all france is an old ally which had been invaded by the huns of german the bloodiest fighting of the war has taken place on french soil now americans hearken back to a time when finance at the general to help a struggling continental army repel an invading force it's time many say to repay that debt america finds a rallying cry i'm marnie

these bees others it's

been bad these others

nineteen seventeen was fifty two years after the end of the last major war the country saying the civil war now an entire generation of men and boys who have never known anything but these have to be trained for battle it can switch it has nothing but career soldiers are now filled with thousands of raw recruits who must be turned into soldiers and fast the process is hectic sometimes humorous and often painful parents wives and loved ones of the recruits worry about life in camp but songs like this one sung by popular singer mabel gerritsen keep them near their soldier at least in spirit for our nation painter

many many many many

many years laura will become the defining experience for an entire generation millions are called up to serve boys of eighteen and nineteen men in their thirties and even forties twenty one year old f scott fitzgerald leaves princeton in his senior year and set the camp sheridan in alabama where he serves as an aide de camp eighteen year old ernest hemingway volunteers to drive an ambulance in italy he's later wounded midwestern farmers southern sharecroppers western lumberjack staff and eastern fisherman sign up immigrants who've been pouring in through ellis island and record numbers stepped forward to serve their adopted homeland twenty six year old abraham ruben who came to new york from minsk russian ipo for joins up and sent to camp upton at yet take long island also yeah frank is twenty nine year old irving berlin born israel believe in russia

irving berlin has been writing songs for over a decade and has established himself as one of the brightest lights on both vaudeville and broadway now a private soldier in boot camp berlin turns his talents to the war effort and starts working on a musical about the warren army life the show called yep yep yep hank a military musical mass will open on broadway in august of nineteen eighty it will feature a cast of three hundred fifty recruits from camp upton and introduces several popular hits including oh how i hate to get up in the morning mandy soldier boy and a song about a soldier's cure for homesick yes mayor lam

the ad many you i am me

me it is hey kate irvin berlin wrote a number of great patriotic songs during his time as a soldier many continue to be popular through the second world war including this one which enjoyed a brief revival more than twenty years after it was with in pittsburgh

there is these and i'm thinking they did yeah

yeah yeah yeah yeah right you can yeah

yeah today the only on the job on them beautiful records sometimes cover up the ugliness of the war both overseas and here at home free speech was virtually suspended during the war and many who criticized our involvement in europe were thrown in prison and there were other civilian

casualties when america was gearing up for war in nineteen seventeen we went to great lengths to learn to hit a country which had never been an enemy before namely germany in fact like france germany had sent a famous military expert to help the colonials during the revolution the legendary general von steuben many germans fought on both sides of the civil war and in fact there were millions of german americans were loyal citizens but suddenly anything german was distrusted an undesirable in this country germans and german americans were called cry out for its heart and honey so to hide their heritage and blend in better many german americans changed their names shalit became sniff weiss became white and so on one person who didn't change his name was baritone rod aware and laugh one ref the son of a tenor was born in brooklyn in at eighty three the year the great brooklyn bridge opened by nineteen seventy he already become very popular as both a concert singer and recording artist like caruso and irish tenor john mccormick he had a good recording contract with victor

when the war came along singers like songwriters wanted to do their part for the effort and whereas recorded a number of patriotic songs but perhaps he felt that his dramatic name made him a bit suspect he decided to record to old american standards the result was one of the most moving performance as he ever gave and the record was an instant hit on the a side whereas sang the star spangled banner on the b side he turned his efforts to an agent melody about a man's love for his country it is he's right

is these days these is

these jennifer geez and so it was

here in the united states in nineteen seventy that summer american troops start shipping out for the war on july fourth colonel charles stanton stands at the tomb of the great french general in paris and declares lafayette we are here starting this summer convoys will bring millions of american soldiers to the shores of france the yanks were finally coming over there for most of the men of the american expeditionary force it's the first time they've ever left the united states and many are scared they hide there fear behind talk and songs about the great adventure that awaits them notice to that this song mentions squaring the debt to finance as bell nina niko

anchorage the people think nobody needs me we did many

many of the people who came to pay you can the parting as war of course painful it's the first time in us history the men are drafted to be sent to fight overseas soon they're shipping out not knowing what awaits them on the other side they're wide sweethearts and

parents know even less and everyone is worried no matter how well they covered up remember these are two generations that have never seen a major war it's bittersweet parting with sentimental lies thousands of seventy eights yes it's been to put the

as ba power

rarely read about in history books because they aren't that dramatic and maybe they're a little embarrassing think about this when american soldiers finally started arriving in europe in nineteen seventeen the war had been going on for three full years millions have already died from machine gun bullets poison gas bayonet wounds or disease america had been spared this carnage and had little idea of what it was like perhaps we naive we felt that the americans would just step in and

clean the whole thing up flash after all the last war the spanish american war and in a short fairly painless affair that established us is a real world power now we saw ourselves as the saviors of europe and maybe sometimes we were a bit cocky and insensitive to our hosts william march a highly decorated veteran wrote in his fictionalized account of the war company k about yanks arrival in europe everybody was in high spirits and for fun we laughed and shoved each other about but the french people stood there looking at us with their mouths open a surprise expression on their face is we tried a joke and killed them but they wouldn't answer what's the matter with these people as tom stall with their pet was their spirit everybody's wearing black i said you think they just come back from a funeral and a woman in the crowd answered they the people wearing black or in morning she says if you were speaking to a child we're having a war you know

i thought many times afterwards what clowns we must have seemed still the french welcomed the atf with enthusiasm and if they weren't as enthusiastic as we thought they should be we wrote songs that made up the difference you came to play he's the pope why

not these roy know the peak all that fall americans were pouring into

finance and moving up to the front and as they moved out to the muddy battlefields in trenches confronting machine guns artillery barbed wire and poison gas for the first time they weren't alone there were letters of course and magazines to keep them connected with home organizations like the ymca printed a pocket sized song books and distributed them to officers or private soldiers and for morale many companies carried field phonographs since most photographs of the time were spring operated they could be used to places that had no electricity thomas edison manufactured a special feel version of his phonograph call the army and navy and other manufacturers followed suit they also issued recordings of the popular fight songs of the day including this one and upbeat and memorable tone written by a soldier lieutenant gets rice dame

me thank you me now

you did today fb the flipside of this record features a song which was clearly not meant for soldiers and fines but for civilians in the united states the first large

american casualty reports started coming back during the holiday season in nineteen seventy and so the names were coming back and numbers the country hadn't seen since the civil war but as they've done during the civil war many americans put a brave face on their grief instead of dwelling on their losses americans were encouraged to concentrate their efforts on winning the war to take their pain and make it productive the home front as it was known began its own campaign and everyone was a sort of raised at on the lamb on

it bye bye oh yeah i need it's

be at any day that's right the penny but the casualty lists kept coming every month they seemed longer than the last

and people did worry no matter how busy they tried to keep themselves the spanish american war had lasted only a hundred and twelve days yet one hundred twelve days after america entered the world war american troops had just started arriving and finance another one hundred and twelve days would pass until they saw their first action and then another one hundred and twelve days and another and still another until the war ended they were fighting and many were dying and places their wives in paris had never heard of and would never see there was worry and there were prayers and sometimes there were tears many must have cried the first time they heard this point of prayer recorded by the famous irish tenor john mccormack it

oh oh i will be a man live on my aunt on the way the eu meyer

a sad fact about the first world war like most wars is that patriotism and enthusiasm for the war pete earley right after war was declared most war songs are written and recorded in the spring of nineteen seventy ones the soldiers are overseas the war becomes a distant affair no one forgets about it for a moment but mail was censored and reports of battles or slow an incomplete and once said truth becomes unavoidable as nineteen eighteen trade is on the war is a lot costlier than we thought it would be just as the british french and germans all thought they'd be home for christmas in nineteen fourteen the americans expected to be back in time for the holiday three years later now it's nineteen eighty and there's no real and i ate that summer thousands and thousands will

die in a place called below would as summer turns to fall thousands more will die at sandia heap and they are gone some americans even appeal to another great french military leader of the past to help them through this struggle maybe it made me me oh oh

ah mauney long way an eventful day on the mgm way they can

the war is not all dreariness there are tales of great personal heroism like that of sergeant alvin c york of tennessee a former conscientious objector who wins the congressional medal of honor at the battle of the argonne forest heroes

and leaders emerge like captain george s patton and major douglas macarthur of the famous rainbow division and there's the panache of dashing flying ace is like frank luke and eighty written back her but the graham world of modern trenches the horror of falling shells and mustard gas takes its toll on the morale of american soldiers those on the battlefield might have had difficulty seeing any progress then were being killed in large numbers almost right up until the armistice took effect but the offenses of the summer and fall of nineteen eighteen often led by fresh american troops took a heavy toll on germany indeed many historians believe that the american troops made an allied victory possible by late october german troops sensing their imminent defeat begin to mutiny in large numbers revolution breaks out in munich on november seventh the following day kaiser wilhelm the second advocates germany sues for peace the armistice ending the war takes effect on november eleventh nineteen eighteen and eleven am greenwich

meantime an american troops weary after year of battle get ready to return home a lot of a lot of the law gone oh

hold on the law last week

thank you the oil law when the armistice is announced here the country are upset a celebration

but the heroes the men who fought and won the war are thousands of miles away bring the boys home soon becomes the new rallying cry but the sheer numbers of troops involved mean the task will be difficult and while the country's thoughts and prayers have been with the army during the past year another branch perhaps the unsung heroes of the war steps forward into the limelight a holiday rolls a tiny body aimed at the way they came by today he

says i became mayor baby crying

were you he's eighty anyway the navy did bring them back but it took a long time but time

sailor robert williams returned to the small town of parable arkansas on august thirtieth nineteen nineteen he had been gone for two years for a half months the celebrations were long over and people got on with their lives but he would never forget siemon williams still visits the national cemetery in memphis every memorial day most american troops would not return until nineteen nineteen or later they stayed behind to help clean up the ruins put down small insurrection is distribute food and clothing and keep the peace some were sent to russia to help fight a band of revolutionaries known as the bolsheviks they were unsuccessful the returning veterans were greeted warmly but people at home had their own worries like an influenza epidemic that would take five hundred thousand american lives and they soon lost their desire to hear about the war it became an oddity before its time in the book company carry one soldier who displays remarkable courage returns home after the war to his job at the hardware store he tells us people point me out to strangers and say

you'd never believe that fellow had a handful of medals would you and the strangers always say no they never would another returns to find his town has declared a day in his honor the president of the local banks serve as toastmaster he pointed to my twist it back and scarred face and his voice broke with emotion he declared that the tallow the debt of gratitude for the things i had done which could never hope to repay the next morning the narrator visits the bank president to ask for a farm loan he was very courteous unpleasant about it he recalls but if you think you want me to five hundred dollars year as beautiful as i was sometimes i think about the soldiers who returned home in the fall of nineteen nineteen year after the war ended the quiet towns where people would have their fill of the war and war stories theres no cheering party at the train station no parade down main street just silence may be more of them walk through his own front door and heard the crossing of tearful glorious reunion

oh yeah is it

that's right it

is i did the reality was not always so pleasant like their real life counterparts the survivors of frederick mark his company kay don't do too well back in the states they will have to live the rest of their lives

crippled or disfigured old careers and dreams are destroyed some go crazy or kill themselves but for the things he really saw but even he couldn't have seen the whole picture he died in nineteen fifty four but i remember learning three decades after that that they were living world war one veterans who were still comatose are completely debilitated as a result of poison gas attacks in nineteen eighteen civil war veterans were known to enjoy discussing their exploits just as world war two veterans do today but veterans of the first world war like vietnam veterans came home reluctant or even unwilling to talk about what they had seen many would remain bitter or emotionally scarred for the rest of their lives so what did it accomplish this war that took one hundred and twenty six thousand american lives and ten million others that's hard to say some believe the war planted the seeds of modern democracy in europe if that's true then many of those seeds are only starting

to blossom now seventy five years after the war ended but there's no doubt that the war destroyed the old order of europe leading avoid that would eventually be filled by the likes of hitler mussolini and stalin in this country the war was a sobering experience what it seemed like a nation of innocence and confidence lost a great deal of both we'd fought in a war that many believed had nothing to do with us and we had been killed in large numbers by soldiers who were not other americans the results were dramatic america withdrew into itself as it never had before the country chose not to participate in woodrow wilson's vision of the fuge for the league of nations we elected an isolationist president who promised a return to normalcy we almost completely closed are against immigrants we became suspicious even paranoid of leftists here at home and the country seemed fiercely driven to forget the war and what it cost us instead it

plunged headlong into a period of reckless abandon there would be remembered as the roaring twenties americans saw escape in any way they could more people drank than ever before despite the new prohibition sales of cars skyrocketed and for the first time an invention known as wireless or radio brought entertainment to millions of american homes radio sales cut into the phonograph share to be sure but it was another medium one that was just reaching majority itself that would in the nineteen twenties replace the phonograph as the primary form of entertainment in this country a pumpkin i'm renee

montagne any money a poem we need

thank you you can do it so the ear of american provincialism some would say in essence became a casualty of the war after the first world war america could never run away from its role as a world power that we would sometimes try and as america the world grew smaller because of radio and movies in the telephone they crawl was pushed aside to a dark corner of the parlor maybe and later up to the attic it was still there for us whenever we want to hear an aria or song and dance routine but with the pressures of the modern world with everything there was for us

to see in here and learn and yes to worry about there just didn't seem to be much time for anymore you can still find some of these old crank machines line around if you know where to look but they are becoming more and more scarce every year just like veterans of the great war there are only a few thousand world war one veterans around today soon there won't be any but there will always be a few photographs and plenty of seventy eights to play on them all the records used in this broadcast were found within the last five years and junk shops from boston the birmingham none cost more than a dollar but if you go looking and i hope you do one morning the patient to find a world war one record you may have to dig through piles of seventy eights from later decades when people who'd survived the sounds of the great war hope the music might play forever me

are you

anyway ninety six six five four one at seventy eight rpm possible contributions from listeners and supporters of the unc chapel hill oh it