Though a lot of my friends were gonna be there (many of which longtime readers of this blog will probably recognise), I actually didn't think I was gonna be able to make it this year. But I guess the gods were on my side, because one odd circumstance after another led to my Saturday being unusually free (I usually work until 6 on Saturdays!), so I hopped on the ferry to Governor's Island.
And boy am I glad I did.
World War One often gets brushed under the rug in American history, in favour of its flashy sequel. But the stakes were equally high, if not higher, and it definitely deserves a hell of a lot more lip service than it gets! I learned so much from this event! And I wanted to take the opportunity to share with you all some of what I learned.
While wikipedia will lead you to a lot of resources about the circumstances and outcomes of World War One (or "The Great War" as it was known back then) I decided to focus on something a little different - the stories that are rarely told of people who are rarely recognised for their role in the war.
Below the cut are interviews describing the roles of Native Americans, female doctors, and Hollywood starlets in the war effort. I sincerely hope you all learn something you didn't know before in reading them. Enjoy!
First? My good friend Eliza, of Silk and Sass, talks about Theda Bara, who I'm half convinced Eliza is the reincarnation of.
I have to be honest with you - I have no idea how to start this interview, so if there's anything you want to be said...
Sure! Theda Bara was an influential actress, and responsible for, I think, the goth movement.
I would concur.
She's Mama Goth. No, she's Grandmama goth! Morticia Addams, Elvira, Vampira - they wouldn't be the same without Theda. She was very influential in fashion, she even had her own cosmetics line. I've actually got a lot of her film memorabilia here, including photographs, sheet music, magazines...
 |
| Some of Eliza's Bara-bilia |
She was actually an honourary lieutenant in a regiment. There was a telegram sent to her by the 158th Infantry Regiment asking her to be their godmother, or their sponsor. She agreed and sponsored them. She actually went out to California when she was doing filming for "Cleopatra" and in between film scenes she would go and visit the troops. There's actually a really cute picture of her and Major General Liggett, where they're both grinning like idiots.
She autographed an American flag for a Pennsylvania regiment, so as a thank you they sent her an ebony communion cup. They didn't realise she was Jewish. But she appreciated the gesture and kept the cup.
She was really cool. She did a lot of her own research for her films. She was a total badass.
Theda Bara? A badass?
She did a lot of her own make up. She did a lot of her own stunts. There was actually a time when for the film "Carmen", Fox studios had hired a factory worker for a fight scene - this girl was huge and buff. Fox basically said "kill her if you must, Theda." Theda kind of studied this girl for a few days, to study her movements, and then when the fight scene happened? She knocked the girl out cold! So Theda was tough as nails.
After the war, did she involve herself with the talkies?
Not really. She kind of threw herself into the "good little housewife" role. And she kinda helped her husband Charles Brabin direct things, as he was a film director. He directed "The Mask of Fu Manchu", and a few other films, and she helped out a lot of the actresses in those films. She actually really enjoyed living life off-screen. And why wouldn't she? She had spent years of her life completely in the public eye without any break.
What about you? How did you decide you wanted to interpret Theda Bara's story?
I was doing a lot of research on the history of film, so when [Eliza's fiance] Erik decided he wanted to do World War One reenactment, I thought, 'well this is when silent film was really beginning!' I got really excited about the opportunity to play an actress, so I first thought about portraying Norma Talmadge, because she was from Hoboken, NJ... but then I saw Theda, and I thought to myself, 'oh, she's cool!' She was this sex symbol onscreen, but offscreen she was this nerd, and I was totally about this. I was here for this. I knew I had to do it.
Have you gotten a lot of pushback for portraying an actress instead of something more somber?
No, not at all! Everybody's actually been really supportive of this! She does tie in with the war effort with her support for the troops and her bond selling, not to mention her becoming the godmother to the 158th regiment. It's a little-known story, but Hollywood did have an influence in the war. There were a lot of celebrities who helped out. Mary Pickford also sold war bonds, and Buster Keaton served in the military. So people have been really great about it.
Next, let's learn a little bit about the role of Native Americans in World War One. Several tribes - the Cherokee, the Cheyenne, the Choctaw, the Mohawk, the Osage, the Pawnee, the Meskwaki, and the Lakota Sioux - worked as code talkers during the war! I asked Tony, the Native American man running the booth, to tell me a little more.
I'd heard of the Navajo code talkers for World War Two, but I had no idea indigenous people were involved in the first world war!
Native Americans have served in this nation's military services since Colonial times. They've actually consistently served at a higher rate than other ethnic groups.
Can you tell me a little bit more about the code talking?
Yeah! This is just the list from World War One [referring to the tribes I listed a couple paragraphs ago], in World War Two it kind of doubled. The Choctaw and Lakota in particular are what I know the most about. Before they got involved, the enemy was figuring out a lot of plans. They had people who spoke English, who spoke French, whether they had spies or were just overhearing. Once the code talkers got involved, they couldn't decode the war plans, so to speak. Shortly after these natives entered the war, the tides turned. Had they not gotten involved, World War One may have lasted a lot longer. Who knows?
And they were willing to help out the U.S. Government? After they'd been screwed over so many times?
Well, believe it or not, we weren't even considered citizens until 1924. So this was a volunteer effort. But it wasn't about the United States government at all. It was about continuing the warrior tradition a lot of these tribes had, and fighting to protect this land.
And that tradition actually carries on today. We've never been about the wars themselves. It's actually been more to protect the land that we're indigenous too, even today.
Even today? Is there anything that can be done to help?
New York has the largest population of "Urban Indians" in the country, and we hold events through the Society of Ethical Culture to support that community. Our website, the American Indian Community House, has more information. Last year we served over 78 tribes in New York alone, and currently we're raising money to help tribal communities affected by Hurricane Florence.
Finally, my good friend Lily, whose blog you can read here, talks about the role of female medical professionals - particularly the very badass Dr. Anna Tjomsland.
What drew you into the subject of female doctors?
About two years ago, on a whim, I decided to look up Typhoid Mary. This was quite a black hole to fall into. I learned there was a woman, Sara Josephine Baker, who actually tried to stop typhoid carriers from spreading the disease. And from there, this started me on a path of researching female physicians and the contributions they made to the early history of American medicine.
I've heard of Sara Josephine Baker, but I thought she was an exception to some unspoken 'no girls allowed' rule.
There have actually been female doctors in this country since the 1840s, when the first woman graduated from a medical school in 1848. Since then, they've really made some very important contributions. Around the time of World War One, about 6% of physicians in the United States were women. That sounds like a small number, but it's an enormous number of people. And these women wanted to serve the allies' cause in the war, in full military positions where they could perform critical work on or near the front lines. When the United States entered the war, they put out a call for physicians, and the regulations didn't officially prohibit women from joining. Women applied to enlist - and they were all refused.
Was this unique to the United States?
The British and French had already enlisted female doctors into their medical corps, because they desperately needed medical staff to save soldiers' lives. This soon became a problem for the U.S. They were really understaffed throughout the war, probably in no small part because they would not accept female applicants in large numbers.
So what did all these American female doctors do?
Women's medical colleges, and the National Women's Medical Association - which still exists under a different name - got together and created various committees to pressure the army to allow female physicians to serve. They wanted to change their public role. They wanted to serve. They were utterly dedicated and registered wherever they could, and yet they were still denied over and over.
You portray Dr. Anna Tjomsland. Tell me a little about her role in this war.
Actually, she originally enlisted in her unit as a secretary, because that was the only way that she could get to France. In April of 1918, the army decided to admit women on a trial basis to the medical corps, but Dr. Tjomsland had already enlisted in a different capacity in July of 1917. When her unit deployed in February of 1918, she was still enlisted as a secretary. However, when they set up their base hospital in France, due to a lack of qualified medical personal, Dr. Tjomsland was moved up - unofficially - to the head of her own surgical ward. She was still paid as a secretary, even though she was serving in the capacity of an enlisted officer. Often she worked 20 hours a day, perhaps up to 10 surgeries a day. Her letters, like those of many World War One surgeons, don't delve too deeply into how stressful this must have been.
How did she even become a physician?
She was a Norwegian immigrant, having arrived in 1899 with no ability to speak English. She pursued medical training in Minneapolis, and by the time she graduated high school at age 24 in 1904, she had the highest grade in her class. The problem was that she was not wealthy. Even though she was admitted to Cornell as an undergraduate, she had to work for a year as a secretary and a seamstress in New York City to afford it. She worked very hard, and upon graduation in 1911 she immediately entered the Cornell Medical College, graduating with a medical degree in 1914. She actually financed part of her college education by selling her immigration story to Harper's Bazaar.
But in the 1910s it was fairly difficult for female graduates to obtain the internships that were required for new physicians before they could open their own practise. This was the position Dr. Tjomsland faced when she graduated from Cornell. But some female physicians who were already established hired her and a few other female graduates to become the first female interns at Bellevue hospital in New York City - a hospital she actually returned to after the war.
And so there you have it. I hope you learned a little more about the first world war from this post. It really is an interesting slice of history. And if you're in New York, hopefully I'll see you at Camp Doughboy next year.
-Nym
No comments:
Post a Comment