Articles from 1915
There was once a time when magazine editors would not endeavor to encourage their cartoonists to pursue punchlines that were insensitive to the aged members of the world community, but that was a long time ago; in the attached WW I cartoon, a French satirical artist indulged his pettiness – daring the Politically Correct generations yet un-born to label him an ageist.
Not surprisingly, special effects were an important box office draw during the Silent Era. This article reports on the popularity of war movies in 1915 and explains how some of the effects were created.
The attached W.W. I letter is a reflection on the effects of war upon character written by a British officer on the western front to his wife.
You need not fear for a ‘disgraceful peace’ coming from fatigue on the part of the fighting men. It is the resolution of the talking men you will need to look to.
No truer words…
This World War One correspondence makes for a wonderful read and it gives a very lucid picture of what the war must have been like once both sides had resigned themselves to trench warfare. The letter was dated October 8, 1914 and the British officer who composed it makes clear his sense that no modern war had ever been fought in this queer manner before.
This World War One correspondence makes for a wonderful read and it gives a very lucid picture of what the war must have been like once both sides had resigned themselves to trench warfare. The letter was dated October 8, 1914 and the British officer who composed it makes clear his sense that no modern war had ever been fought in this queer manner before.
Some of the trenches have two stories, and at the back of many of them are subterranean rest houses built of concrete and connected with the trenches by passages. The rooms are about seven feet high and ten feet square, and above the ground all evidence of the work is concealed by green boughs and shrubbery.
This W.W. I letter was written by a French infantryman who had participated in one the earliest battles of 1914. In this letter, that managed to make it into the French, British and American papers, the Frenchman took a good deal of time to describe his impressions of the first German prisoners to be taken in the war:
Their appetite is so great that, though in [the] presence of a French officer they will click their heels together properly, they never cease at the same time to munch noisily and to fill out their hollow cheeks.
A one page review by Edward Louis Bernays (1891 – 1995) writing under the nom du flak Ayhern Edwards in order to remove all suspicion that he was in reality the P.R. man who had been hired by Serge De Diaghilev (1872 – 1929) to smooth the way for his troupe as they toured the fruited plain throughout 1915. Strangely, he had nothing terribly critical to point out.
Fritz Arno Wagner (1894 – 1958) is best remembered as a pioneering cinematographer from the earliest days of the German film industry, however before he could gain the experiences necessary to become the director of photography for such films as Nosferatu, and Westfront he had to first fulfill his obligations to the Kaiser. This article is an account of his brief stint in the Hussars (ie. lancers) that he gave to the editor’s of LESLIE’S ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY NEWSPAPER.
Although the article only covers his training period, it does give the reader a sense of what life was like for an enlisted man serving in one of the highly prized regiments in the Imperial German Army.
This article will give you a good look at how the seeds were sewn as early as 1915 to ensure the rise of New York City as one of the great art centers of the world. For the first time since the 1913 Armory Show, New York was again to host an important exhibition of the European modernists. Much of the article concerns Henri Matisse (1869 – 1954) and is illustrated with a portrait of the artist by the photographer Edward Steichen.
Things were changing – not long after New York was proclaimed as the commercial capital of the art world, America was recognized as the preeminent world power, click here to read about it…
