UNIVERSAL CURRENT EVENTS [Main]


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  • Year: 1917
  • Runtime: 7 mins
  • Description: Theodore Roosevelt gives an open air speech in support of the war to a crowd of 5,000. He is shown in close-up as he speaks, face contorted with emotion. He is followed by a recruiting officer, who shakes hands with the volunteers. A Stars and Stripes is shown fluttering in a studio 'wind'. Canadian soldiers of 236th Battalion parade down the main street of Bangor, Maine, carrying French and US flags along with the Union Jack and their own colours. An officer gives a speech from a balcony, "France is calling". US soldiers parade down the streets of a city in another recruiting march. In Pittsburgh men who have already enlisted, including the dismounted Pennsylvania Dragoons in their dress uniform, march through the city in another recruiting drive. Construction starts on merchant ships, with a crane swinging the ribs of a ship into position. In New York (?) Mary Pickford, in Marine uniform, conducts a Marine recruiting band down a street, gathering recruits. At a recruiting station she holds a child on whose head is a Marine cap. (The child, most unhappy about the whole thing, is finally given back to its mother.) A portrait shot of Katherine Stinson, who recently made a non-stop record flight. "Fifteen guys who ought to be in the Army" watch "the 'Cheer Up' girls from the Hippodrome", wearing mock Army uniform, shovel snow outside the theatre and off its roof, probably New York. Red Cross nurses sit and prepare bandages, with a live tiger pacing in a cage behind them, at a zoo. Mr John Hunter of the US Shipping Board drives the first rivet on the keel of the "First Standardised Steel Ship" in a Newark, New Jersey, shipyard. The captions say that this is taking place just six days after construction of the shipyard was started. Steam whistles from other ships let off a salute. (Note the newsreel cameraman at work.) German sailors, possibly including U-boat crewmen, who are prisoners of war in the USA are led out for recreation. They play soccer, and also learn baseball. The captions emphasise how happy they are to be out of the war. In Boston, Massachusetts, some "millionaires" go out into the snow to cut down trees as part of the campaign to save coal by burning wood. They are taken on horse-drawn sledges to the forest. They stop for coffee and doughnuts in the middle of their work.
    Jumble of US newsreels mainly showing various recruiting scenes for the Army and Marines in the eastern United States, 1917.
  • Keywords: EFG1914 / World War I / Roosevelt, Theodore / Pickford, Mary / Hunter, John / Stinson, Katherine / British Army, Canadian Expeditionary Force, Bn 236 / Canadian Army, Canadian Expeditionary Force, Bn 236 / United States Army & American Expeditionary Force / United States Marine Corps / American Red Cross / United States Army & Pennsylvania Dragoons / recruitment, United States military: recruiting march / recruitment, United States military: Army & [+] / recruitment, United States military: Marines & [+] / propaganda, United States - inspirational / propaganda, United States - practical / politics, United States - establishment / delegations, Canadian international - goodwill / industry, United States - ships / prisoners of war, German - custody / recreation, German naval - sport: football / recreation, German naval - sport: baseball / 31/3(73) / New York, New York, United States of America / Bangor, Maine, United States of America / Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America / Newark, New Jersey, United States of America / Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America / Class / Children / Children and war / Winter
  • Provider: Imperial War Museums
  • Rights: In Copyright / Imperial War Museums
  • Production company: Universal Film Company
  • Colour: Black & White
  • Sound: Without sound

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