19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Friday, November 6, 1914: <<no entry>>
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Since Grandma didn’t write anything a hundred years ago today, I thought that you might enjoy an article in Grandma’s local paper, the Milton Evening Standard, about the showing of a news reel about the War at the local theater.
(I should have posted this back in September. Somehow I lost track of it then, but decided that is still worth posting—even if it is a little late.)
A Hundred Years Ago 
Wow five or ten cents to see a movie!! That would be awesome!! I hope you have a great Thursday!! Hugz Lisa and Bear
The report of the war news reel reads like it’s just some Hollywood movie instead of real life suffering of people and animals – how fascinating. Then it goes on to also describe another film – a comedy that you can catch too! I guess it speaks to the novelty of moving pictures at the time and the distance of the war. You always find such interesting things for your blog!
Interesting to read this!
I didn’t realize that WWI came home via newsreels. Interesting.
I just barely remember newsreels from my early days at the movies. They were nearly gone by that time, since television was gaining popularity (we got our first tv when I was about six). But they still would show them from time to time, and there were television programs that used old newsreels, like the famous “You Were There” series.
I faintly remember them, too. Now we get coming attraction promos and a clip telling us to go get some food.
If we remember these things, are we old now? 👴
How very sad that such pain still goes on. It is especially interesting that the article continues, after describing such tragedy, to describe what seems to be light movie fare.
I do remember newsreels as part of every movie show (usually plus a double feature.)They dealt, of course, with WWII which WWI was expected to prevent. I remember especially, though, singing “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” in response to the moving dots on the screen. Our heroic part in WWII was about to end and we celebrated it — often with tears.
When Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders went off to Cuba for the Spanish American War, it was described as something of a lark. No movies then. Even in WW I, movies were crude and brief, giving audiences only a taste of what modern warfare was really like. In that one, new inventions gave war a whole new dimension, most prominently the machine gun, poison gas, and developments in artillery, hence trench warfare. It was truly hell on earth.
I just saw a clip on yesterday’s evening news about a memorial set up in London to honor their dead on this centennial of “the war to end all wars.” Britain lost many more men than any other allied country. An artist fashioned ceramic red poppies, one for each of the some 880,000 dead soldiers, and placed them in the great moat surrounding the tower of London. The sight is stunning, giving the numbers real meaning. How ironic is it then that the current U.S. president, who never served in the military, has ended two wars and received almost no political credit for it?
Thanks so much for this entry, and especially for the final point. Maybe we’ll recognize it after he leaves office — a major part of his legacy. Right now too many people are dedicated to defeating him no matter what.
War news is so much more real today.