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One Hundred Years Ago

Started by Rix Gins, January 01, 2016, 08:20:14 PM


ShayP

Quote from: Walks_At_Night on January 07, 2016, 07:32:50 PM
I have been trying to avoid this thread because I'm already involved in another history forum but I can't resist any longer.  How does this work?   100 years ago today or just 1916 in general?

1916 in general.  :)

Quote from: Rix Gins on January 01, 2016, 08:20:14 PM
Thought it would be fun to start a thread covering what was going on 100 years ago.  Fellow BellGab history buffs, feel free to add to this thread, anything that applies to 1916. 


Quote from: ShayP on January 07, 2016, 07:40:17 PM
1916 in general.  :)

Jeez - I can't read.   Imagine my embarrassment.    :P

My other history forum has a sticky thread by the moderator called "Threatening Violence and or Death is unacceptable" and it's like 12 pages long. 

This might be a safer place to hang out!


Rix Gins

Quote from: trostol on January 07, 2016, 07:43:15 PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallipoli_Campaign
Have always been fascinated with the Gallipoli Campaign.  I have a number of books on the subject and yet I still have a hard time understanding exactly what was going on. The Turks won, that I know for sure.  Definitely wasn't a picnic for either side.


Quote from: Rix Gins on January 07, 2016, 07:59:46 PM
Have always been fascinated with the Gallipoli Campaign.  I have a number of books on the subject and yet I still have a hard time understanding exactly what was going on. The Turks won, that I know for sure.  Definitely wasn't a picnic for either side.


Indeed they did.   In fact 100 years ago today the British forces started their evacuation from the area at Cape Helles:

"Turkish forces at Helles launched a major attack on the remaining 19,000 British troops. The attack was preceded by a furious artillery bombardment but many Turkish soldiers, realising that the British were leaving the peninsula, refused to leave their trenches. The attack failed."



Rix Gins

Quote from: Walks_At_Night on January 07, 2016, 07:46:22 PM
Jeez - I can't read.   Imagine my embarrassment.    :P

My other history forum has a sticky thread by the moderator called "Threatening Violence and or Death is unacceptable" and it's like 12 pages long. 

This might be a safer place to hang out!

Glad to have you here, Walks.  I've been posting a bunch of "It happened 100 years ago, today" stuff too, so feel free.  I should have noted that on the opening thread. Just didn't think of it at the time.   ;)

albrecht

Quote from: Rix Gins on January 07, 2016, 07:59:46 PM
Have always been fascinated with the Gallipoli Campaign.  I have a number of books on the subject and yet I still have a hard time understanding exactly what was going on. The Turks won, that I know for sure.  Definitely wasn't a picnic for either side.

What is amazing, to me, is how many loyal Indians (and others called "Indians" at the time) fought for the Brits in WWI (and WWII later.)  At the time of the beginning of WWI India though a colony had the world's largest volunteer army. They fought in multiple theaters including in their region, Mesopotamia (nearly 700,000 served there,) the Mediterranean, and in Europe- initially there spectacularly ill-equipped.  Everyone remembers the Gurkhas (because they still fight now,) over 100,000 Gurkhas served in WWI with two Victoria Crosses.

http://www.mgtrust.org/ind1.htm
http://www.victoriacross.org.uk/ccww1ina.htm

Look at this guy after the surrender in the Siege of Kut! Britain's worst surrender, or one of them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Indian_army_soldier_after_siege_of_Kut.jpg
"The author Norman Dixon, in his book "On the Psychology of Military Incompetence", described Townshend** as being 'amused' by the plight of the men he had deserted, as if he had pulled off some clever trick. Dixon says Townshend was unable to understand why his friends and comrades were ultimately censorious over his behaviour"
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Vere_Ferrers_Townshend

Quote from: albrecht on January 07, 2016, 08:12:34 PM
What is amazing, to me, is how many loyal Indians (and others called "Indians" at the time) fought for the Brits in WWI (and WWII later.)  At the time of the beginning of WWI India though a colony had the world's largest volunteer army. They fought in multiple theaters including in their region, Mesopotamia (nearly 700,000 served there,) the Mediterranean, and in Europe- initially there spectacularly ill-equipped.  Everyone remembers the Gurkhas (because they still fight now,) over 100,000 Gurkhas served in WWI with two Victoria Crosses.

http://www.mgtrust.org/ind1.htm
http://www.victoriacross.org.uk/ccww1ina.htm

Look at this guy after the surrender in the Siege of Kut! Britain's worst surrender, or one of them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Indian_army_soldier_after_siege_of_Kut.jpg
"The author Norman Dixon, in his book "On the Psychology of Military Incompetence", described Townshend** as being 'amused' by the plight of the men he had deserted, as if he had pulled off some clever trick. Dixon says Townshend was unable to understand why his friends and comrades were ultimately censorious over his behaviour"
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Vere_Ferrers_Townshend

Oh yes.  Plus the British hired well over 100,000 Chinese to help dig trenches, move supplies and the like:
http://multimedia.scmp.com/ww1-china/   

Not to mention the Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders that fought as well.

Also the French had many Africans and even Vietnamese that fought in their army.   Very discouraging for the Germans.

If this interests you there is a two part documentary on Netflix that covers this very subject

albrecht

Quote from: Walks_At_Night on January 07, 2016, 08:19:32 PM
Oh yes.  Plus the British hired well over 100,000 Chinese to help dig trenches, move supplies and the like:
http://multimedia.scmp.com/ww1-china/   

Not to mention the Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders that fought as well.

Also the French had many Africans and even Vietnamese that fought in their army.   Very discouraging for the Germans.

If this interests you there is a two part documentary on Netflix that covers this very subject
What is the name? Thanks

Quote from: albrecht on January 07, 2016, 08:30:06 PM
What is the name? Thanks

Knew that was coming   :P   Was buying time to look it up.   

It is called "The World's War: Forgotten Soldiers of Empire" 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3967920/

It is well worth watching - at least I thought so.  Mrs. Walks_At_Night punched out after about 3 minutes. 
Of course she thinks I'm a nut job for liking this stuff. 

It is mostly Entente focused but they do give a brief shout out to Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and his Askari's that raised holy hell in East Africa.

albrecht

Quote from: Walks_At_Night on January 07, 2016, 08:38:09 PM
Knew that was coming   :P   Was buying time to look it up.   

It is called "The World's War: Forgotten Soldiers of Empire" 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3967920/

It is well worth watching - at least I thought so.  Mrs. Walks_At_Night punched out after about 3 minutes. 
Of course she thinks I'm a nut job for liking this stuff. 

It is mostly Entente focused but they do give a brief shout out to Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and his Askari's that raised holy hell in East Africa.
Haha. Thanks I don't have netflix but will try to check it out.

Rix Gins

The University of Oregon Webfoots also had a successfull year of football in 1916.
   



They played 8 games and won 7 of them.  They played against Washington on November 4th at Eugene.  It had been raining hard and the field was one big mud bog.  Neither team could make enough progress to score so it was tied at 0-0.  The team got to appear in The Rose Bowel at Pasadena, Ca. where they went up against Penn. (January 1, 1917.)



Final score:  Oregon 14  Penn  0




Notice Coach Bezdec.  I own the school year book for 1916 and he is listed as a member of the Chewing Tobacco Club...(can't remember its actual name.)  That's Coach Hayward in the center.  He was actually the school's track and field coach.  He formulated special training exercises for the football team.  To this day, the college's athletic field is named after him.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1916_Oregon_Webfoots_football_team


Rix Gins

 Edit:  I erred in pronouncing Bezdec as being a member of the chewing tobacco club.  I searched out the year book, (Oregana 1917) and read that it was actually Coach Hayward who was listed as being a "Fratres in Facultate" member of the "Independent Order of the Chawers of the Honest Scrap."  But that's cool.  Makes me admire the man even more.  :D


K_Dubb



Seattle's Coliseum Theater, one of the first in the country designed for movies and described as "the first of the world's movie palaces", opened a hundred years ago today.  It featured a splendid organ and an 8-man "orchestra" of Russian emigres.  These latter were, according to the program, "the highest salaried group of musicians in the States (which means the world as all Europe is at war)." Here it is in 1930s lights:



Here is the program from the opening:

http://www.seattletheaterhistory.org/multi-page-program-record/coliseum-theatre-program-january-8-1916

Anita King appeared at the opening, so the "Emporium" theater (which I got from Vanity Fair) must have been an error.

The beautiful facade of the building survives, with great Grecian urns and terra-cotta cartouches I loved as a kid hanging above the sidewalk, but it is now a Banana Republic.  If you never lifted your eyes from the window displays when walking along the street, you'd never notice it was there -- it blends seamlessly into Seattle's downtown-shopping area.



One pair (actually a trio, since it was a classic love triangle) of my great-grandparents met working in a movie theater about this time, though in Hamilton, Ontario.  The men worked in the projection booth; she was on the cleaning crew.

Quote from: K_Dubb on January 08, 2016, 02:17:52 PM
Seattle's Coliseum Theater, one of the first in the country designed for movies and described as "the first of the world's movie palaces", opened a hundred years ago today.  It featured a splendid organ and an 8-man "orchestra" of Russian emigres.  These latter were, according to the program, "the highest salaried group of musicians in the States (which means the world as all Europe is at war)." Here it is in 1930s lights:


That's a beautiful building indeed!  Funny that it was showing Bulldog Drummond when the picture was taken, because I caught a little bit of it on TCM last night.  Of course, there are no coincidences, but sometimes it seems like there are.

K_Dubb

Quote from: Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost on January 08, 2016, 02:29:17 PM
That's a beautiful building indeed!  Funny that it was showing Bulldog Drummond when the picture was taken, because I caught a little bit of it on TCM last night.  Of course, there are no coincidences, but sometimes it seems like there are.

Oh wow!  Spooky as hell.  I've never seen that; will look it up.

K_Dubb

Quote from: Rix Gins on January 08, 2016, 06:01:15 AM
Edit:  I erred in pronouncing Bezdec as being a member of the chewing tobacco club.  I searched out the year book, (Oregana 1917) and read that it was actually Coach Hayward who was listed as being a "Fratres in Facultate" member of the "Independent Order of the Chawers of the Honest Scrap."  But that's cool.  Makes me admire the man even more.  :D



Thanks, Rix!  "Chawers of the Honest Scrap" is a jewel!  Almost want to take up the practice.

It's a little disorienting to see people of that era in athletic dress since it looks like they're posing in their skivvies.  I wonder how they must have seemed to their peers.

ziznak

Quote from: K_Dubb on January 08, 2016, 02:38:38 PM
Thanks, Rix!  "Chawers of the Honest Scrap" is a jewel!  Almost want to take up the practice.

It's a little disorienting to see people of that era in athletic dress since it looks like they're posing in their skivvies.  I wonder how they must have seemed to their peers.
they were "sexy" i would imagine.

Quote from: K_Dubb on January 08, 2016, 02:38:38 PM
"Chawers of the Honest Scrap" is a jewel!

Yeah, that one's a real sockdolager!  The language has lost a lot in the way of character and colorful expression in the last hundred years. I really enjoy the bombastic and often lurid descriptive language newspaper writers used in the early 20th Century, and today's reporting is as bland as cold dishwater by comparison.

Rix Gins

Quote from: K_Dubb on January 08, 2016, 02:38:38 PM
Thanks, Rix!  "Chawers of the Honest Scrap" is a jewel!  Almost want to take up the practice.

It's a little disorienting to see people of that era in athletic dress since it looks like they're posing in their skivvies.  I wonder how they must have seemed to their peers.

I remember when basketball players had trunks of this size.  Times have sure changed.


K_Dubb

Quote from: Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost on January 08, 2016, 02:48:48 PM
Yeah, that one's a real sockdolager!  The language has lost a lot in the way of character and colorful expression in the last hundred years. I really enjoy the bombastic and often lurid descriptive language newspaper writers used in the early 20th Century, and today's reporting is as bland as cold dishwater by comparison.

Thank you, sir, "sockdolager" is going in my back pocket, too.

albrecht

Quote from: K_Dubb on January 08, 2016, 02:17:52 PM


Seattle's Coliseum Theater, one of the first in the country designed for movies and described as "the first of the world's movie palaces", opened a hundred years ago today.  It featured a splendid organ and an 8-man "orchestra" of Russian emigres.  These latter were, according to the program, "the highest salaried group of musicians in the States (which means the world as all Europe is at war)." Here it is in 1930s lights:



Here is the program from the opening:

http://www.seattletheaterhistory.org/multi-page-program-record/coliseum-theatre-program-january-8-1916

Anita King appeared at the opening, so the "Emporium" theater (which I got from Vanity Fair) must have been an error.

The beautiful facade of the building survives, with great Grecian urns and terra-cotta cartouches I loved as a kid hanging above the sidewalk, but it is now a Banana Republic.  If you never lifted your eyes from the window displays when walking along the street, you'd never notice it was there -- it blends seamlessly into Seattle's downtown-shopping area.



One pair (actually a trio, since it was a classic love triangle) of my great-grandparents met working in a movie theater about this time, though in Hamilton, Ontario.  The men worked in the projection booth; she was on the cleaning crew.
They build stuff so cool back then. There also was some big money in the NW and Inland Empire in timber, mining, RRs, etc and lots of those guys built some great stuff. On the other side of the mountains around this time a 100 years ago, or so, Spokane's remarkable Davenport Hotel opened. It is now restored and still opulent. First hotel in the USA with air-conditioning (!), fancy ballroom, build-in vacuum system, fancy dining (the largest private commission ever created by Reed and Barton in silverware,) linens made in Ireland, and not a single worker died in all of its construction (for the time a crazy statistic.) In Spokane! (Those in the NW will understand that comment.) The downtown of Spokane was heated centrally by a steam plant (now defunct and turned into a restaurant I recall.)
If anyone drives through or visits Spokane I suggest stopping there for a drink or meal, if not to stay.
http://www.davenporthotelcollection.com/our-hotels/the-historic-davenport-hotel/history/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Davenport_Hotel_%28Spokane,_Washington%29
I don't understand why some of these ideas didn't expand: good designs to last (though the Davenport for a time went through tough times when economy went south and had to be restored) but stuff like central steam heating for downtowns, central vacuum, streetcars, etc?

Rix Gins

Quote from: Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost on January 08, 2016, 02:48:48 PM
Yeah, that one's a real sockdolager!  The language has lost a lot in the way of character and colorful expression in the last hundred years. I really enjoy the bombastic and often lurid descriptive language newspaper writers used in the early 20th Century, and today's reporting is as bland as cold dishwater by comparison.

You hit the nail right on the head, Robert.  I often think that while reading obituaries from the past.  They were full of flourished expressions and emotions for the departed person and made you think that they really did have a life back then.  Not like today's obits where they are often reduced to just a few lines of info.

albrecht

Quote from: Rix Gins on January 08, 2016, 03:01:25 PM
You hit the nail right on the head, Robert.  I often think that while reading obituaries from the past.  They were full of flourished expressions and emotions for the departed person and made you think that they really did have a life back then.  Not like today's obits where they are often reduced to just a few lines of info.
If not on a farm, mines, etc and in a city and one had "means," and not just to be rich but middle and upper-middle class, I think they had a lot more leisure time. I know when one of my granddad died several decades ago I was amazed at all the various "clubs" he was a member of, or had time for, maybe once a month, maybe more frequently, maybe less? (The various Lions, Rotary, SON, college fraternity, Rotary, church, etc etc.) And the ladies had bridge clubs, garden club, social/charity club, etc. I take that back- maybe not as much leisure time but less opportunities to 'waste' time: tv, internet, etc so did more social club stuff. Plus a lot of business was "who you know" type of stuff. Even so-called working class guy seem to have more fraternal/ethnic organizations, bowling leagues, etc than now. I don't know. I could be wrong.
Also, interesting, back then you could go to law school without an undergrad degree. My granddad got his JD before a BA. Weird.

K_Dubb

Quote from: albrecht on January 08, 2016, 03:01:08 PM
They build stuff so cool back then. There also was some big money in the NW and Inland Empire in timber, mining, RRs, etc and lots of those guys built some great stuff. On the other side of the mountains around this time a 100 years ago, or so, Spokane's remarkable Davenport Hotel opened. It is now restored and still opulent. First hotel in the USA with air-conditioning (!), fancy ballroom, build-in vacuum system, fancy dining (the largest private commission ever created by Reed and Barton in silverware,) linens made in Ireland, and not a single worker died in all of its construction (for the time a crazy statistic.) In Spokane! (Those in the NW will understand that comment.) The downtown of Spokane was heated centrally by a steam plant (now defunct and turned into a restaurant I recall.)
If anyone drives through or visits Spokane I suggest stopping there for a drink or meal, if not to stay.
http://www.davenporthotelcollection.com/our-hotels/the-historic-davenport-hotel/history/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Davenport_Hotel_%28Spokane,_Washington%29
I don't understand why some of these ideas didn't expand: good designs to last (though the Davenport for a time went through tough times when economy went south and had to be restored) but stuff like central steam heating for downtowns, central vacuum, streetcars, etc?

I will certainly do so next time I pass through.  Old hotel bars are my favorite.  I used to frequent the Olympic's in downtown Seattle.  That my great-grandmother worked in the laundry there for 30 years was always a poignant reflection.

Seattle Steam still exists; I've paid their (very reasonable) bills.

Quote from: albrecht on January 08, 2016, 03:13:10 PM

Also, interesting, back then you could go to law school without an undergrad degree. My granddad got his JD before a BA. Weird.

Before that, it seems like it was common for people to become awyers just by spending a couple of years clerking for an established attorney and reading whatever law books were available. I'm not sure when bar exams were introduced and should probably go look that up.

GravitySucks

Quote from: albrecht on January 08, 2016, 03:01:08 PM
They build stuff so cool back then. There also was some big money in the NW and Inland Empire in timber, mining, RRs, etc and lots of those guys built some great stuff. On the other side of the mountains around this time a 100 years ago, or so, Spokane's remarkable Davenport Hotel opened. It is now restored and still opulent. First hotel in the USA with air-conditioning (!), fancy ballroom, build-in vacuum system, fancy dining (the largest private commission ever created by Reed and Barton in silverware,) linens made in Ireland, and not a single worker died in all of its construction (for the time a crazy statistic.) In Spokane! (Those in the NW will understand that comment.) The downtown of Spokane was heated centrally by a steam plant (now defunct and turned into a restaurant I recall.)
If anyone drives through or visits Spokane I suggest stopping there for a drink or meal, if not to stay.
http://www.davenporthotelcollection.com/our-hotels/the-historic-davenport-hotel/history/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Davenport_Hotel_%28Spokane,_Washington%29
I don't understand why some of these ideas didn't expand: good designs to last (though the Davenport for a time went through tough times when economy went south and had to be restored) but stuff like central steam heating for downtowns, central vacuum, streetcars, etc?

I've seen it postulated, but don't remember seeing an answer. Is Peter Davenport a descendant of this family, and is this where he gets the money to live in a missile silo and answer the phones for all of the UFO sightings?

Rix Gins

Quote from: K_Dubb on January 08, 2016, 02:17:52 PM


Seattle's Coliseum Theater, one of the first in the country designed for movies and described as "the first of the world's movie palaces", opened a hundred years ago today.  It featured a splendid organ and an 8-man "orchestra" of Russian emigres.  These latter were, according to the program, "the highest salaried group of musicians in the States (which means the world as all Europe is at war)." Here it is in 1930s lights:



Here is the program from the opening:

http://www.seattletheaterhistory.org/multi-page-program-record/coliseum-theatre-program-january-8-1916

Anita King appeared at the opening, so the "Emporium" theater (which I got from Vanity Fair) must have been an error.

The beautiful facade of the building survives, with great Grecian urns and terra-cotta cartouches I loved as a kid hanging above the sidewalk, but it is now a Banana Republic.  If you never lifted your eyes from the window displays when walking along the street, you'd never notice it was there -- it blends seamlessly into Seattle's downtown-shopping area.



One pair (actually a trio, since it was a classic love triangle) of my great-grandparents met working in a movie theater about this time, though in Hamilton, Ontario.  The men worked in the projection booth; she was on the cleaning crew.
Great building, Mr D.  I have read the program and I need your advice.  I have bailed Trixie out of the hoosegow and have promised her a show at the Coliseum.  (To help take her mind off her legal troubles, you know.)  Should I take her to see Anna Held in "Madame Presidente" or Geraldine Farrar in "Temptation?"  My trips to the past are few and in between so I like to make the most of them.  In other words, which show will be best to "get her in the mood?"   ;D

albrecht

Quote from: GravitySucks on January 08, 2016, 03:20:46 PM
I've seen it postulated, but don't remember seeing an answer. Is Peter Davenport a descendant of this family, and is this where he gets the money to live in a missile silo and answer the phones for all of the UFO sightings?
Yeah, I was the one who wondered about that. There is always a town, Davenport, WA, which is very near to where his silo is. But I've not been able to make any connection between the Hotel, the town, or the ufologist. It is a common name, so? But I was thinking that when I first heard him many years ago. I imagined some scion of a rich family who took his inheritance and followed his dreams of reporting UFOs and buying an old missile silo from which to do it.

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