THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN THE GREAT WAR (1975, Color, 51 min)
Narrated by the great voice of the Universal Newsreels Lowell Thomas, a splendid survey of the journey the American public undertook during the war via moving pictures. Well thought out, well paced and well colorized.
FIGHTING THE WAR (1916, 23 min)
The Western Front in all its ingloriousness, via this Donald C. Thompson film short. Particular attention is paid to Verdun, the great battle there having been recently concluded, with footage both of the battle and its aftermath. Also documented are French pilots and their craft, both balloons and airplanes.
BIOGRAPHY (CBS) - WOODROW WILSON (1962, 23 min)
The original TV biography documentary series gives its usual standard-setting treatment to the American president who campaigned against, and later lead his nation into, involvement in the First World War, and who fought to keep the peace by helping to found The League of Nations.
THE LOG OF THE U-35 (1919 , 23 min)
An unparalleled historical film documenting the actual combat engagements of Germany's own U-35 "unterseaboot" ("U-Boat", or submarine) against commercial shipping as it plied its deadly trade all across the Mediterranean Sea.
THE SECRET GAME (1917 - 10:34)
Japan was an ally of Britain and America during World War I, unlike World War II. Accordingly, the great Cecil B. de Mille directs this picture where we see manifold Japanese stereotypes of the day peculiarly employed in the service of good as Sessue Hayakawa portrays a Japanese spy trying to protect American military secrets from the Germans.
SO THEY TELL ME (1917, 5:14)
Cartoon produced immediately after World War I which takes stabs at the likes of Eugene Debs, the renaming of popular foods with ethnic combatant nomenclature, arms shipments, Prohibition, Irish republicanism, the Kaiser, the Bolsheviks, Blue Laws, bathing suit taxes (!) & more.
THE SAN FRANCISCO IRON WORKERS STRIKE (1917, 5:14)
And what a motley crew they are as they march disheveled and disorderly down the cobblestone streets of San Francisco. They're just as bad when they bust forth from the factory. Their esprit de corp picks up as they get well and duly agitated, as does their bodily cleanliness. Good shots of trolley cars too; too bad they destroyed one. Bad timing for a strike, and many would say bad form, given the fact that the Great War which America had just got involved in was going on.
UNITED RAILROAD EMPLOYEES STRIKE (1917, 1:11)
A marching band leads the parade of disgruntled San Francisco laborers past a Coca Cola sign down a dirt road in less motley dress than their iron worker brethern wore in the prior newsreel short.
NEWSREELS & SHORTS (1917 & Earlier, 7 min)
Various vignettes depicting the great & the good of the day:
Count von Bernstorff of Germany [German Ambassador to the U.S. (1908-1917)] | Czar Nicholas of Russia | Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria greeted by his people.mpeg
Kaiser Wilhelm | Last known home of Czar Nicholas | Sarah Bernhardt addresses crowd in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, 1917 | Scenes of the British royal family | Vickers Vimy Rollout & Bomb Loading