And the Envelope Please....

The first Academy Awards in 1929 were a far cry from the suspense, glamour and endless press coverage surrounding the Oscars today: The first award recipients’ names were printed on the back page of the academy’s newsletter. A few days later, Variety published the information--on page seven.

Spearheaded by movie mogul Louis B. Mayer, the Academy was organized in May 1927 as a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and improvement of the film industry. The first awards went to movies produced in 1927 and 1928. Though the announcements were made in February 1929, the actual awards weren’t given out until May 16, 1929, in a ceremony and banquet held in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Some 270 people attended the dinner, many paying $5 each for a ticket.

The first Academy Award winners also received gold statuettes but the awards weren’t nicknamed “Oscars” until 1931, when a secretary at the Academy noted the statue’s resemblance to her Uncle Oscar, and a journalist printed her remark. The Academy’s first president, the silent film actor Douglas Fairbanks, handed out the statuettes to the winners, who included Janet Gaynor for Best Actress (for three different films: Seventh Heaven, Street Angel and Sunrise) and the German-born Emil Jannings (The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh) for Best Actor. Frank Borzage and Lewis Milestone both won Best Director awards, for Seventh Heaven and Two Arabian Knights, respectively. Best Picture honors went to "Wings," the World War I drama directed by William Wellman. Special recognition was given to actor/ director Charlie Chaplin and the movie "The Jazz Singer" which was excluded for being a 'talkie.'

Who is the on the Academy?  Could you be a member?  What movies do you think were the best?

Which movie won 'Best Picture' this year? How many of these 'Best Pictures' have you seen?  Have these movies stood the test of time?

To Tell the Truth

 Three contestants claim to be the same person. Four celebrities question the contestants, then vote for the one they think is the real person. This simple game has endured as a TV classic for over 45 years. Today's assignment pays tribute to the show that asked the burning question... 

 "Will the real ________ please stand up?" 

 With your group you are each to choose a fact for the historical figure assigned you. Use your Biography Handout as a resource. All of your facts should be made false except one. After presenting  your facts in front of the class they will try to guess which is true.  The more realistic/ believable your facts the better chance you have of fooling your classmates and winning the game. 

  

 Do you have what it takes TO TELL THE TRUTH (1969-1978) (2018+)?

GEORGIA O'KEEFFE

CHARLES LINDBERGH

JIM THORPE

LANGSTON HUGHES

DAVID SARNOFF

GERTRUDE EDERLE

CHARLIE CHAPLIN

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER

AMELIA EARHART

LOUIS ARMSTRONG

"Wise Up:" 1920's Slang

The twenties were the first decade to emphasize youth culture over the older generations, and the flapper sub-culture had a tremendous influence on main stream America. Many new words and phrases were coined by these liberated women and are still used today!

Find the words in the puzzle and then write a sentence using each word correctly. If Mr. Kelly hears you using these words in the hall you may get extra credit.

1) What conclusions can we draw about the 'Roaring '20s' from this list?

2) What can we learn about a Generation from their slang?

3) What will historians think about you 100 years from now based on your slang?

How has the Evolution of Dance also reflected the 'Generation Gap?'

Learn how to do the 'Charleston!'

Postmodern Jukebox

AAAAAaaa....CHOO!

I had a little bird, 

Its name was Enza, 

I opened the window, 

And IN-FLEW-ENZA. 

True or False: You are more likely to die from the flu than you were in the trenches of WWI.

In the spring of 1918, as the nation mobilized for war, Private Albert Gitchell reported to an army hospital in Kansas. He was diagnosed with the flu, a disease doctors knew little about. Before the year was out, America would be ravaged by a flu epidemic that killed 675,000 — more than in all the wars of this century combined — before disappearing as mysteriously as it began.

The 1918 pandemic had profound impacts on life in the United States. Thousands of children were orphaned. So dire was the situation that many cities including Boston, Richmond, St. Louis and others mandated quarantines and social-distancing measures. In San Francisco and Seattle, laws were passed forcing people to wear masks covering their mouths and noses while in public. The public health commissioner in Chicago told police to arrest anyone seen sneezing without covering their face in public.

Much has changed since the influenza pandemic of 1918, yet our responses to COVID-19 must still rely on many of the century-old lessons.  Read more...

I Want A New Club

 

Imagine you are creating a new club. What kind of club would it be? Would it be an athletic club or team? Would it be intellectual? What would the purpose or goal of your club be? How would you recruit new members? What are the membership requirements or rules?

Following WWI President Wilson sought to create a 'League of Nations,' or club, where countries could gather peacefully and resolve their quarrels. At the Treaty of Versailles in France he outlined his '14 points' promoting openness, encouraging independence, and supporting freedom. At it's heart was his idea of 'peace without victory;' a peace inspired by noble ideals, not greed and vengeance.

What is Fight Club? What are the '8 Rules of Fight Club?' How was Wilson's club different? What did critics think of his ideas?

What was the great debate about ratification  in the US Senate?

Who were the RESERVATIONISTS? IRRECONCILIABLES? INTERNATIONALISTS?  

WHICH SIDE WERE YOU ON?

Johnny Got His Gun

Johnny Got His Gun is an anti-war novel written in 1938 by American novelist Dalton Trumbo and published in September 1939. Joe, a young American soldier serving in World War I, awakens in a hospital bed after being caught in the blast of an exploding artillery shell. He gradually realizes that he has lost his arms, legs, and all of his face (including his eyes, ears, nose, teeth, and tongue), but that his mind functions perfectly, leaving him a prisoner in his own body. Joe eventually successfully communicates this with military officials after several months of banging his head on his pillow in Morse code. He wants to be placed in a glass coffin and toured around the country in order to demonstrate to others the true horrors of war. however, he realizes that the military will not grant his wish. As Joe drifts between reality and fantasy, he remembers his old life with his family and girlfriend and reflects upon the myths and realities of war.

1) What was the human cost of the 'Great War?'

2). Which country suffered the most? The least?  Use facts from the text to support your answer.

3) What is Dalton Trumbo's message?  Was war worth it?  Why/ not?

Use this link to complete your map to complete your map by labeling the countries, the Sedan Railroad, and the Meuse-Argonne Cemetery.

Take a tour of the Meuse-Argonne Cemetery 

Want to explore more?

Write a poem describing the experience of war.

Propaganda

This propaganda leaflet was dropped by German airplanes behind American lines during World War I. Nearly 370,000 African Americans were drafted into the U.S. Army starting in the fall of 1917 (they were not allowed to join the Marines, and the Navy took African Americans only as cooks and kitchen help). Although more than half of the black troops were in combat units, they remained segregated from white troops. Subjected to racist harassment (including demeaning insults from white officers), black troops were continually reminded of their second-class citizenship. By stressing racist conditions in the United States, leaflets such as this attempted to destroy morale and encourage desertion among African-American troops.

1) To whom is the document addressed?

2) Who do you think wrote the document? Why?

3) What arguments are used to make those points? Do you find the arguments convincing? Why or why not?

4) What was more dangerous: propaganda or machine guns? Explain.

5) Write a letter in response to the document? What would you say in reply? (1 paragraph)

1917: Behind Enemy Lines

'Trench Warfare' became synonymous with battle during WWI.  Soldiers on the Western Front spent months living in the muddy, rat-infested, dreary channels dug deep into the ground.  Above the trenches was only sky exposing armies to the weather and the constant barrage of artillery and poison gas shells, as well as machine gunners and snipers.  

So what was life actually like for the men serving tours of duty in the trenches?

What new technologies made WWI different from other previous wars?  How did technology change the way war was fought?

How has the inhumanity of trench warfare been depicted in the movies regardless of which side you were on?

How is man's capacity for war different from the beasts?

Harlem Hellfighters

More than 2 million Americans served in Europe during World War I. Eager to promote democracy around the world, many entered the war with great enthusiasm. But their first taste of battle left them more realistic about the horrors of war.

After reading the excerpt from Max Brooks The Harlem Hellfighters answer these questions in your Interactive Student Notebook:

1) Why did so many men, especially African Americans, enlist to go 'Over There?'

2) Would you stay or would you go?  Why?

3) Why is the large number of casualties during World War I typically not discussed?

4) Many of the 369th Regiment decided to stay in France after the war. Why might they have done this?

5) What comparisons can you make between the Harlem Hellfighters and the Buffalo Soldiers?

Zimmermann Telegram

In January of 1917, British cryptographers deciphered a telegram from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German Minister to Mexico, von Eckhardt, offering United States territory to Mexico in return for joining the German cause. This message helped draw the United States into the war and thus changed the course of history. The telegram had such an impact on American opinion that, according to David Kahn, author of The Codebreakers, "No other single cryptanalysis has had such enormous consequences." It is his opinion that "never before or since has so much turned upon the solution of a secret message." In an effort to protect their intelligence from detection and to capitalize on growing anti-German sentiment in the United States, the British waited until February 24 to present the telegram to Woodrow Wilson. The American press published news of the telegram on March 1. On April 6, 1917, the United States Congress formally declared war on Germany and its allies.

Can you decode the message?

The first 'wall' along our southern border with Mexico was started during WWI 100 years ago; not because we feared the Mexicans or radical Islam, but because we feared the Germans!

What is the legacy of the Zimmerman Telegram today?

You Sank My Battleship!

Battleship wasn't always a board game. The original version, reportedly created as a French World War I game, was played on square grids, and each player drew in where their battleships were located. It wasn't until 1931 when the Milton Bradley Company turned what was a simple two-player, paper-and-pen game into the popularized children's board game. The gist of the game -- both then and today --is to capture or sink the other person's battleships through a series of strategic moves.

Many variations have appeared over the years from the distinctive plastic ships and pegboards of the classic board game to numerous online versions. Our classroom version brings us full circle to World War I: the large 'aircraft carrier' has been replaced with the historic Lusitania and the submarines with German U-boats. Can you sink American neutrality?

1) Which boat do you think is the most valuable? The least? Why?

2) What strategies did you develop as you played the game?

3) Why did the Germans target a defenseless passenger ship like the Lusitania? How did the attack pull America closer to war?

4) What was the Sussex Pledge? How did the German U-Boats change the 'rules of engagement?'

5) What modern weapons have changed the way we fight wars today?