Transcripts For CSPAN3 Reel America On The Firing Line With The Germans 1915 Film 20180101

They shot 25,000 feet of film about 5 1 2 hours. They returned to the United States in september of 1915 and in november released a 108minute feature film on the firing line with the german. The film received positive reviews and screened widely in the United States despite the fact that it presented a favorable view of the germans. Up next learn about how the once lost film was rediscovered by the library of congress and then watch the film with commentary by two scholars. This program is about two hours. I at the moment am retired but i used to work at the library of congress. And while i was here among the fascinating things i found buried in the vaults, and theres a lot of stuff buried in the vaults here, is this film, on the firing line with the germans. And i looked at it and thought it was a fascinating bit of lost American History including the high mark maybe of the german army especially on the Eastern Front in 1915 as well as other stuff because it reflects very interestingly whats going on in the United States at that period where the United States was looking with great interest and some suspicion at this strange war in europe and wondering how much it wanted to get involved and how much it could stay out of it, whether in fact circumstances would allow it to. Im jim castallen, a retired scholar. I was looking into oswald, a correspondent during world war i. And i came across his bylines and i saw durborough had come back, made a film in 1915 and had praised schuti for getting world war pictures. Within three years he moved from the inquiriy philadelphia to the examiner in chicago and then offer an independent contract with the Newspaper Enterprise Association, and shortly was the best person they sent on difficult assignments like the mexican troubles. Anyway, in the background of my research for i was looking for durborough, just wanted to click on the film and witness what they were looking for on the east front. And durborough is a hard guy to research because he moved around a lot, changed careers a lot. And after about ten years while i was still working on other research, i came to a line and was going to write ancartical because i thought durborough was a fascinating fellow. And i was organizing notes and lo and behold, i read this fabulous article. I was really glad there was somebody else interested in this. And i contacted him and i said i brought total ignorance to the fact this was a lost film and nobody knew what the contact was. And you gave me the magic sauce, the magic key. And theres some copyright paper rolls from the original copyright filing with a few small images from the original film frame that enabled us to document the original content. And our with the help of our coauthor, found many lost pieces of film and then worked with the library of congress to encourage them to help them recreate it. Its been my job for the past 30 some years to take care of the nitrate film collection of the library of congress. And what that means are these of the fims made on nitrate film stock. And the reason its different is because nitrate tends to detearierate and even more importantly is highly flammable. So its not only important for us to maintain the films but the atmosphere theyre stored in, to give them a long life and keep them from growing up. My duties involve kind of ensuring the physical integrity of the collection, our handling and storage standards. I mainly concentrate on the safety side, have many other duties including maintaining circulating film loan program and also assignments on special projects such as durborough, whether its assisting in reconstruction or research into the projects. So on the firing line with the germans, where did that film originally come from . Why do we still have it . Its just one of those Amazing Things that just happens. From what i have learned, we akwoo ired the film several years ago from the son of one the original backers of the film. And he had found it in his fathers wine cellar. And there were 47 reels of film, and it was sent to the library and had been sitting on the shelf. And several attempts had been made over the years to try and put the film back together. But there was no paperwork, so it just kind of sat there. I would see this film sitting hon shelf there, oh, durborough, what the heck is this thing . So im so glad finally we were able to put it beback together because its one of those things that should not have survived. Theres no reason it should have survived. A wine cellar is not an environment for storing any type of film. So the fact it survived all these years probably with damp definitely damp, the amount of water damage. How do we get to the point it sitting in storage to now its restored and available for the public to view . I think the library had always at least people in the library had always wanted to see this film put back together. I know cooper had always been interested in. From my voipt of a film just needing to be put together, a always had an interest in it. I never thought id actually get to see it put back together. But when the script was put together by james and cooper and presented to us, thats when the time came. Plus the time had come where we were able to do high enough level scanning of these film reels that they could be edited together digitally rather than trying to make a film copy and try to edit it that way. Because there was such a huge volume of material, the cost would have been astronomical to make film presents of all these different pieces. But using it digitally, it was much easier interest us to electronically put things in their place and try this, oh, heres a better version, and we use this shot and part of that shot. So without digital technology, i dont think this would have happened. And i think it was about two years all together. Thats just the physical putting it together. That doesnt include all the prework. So it takes a lot of time and effort to do Something Like this. Whats the value in it for the American Public . Why is it worth it from your point of view . I would like to say one of my Guiding Principles i first saw it on the wall in an air force museum, and i always thought its important for us to then make this stuff available for people to see so we learn from it. Whether we actually do learn from it, thats not my problem. But i want to make sure i do my part for people to see this other part of history that is not in the books. Whether it be this film or a film about dairy work, a film about laundry, newsreels. So many newsreels or lost, but there are so many interesting stories in the newsreels. Just to see what we did, how we walked, we talked. Just so we dont forget. Because our society now is so diz posable. Were getting to it point now it almost seems like people are disposable. Its really sad. But i want to make sure all of that, as much as we can carry, is still there. I think particularly to the refugee sequences, really reinforce this circle of history repeating itself. Were looking at these different scenes of the refugees, and going home at night and watching the news and reading the paper with refugees. Again, different refugees from a different part of the world, but nonetheless this human effect of political actions, the cause that the regular populous was having to endure and figure out ways to deal with, this has repeated itself. And almost 100 years to the day we were looking at the same scenes we were seeing on the news every night. That was really shocking. This is durboroughs film. Youll see in the first film segment he rarely missed an opportunity for selfpromotion. He allowed energy and only came about because of his initiative. The nea asked him to go abroad. He was their top photo journalist. Whats the nea . The Newspaper Enterprise Association. And there he is. I think you can already sense a kind of high charge certain tension about him. Ries looked a little bewildered but game. Also with a cigar. Both guys had a cigar habit. But he looks affable. Here they are in the streets of chicago enjoying a close up. And this really documented his trip to europe, durboroughs trib to europe. So how did this trip come about . Who funded it . Durborough was turned down by the Newspaper Enterprise Association to pay for the film. But he was given permission to moonlight, and as long as he paid for any of the extra costs and he actually met some chicago businessman and convinced them to fund it. And then went about purchasing the cameras and the equipment. And here he is going abroad. This is about the time the luci tainia was sunk. So submarines were on everybodys mind. And here is the famous stuts. This was a lamborghini of its time, a wonderful car. Still very much in demand. One just sold in california i think for 595,000. And durboroughs personality, it had yeah, its a hot car. But i think he realized the film and the car would help him get access to the individuals he wanted to film and interview. As i said, he was very good at projecting his persona and had a definite flamboyance to it. So was world war i a really big news item in newspapers at the time in the United States . It was. Obviously, the official position of wilson was nutrality. We had a tendency since washingtons time to stay out of foreign affairs, at least European Affairs which almost always seemed to be totally mixed up. And there was concern about trying to get involved by several different groups of citizenry. What are we seeing here . This is ambassador gerard. He turned out to be very probritish. A controversial figure. President wilson didnt much like him. He did a good job getting us out of germany once we entered the war. The ambassadors were willing to give input, eisen years and also to input whatever wilson told him. After can i seer left germany and went to holland prince max was the first leader who setup the republic, for which a lot of people in germany never for gave him. But he was a good fellow, i think. Why would durborough not cover the war from the germans side . I wouldnt say everybody in the midwest was progerman, but there were a lot of germans, lot of scandinavians, a large irish voice in chicago and some of the big cities out there, milwaukee. And so the feeling in the midwest was very different than on the east coast which tended to be much more proallied. And i think one of the reasons that durborough got funding was that the germans could get the german side of their story told. Because they didnt feel like the New York Times and so on and so forth was doing much for them. And german propaganda wasnt much either. Already in the time less than seven months into the war there were already several numbers of casualties, blind soliers and amputees and whatnot. Youll see some of that in the films here. There was a home setup for the blind. She became very famous. She was married to a very famous architect. She was originally italian and italy had just entered the war on the allied side. But nevertheless she did notable work for the german wounded. And her blendenhime was turned over after the war. Here is the first woman on the faculty of the netherlands, here three extremely powerful women. Its funny as jim said, that shot you just saw is probably the most famous shot thats come out of this reconstruction. So jane adam, who was she briefly . Jane adams edith jane adams ran a house for european immigrants to help get ind grated into our society. And he did a large amount of effort in the Peace Movement obviously. Her reputation was so important she was invited to be the cochair of the peace conference the women organized. This was visiting day at a hospital . This is very interesting stuff. Again, this sort of shows the dark side thats becoming more and more effect, i think, in this period. As i say in the summer of 1915. This is not frivolous footage. And interestingly, cigarettes became much more prominent in the trenches, obviously. I guess they couldnt drink in the trenches, so i think smoking became more popular. But i guess premade cigarettes really grew in popularity among the army. Why do you think they decided to film these things or how did that happen . I dont know. You could put durborough down as kind of a frivolous guy whos going for the main chance, but some of the footage in this film like this, soldier died after a picture like this, youve got to think he was aware of the tragic side of this. He wanted to capture the civilian perspective and show it just as he could see in the film lens. Theres an interesting little shot the other thing is in a way its a god send that durborough couldnt travel to the front and was stuck in berlin, stuck, quote, unquote, and got these incredible shots of berlin in wartime, i think. Hes got this nice little portrait of a city thats beginning to suffer. And he wouldnt have gotten that if hed gone off to some battlefield. In the beginning the correspondents actually would go out to the front on their own officially they should have gotten permission and theyd go out on their own to it front and connect out there. This is rather famous. This was shot at workshop of a professor who became very famous for working on prosthetic devices for soldiers. And you can see the same shot almost in the Scientific American and three or four newspapers in the United States. Same guy, same workshop. And evidently he was very famous. Durborough was a horseman as i said, and youll see a bit of emphasis on the horse activities in the opportunities for film. Did he go into this project with a plan about what would happen with this film when he got back . No, i dont think so. I think he just wanted to record his trip, get enough good footage that it would be able to be shown in the theaters around the United States as a profit maker, essentially. But also i think to drum up some sympathy for germany, which was already unsuccessful largely in its propaganda. But he did i dont think the syndicate had that as the motive. It was just that, obviously, there was a Large Population or a market for showing the german situation. Thats true. That is true, of course. I mean they werent progerman or brits. You could argue about wilson or whatever, but they were businessman. They wanted to make money. Durborough wanted to make his name, to get out front of the camera. I should mention that hes in 25 of the film scenes here. The second most scene item is the stuts, which is in 10 of the film scenes. Ill mention this, the germans liked to take camera to the german camps. It was a safe trip. The germans liked to do it because they had a lot of control about what the correspondents saw and what they didnt see, and no one was likely to get hurt. And also it gave the germans a chance to show they were treating the prisoners well, getting them enough to eat. Some like these shots, there may be an element of paraied in them, but these guys do seem happy enough in some ways. And theyre probably very happy not to be in the trench. And obviously they did it in a place of time where they put their best foot forward. To be fair he did watch over for the allied prisoner war camp wheres, and he did credit for improving the conditions at some, which were pretty bad, later on. Do you know if these camps were close to berlin or were they the durbwits camp was very close to berlin. It was put there it was a major army field, training field. And as i say, i dont know. Its hard to know if the prisoners are trying to make the germans happy. But it looked tame like theyre happy to be warm and dry. Youll see later on in warsaw and here, film was like a new commodity. Getting featured and filmed, it was a novel experience. So i think that was the thing that stimilated everybody to want to get in front of the camera. And maybe it was a way from somebody from your family might see the footage and say oh, hes all right. Things were so pretty rudimentary especially for the russians. The recruited prisoners to help repair the roads and also the farms. The ones without the tools were going to the farms, which already had tools. The ones with the shovels and stuff were going to fix the roofs. These look like british. You sort of get the impression that there are many journalists going around with them, or was this almost like a media tour in some cases or yeah, well, these trips to prison camps were generally more than one correspondent. They get a bus or maybe take ten people. So itd be a group trip. They control them pretty well. Youll see in a bit, waiting to go to the front, theyre in uniforms. Initially they didnt have uniforms, they didnt have good control. And they arrested many journalists who didnt have permission who went on their own, walked around on their own and were almost shot as spies. So they decided from then on they would give them official uniforms so they could be recognized and also escorted from berlin by an officer. What do we see here . A band is leading the soldiers from berlin out to the train station to go to the front. Thats the brandonberg guilty behind and also one of the most Famous Hotels is right about a block in one direction to the left here, i think. So actually durborough could have popped out of his hotel and just shot in front of his hotel. But whether these guys are headed east or west, i couldnt tell you. Well, they were coming from the garden area, so they were heading east. Well, in this war the germans looked rather happy, so what was the situation . They werent thrilled. Again, one of the reasons for this film is there was a huge drive in the summer of 1915, starting about may, as a matter of fact some of these guys may be part of the people heading towards the battlefront, which was designed to chuck the russian army out of poland. There was a wing from the south going with austrian troops and german troops. And then there was a northern wing which was headed to warsaw. So the germans, i think, were very happy with the situation as they envisioned it in the summer. And one of the reasons that durborough might have been invited to do this is because they wanted witnesses and they wanted it film. Evidently this is durboroughs footage, but its extremely privileged. You didnt go up and start shooting the royal family at 20 paces. So how he got this or whether he got some film from somebody else, i dont know im pretty sure he got access in the castle, and they set it up so hed be able to film this impressive ceremony. Impressive, indeed. We are seeing the royal family who thats the kaiser. This was a review for the kaiser, obviously they were his favorite unit. Indeed, bernaddy, as the First Lieutenant led the hussars in 1981. Who are we seeing here . The hospital we saw earlier was named for her, the victoria louise hospital. She was the only daughter of the kaiser. I think he had three sons and victoria louise. Some were relieved later after they didnt do too well. Some sort of nominal heads like the son, wilhelm, the one thats in the middle, he was actually in charge of the army at but he wasnt really the expert. The hotel adlon, again, this is where a lot americans waited to get permission to go to front. Hes got some kind of hat or fedora hat. But notice they were wearing a uniform with the brown belts. So you mention in your essay about this, about speaking german and durborough not speaking german. This part of the trip durborough is with correspondents and got sent to east prussia. And woun thf correspondents, this guy on the left whose name is arthur, and he spoke fluent german. So thats general bernardy in the middle. He loved war. He thought germany ought to fight everybody. And he was kind of a droefbl figure. Notice the train in the background. Georges creative use, those were films that made it look really, really natural. Im going to mention this because what these guys are wearing im saying this because my wife didnt know and a friend didnt know these are pickle helmets, spiked helmets. And i should explain. In this early part of the war the germans were distributed with these and it was only in 1916 that they were got the cold scuttle helmets that everyone thinks is the typical german helmets. At the same time the french got their its amazing how much the calvary was the shot troops whenever the infantry was attacked, you often sent the cavalry to, quote, charge them and break them apart. And you still had spears. It was incredible. Youll see Something Else that i mean, this is a war that started on horses and ended up in tanks and had airplanes. Its incredible. Its one the largest cities in east prussia. As you can see it wasnt much damaged during the russian occupation, but the russians were still pretty rough. Heres whats interesting. What happened in one of the smaller towns where the russians did do some damage, youre going to see theres a slow tracking shot along these supply wagons. And you can take a look in the background and see how much wreckage there was. And just imagine trying to i mean, trying to supply a massive army with these wagons. They had an infinite number of them. So this east prussia. For people who dont know, whats east prussia, and what the russians invaded there in 1915 . No, it was part of germany. It was quite east of germany and is now part of poland since world war ii. The russians were pretty rough here. Maybe no worse than the germans were in belgium. Im not going to get into whos worse. By the way, this is another city that really took it. And they sent somebody said there was only one family left in the whole city, town after the russians got through it. They were kind of the reigning nobility and were supposed to have taken care of the area after their own castle was burned by the russians. Theres durborough. Theres durborough, yeah. Now you can see some of the destruction. Again, compared to what the russian army did in 1945, this is no big deal. Or what the germans did in but in 1914, 15, these were incredibly powerful images for the germans especially. Its one of the reasons they made von hindenberg their savior in world war i and tla made him almost a religious figure for wars. So the battle pushed the russians out of east prussia . Yes, pretty much. So the germans setup this tour for the correspondence. Youll take a look and see first how bad the destruction had been, but second i think they show how the east prussians were rebuilding and how it hasnt gotten them down. Look at the the pile of rubble. And the mentality of Central European cities that were various areas of war, are where one side germany or the other, squeezed between two big powers, it changes the whole concept of their nationality and how they have to live to accommodate that. And there does some to be some wanton destruction, no question about it. This is kind of interesting, the correspondents were sort on the road and they got a chance to see the great man himself, the savior of tanninberg, so this was a very exciting moment. A couple of correspondents who were progermans suggested he looked like a mix of foxy grandpa and i dont get that impression. It looks to me hes got his mind on other things. The guy on the left is von this was the head of the 20th army corp, which was stationed in allanstein, and again he was very much involved in the big battles in poland. Here are the correspondents are taken to the area where the battle of tanninberg took place. And its almost like visiting gettysburg, but this is year after the battles. Already there are a people touring and wanting to see what happened. I think the guy behind durborough is his official watchman, guardman handler. You can see a little bit you can see the missourien lake area is beautiful. Again, you can see the barbed wire, theyre everywhere. Whether the russians put them up in the first place or germans, i dont know. But they look formedable. The stuts didnt make it on the troop. Instead the correspondents were mundled up in six cars and toured the battlefield. Again, look at the barbed wire. Can you imagine getting through that in machine gunfire . Yeah, on an open field. Yeah, im glad i hadnt been born yet, ill tell you that. So would this have been german barbed wire or russian barbed wire . I dont know. Whatever barbed wire they could find. They captured some, gave up some, whatever. And there are the correspondents cars again. As i say, already it seems to me people are touring the area where hindenburg, quote, saved germany. And thats a grave in front there. Yeah. It looks like theyre trying to figure out whats where. This is story you can see on the intertitle, which i could never quite verify. But there was a report in the paper that the germans saw russians coming across a lake, and very thick ice so the russians thought they were sneaking up on position. And the germans started firing artillary and blew up the ice. And Something Like 10,000 russians did in fact go into the like and died. I dont know if it was mimed or shelled, but even way it was said there were a lot of dead russians in that lake. Theres of course durborough with somebody. You can get a feeling, i think, how beautiful this area is. Even thought 100 years ago, its a Great Holiday place for germans and polish now, the missourien lakes and very lovely. Fuel was rationed. When durborough left, it hasnt been. On april 1st, when they were on the boat they started rationing fuel. No private vehicles were allowed, and he had to get special permission. Incredibly he got it from the authorities for his stuts. So this was another town that was destroyed by the russian army . Well, its hard to tell who was destroyed. Well, it probably at this point was the russians. Again, it got pretty wrecked. Theres a shot here, i forget the name of the street, but this is just clearly taken from a car and driving down the main drag. This is pretty good film for the time and for the road. Yeah. Would american audiences have seen other world war films when this film was shown later . I dont know. Theres american film i dont know, i doubt it. As far as newsreels film, they saw pathe. So pathe, is french . The big newsreel company in germany did distribute quite a bit of their newsreels, but i dont think it was seen very much or very broadly. This guy on the left kind of a rakish looking character. He fought in the americanspanish war, and these are his motorcycle troops. His grandfather was very, very prominent working for frederick the great in prussia. So, again, another of these families nobility that durborough seems to run into fairly often out there. They dont seem to have issued face masks. Wait until you see the cloud of dust that they have to ride through. Yeah, yeah. But, again, you get the feeling, i think of space. You get this feeling, whether its true or not, of durborough kind of wandering around and seeing who he bumped into. It all seems kind of spread out, just kind of random. Polands a big place. And thats him there shaking hands again . Yes. So you say 25 of the film, he shows up in this way . 25 of the scenes. And sometimes you have to look hard. If you want me to, i can comment and say there he is again because oftentimes hes sort of invisible, but hes there. Other times youll see him carrying his camera, and its obvious. If hes got a camera in his hand, thats probably durborough. Its about here that the film stops shooting the bunch of correspondents in east prussia and starts to zero in on the german armies headed into poland towards warsaw, and was a big Railroad Center heading east. And theres durborough with the stuts. Yeah, theres durborough. And he has the steel camera in his hand. So at the same time he was taking photos and writing articles as well . He was taking still photos for the nea while he was filming for the warsaw syndicate. I should compliment ries because everything was hand cranked then, but it had to take a steady hand. And this was done pretty well. So you mean the cranking of the camera would dictate the speed of the film . Yeah, yeah, yeah. There was no electricity out there, btary powered or electronically timed stuff. It was all regular, steady hand. And if a bomb goes off next to you, you know, i guess they cut that scene out. But its hard, its hard. Ries was a good cameraman. Couple of shots i think he did some beautiful framing. One of the it should be a delousing station, but thereare describe whats happening here. Theyre going in to get fumigated. A lot of Little Friends visited the soldiers place. And they apparently before going home or whatever or moving around after a period of time, they visit stations like this and spend a little time just sort of like a sauna bath only i guess there was a special sofa type thing or something. Soldiers said that the lice drove them crazy. Later on youre going to see even more impressive, what was required to supply the calvary horses and the wagons horses. Remember this period this type of the land look at that. Its like a pyramid. But a lot of the land had been devastated. Forage and fire wasnt readily provided in most places. Yod to provide it as the army traveled. But the infantry used to use mostly shoe lever a lot back then. Youll notice a lot of the uniforms are blue, instead of the usually field gray. Some of the units stillhunt been issued field gray. The guy disappearing on the left is named walter hes a correspondent, went with durborough. Hes with durborough for the rest of the trip into poland. Somewhat controversial, some people thought he might be a spy. I dont know, but he certainly was progerman. But after the United States got into it, he then works very arduously for the americans and was involved in making some very proamerican propaganda films. So an interesting person. These guys look pretty squared away, i think. So in this part of the film theyre sort of working their way towards the front . Is that right . Tell us where theyre going. Yeah, most of it is in the front and theyre working their way to get to the front for a battle. Yeah, theyre working to get to warsaw. Was poland an independent country at this time . It was pretty much occupied by the russians. Yeah, russia control as a matter of fact, they did control it. And were not particular happy under russian rule. As a matter of fact, there were some polish regions that were setup to help the russians get the germans out. This looked like very messy uniforms but you get the feeling that everything would have stopped dead without horses. It was a horse war. You had mentioned the spiked helmet before. How long had the germans been wearing that and why did they give it up . The british were wearing a cloth cap and theyre not medal. Theyre kind of leather and copper engraving some of them. Some quite decorative but they didnt give you any kind of protection if you got a bullet in your head or toward your head so the germans came up with the helmet and the french came up with a helmet also worn by the italians and the british wore the famous tin hat which is pretty much the same thing the americans wore once they got into it. Theyre presenting this as combat but this is a training ground. I suspect to. The camera is up too high. Its up too high. They shot some machine guns in practice and they placed them in in the last part of the assault and its obvious that theyre not in combat. Is that something that would have been frowned upon at this time. And germans, and support and i think hes trying to make it. Unless you say this is how they trained and then they were used in combat, probably not the best. There was pretty too that senators took a lot of stuff and so you kind of had to theres frafs of the same shots that appear in the berlin newspapers in june which is three months before they headed east. Theres bodies on the battlefield after the assault was over. To find those that were still breathing to triage and get the red cross to them quickly. Possibly save them. They werent individual soldiers like that. Its hard to imagine that many horses. Theres something scary about how many horses died in world war i. I cant remember its millions. I dont know, maybe 50. Im pretty sure these were practice maneuvers at a training ground. Yeah. And all of these guys. Reslice it. Its hard to get a good shot of a shell or rocket firing. When you do get a good one it tends to get reused. This shows how primitive things were with the airplanes. They really evolved very quickly. This is probably training field. It would almost be immediately dead. This is kind of interesting. We begin to show this training. These guys are digging these shoulder trenches and you can see they hold their rifles while theyre digging and they lay them on the backs of their legs so theyll stay clean. Which is pretty clever. I think this looks real. I think this looks real. You can see the hole in his cap too at the end. When this film was released in the United States later, how was it received . It was acclaimed. One of the second showings that chicago sponsored by the Chicago Daily news for the first three weeks, supported the subscribe to this one before he left and the movie critic for the tribune, praised the film highly. The chicago tribunes film that they show, war of millions she said a few hundreds marching around. That was a pretty good assessment relative to the other scenes of the war. In 1915. In milwaukee in 1915. And he came back and arrived in the new york city in september. And in october 1915 the daily news was announced and this film was going to be made and it first showed in milwaukee at a scripts newspaper, nea newspaper for a week. And later by the local theaters on their own financial exposure. Let me go in here. This is one place that was not fate. Faked. Look in the knack. Hes kneeling with a pipe. Its one of the few times you see a pipe hes loading the film in his cam ramp thatera. Thats what i think hes doing. He just got hit. Youll see guys once they get their act together trying to chase him down. I dont think that was staged at all. Youll notice he had his head down. It looked like reese had his head down too. That has the look of authenticity. Theres a lot of mud. A lot of mud. Yeah. So just to go back to the screenings, would the film have made a profit . Im pretty sure it made a very good profit for the syndicate. As i said, the syndicate only went for about two years while they were distributing the film and then dissolved but it was widely viewed around the country. I found it all over in the u. S. It stopped, the last showing is sometime in march, 1917 before we declared war. We broke off relations in mid february, jugerard took the tra out. At that time german film was not popular in the theaters and the market dropped and disappeared. A few people subscribed to it earlier im sure and continued showing it but by april, havent found it again. Do you know where we are now with the train . This is that rail head, which was a big jumping off place for the german army. Here theyre bringing wounded back. It was a distance about a couple hours drive from warsaw. He said he was shot at while he was up flying and filming here but its hard to tell. Doubtful i think. It says yours trawuly is fin but would it have been him or his camera man reese . This im sure is reese. Reese did fly also. As a matter of fact reese was awarded the iron cross by the german staff. For taking films of the trenches that enabled them to do, you know, information around the strength of the russian side. I think it was a bit of publicity to for the germans. Theres a couple million iron crosses. Awarded, several million. More than a couple by the german army. I dont see anything in this shot that looks like any kind of troop movement. No. If you look at it closely, all the trenches had usually two in it or maybe three lines, front trench. We tried to find something on count kaiser. Its a common name. Theres a lot of counts. All we know is he seemed to have an air squadron. He was in poland and he liked horses. And he liked to ride horses. Match made in heaven. Still be very curious to know more about count kaiser. He also flew on the east front. It was the thing to do if you had the chance. Yeah. Watch the pile drivers. I knew a west point graduate that was a combat engineer that helped support the drive into germany from mnormandy and he said in the 60s they were still doing it this way in the field. This is south of warsaw a couple of hours anyway. Right, jim . Yeah. I dont think this is is the so how he got down there im not quite sure. But here he is back. Or at least his camera is back outside of warsaw. This is the area about the only place in the film when you do see Something Like trenches. Clearly the russians had built forti fortified positions, so probably the germans did as well. He was about 80 miles or a little less from the place so if the germans wanted to show them constructing a pontoon bridge in a safe area that was a good scene to take them too. I should explain. Warsaw was not defended. The russians abandoned it. They just said they couldnt do it. The entry into warsaw was very peaceful. Especially interesting here is youre going to see some shots of the jewish quarter in warsaw. It should be remembered, this may seem kind of ironic, but 25 years before hitler the germans were trying to get the jews in poll laand on their side. The jews suffered terribly and they were hoping to enlist the Jewish Community on the german ied and side and here are some germans very, very happy celebrating their entry into poland. These are the guys that dug the trenches and the mines under the lakes and everything. This was their big war. And there of course is durburow. The count pop it is up again here. There is the warsaw head, you see the train station right behind him. The guy in the white is walter. Hell show up in a lot of shots here. The fellow on the left is oswald, the other friend. Heres the jewish quarter of warsaw. Everybody was trying to stay in front of the camera. Yeah. So sapper, thats like an Engineering Corp . Yeah. It was basically people that drug trenches. Often they would dig tunnels under the enemy and line it with explosives and blow it up so they could penetrate the wall or the front line or whatever. This is warsaw which looks like an incredibly attractive town in these shots and again theres some shots coming up here. Youll be seeing lancers and also some of these, some of these guys are not even wearing them. Theyre wearing shakes which some units in the germany army wore for reasons i dont understand. Do we know if the warsaw citizens were happy the jugerma were there . They were happy . Were they . They were happy enough. They didnt like the russians. Im not sure that they were thrilled with the germans either. Very best, i think probably they were neutral. I dont think they had a hard time. Youll see as i say, i like this shot of reese. Its sort of framed by the door. I think thats really a nice shop. Watch him duck out. Yeah, hell come out here from the left. Notice the smoking. Theyre all smoking. It was a different world. Yes, indeed. You will see a couple of shots here, too, of one polish officer. As i say, i think they were detachments that were very happy to fight with the germans against the russians. Also because plenty of germans are catholic and since the pols are catholic theres an affinity there too. To be fair, the central powers had to make friends quickly and change sides quickly depending on how the power was flowing. They had to survive. It was survival. So this is being built because the russians destroyed bridges . Yes. Pretty much they only destroyed the bridges into warsaw. In the background in this shot, youll see the bridge isnt that the name of it . Thats not this one that come later. But its close. There it is. On the top right you can see its in the water. There will be a couple of other shots of it too. These are refugees. Yeah. You know we dont know where theyre going. Theyre obviously crossing the river. I dont know if theyre looking for shelter. Later on youll see some of the peasants in the farms coming back and its just utter disaster. Heres the alexander street bridge. Im sure the russians did blow the bridges. There wouldnt be much point in the germans blow them. They were trying to go that direction. This was a bridge that was built by the germans i guess. Heres the bridge that the russians with the demolitions demolished. Its faster to build a small bridge than to try to rebuild that. I should also mention from here on im not sure never mind. At some point i think durburow joined and reese joined a bus thats on its way to the big fort that the germans took. But i dont exactly know where that happens. That fort was much like the National Line of the french in world war ii. It had served its time but the artillery had leapfrogged the offensive side. Yeah. The general was also called by the correspondents battering ram and he was a guy that was an expert with this heavy artillery that took out these huge ports in belgium and was now given his head to destroy him. Assemble the artillery and whatever to plan the assault. They bombed london by now but they also were used on this front. I dont know why it would i dont think they would have been affected. Would they have been effective here . Other than spotting. Would have been spotting maybe for artillery . Yeah, but its a little big for an observation, but yeah. You get the feeling it looks like a rather attractive city. Before it was pretty well destroyed in 1939. This was the start of another real dont get the feel of the actual viewing theater at the time because this had nine reels and there were eight reel changes from the start. The projections hand cracked it as well which could speed up and slow down the film and it would take a minute or two to switch out the film reels. When they showed it in, did they have musical accompaniment . Silent films were almost never silent. They had pea annists and mall orchestras in some cities. It would change to the mood of the music to match the screen. I think you also wrote that he went along and was that present at many of the screenings . Is that true . He lectured at many of the early screenings in chicago and milwaukee and then philadelphia. And he brought the stuff with him and parked in front of wherever in philadelphia the Chestnut Street opera house where it was shown and between the lectures before and after films he would run up and down the street firing a big loud gun. To draw attention. It was part of his flamboyant tile, absolutely. Heres one of these polish officers i was talking about. It was not in warsaw thats for sure. Its a suburb of warsaw. Its probably not been incorporated into warsaw, but this was on the side near the fort that they were going to assault. And dont they look happy and excited . Nothing like lancers to attack a fort i always say. This is the group of polish calvary that they were famous for. Thats german, right . No. I dont know. So the film is building to the point of this attack on the fort. Is that right . And how would you put this fort, the battle for the fort in perspective in sort of the larger war . Was it important or overexaggerated in this film . Its overexaggerated because this was what it was the climax of this film story of his travel to capture the germans side of the war. He left shortly after it. It fell as i said in late august and he left in september so once he got this he came home and to be fair it had been already pretty long. You have to appreciate the stress and strain physically that these correspondents endured. The camera men especially had to lug cameras, heavy cameras, tripod and film and they had to set it up. They couldnt just hold it in their hand. It was an ordeal. The russians regarded as their linchpin defense as a series of forts in poland. Nogo was one of the biggest ones. You saw one shot of a bridge, that was further south. This series of forts was supposed to be aligned but it would protect russia and poland. It didnt work out this way. It was built in Something Like 1850. It wouldnt even have withstood the artillery of 1870. Let alone what they were going to throw at it. To be fair, castles originally in the middle ages were often positioned at critical points in the crossings of rivers and or where there were natural citadels of a rock hill or whatever that could be easily fortified. At this stage that theory and that mentality was still prevailing, and there he is on the side there. A lot of the russians knew it was a loser. They even said they couldnt evacuate because there was just so much stuff in it. There were so many guns, so much ammunition that they could never get it out in time. Then they said swirt spiritual reasons call for us to defend it. I think deep down they knew they couldnt hold it very long. Its one of those things you cant avoid i suppose. Im not taking away from what the germans did. It was still not an easy target by any means and a lot of people died. It didnt happen that the germans captured a russian officer who had in his pocket the complete map and defenses before they attacked it. Like soldiers everywhere, anytime they got a chance for refreshments. Heres walter. I think its fair to say that these guys were progerman. Definitely. Which is no crime. We were neutral. You could be pro anything you wanted to be. There they are. The guy on the right was an extremely good writer. I always thought his stuff should be published although he chose the wrong side. Notice its oswald telling their handling officer where they want to go. You had mentioned the difficulty for the camera people. You have a book about that subject, dont you . Yes, and probably the camera equipment alone weighed about 100 pounds at least. There was three pieces. You had to lug it around. One other thing, you almost didnt want to leave without some rolls in your pocket or sandwiches or something because you never knew when you were going to get your next meal. It was not, you know, at the front, it was difficult circumstances. Once again, just to remind people the timing of this, when did they start filming and what time what month of 1915 and how long did this all go on . Well, he started filming in april of i think 1915. He got some shots in berlin. He got there about mid april and got permission to film somewhat. He last filmed probably late august, early september. He had to go through the film sensors. So much was rejected he postponed he changed his tickets to a slightly later ship and he arrived back at the very end of september. So he probably left mid took about 9 days for steam ships and so figure september in the 20s he left and he arrived very end of september in new york. The trip to east prussia took place in jayne, so when he left for poland, i dont know. When they took him out, it was in august. Warsaw fell on the 4th of august. And he also, at one point. He burnt out a clutch going across a very sandy spot. He had to chain it to a tree out there and come back two or three weeks later and fix it in the field. It was not easy to keep that car running at times. And to be fair, he developed i think a closer emotional relationship with that than he did with reese. So this is on the way to the fort . Those were earlier prewar blue uniforms on the right. First aid to the way to the fort . Well, this could have been taken anywhere and just spliced in here. But it does look like a real wound. He was doing something and then he got shot. You mentioned the sensors. Could you describe that in a little bit more detail . The german sensors . Yes. Correspondents had to pass all their text before they were transmitted by telegraph or whatever. However, most of the censorship took place with controlling who they got access to, where they could go, who they could interview. So in that sense it was both before and after. And the text that was cabled back to the u. S. From germany, the first thing the germans did the british did was cut all the cables except for the capable coming from europe to london. That enabled them to filter all the correspondence that was sent back to america and they changed some of it significantly, some small stuff and some large stuff. Sections of text. Do we know how much film he shot and how much the germans prevented him from using . He bought 25,000 feet of fresh nitrate film in new york just before he got on the ship. He shot one or two reels going over. He said he filmed and processed about 20 he only had 400 feet to film to take on the way back. He then showed he didnt print all the film but he printed most of it in berlin. He had to show the sensors about 16 to 18,000, maybe about 20,000 feet. They cut a lot of stuff. They were going to give him only 6,000 feet. He said. And he talked to prince mass back at the hotel when he got back and he called, made a phone call and said they were going to have another review and he would be there and he guaranteed he would get a better result and thats why he had to wait another week, postpone a week before he got on the ship. So the film that the germans didnt allow him to use, would they have just just destroyed it . It got destroyed. Ive got to tell you, i went looking for it over in berlin and various different places. No. It probably was lost to the ages. But if anybody is seeing this thinks theres any that might be his film, let me know. Get in touch with us, cooper, me, anybody. Is this a special title that was put no, this wasnt the one. This is where he gave a shout out for his quality, but later on in chicago and milwaukee, he was a longtime journalist and had a lot of friends, he has a shout out gave a tight interview youll see in a minute. Thats shooting in the back with the going els a goggles, hes worrying about the flag. And sometimes that was an opera cape. This is it. This is his special little thanks. He didnt own a car. I dont even know if he drove much. He probably drove a little. He didnt own a car up until that point in his life. Thats the large gun. That might be whats called a long mercer. I tried to find the artillery but im not sure thats right. I think its a 42. Thats a 42. Thats not a mortar . No. Youll see the mortar in a second i think. Manned by the austrians. Thats a 30. 5. Yeah, the mortars. I understand the germans had some 30. 5s, but they were not as mobile and able to be positioned as the austrians and they also didnt want the word to get out so they hid it pretty quietly. Yeah. We know the fort fell and the russians were moved back some what, but what happened with the russian army in the next year or so after this, do you know . Retreat. Retreat. Very much, they just kept moving back and the germans kept following them and capturing 300 a day. After lugging the camera, 100 pounds of three or four packages back and forth between the third line and the second and the first. Then putting the camera up, you were considered to be a prime target. As i say, that put the germans in a deliilemma. Did they follow the russians and go all the way to moscow. The head of the german general stf sa staff said he remembered napoleon and said they didnt think that was a good idea so they basically chased the russians out of poland and set up a line along the border and stayed that way until the russian revolution. Later on they did open a battle front with the italian in the alps. The germans sent officers, officers because they didnt perform as much as they were hoping. Is this actual combat here . Hard to say. I believe it is. He was in the film sitting next to that tree. He kind of whatever. If you look at the hill on the back theres an occasional shell burst. We found an article suggesting theres a shot coming up here. Its rather dark. But theres a shot of them. He wrote about it. It seems to be a general shot. I guess were not there yet. Sorry. There he is in the foreground loading film it looks like. As the troops advance in front of him. Hes got something in his mouth of course. There on the right he is with his floppy right hat. He wrote about that shot. It seems to be authentic. I was suspicious about this shot. The weather seemed so different there. I would be suspicious. Wait until you see the machine guns. Is there any evidence that he encouraged the reenactments for his camera . Theres a couple of times. The german prisoners that were dancing, he couldnt get his camera set up. Thats another problem. He couldnt get the camera set up in time before they essentially got through most of it and he asked them to do it again and they did. Thats a recreation of what actually happened, but thats typical of the equipment and the timing. Thats fair game i think. There were some things he asked people to do and im sure he filmed it and spliced it in and presented it as part of the thrust, the offensive thrust into this battle. But i think he was just trying to represent as best he could, you know, what actually was there. But look at this. These guys are not this is the target range. Theyre even wearing shakos which would very much suggest it was shot under training conditions. These are guys are right off off parade ground. I assume thats an officer kneeling without a battle helmet on . That was probably the training officer. Yeah. And they were actually machine gun crews. With the other kind of helmet which is very prewar. Do you think at the time they would have bought it as authentic or they would have known . I think they probably would have took it as representing reality. I dont think lets face it. Special effects in the theater hadnt yet been developed very well. Its hard to know how sophisticated audiences were. Anybody that had been in combat anywhere. The germans in the audience would have been pleased and cheering and happy to see it. It is a real machine gun. These are machine gunners. These are germans. They are performing. This is what they were going to be doing on the battlefield and if you wanted a film to survive, you definitely wanted to take it during a practice run instead of at the front. You werent going to get back to america yourself. I think this was at the front. Anytime they have those canvas covers over their helmets tends to suggest this is for real. They generally wore those in the field. It also looks like that front there was pretty well mashed up there then. Yeah. I think a lot of times people tried to clear the field, so to speak, to make sure that they the the defensive position of the russians had clear lines of fire. Yeah. Just like in world war ii they were actually, this shot when theyre crossing the ditch, theres a picture of that in the New York Times june 21st, 1915, so this was shot back when he was still in berlin. Training. It looks pretty good. Lets face it. It was realistic you have to go through mud guys. Lets go. Dont hesitate. But they made use of what little landscape provided for positions and cover. He was never wounded. You can see in the back a training exercise. I suspect this might have been good because the horsemen are hiding in the trees to be less prominent targets. But they its just hard to say. I guess we dont think of russian aviators in world war i. There were a few. Mostly used for intelligence spotting, positions, getting a sense of the strength of the enemy. This is interesting. They say theyre behind a nice little hill while the russians just shell this position. Im inclined to think this is real. Watch this shot. This was probably real and as i said youll see the same shot a couple of times. In a minute here theyll sort of, theyll pan to the right and you can see theres sort of random shots just falling and pretty clearly the camera isnt quite sure where theyre going to land. Somethings going to land. Like that, for instance. Obviously the russians were over a little to the right. Might have gone up behind the hill out of the frame of the camera. And isnt it interesting how sometimes the authentic stuff is the least exciting. But its for real. But when they got that nice rocket trail or whatever, the shell trail, i think he a couple more here. I think george might have included because its so good too a little extra. I have to compliment them for the selection and the best quality. This has been an excellent film compared to remember all the stuff we went through . Remember looking through all the film and seeing the damage . Yeah. When you first went through the film, where was it . It was in the nitrate vaults of culpepper in virginia. Repurposed Federal Reserve cold cash stories for robbing the economy after a Nuclear Disaster which obviously wasnt very useful. They keep it in 40 degree nitra nitrate refrigerated vaults, special spark resistant lights and covers and switches. Its very explosive film. Then you stand in a cement floor with no static usually in its 40 degrees essentially and look at the film. I think this stuff might be right, real. Yeah. I think so too. Actually, the National Archive had made a partial they had just taken the film and shot it and made a tape, but they had no restoration. Parts of it were missing. Parts of it were repeated. I think thats the first place i looked at it just to get an idea of what was there. And then luckily, 16 reels of film film, in this wine cellar that was inherited from a Syndicate Chicago businessman. He couldnt do anything with it, but he got to the afi. There was no commercial value, but they realized the significance of it and offered it to the National Archives. They took it. About half of the film was so badly corrupt by that time excuse me, heres an austrian gun crew. Theyre fivingring a formidable weapon. They were using these against them. What he must have done is bring in some austrian teams with these incredible weapons. This isnt as big as the mortars in belgium, but its a much easier weapon to use and it still does the job. The 30. 5s were a terrible, scary weapon. So the purpose of that for people that dont know what a mortar is . If drops a high shell, high up over, high loft, comes down on a wall and just demolishes it. Then it explodes when it its. Its not just a hard mass that goes through a wall that breaks with the mass of the bullet or the shell. Its an explosion that goes on usually a charge chemical bomb, if you will. Its like dropping a bomb from an airplane. And thats pretty much through. The surrender did take place in the middle of the night or the morning, which is unfortunate for cameramen. There were also attacks before dawn and all the action seemed to take place in the dark, but thats the way it goes. If you see a film they are going over the top trench, you know its enacted. They usually pounded the trench with their artillery first and then after several maybe an hour or two or three then there was a slight pause and they went out in the dark before 6 00 a. M. In the morning or whatever, they went over the top. Then everything opened up. Heres a 42 centimeter gun. They say theres a 42 centimeter gun. I cannot for the life of me see it in there. Its there. Look in the back upper right corner. Youll also see the wounded guys distance being carried in stretchers. I saw the stretchers, but i did not see the gun. See in the back, right behind the helmet, the helmet of the guy . See over its off the screen now. Its going off the screen. I believe you. Heres the pallbearers, the stretcher bearers bringing back the wounded, the closest theyve officially let them get supposedly. And then you have to give credit to the red cross or the medic, unarmed medics that go in there with their satchel. Some of this was shot earlier actually in east prussia because they came up with this system of making trailers behind the ambulances so they could carry more wounded. I have no reason to think these are fake shots, though. Theyre backdroping him off at the field hospital. Actually he never got wounded except for maybe in mexico he had a slight shrapnel wound in the mexican troubles in the knee. But he said he fainted from lack of food, sleep and also the truck you know, you have to get this off the road to the side and let the army get by with their trucks. The fumes were incredible and he got nausious and fainted and he woke up in the field hospital. I think thats valid. Im pretty sure that happened. But he never got shot or wounded in europe. 85,000 russians, 700 guns. It was a huge victory. Pretty well wiped out any organized defense in russian poland. Again, you can see this is a bit of a rainy day. These are russian prisoners . Yes. Except for youll see a fellow with a gun in the german uniform which was escorting him. Didnt look too worried. I dont think the russians were at all interested in theres a german soldier escorting them back. Probably a couple thousand soldiers and maybe a dozen germans. They were just glad to be out of the battle. This is kind of interesting. From his point of view. He shows up where he is going to congratulate his troops. Here is his car. All the correspondents are supposed to be sort of lined up witnessing this. He couldnt stand it and he went running out and started filming and they had a couple of officers yelling at him and he said please. He actually asked permission and they said no, you cant leave the area. But the officer turned to tell someone else to stop smoking. You dont smoke at a keyser review and he took off. Planted the camera and started grinding. It was a little more his feats actually made the cover of the los angeles times. That was the only time that he drew a lot of attention himself for his activities. He said the kaiser kind of winked and waved at him he saluted him on the way back. That part didnt survive. But im pretty sure the kaiser recognized him and saluted and i guess they figured if he didnt acknowledge him, it must be okay. He took his cap off and said much obliged as keysaizew went. As the film is getting close to the end, what is the rest of his career after this . Jim, ill defer to you on that. In 1917 he was sent abroad to be behind a british sector in france. Nothing was published and i think by that time the british hated the journalists as much as germany did but they needed a little bit of pr to keep them neutral. Nothing was published. He came back after about six months in the middle of the year. Soon was entered on the committee for public information. While they were processing his commission, he joined as a First Lieutenant in the cinema group and with a couple of others made a film how well defend ft. Lewis out in the state of washington. Filmed in the rainy Washington Forest and stuff. He faked some wounded people, or whatever, but he starts out with people sitting enjoying a relacked sundrelac relack relaxed sunday family visit. Telephone calls coming in to rile the troops. He also took some film of ships being launched and other similar types of things that would be publicity to show how were getting prepared and ready to fight the war, take the war to the germans. He left after in 1919, about two years in the army. He then became a marketing and promotion guy for a tire company. He ended up, he took the stuts, they sealed the air in the tires and they sent him on a tour in canada and North Eastern u. S. , quite a few thousand miles, and they certified that the tires held up that had been done with this tire was a recapping process that was a more efficient and Better Process that was less expensive. I was just going to say i think he has the good taste to stop showing up in his movie. And just let the images speak for themselves, especially these things, these incredible shots of refugees which, you know, i think the title is all too accurate. A couple of people in the American Red Cross were asked to take a look at the refugee situation in poland and they said what they saw in poland was in infi nitly worse than anything they had seen in belgium. But these he wrote about how bad it was in poland. He he had written quite a bit about the severe shortage. Yeah. When we think about these polish refugees in world war ii but not in world war i. Isnt this what were seeing here . Yeah. The polish and the germans i mean the russians and the german his to blame each. The germans say its the russians fault so they were burning and destroying crops and houses as they retreated. The russians probably will say no, that germans were taking everything like locusts as they headed east. And theres probably truth on both sides. The truth is probably but either way, these are people that are going to pay the bill. These were they had to pack up everything they thought they were going to have in the future to survive with their families. Wait until you see some of the scenes. Theres a great shot coming up. These wagons, its amazing they held together. Theres one here that the wheel is about 45 degrees. Yeah. I think this is the one. Lets see. Yeah. There it is. Yeah. Good luck, buddy. So these are presumably returning to their homes because the russians have been forced to leave . I guess. I think so. Thats not enacted i dont think. Reporte its interesting to know whether they were headed east or west and what difference it would have made. They were just trying to survive. I dont think they cared two hoots for either. Just leave them alone. Do we know anything about how many civilians might have been killed in this part of the or just died of starvation, disease. Again, more people probably died of disease and starvation and what not than necessarily, civilians were talking about, than the front line. I havent seen any real numbers. And these were probably forced off the road to let the army coming. The army was probably coming with a big caravan. This obviously was, i mean, positioned. He probably said would you just stand there for a while and ill film you. But this has got to be real. This is not this is what people had coming up. Theres a leanto. That was what they had. In philadelphia the Pennsylvania State centers required them to remove these portraits at the end fearing that people in the theater would start a fistfight. They also confiscated posters of both of them that were going to be posted around advertising the film. It was announced just before the opening and they didnt have they contested that they were refused so they had to take the film out. Later on it was the center was declared wrong because it was only for morally objectionable material like i think naked ladies and that type of thing. Hes not here and he was not part of our original research, jims and mine, ron, but he has been he has done a Service Project ever since. Hes been sending us stuff he found in a paper. Online and the web thats been posted. He is a web master on finding stuff. I dont know what we would have done without him. Absolutely. Hes done a lot of very good blog spots. Thank you, ron. Sorry youre not here. Definitely, if youre at all interested in this era of film, world war i film, connect to his blog, because the war museums head film archivist says its his favorite blog and thats my compliment. It is indeed. Tweet us, asking about an thash sti issue that still resounds today. How many people were fathered by u. S. Gis. How were they treated 45 years after the u. S. Departure . You could be featured during our next live program. Join the conversation on facebook at facebook. Com cspanhistory. And onsp facebook. Com cspanhistory. Next on American History tv, we look back 40 years to 1988 when president Ronald Reagan and soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev delivered new years delay messages. Three weeks earlier, the two leaders signed the ifn treaty to eliminate intermediate range nuclear missiles. President reagan addressed the soviet people from the white house and general secretary gorbachev addressed the American People from the kremlin. This is about ten minutes. Good evening. This is Ronald Reagan, president of the United States. Im speaking to you, the peoples of the soviet union, on the occasion of the new year. I know that in the soviet union as it is all around the world this is a season of hope and expectation. A