1 00:00:02,400 --> 00:00:11,440 Speaker 1: A federal as a protection of my heart radio. It's 2 00:00:11,480 --> 00:00:15,600 Speaker 1: hard to overstate the impact of the telephone in the 3 00:00:15,680 --> 00:00:20,439 Speaker 1: last hundred and fifty years. This communications technology has altered 4 00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:25,639 Speaker 1: the land, the sky, the makeup of outer space. And 5 00:00:25,720 --> 00:00:29,160 Speaker 1: if you trace the contours of history, you'll often find 6 00:00:29,160 --> 00:00:33,440 Speaker 1: the telephone in places you wouldn't expect. A background character 7 00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:39,040 Speaker 1: in stories inspiring and despicable alike. So I'm not here 8 00:00:39,080 --> 00:00:40,920 Speaker 1: to approve of history. I'm just here to tell you 9 00:00:40,960 --> 00:00:45,479 Speaker 1: the story. This is Elizabeth Copps. I'm Elizabeth Cobbs. I'm 10 00:00:45,520 --> 00:00:49,479 Speaker 1: a historian. Do you want me say Moore? She is 11 00:00:49,880 --> 00:00:54,040 Speaker 1: and was being incredibly modest. So I hold the Melbourne 12 00:00:54,040 --> 00:00:56,920 Speaker 1: glasscock chair in American History at Texas and n the 13 00:00:56,960 --> 00:01:00,240 Speaker 1: author of eight Boom, also a senior fellow at Aford 14 00:01:00,360 --> 00:01:04,200 Speaker 1: University's Hoover Institution, made two documentary films. The PBS was 15 00:01:04,240 --> 00:01:07,280 Speaker 1: on the Historical Advisory Committee of the U. S. State Department. Previously, 16 00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:10,800 Speaker 1: for six years sat the Pulest Surprise Jury for History. 17 00:01:10,840 --> 00:01:12,800 Speaker 1: I always think that sounds I think that sounds more 18 00:01:12,840 --> 00:01:16,760 Speaker 1: impressimate than it was. Well, yeah, I don't ask for 19 00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:20,720 Speaker 1: my CV for the initial spark that would come to 20 00:01:20,760 --> 00:01:24,959 Speaker 1: connect well, almost everything. One has to look back to 21 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:28,920 Speaker 1: the mid nineteen century and a young Scottish American immigrant 22 00:01:29,280 --> 00:01:35,440 Speaker 1: named Alexander Graham Bell. His mother was deaf, and he 23 00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:37,280 Speaker 1: found that he was the only member of his family 24 00:01:37,319 --> 00:01:39,680 Speaker 1: who could really communicate with his mother, especially as her 25 00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:42,080 Speaker 1: hearing got worse and worse and finally went all together. 26 00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:48,080 Speaker 1: He would press his lips to her forehead and talk. 27 00:01:49,280 --> 00:01:54,040 Speaker 1: He became a teacher of elocution, a language teacher, and 28 00:01:54,520 --> 00:01:57,360 Speaker 1: began teaching at a school for the deaf in Boston, 29 00:01:58,440 --> 00:02:01,640 Speaker 1: carrying out his self imposed mission. This interest he had 30 00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:04,920 Speaker 1: going back to his mother's disability, so he had this 31 00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:08,000 Speaker 1: great empathy for people couldn't hear, and he became very 32 00:02:08,040 --> 00:02:12,000 Speaker 1: interested in the way that vibrations communicated electrically. As it 33 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:16,160 Speaker 1: would turn out, it was that interest which led him 34 00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:25,520 Speaker 1: to experiment the telephone, was introduced in eighteen seventy six 35 00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:35,560 Speaker 1: at the Philadelphia Centennial, saying famously, he was talking with 36 00:02:35,600 --> 00:02:40,240 Speaker 1: his assistant, communicating across several rooms, but it was a 37 00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:43,640 Speaker 1: way to link people, to bring humans in contact with 38 00:02:43,639 --> 00:02:51,400 Speaker 1: each other. Initially, it seems like a parlor trick, and 39 00:02:51,480 --> 00:02:56,120 Speaker 1: in fact Bell offered to sell his innovation to Telegraph company. 40 00:02:56,320 --> 00:03:00,000 Speaker 1: Another important job handled quickly and efficiently by Western Union 41 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:02,400 Speaker 1: and Telegram, And they said, oh no, who's going to 42 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:09,280 Speaker 1: use a telephone To people who are in profit making enterprises, 43 00:03:09,320 --> 00:03:12,799 Speaker 1: their loath to spend money on something that seems gimmicky. 44 00:03:12,840 --> 00:03:16,520 Speaker 1: But to the average person, the immediate relevance of this 45 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:21,560 Speaker 1: technology was quite apparent. Within a very short period of time, 46 00:03:21,600 --> 00:03:24,480 Speaker 1: a year or two, people started put together what became 47 00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:28,560 Speaker 1: known as p b X systems, internal telephone systems where 48 00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:34,000 Speaker 1: it's like a closed circuit like the old fashioned hotel, 49 00:03:34,120 --> 00:03:37,760 Speaker 1: where someone is getting calls in at some central exchange, 50 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:43,440 Speaker 1: some central switchboard, and connecting people in rooms or within 51 00:03:43,480 --> 00:03:48,880 Speaker 1: a military base or a company. Good morning. So pb 52 00:03:49,080 --> 00:03:51,480 Speaker 1: X systems were the first ones to get going. But 53 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:56,560 Speaker 1: then right away people started to develop subscription systems. We 54 00:03:56,600 --> 00:03:59,360 Speaker 1: would subscribe to a telephone system and you would be 55 00:03:59,400 --> 00:04:03,360 Speaker 1: able to talk to other mutual subscribers. They wouldn't be 56 00:04:03,440 --> 00:04:06,480 Speaker 1: within your same company, like the PBX system anybody could 57 00:04:06,520 --> 00:04:08,560 Speaker 1: join and could get a subscription, and suddenly you be 58 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:12,000 Speaker 1: talking to all kinds of folks. Now, for that reason, 59 00:04:12,080 --> 00:04:14,720 Speaker 1: a lot of the initial telephone systems you could only 60 00:04:14,760 --> 00:04:18,400 Speaker 1: talk with people within your system. After a dozen or 61 00:04:18,400 --> 00:04:22,280 Speaker 1: so years, there was a universalization of the system. They 62 00:04:22,320 --> 00:04:24,960 Speaker 1: basically put all the systems together. So even if you 63 00:04:25,080 --> 00:04:28,960 Speaker 1: got telephone service from say Verizon, you could call somebody 64 00:04:29,080 --> 00:04:32,839 Speaker 1: who had a T and T American Telephone and Telegraph, 65 00:04:32,960 --> 00:04:37,719 Speaker 1: that is the company that Bell founded. For the first 66 00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:42,080 Speaker 1: half of their history, telephone systems depended on an operator. 67 00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:45,800 Speaker 1: Most of the other parts of the technology are really 68 00:04:45,839 --> 00:04:48,400 Speaker 1: you know, they're technological. Their machines, you set them up, 69 00:04:48,480 --> 00:04:51,640 Speaker 1: you maintain them. They run on their own until they break, 70 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:53,760 Speaker 1: and then if some guy comes in and fixes it right, 71 00:04:54,080 --> 00:04:59,839 Speaker 1: a repair person. But the one human being that was 72 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:03,680 Speaker 1: necessary for every single call to be made in this 73 00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:08,880 Speaker 1: era was the operator operator. This was in a period 74 00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:12,120 Speaker 1: in which telephones didn't have dials, So imagine what they 75 00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:17,279 Speaker 1: called a candlestick phone was like a black candlestick. Really 76 00:05:17,960 --> 00:05:20,320 Speaker 1: at the base there was no dial. So what would 77 00:05:20,360 --> 00:05:23,080 Speaker 1: happen is you would simply lift off the black receiver 78 00:05:23,480 --> 00:05:26,640 Speaker 1: and you would speak into it. And what would happen 79 00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:30,840 Speaker 1: is that by lifting it, it would trigger an electrical charge. 80 00:05:30,920 --> 00:05:34,120 Speaker 1: The act of lifting the receiver would trigger a very 81 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:37,240 Speaker 1: tiny electrical charge which would go down the wire to 82 00:05:37,400 --> 00:05:41,240 Speaker 1: the exchange, the telephone exchange wherever that was, whether it 83 00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:43,440 Speaker 1: was your pb X exchange in the basement of your 84 00:05:43,440 --> 00:05:47,000 Speaker 1: hotel or an exchange across town operated by a T 85 00:05:47,080 --> 00:05:49,880 Speaker 1: and T. Then what would happen is a light would 86 00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:53,480 Speaker 1: come on on the switchboard of the operator, or sometimes 87 00:05:53,520 --> 00:05:56,240 Speaker 1: depending on the way the switchboard was set up, a 88 00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:59,360 Speaker 1: flap would drop down. And that's where our current term 89 00:05:59,360 --> 00:06:01,600 Speaker 1: I dropped call comes from. Switch to the network with 90 00:06:01,680 --> 00:06:05,000 Speaker 1: the fewest dropped calls, So this flap would dropper, the 91 00:06:05,040 --> 00:06:08,760 Speaker 1: light would light up, and the operator would say number please, 92 00:06:09,560 --> 00:06:11,880 Speaker 1: and she would actually try to say the best I 93 00:06:11,960 --> 00:06:14,719 Speaker 1: could because they were trained in a very specific way 94 00:06:14,800 --> 00:06:17,119 Speaker 1: of where your voice goes up and where your voice 95 00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:22,680 Speaker 1: goes down, and how long you pause number me, thank you. 96 00:06:24,200 --> 00:06:27,440 Speaker 1: It was the time of tailorism, where everything is very 97 00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:33,080 Speaker 1: scientifically managed. These operators have been trained to provide curfeus 98 00:06:33,120 --> 00:06:36,599 Speaker 1: and speed easter. They wanted the human beings in a 99 00:06:36,680 --> 00:06:40,320 Speaker 1: way to be as precise as the machines. If you, 100 00:06:40,640 --> 00:06:45,039 Speaker 1: like me, weren't born before the implementation of direct distance dialing, 101 00:06:45,600 --> 00:06:47,839 Speaker 1: that is, you've never picked up a phone and done 102 00:06:47,839 --> 00:06:53,960 Speaker 1: anything besides dial You've probably seen this in films, rooms 103 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:57,080 Speaker 1: crowded with switchboards the size of desks or even walls, 104 00:06:57,880 --> 00:07:01,920 Speaker 1: and cables everywhere, dre over and twisted around one another, 105 00:07:02,400 --> 00:07:07,520 Speaker 1: hands in continuous motion, unplugging and reaching and replugging. Perhaps 106 00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:12,440 Speaker 1: you've also noticed telephone operators are almost exclusively portrayed by women. 107 00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:16,440 Speaker 1: And telegraph services, you would have what they call telegraph 108 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:19,880 Speaker 1: boys now often young men, and they would hear the 109 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:22,880 Speaker 1: Morse code and they would transcribe the message and then 110 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:25,120 Speaker 1: the message would be run by a messenger over to 111 00:07:25,480 --> 00:07:28,720 Speaker 1: where it was going. And of course telegraphs are very 112 00:07:28,720 --> 00:07:33,000 Speaker 1: clumsy for that reason, because it's not a spontaneous communications, 113 00:07:32,840 --> 00:07:37,600 Speaker 1: it's a process. So when they first started using telephones 114 00:07:37,640 --> 00:07:40,040 Speaker 1: and they needed operators to switch the calls, you know, 115 00:07:40,120 --> 00:07:42,360 Speaker 1: to take one call incoming and switch it to the 116 00:07:42,400 --> 00:07:44,680 Speaker 1: correct plug which would take it to the right person, 117 00:07:45,240 --> 00:07:47,520 Speaker 1: they initially tried using young men and they found out 118 00:07:47,520 --> 00:07:52,280 Speaker 1: a couple of problems. These boys were just not that polite. 119 00:07:52,680 --> 00:07:57,360 Speaker 1: They didn't say things like number please. They did feel 120 00:07:57,400 --> 00:08:00,840 Speaker 1: that the women just provided more consistent serve. This they 121 00:08:00,840 --> 00:08:05,360 Speaker 1: were more consumer friendly. But more importantly, women were really 122 00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:17,920 Speaker 1: good at it. Long distance, long distance, long distance. It 123 00:08:18,120 --> 00:08:21,400 Speaker 1: was a very high paced, very stressful job with a 124 00:08:21,440 --> 00:08:25,560 Speaker 1: lot of multitasking involved. To use some kind of modern term, 125 00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:28,400 Speaker 1: words are coming in your ear, you're talking to somebody else, 126 00:08:28,440 --> 00:08:31,080 Speaker 1: You're checking the wires to make sure that other people 127 00:08:31,080 --> 00:08:33,679 Speaker 1: have completed their calls. You're also making notes about how 128 00:08:33,679 --> 00:08:35,360 Speaker 1: long the call last is, because you're going to charge 129 00:08:35,360 --> 00:08:37,719 Speaker 1: the customer based on how long the call lasted, note 130 00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:39,800 Speaker 1: where the call went to. And you're doing this with 131 00:08:39,880 --> 00:08:42,720 Speaker 1: a board of fifty calls that are coming in all 132 00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:46,240 Speaker 1: at the same time. One woman described looking at these 133 00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:49,280 Speaker 1: women's hands was like looking at hummingbirds darting all around, 134 00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:53,560 Speaker 1: and you are being very polite the whole time, and 135 00:08:53,600 --> 00:08:58,440 Speaker 1: you are never ever ever losing your temper for some reason. 136 00:08:58,520 --> 00:09:02,320 Speaker 1: And when were just really good at this. A lot 137 00:09:02,360 --> 00:09:04,480 Speaker 1: of men resisted the job too, because it was so 138 00:09:04,600 --> 00:09:07,240 Speaker 1: identified with women. By this point, it was almost kind 139 00:09:07,280 --> 00:09:10,520 Speaker 1: of a sex segregated occupation. Men who worked in the 140 00:09:10,520 --> 00:09:14,040 Speaker 1: telephone offices in the United States were almost always exclusively 141 00:09:14,040 --> 00:09:17,480 Speaker 1: the supervisors, because men were considered very good at supervisor women, 142 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:20,040 Speaker 1: but they were not very good at the phones themselves. 143 00:09:20,360 --> 00:09:25,200 Speaker 1: They can't understand it word you're saying, oh boy, well, 144 00:09:25,240 --> 00:09:30,520 Speaker 1: congratulations in the nineteen ten telephone operation was one of 145 00:09:30,559 --> 00:09:34,880 Speaker 1: a rather limited number of professions available to women. Women's 146 00:09:34,960 --> 00:09:38,880 Speaker 1: rights had actually improved some they had women could own property, 147 00:09:38,920 --> 00:09:42,560 Speaker 1: oh my gosh, and they could sign contracts, and the 148 00:09:42,640 --> 00:09:45,480 Speaker 1: age of consent of marriage had been moved up from 149 00:09:45,520 --> 00:09:50,960 Speaker 1: ten to about sixteen, and most states so big strides, 150 00:09:52,160 --> 00:09:55,920 Speaker 1: big strides. And yet women didn't have elemental political rights. 151 00:09:56,720 --> 00:10:00,000 Speaker 1: You were defined by the man in your life. Literally, 152 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:04,439 Speaker 1: really your nationality was defined by his They couldn't vote, 153 00:10:04,440 --> 00:10:07,719 Speaker 1: of course, the right to vote in particular was opposed 154 00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:11,320 Speaker 1: because people thought that it would make women less womanly, 155 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:16,160 Speaker 1: that you would lose your girls status or something, and 156 00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:18,480 Speaker 1: that men would be less manly, and so you can't 157 00:10:18,520 --> 00:10:22,199 Speaker 1: have that. The other reason was that government, in its 158 00:10:22,280 --> 00:10:26,640 Speaker 1: most elemental way, it's about the physical defense of the nation. 159 00:10:26,840 --> 00:10:30,199 Speaker 1: That's what governments do. They defend the people. And if 160 00:10:30,240 --> 00:10:33,160 Speaker 1: you can't pick up a gun and be a soldier, 161 00:10:33,559 --> 00:10:36,440 Speaker 1: well then you really shouldn't be in government. That one 162 00:10:36,520 --> 00:10:40,160 Speaker 1: is kind of the extension of the other. The interesting 163 00:10:40,200 --> 00:10:43,280 Speaker 1: thing about women's soldiers is that one of the things 164 00:10:43,280 --> 00:10:46,320 Speaker 1: they helped to prove is that women can defend their government. 165 00:10:48,320 --> 00:10:52,160 Speaker 1: In nineteen fourteen is were erupted across Europe, the world's 166 00:10:52,240 --> 00:10:57,679 Speaker 1: largest neutral national pledged not to get involved. I know 167 00:10:57,760 --> 00:11:00,640 Speaker 1: the United States is the world's largest neutral nation. Well, 168 00:11:00,679 --> 00:11:02,520 Speaker 1: it is hard to imagine now, but it was true 169 00:11:02,559 --> 00:11:05,680 Speaker 1: historically for most of our history, only until about seventy 170 00:11:05,760 --> 00:11:11,040 Speaker 1: years ago. The United States had a longstanding of policy 171 00:11:11,200 --> 00:11:15,920 Speaker 1: that went back to George Washington's farewell address, where he 172 00:11:16,320 --> 00:11:18,880 Speaker 1: said it should be the great rule of the United States, 173 00:11:19,679 --> 00:11:24,360 Speaker 1: um paraphrasing now, to not intervene in other people's quarrels. Yes, 174 00:11:24,640 --> 00:11:27,760 Speaker 1: the United States defended itself and sometimes attacked others, but 175 00:11:28,360 --> 00:11:31,680 Speaker 1: it was always explicitly because of something that was in 176 00:11:31,720 --> 00:11:36,880 Speaker 1: our national interest. So the idea of intervening in other 177 00:11:36,920 --> 00:11:40,600 Speaker 1: people's quarrels to help them resolve their problems was not 178 00:11:40,720 --> 00:11:44,440 Speaker 1: something we had ever done. Woodrow Wilson initially said, this 179 00:11:44,520 --> 00:11:46,720 Speaker 1: is a far away thing with which we have nothing 180 00:11:46,760 --> 00:11:49,520 Speaker 1: to do. It can't touch us, which in a way 181 00:11:49,520 --> 00:11:52,640 Speaker 1: he was really right. The United States has always been 182 00:11:53,160 --> 00:11:55,920 Speaker 1: benefited by the fact that we had these giant oceans. 183 00:11:56,160 --> 00:11:58,400 Speaker 1: In fact, that's one reason why people do look to us, 184 00:11:58,520 --> 00:12:02,040 Speaker 1: is because we're kind of a global last wild place, 185 00:12:02,160 --> 00:12:04,599 Speaker 1: so to make you know, we're less likely to be 186 00:12:04,640 --> 00:12:09,760 Speaker 1: attacked than anybody else. But in April of nineteen seventeen, 187 00:12:10,280 --> 00:12:12,680 Speaker 1: the United States broke with over one hundred years of 188 00:12:12,679 --> 00:12:17,480 Speaker 1: tradition and declared war on Germany. So once the United 189 00:12:17,520 --> 00:12:19,679 Speaker 1: States declared war, then there's a question of how do 190 00:12:19,720 --> 00:12:21,440 Speaker 1: you go about it. The United States had never been 191 00:12:21,480 --> 00:12:24,520 Speaker 1: in a major foreign war, had never had allies in 192 00:12:24,559 --> 00:12:27,480 Speaker 1: a war before. Rather than when the French allied with 193 00:12:27,559 --> 00:12:32,080 Speaker 1: us to help us get our revolution through, the man 194 00:12:32,120 --> 00:12:36,240 Speaker 1: they tapped for this difficult job was decorated General John Pershing. 195 00:12:36,760 --> 00:12:40,120 Speaker 1: A new kind of a war is leif in the world. 196 00:12:41,080 --> 00:12:45,680 Speaker 1: General John Pershing was a kind of man from central casting, 197 00:12:45,760 --> 00:12:50,319 Speaker 1: you know, square jaw, tall, steely blue eyes looking off 198 00:12:50,320 --> 00:12:53,360 Speaker 1: into the distance. He was also a very competent officer. 199 00:12:53,520 --> 00:12:56,560 Speaker 1: He had served in the West in command of a 200 00:12:56,679 --> 00:13:00,640 Speaker 1: group of African American soldiers which were nicknamed buff those soldiers. 201 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:04,880 Speaker 1: He had served in the Spanish American War. He had 202 00:13:04,880 --> 00:13:08,320 Speaker 1: actually led the famous Persian expedition to try to nab 203 00:13:08,480 --> 00:13:11,720 Speaker 1: Poncho Villa from Mexico when ponto Via tech the United States. 204 00:13:11,760 --> 00:13:15,720 Speaker 1: By the way, Poncho Villa escapes when he finished grammar 205 00:13:15,760 --> 00:13:18,120 Speaker 1: school and got his high school diploma. He didn't have 206 00:13:18,160 --> 00:13:19,920 Speaker 1: a job, and he so he i took a job 207 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:22,679 Speaker 1: teaching at as would have been described at the time 208 00:13:22,920 --> 00:13:26,679 Speaker 1: a school for colored children. Later, when he was a 209 00:13:26,760 --> 00:13:30,040 Speaker 1: drill instructor at West Point, he was taunted because he 210 00:13:30,160 --> 00:13:33,320 Speaker 1: had led black troops. West Point, of course at that 211 00:13:33,400 --> 00:13:36,640 Speaker 1: time all white, all male, and the white cadets didn't 212 00:13:36,679 --> 00:13:38,559 Speaker 1: like him, and so they thought they would get back 213 00:13:38,600 --> 00:13:43,559 Speaker 1: at him, and he got a nickname. Later, this derogatory 214 00:13:43,640 --> 00:13:47,240 Speaker 1: nickname was commuted to black Jack. He was known as 215 00:13:47,240 --> 00:13:51,320 Speaker 1: Blackjack for the rest of his entire career. We often 216 00:13:51,320 --> 00:13:54,400 Speaker 1: think of the military as a conservative institution, but it's 217 00:13:54,440 --> 00:13:57,080 Speaker 1: also the case that when people are trying to kill you, 218 00:13:57,800 --> 00:14:00,600 Speaker 1: that you generally want the person at yours side on 219 00:14:00,679 --> 00:14:04,320 Speaker 1: your side who is best at their job. And I 220 00:14:04,360 --> 00:14:06,559 Speaker 1: think that that's what Blackjack was like. He was somebody 221 00:14:06,559 --> 00:14:08,800 Speaker 1: who recognized that people could be very good at their 222 00:14:08,880 --> 00:14:11,400 Speaker 1: jobs and they should be respected for that, and a 223 00:14:11,440 --> 00:14:15,360 Speaker 1: place made for them on how to build and install 224 00:14:15,400 --> 00:14:19,000 Speaker 1: a US Army abroad. Pershing was largely given carte blanche. 225 00:14:19,680 --> 00:14:23,240 Speaker 1: He shipped out in June of v arrived in England 226 00:14:23,400 --> 00:14:26,760 Speaker 1: and made his way to France. Pershing when he first 227 00:14:26,800 --> 00:14:29,720 Speaker 1: gets there, is largely setting up what's going to happen, 228 00:14:30,360 --> 00:14:32,560 Speaker 1: and the dough boys as they're called, don't really begin 229 00:14:32,720 --> 00:14:44,520 Speaker 1: arriving in numbers until the spring. He takes by the 230 00:14:44,560 --> 00:14:47,160 Speaker 1: way with him telephone equipment, knowing that the French have 231 00:14:47,360 --> 00:14:51,560 Speaker 1: very little, very good telephone equipment. Telephones have been invented here, 232 00:14:51,840 --> 00:14:55,040 Speaker 1: so all of the best telecommunications technologies on this side 233 00:14:55,080 --> 00:14:57,120 Speaker 1: of the Atlantic, so they take some of that with 234 00:14:57,160 --> 00:14:59,680 Speaker 1: them in the first ship that sales they get over 235 00:14:59,680 --> 00:15:03,000 Speaker 1: to us, and they spend about five six months just 236 00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:04,960 Speaker 1: sort of setting up and figuring out what they're gonna do. 237 00:15:04,960 --> 00:15:07,000 Speaker 1: And one of the things that becomes really clear early 238 00:15:07,040 --> 00:15:09,480 Speaker 1: on is that they cannot dog on it make a 239 00:15:09,600 --> 00:15:15,040 Speaker 1: dang telephone call. The army is operating largely p b 240 00:15:15,320 --> 00:15:18,360 Speaker 1: X boards, but to get outside the Army to call 241 00:15:18,400 --> 00:15:21,400 Speaker 1: anywhere else, you have to connect with the local exchange. 242 00:15:21,880 --> 00:15:25,720 Speaker 1: The local exchange is run by a French person and 243 00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:28,960 Speaker 1: they all speak believe it or not, they all speak French. 244 00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:33,720 Speaker 1: So one of the problems for these American der boys 245 00:15:33,920 --> 00:15:37,280 Speaker 1: is that they're connecting with French operators, they can't speak 246 00:15:37,320 --> 00:15:40,560 Speaker 1: the language and The other problem too, is that men 247 00:15:40,680 --> 00:15:45,920 Speaker 1: just have not proved very good at this job. In 248 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:50,560 Speaker 1: November of nineteen seventeen, Pershing sends a memo back home, 249 00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:53,560 Speaker 1: and he says, I have got to have women operators. 250 00:15:53,840 --> 00:15:55,640 Speaker 1: Get them to France as soon as you can, make 251 00:15:55,680 --> 00:15:58,600 Speaker 1: sure they're in uniform, put them under command, and get 252 00:15:58,640 --> 00:16:02,960 Speaker 1: them over here. So immediately the War Department sends out 253 00:16:02,960 --> 00:16:06,240 Speaker 1: press releases all over the country saying we want women operators. 254 00:16:06,480 --> 00:16:10,080 Speaker 1: Women are needed to go over there. To quote that 255 00:16:10,120 --> 00:16:22,640 Speaker 1: George M. Cohen song, What was put out was that 256 00:16:22,680 --> 00:16:26,040 Speaker 1: women were needed as soldiers. Women would serve in uniform, 257 00:16:26,200 --> 00:16:29,320 Speaker 1: They should leave their civilian garb at home. They would 258 00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:31,800 Speaker 1: be subject to the same military discipline as the men, 259 00:16:32,440 --> 00:16:35,240 Speaker 1: making the same kind of contribution, as important a contribution 260 00:16:35,240 --> 00:16:37,240 Speaker 1: as even men who went over the top, because they 261 00:16:37,600 --> 00:16:39,920 Speaker 1: said over the tops of the trenches in New Orleans 262 00:16:44,280 --> 00:16:47,280 Speaker 1: be getting In early December of nineteen they are all 263 00:16:47,320 --> 00:16:50,120 Speaker 1: these newspapers all around the country, you know, from from 264 00:16:50,120 --> 00:16:55,360 Speaker 1: Atlanta to Seattle, Washington asking women to volunteer. Seventies si 265 00:16:55,520 --> 00:16:59,920 Speaker 1: hundred women volunteer for the first one positions, so seventh 266 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:03,400 Speaker 1: thous and six women volunteer. They do it so fast 267 00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:05,440 Speaker 1: the army doesn't even have applications, so then it takes 268 00:17:05,480 --> 00:17:08,320 Speaker 1: him a few weeks to get that on board. One 269 00:17:08,320 --> 00:17:10,360 Speaker 1: of the things is that they had to speak French 270 00:17:10,640 --> 00:17:15,800 Speaker 1: without hesitation. They had to be able to simultaneously translate. Pronunciation, 271 00:17:15,840 --> 00:17:17,879 Speaker 1: have to be very very good. They had to be 272 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:20,240 Speaker 1: very quick witted, They had to be very good listeners. 273 00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:24,080 Speaker 1: They had to be just very adept physically. At these operations. 274 00:17:25,040 --> 00:17:27,120 Speaker 1: They did sort of assume anybody who had all those 275 00:17:27,160 --> 00:17:31,159 Speaker 1: kind of native characteristics could be taught telephone operating, and 276 00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:34,000 Speaker 1: so they also trained them in that, and some people 277 00:17:34,040 --> 00:17:36,760 Speaker 1: washed out of that. In the end, they did get 278 00:17:36,760 --> 00:17:39,920 Speaker 1: the people who were their very best, whether by natural 279 00:17:39,960 --> 00:17:48,199 Speaker 1: aptitude you're by practice. The keenness of American citizens to 280 00:17:48,280 --> 00:17:51,680 Speaker 1: volunteer for the war effort speaks volumes about the attitudes 281 00:17:51,720 --> 00:17:55,520 Speaker 1: of the time. There was really a sense of public service. 282 00:17:55,560 --> 00:17:58,400 Speaker 1: The idea was that you were to do for your government. 283 00:17:58,440 --> 00:18:00,480 Speaker 1: It wasn't what your government was to do for you. 284 00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:04,560 Speaker 1: The notion that America was a democracy, that it was 285 00:18:04,960 --> 00:18:09,160 Speaker 1: this government was its people was still a very present sentiment. 286 00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:13,320 Speaker 1: Funds and daughters of pioneers, cousins of the people, who 287 00:18:13,320 --> 00:18:16,800 Speaker 1: built America, especially because there was no professional army, or 288 00:18:16,840 --> 00:18:20,400 Speaker 1: a very tiny one, so if the nation needed defending, 289 00:18:20,480 --> 00:18:23,560 Speaker 1: it meant, well, gosh, it's up to us. It's our nation. 290 00:18:23,600 --> 00:18:37,400 Speaker 1: We're the ones who've got to do this. And almost 291 00:18:37,440 --> 00:18:40,960 Speaker 1: five hundred switchboard operators had become the first female soldiers 292 00:18:41,080 --> 00:18:44,200 Speaker 1: of the U. S. Army. Two and twenty six would 293 00:18:44,200 --> 00:18:48,000 Speaker 1: cross the Atlantic with the Signal Corps. Women served in 294 00:18:48,080 --> 00:18:51,320 Speaker 1: myriad other capacities for the war effort. The U. S. 295 00:18:51,400 --> 00:18:54,280 Speaker 1: Navy enlisted women for the first time to serve domestically. 296 00:18:55,040 --> 00:18:57,919 Speaker 1: Red Cross nurses and y m c A volunteers risked 297 00:18:57,920 --> 00:19:01,800 Speaker 1: life and limb abroad. But the Hello Girls, as these 298 00:19:01,800 --> 00:19:07,479 Speaker 1: operators would be called, we're special. They have been vetted 299 00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:11,560 Speaker 1: by the army. They have been investigated repeatedly by Army intelligence. 300 00:19:11,720 --> 00:19:13,640 Speaker 1: Because keep in mind, these people are going to be 301 00:19:13,880 --> 00:19:18,560 Speaker 1: handling national secrets literally in their hands, and through their headsets, 302 00:19:19,240 --> 00:19:21,040 Speaker 1: they can hear every command that's going to go out, 303 00:19:21,040 --> 00:19:25,879 Speaker 1: because in World War One almost all commands retreat fire. 304 00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:30,959 Speaker 1: The actual business end of war is handled by the telephone, 305 00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:36,080 Speaker 1: and through telephone operators. One of the most important persons 306 00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:38,800 Speaker 1: is Grace Banker, who was a twenty five year old woman. 307 00:19:39,080 --> 00:19:41,640 Speaker 1: She had been a telephone supervisor in New York City, 308 00:19:42,200 --> 00:19:46,119 Speaker 1: recent college graduate of Barnard College, all women's college associated 309 00:19:46,119 --> 00:19:50,160 Speaker 1: with Columbia University, which didn't yet admit women. One week 310 00:19:50,240 --> 00:19:52,639 Speaker 1: she applies to go into the signal Corps and she 311 00:19:52,680 --> 00:19:54,520 Speaker 1: doesn't hear back, and she writes them again a week 312 00:19:54,600 --> 00:19:56,400 Speaker 1: later and says, you know, I hope you didn't lose 313 00:19:56,440 --> 00:20:00,520 Speaker 1: my letter. And then the week after that she's inducted 314 00:20:00,520 --> 00:20:02,440 Speaker 1: and fingerprinted and told, oh, actually you're gonna be in 315 00:20:02,520 --> 00:20:06,359 Speaker 1: charge of the first contingent. There had never been women soldiers, 316 00:20:06,359 --> 00:20:09,320 Speaker 1: so there weren't women officers. So they immediately looked around 317 00:20:09,320 --> 00:20:11,479 Speaker 1: and said, okay, well you know who might be officer material. 318 00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:13,480 Speaker 1: And here's a young woman who's done this very rare 319 00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:16,160 Speaker 1: thing at the time, which is to become a college graduate. 320 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:32,640 Speaker 1: It's the blame of old Montana Little, the cowboy girl, 321 00:20:32,720 --> 00:20:38,920 Speaker 1: Amana Bell, the Golden Well. Grace. Banker's good friend Merle 322 00:20:38,960 --> 00:20:42,239 Speaker 1: Egan was from Montana. They didn't know each other they 323 00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:44,399 Speaker 1: met going in, but they could be paying good friends. 324 00:20:45,040 --> 00:20:49,399 Speaker 1: She always described yourself as stubborn gal. I also have 325 00:20:49,520 --> 00:20:52,560 Speaker 1: I have a particular weakness for I might say Louise 326 00:20:52,640 --> 00:20:55,600 Speaker 1: and Raymond le Breton, this was oh you too too. 327 00:20:55,760 --> 00:20:58,119 Speaker 1: They were the sisters who were just you know, they 328 00:20:58,160 --> 00:21:00,879 Speaker 1: were well, they weren't very truthful at times. They lied 329 00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:05,640 Speaker 1: like a rug. They wanted to get in the war. 330 00:21:05,960 --> 00:21:10,199 Speaker 1: They were French descent, they spoke French fluently. Louise was 331 00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:12,240 Speaker 1: eighteen and she told the army she was twenty one, 332 00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:15,080 Speaker 1: and her sister Remoaned was sixteen and told the army 333 00:21:15,200 --> 00:21:19,920 Speaker 1: she was eighteen when Army intelligence interviewed them. As all 334 00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:23,640 Speaker 1: these women were interviewed multiple times, Army intelligence reports wrote back, 335 00:21:23,640 --> 00:21:26,040 Speaker 1: and of course I saw the reports in their personnel files. 336 00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:28,879 Speaker 1: They're very mature for their ages. We think they're going 337 00:21:28,920 --> 00:21:32,159 Speaker 1: to do very well. They were very mature for the 338 00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:36,280 Speaker 1: ages they had lied about. There were others. There were 339 00:21:36,320 --> 00:21:39,440 Speaker 1: just so many wonderful women with all these crazy nicknames 340 00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:42,800 Speaker 1: for each other's like you know, there was Esther Tutsie 341 00:21:42,840 --> 00:21:47,320 Speaker 1: to you Tutsie Frisnell, and Suzanne Prevo who was known 342 00:21:47,359 --> 00:21:50,320 Speaker 1: as the wild Cat. And it's funny. I think often 343 00:21:50,320 --> 00:21:52,560 Speaker 1: we look back and people from previous generations and we 344 00:21:52,600 --> 00:21:54,760 Speaker 1: assumed that they were all just kind of prudish and 345 00:21:55,240 --> 00:21:57,879 Speaker 1: that they were all just very staid and sedate and 346 00:21:58,320 --> 00:22:00,960 Speaker 1: never uttered cuss words. Since things and they were different, 347 00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:03,520 Speaker 1: their values were different, but they were just as young 348 00:22:03,600 --> 00:22:07,239 Speaker 1: and vibrant as any millennial, doing what they believed in, 349 00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:09,320 Speaker 1: doing what they loved, you know, wanting to be a 350 00:22:09,359 --> 00:22:13,920 Speaker 1: part of the wider world. While the women, by the way, 351 00:22:13,960 --> 00:22:17,920 Speaker 1: were being inducted and trained and shipped to France. Internally, 352 00:22:18,160 --> 00:22:21,240 Speaker 1: in the army's own internal administration, there was a conversation 353 00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:24,160 Speaker 1: that went on for about five months where the army 354 00:22:24,280 --> 00:22:26,440 Speaker 1: ultimately says, you know what, we're going to consider them 355 00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:30,760 Speaker 1: contract workers. So although the army gave them no contracts 356 00:22:31,040 --> 00:22:33,200 Speaker 1: and in fact had them where the same oath as 357 00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:36,119 Speaker 1: all of the men swore who were inducted, the women 358 00:22:36,160 --> 00:22:39,280 Speaker 1: never knew that the Army, at least internally and its 359 00:22:39,359 --> 00:22:43,000 Speaker 1: upper bureaucracies, did not see them as full soldiers. The 360 00:22:43,040 --> 00:22:49,600 Speaker 1: women thought they were, Let's be clear, they were. In 361 00:22:49,800 --> 00:22:53,480 Speaker 1: early March of the first contingent of thirty three women 362 00:22:53,640 --> 00:22:56,439 Speaker 1: ship out. They all went to France, which itself was 363 00:22:56,480 --> 00:22:59,119 Speaker 1: a little dicey because you know, your ship could be 364 00:22:59,160 --> 00:23:01,320 Speaker 1: sunk at any moment. They're on constant alert until they 365 00:23:01,359 --> 00:23:04,760 Speaker 1: get to England. You're wearing your life jacket even to bed. 366 00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:09,800 Speaker 1: When they arrive, Paris itself is under bombardment. The first 367 00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:11,560 Speaker 1: night they're there, they have to go down into the 368 00:23:11,560 --> 00:23:15,320 Speaker 1: bomb shelters because there's incoming from the German artillery, which 369 00:23:15,359 --> 00:23:21,880 Speaker 1: is now within twenty miles of Paris. It's rainy, it's cold, 370 00:23:22,160 --> 00:23:26,040 Speaker 1: it's freezing. They walk out to work and the mud 371 00:23:26,119 --> 00:23:27,679 Speaker 1: is so deep that they have to put where they 372 00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:31,520 Speaker 1: called duck boards over the muck. Once the battles start, 373 00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:35,560 Speaker 1: they're working sometimes around the clock. There's bombs going off, 374 00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:40,040 Speaker 1: there's artillery concussions are shaking their boards. When the German 375 00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:44,360 Speaker 1: guns got so close the windows would blow out. At 376 00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:46,640 Speaker 1: one point the group of men Russian and tell the women, 377 00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:48,199 Speaker 1: you've got to get out, and the women say we 378 00:23:48,240 --> 00:23:51,520 Speaker 1: will as soon as you do. You're not getting handed 379 00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:55,119 Speaker 1: night towards the end of the war, at one point 380 00:23:55,560 --> 00:23:57,680 Speaker 1: the women were and the men were in these very 381 00:23:57,760 --> 00:24:00,439 Speaker 1: flimsy wooden barracks that look more or less like chicken 382 00:24:00,480 --> 00:24:03,000 Speaker 1: coops that the French had left behind after the Battle 383 00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:06,080 Speaker 1: of Redunda, that they move into and operate. They both 384 00:24:06,119 --> 00:24:08,359 Speaker 1: sleep in them, and their telephone equipment is in them, 385 00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:11,040 Speaker 1: and they messed together, meaning they have breakfast, lunch, and 386 00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:14,240 Speaker 1: dinner together, the women and the men, the officers. The 387 00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:16,560 Speaker 1: prison of work Hampan is right next door to and 388 00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:19,640 Speaker 1: the army field evacuation hospitals right next door, so they 389 00:24:19,680 --> 00:24:22,280 Speaker 1: see all the people coming back torn apart. In fact, 390 00:24:22,280 --> 00:24:24,560 Speaker 1: in their spirit time, the women often went into the 391 00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:27,239 Speaker 1: hospitals to talk to the men because it was very 392 00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:29,920 Speaker 1: cheering to the men to see an American woman a face, 393 00:24:30,119 --> 00:24:32,880 Speaker 1: you know, to hold their hands as they're dying, and 394 00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:34,879 Speaker 1: it was They didn't write about it a lot, but 395 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:37,920 Speaker 1: they were that's what they were doing. Um you know, 396 00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:40,200 Speaker 1: they had these descriptions they wrote in their diaries. So 397 00:24:40,359 --> 00:24:42,640 Speaker 1: these scenes they saw in those hospitals, which is one, 398 00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:45,000 Speaker 1: as Grace Banker said, would make a pacifist of anyone, 399 00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:48,840 Speaker 1: and she was a soldier. At one point, the German 400 00:24:48,840 --> 00:24:51,960 Speaker 1: prisoner of work knocks over an oil stove and their 401 00:24:52,080 --> 00:24:55,000 Speaker 1: barracks goes up in flanks. The women lose all of 402 00:24:55,040 --> 00:24:58,840 Speaker 1: their possessions, and right next door they're connecting telephone calls 403 00:24:59,200 --> 00:25:01,320 Speaker 1: in a very we're building me out of the same 404 00:25:01,480 --> 00:25:04,840 Speaker 1: chicken cook got of construction and it starts filling with smoke. 405 00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:08,320 Speaker 1: They refused to leave, and the men or climb on 406 00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:10,120 Speaker 1: top of the building are pouring water on it, trying 407 00:25:10,119 --> 00:25:13,399 Speaker 1: to preserve obviously not only the women, but also this equipment, 408 00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:17,040 Speaker 1: because this American made equipment is not available anywhere else 409 00:25:17,040 --> 00:25:19,960 Speaker 1: in the world, has been brought across the ocean for 410 00:25:20,040 --> 00:25:24,280 Speaker 1: this very purpose. Finally, the situation is too dire and 411 00:25:24,320 --> 00:25:26,359 Speaker 1: they tell the women to get out. We're now ordering 412 00:25:26,359 --> 00:25:29,480 Speaker 1: you to get out. They pull out the equipment into 413 00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:34,080 Speaker 1: the nearby field. Somehow they managed to get the fire out, 414 00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:37,040 Speaker 1: put the equipment back in, and they start up operating 415 00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:40,840 Speaker 1: again within half an hour. I mentioned half an hour 416 00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:43,520 Speaker 1: because General George Squire later reported to Congress that in 417 00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:47,760 Speaker 1: a modern war, if communications meaning basically the telephone goes 418 00:25:47,800 --> 00:25:51,919 Speaker 1: down for even an hour, the whole military machine collapses. 419 00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:54,879 Speaker 1: So they were only down for thirty minutes, and the 420 00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:59,639 Speaker 1: women felt pretty proud about that. A renaissance of human engineering. 421 00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:03,160 Speaker 1: The First World War one of the deadliest in history. 422 00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:07,760 Speaker 1: It's the first war of the Industrial Revolution. It's the 423 00:26:07,840 --> 00:26:12,120 Speaker 1: first technological war. So all the amazing cool stuff that's 424 00:26:12,119 --> 00:26:15,320 Speaker 1: been invented in the nineteenth century gets applied to killing 425 00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:21,440 Speaker 1: other human beings, planes and motorized transport and rapid fire 426 00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:26,159 Speaker 1: guns and telephones. This is the first big war with 427 00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:34,880 Speaker 1: modern communications. Unreliable wartime communication dated back to antiquity smoke signals, 428 00:26:35,560 --> 00:26:42,679 Speaker 1: passenger pigel flags, lights and sales signaling. Each had their drawbacks. 429 00:26:44,119 --> 00:26:46,680 Speaker 1: People think, well, radio that was the hot new technology, 430 00:26:46,880 --> 00:26:49,600 Speaker 1: and it was, but it was very clumsy. It took 431 00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:53,760 Speaker 1: three mules to drag a radio set to the field. 432 00:26:55,040 --> 00:26:59,879 Speaker 1: Radio transmissions were wireless and so therefore they can be intercepted. 433 00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:03,400 Speaker 1: And also if there are a lot of messages coming 434 00:27:03,400 --> 00:27:05,879 Speaker 1: from one area, even if you couldn't decode it, you 435 00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:07,720 Speaker 1: at least know that a lot of messages are coming 436 00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:11,000 Speaker 1: from this one place, which means its headquarters. The other 437 00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:14,080 Speaker 1: problem with radios is that they as a form of communication, 438 00:27:14,119 --> 00:27:17,280 Speaker 1: they did not yet carry voices. So radios at this 439 00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:22,560 Speaker 1: time were a form of wireless telegraph. It was Morse code, 440 00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:28,160 Speaker 1: so it required someone to decode the radio transmission. So 441 00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:35,560 Speaker 1: the telephone is amazing. Anybody can talk the other person 442 00:27:35,640 --> 00:27:39,160 Speaker 1: hears immediately what's being said and understands it. It's wired, 443 00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:41,520 Speaker 1: which means that if you want to intercept a call, 444 00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:44,359 Speaker 1: you have to find these specific wire which goes to 445 00:27:44,560 --> 00:27:48,320 Speaker 1: these specific place and then tap into it. Now, even 446 00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:50,600 Speaker 1: the tapping into it would create a kind of funny 447 00:27:50,680 --> 00:27:53,960 Speaker 1: sound on the wires, and experienced operader could often tell. 448 00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:58,400 Speaker 1: And the other thing is that it was easy and lightweight. 449 00:27:59,200 --> 00:28:01,800 Speaker 1: You could put wire in a spindle and run it 450 00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:04,919 Speaker 1: out across the battlefield. The best method is to carry 451 00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:08,320 Speaker 1: the reel and dust the wire. You go jumping craters 452 00:28:08,359 --> 00:28:10,560 Speaker 1: and getting to the other side, and making sure that 453 00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:15,199 Speaker 1: your men have communication all times back home. This method 454 00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:17,560 Speaker 1: is the bathest of all where it can be used. 455 00:28:18,440 --> 00:28:21,600 Speaker 1: A T and T put whole battalions of men in France, 456 00:28:21,720 --> 00:28:25,159 Speaker 1: a T and T line workers and supervisors and engineers. 457 00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:29,120 Speaker 1: They all went together as what we're called the bell battalions, 458 00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:37,119 Speaker 1: and the diamond wish at the center of it. All 459 00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:40,640 Speaker 1: all that wire and all that equipment. It doesn't mean 460 00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:45,000 Speaker 1: anything if you do not have an operator. In her 461 00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:49,320 Speaker 1: book on the Hello Girls, Elizabeth writes telephones became the 462 00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:53,320 Speaker 1: central nervous system of the U. S. Army switchboards where 463 00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:57,360 Speaker 1: its synapsis. The Army did have to use men sometimes, 464 00:28:57,440 --> 00:29:00,440 Speaker 1: and they found that it took the average infantrymen sixty 465 00:29:00,520 --> 00:29:03,600 Speaker 1: seconds to complete a call. It took the average woman 466 00:29:03,880 --> 00:29:07,800 Speaker 1: ten seconds, So in war time, the difference between sixty 467 00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:11,680 Speaker 1: seconds and ten seconds is the difference between living or 468 00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:16,840 Speaker 1: getting your head blown off. Even after the US officially 469 00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:20,400 Speaker 1: entered the conflict, more than a year passed before American 470 00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:25,960 Speaker 1: troops engaged in combat. General Pershing felt that the most 471 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:28,960 Speaker 1: significant blow to German morale and to the German war 472 00:29:29,040 --> 00:29:31,680 Speaker 1: machine would be to hit all at once with a 473 00:29:31,720 --> 00:29:35,160 Speaker 1: full sized American army. America had no army, so I 474 00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:37,600 Speaker 1: had to recruit and train all those men and equip 475 00:29:37,640 --> 00:29:39,480 Speaker 1: them and ship them across the ocean. It just took 476 00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:43,560 Speaker 1: a long time. It's not until the fall of night. 477 00:29:43,800 --> 00:29:46,360 Speaker 1: The war has now gone on longer than four years, 478 00:29:46,800 --> 00:29:52,520 Speaker 1: and the Americans are finally there in mass. There were 479 00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:56,160 Speaker 1: seven women who accompanied General Pershing at the Great American 480 00:29:56,200 --> 00:29:58,200 Speaker 1: battles of the war, which were the two big battles 481 00:29:58,240 --> 00:30:01,400 Speaker 1: towards the end, Saint Miel and the Battle of muzar Gone. 482 00:30:02,480 --> 00:30:06,240 Speaker 1: Pershing needed women, wanted women there because this is really 483 00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:09,760 Speaker 1: where the rubber meets the road. The few women who 484 00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:12,160 Speaker 1: were initially taken to that first great American battle at 485 00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:15,719 Speaker 1: San Miel, it was kind of an experiment. Their secret 486 00:30:15,840 --> 00:30:19,080 Speaker 1: orders were just written as a note. We have that 487 00:30:19,120 --> 00:30:21,560 Speaker 1: note now. It's just recently on Earth and it says 488 00:30:21,600 --> 00:30:26,040 Speaker 1: secret orders to misprovo Ms. Presnell, Miss Banker, you're going 489 00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:28,760 Speaker 1: to the front and get ready to lead a roving life. 490 00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:34,000 Speaker 1: They had gas masks on their chairs, they had trench 491 00:30:34,040 --> 00:30:36,720 Speaker 1: helmets which they were required to wear outdoors at all times. 492 00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:38,800 Speaker 1: They were trained in how to use pistols should their 493 00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:42,000 Speaker 1: position be overwhelmed. That was a very short battle, is 494 00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:45,200 Speaker 1: actually really three to four day battle. At the end 495 00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:48,959 Speaker 1: of it, General Pershing actually spied the women. Things were 496 00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:50,760 Speaker 1: calming down and some of the women were walking down 497 00:30:50,800 --> 00:30:54,200 Speaker 1: the street and he said to Colonel Parker Hit, their supervisor, 498 00:30:54,240 --> 00:30:57,160 Speaker 1: how are the women doing? And Hits said, well, let's 499 00:30:57,160 --> 00:30:59,680 Speaker 1: go across the street and ask them. So Pershing crosses 500 00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:01,760 Speaker 1: the street and the women salute him, and he says, 501 00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:04,080 Speaker 1: how's it going at ladies, And they said very well, sir, 502 00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:06,479 Speaker 1: And he said, is there anything more you want and 503 00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:08,880 Speaker 1: they said, we just want to be as close to 504 00:31:08,920 --> 00:31:12,640 Speaker 1: the action as we can get. He at that point 505 00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:14,880 Speaker 1: turned to Colonel Hit and he said, take them where 506 00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:18,880 Speaker 1: they want to go. Was at that point that then 507 00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:21,000 Speaker 1: they're committed to going to the Battle of Musargne, which 508 00:31:21,080 --> 00:31:23,800 Speaker 1: goes on for forty seven days, and there's this epic 509 00:31:23,920 --> 00:31:26,240 Speaker 1: scale battle that was what helps to end the war. 510 00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:31,080 Speaker 1: The Battle of Mozargone would put all their logistics to 511 00:31:31,160 --> 00:31:35,680 Speaker 1: the test. Fresh American soldiers marched into battle alongside their 512 00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:39,720 Speaker 1: European allies. They would hit the Germans with everything they had. 513 00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:44,520 Speaker 1: Everybody ramps up to execute the last engagements of the war, 514 00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:48,640 Speaker 1: and even then nobody knows that Germans are fantastic fighters. 515 00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:53,320 Speaker 1: In some ways, persian Is is deluded as all the 516 00:31:53,360 --> 00:31:57,400 Speaker 1: other officers of the French and the German and the British. 517 00:31:57,680 --> 00:32:02,400 Speaker 1: He does what they did, throws bodies against protected trenches, 518 00:32:02,840 --> 00:32:06,000 Speaker 1: against machine gun and placements, and people are mowed down. 519 00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:09,880 Speaker 1: The ballamas are gone. Itself. Is just one of the 520 00:32:09,920 --> 00:32:12,080 Speaker 1: bloodiest battles in all of American history, one of the 521 00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:17,240 Speaker 1: longest battles. The tempo in the switchboard room, the women said, 522 00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:20,719 Speaker 1: you just can't imagine it, just cannot imagine the speed 523 00:32:20,760 --> 00:32:23,840 Speaker 1: of this. There's all this effort to just get the 524 00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:29,280 Speaker 1: men into place, and then Coban it starts and the 525 00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:33,200 Speaker 1: women are fielding calls this whole time, Calls of all 526 00:32:33,280 --> 00:32:37,600 Speaker 1: sorts including friendly fire. We've now overrun our position, and 527 00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:40,720 Speaker 1: our men behind us are now firing into where Americans 528 00:32:40,720 --> 00:32:43,360 Speaker 1: have advanced, and so our own troops are story need 529 00:32:43,360 --> 00:32:45,239 Speaker 1: to get hit. And how do they communicate that. They 530 00:32:45,280 --> 00:32:47,280 Speaker 1: get on their telephones and they call back to the 531 00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:50,240 Speaker 1: switchboard operators who put them into command, into touch with 532 00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:54,520 Speaker 1: the artillery command, who tells the man stop. And they're 533 00:32:54,560 --> 00:32:57,560 Speaker 1: also air basis. They don't go open the planes until 534 00:32:57,560 --> 00:32:59,840 Speaker 1: they get the phone call, which says, Okay, now you go, 535 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:02,480 Speaker 1: and this is where you're going to go. So everything 536 00:33:02,600 --> 00:33:09,560 Speaker 1: is coordinated through these telephones. Nobody knew how long it 537 00:33:09,560 --> 00:33:12,320 Speaker 1: would go. Most people thought the war would probably last 538 00:33:12,360 --> 00:33:18,680 Speaker 1: another year into nine, but the American presence really did help. Ultimately, 539 00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:21,360 Speaker 1: it is the combined efforts of all the armies, the French, British, 540 00:33:21,400 --> 00:33:24,760 Speaker 1: the Americans that convinces the Germans that the war is 541 00:33:24,840 --> 00:33:28,600 Speaker 1: just never going to go their way. The war ends 542 00:33:28,760 --> 00:33:30,920 Speaker 1: at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the 543 00:33:30,920 --> 00:33:38,760 Speaker 1: eleventh month. On November eleven, Germany signed the armistice, ending 544 00:33:38,800 --> 00:33:43,160 Speaker 1: World War One. But for the Hello Girls and millions 545 00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:47,000 Speaker 1: more women across the Atlantic, the battle at Home raged 546 00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:57,680 Speaker 1: on since at least the Seneca Falls Convention of eighteen, 547 00:33:59,120 --> 00:34:02,800 Speaker 1: activists in America had been formally petitioning for a federal 548 00:34:02,840 --> 00:34:07,080 Speaker 1: amendment to enfranchise women, but the nineteen tens not much 549 00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:11,040 Speaker 1: had changed. There's a tipping point for the nineteenth amendment 550 00:34:11,239 --> 00:34:15,040 Speaker 1: simply it is World War One. Women's participation in World 551 00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:17,800 Speaker 1: War One, which was much broader than the telephone operators. 552 00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:20,960 Speaker 1: Women had served as nurses, just volunteers at home as 553 00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:27,240 Speaker 1: well and yes on the battlefields. In that way, women's 554 00:34:27,320 --> 00:34:30,520 Speaker 1: rights and their women's right to vote is in parallel 555 00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:33,840 Speaker 1: with the earlier right of African American men to vote 556 00:34:34,160 --> 00:34:37,360 Speaker 1: because they pick up arms in the Civil War. Similarly, 557 00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:40,640 Speaker 1: at the beginning of the United States, men who didn't 558 00:34:40,640 --> 00:35:01,680 Speaker 1: own property picked up muskets at Lexington and Concord. President Wilson, 559 00:35:01,800 --> 00:35:05,920 Speaker 1: who initially resisted entering the war, had also positioned himself 560 00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:13,880 Speaker 1: against women's suffrage. Woodward Wilson, who had staunchly opposed a 561 00:35:14,040 --> 00:35:18,399 Speaker 1: national amendment to the Constitution to enfranchised women, he comes 562 00:35:18,400 --> 00:35:20,799 Speaker 1: around to their point of view, and in fact, he 563 00:35:20,840 --> 00:35:23,520 Speaker 1: gives this beautiful speech to the U. S. Senate in 564 00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:28,680 Speaker 1: October of from paraphrasing, but he says something like are 565 00:35:28,719 --> 00:35:31,760 Speaker 1: we going to ask for and take all that women 566 00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:34,200 Speaker 1: can give, and say, we still do not see what 567 00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:38,600 Speaker 1: rights this gives him. And he noted the fact that 568 00:35:38,640 --> 00:35:41,280 Speaker 1: by this point twenty other countries, largely because of World 569 00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:47,640 Speaker 1: War One, had enfranchised women. Bolshevik Russia, Germany, Great Britain, Canada, 570 00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:50,480 Speaker 1: and all kinds of countries set enfranchised women. And he said, 571 00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:52,760 Speaker 1: are we going to be the last to learn the lesson? 572 00:35:53,920 --> 00:35:57,160 Speaker 1: I think of the irony of that. You're the first 573 00:35:57,440 --> 00:36:02,799 Speaker 1: modern democracy, every public and it's one of the last 574 00:36:02,880 --> 00:36:07,440 Speaker 1: to give women the vote. As he says in his 575 00:36:07,480 --> 00:36:09,759 Speaker 1: speech to the U. S. Senate, We're going to have 576 00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:13,440 Speaker 1: to resign the leadership of liberal minds around the world 577 00:36:13,520 --> 00:36:16,080 Speaker 1: if we cannot do this thing that everybody else is doing, 578 00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:26,960 Speaker 1: if we cannot honor the citizenship of women. One of 579 00:36:26,960 --> 00:36:29,279 Speaker 1: the reasons why he's so reluctant to do so has 580 00:36:30,040 --> 00:36:32,000 Speaker 1: much less to do with gender than it has to 581 00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:36,520 Speaker 1: do with race. Race is actually the uninvited guest to 582 00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:39,680 Speaker 1: the party. Has it is so often in American politics, 583 00:36:40,440 --> 00:36:43,280 Speaker 1: a lot of the opposition to a federal suffrage amendment 584 00:36:43,360 --> 00:36:46,520 Speaker 1: for women is too full. First of all, Southern states 585 00:36:46,560 --> 00:36:49,520 Speaker 1: do not want the federal government telenom pretty much anything, 586 00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:53,560 Speaker 1: but especially about voting rights. The second problem is that 587 00:36:53,640 --> 00:36:56,360 Speaker 1: the federal Suffrage Amendment is worded that it will include 588 00:36:56,400 --> 00:37:00,120 Speaker 1: all women, So this will mean African American women and 589 00:37:00,160 --> 00:37:03,480 Speaker 1: can vote too. And the really remarkable thing when you 590 00:37:03,480 --> 00:37:05,480 Speaker 1: actually read the records of the U. S. Congress at 591 00:37:05,480 --> 00:37:08,800 Speaker 1: this time, again and again in the U. S. Congress 592 00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:12,960 Speaker 1: has said very openly and repeatedly, well, we all know 593 00:37:13,080 --> 00:37:16,840 Speaker 1: that the fifteenth Amendment was a mistake, meaning that the 594 00:37:16,880 --> 00:37:21,040 Speaker 1: amendment that enfranchise black men. And there is not a 595 00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:24,600 Speaker 1: single moment in the US Congressional record where someone stands 596 00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:27,680 Speaker 1: up and says, no, the fifteenth Amendment that was right. Okay, 597 00:37:27,719 --> 00:37:29,840 Speaker 1: I might not agree with votes for women, but certainly 598 00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:34,160 Speaker 1: African American mentioned vote. So there was this turning away 599 00:37:34,280 --> 00:37:36,719 Speaker 1: from what had been accomplished in the Civil War itself. 600 00:37:38,080 --> 00:37:41,239 Speaker 1: So when Woodrow Wilson becomes an advocate for women's suffrage, 601 00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:46,239 Speaker 1: he knows he's enfranchising African American women. Of course, in 602 00:37:46,239 --> 00:37:49,360 Speaker 1: the South, because of Jim Crow and Pole to access 603 00:37:49,719 --> 00:37:54,040 Speaker 1: the South will pretty readily disenfranchise those who legally should 604 00:37:54,080 --> 00:37:57,320 Speaker 1: be able to vote. But at least on paper, black 605 00:37:57,320 --> 00:38:00,400 Speaker 1: men and and now African American women will have vote, 606 00:38:00,800 --> 00:38:03,520 Speaker 1: And that's because of Woodrow Wilson. He's the one who 607 00:38:03,600 --> 00:38:08,680 Speaker 1: really pushes that across the finish line. The Nineteenth Amendment 608 00:38:08,760 --> 00:38:14,719 Speaker 1: was officially adopted on August, but of course that's not 609 00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:17,520 Speaker 1: the end of the story. While the Amendment was a 610 00:38:17,600 --> 00:38:21,200 Speaker 1: major achievement, issues of voting rights and equal rights for 611 00:38:21,239 --> 00:38:24,640 Speaker 1: all people were and are far from being resolved in 612 00:38:24,640 --> 00:38:28,680 Speaker 1: this country. History is not a light switch. You don't like, 613 00:38:28,719 --> 00:38:35,440 Speaker 1: go oh, let's all be good people now switch Every 614 00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:38,520 Speaker 1: generation has this tax. Can we all I like to 615 00:38:38,560 --> 00:38:42,359 Speaker 1: think we all push the marker forward? To make that 616 00:38:42,440 --> 00:38:45,840 Speaker 1: perfectly clear, all one has to do is follow the 617 00:38:45,880 --> 00:38:51,160 Speaker 1: soldiers home from World War One. After the eighteen Armistice, 618 00:38:52,040 --> 00:38:54,840 Speaker 1: the US Congress has vote a bonus for any person 619 00:38:54,840 --> 00:38:56,920 Speaker 1: who served in the U s. Armed Forces in an 620 00:38:56,920 --> 00:39:00,440 Speaker 1: official capacity. Women who were in the Navy and Marines, 621 00:39:00,920 --> 00:39:04,600 Speaker 1: like all the men, of course, get victory medals saying yes, 622 00:39:04,680 --> 00:39:08,440 Speaker 1: thank you for serving the country. They get hospitalization benefits 623 00:39:08,440 --> 00:39:11,239 Speaker 1: that they've endured some sort of disability or injury. They 624 00:39:11,239 --> 00:39:13,720 Speaker 1: get to join groups like the Veterans of Foreign Warrors 625 00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:16,720 Speaker 1: and Foreign Legion, and these organizations that are formed around 626 00:39:16,760 --> 00:39:19,360 Speaker 1: that same time. They get all of the kind of 627 00:39:19,360 --> 00:39:23,680 Speaker 1: recognition and they literally monetary benefits that come to soldiers. 628 00:39:25,200 --> 00:39:27,759 Speaker 1: The women who were in the U. S. Army come 629 00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:29,480 Speaker 1: home and they find out that the army does not 630 00:39:29,520 --> 00:39:35,480 Speaker 1: consider them eligible for anything. The army considers them soldiers 631 00:39:35,640 --> 00:39:39,160 Speaker 1: up until the moment they are discharged. The minute they're 632 00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:41,000 Speaker 1: out of the army, the army says, oh, well, wait 633 00:39:41,040 --> 00:39:44,200 Speaker 1: a minute, you were contract employees. I've been in army 634 00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:47,000 Speaker 1: uniform for months now, and I've been trained, and I've 635 00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:48,600 Speaker 1: been sworn into the army. What do you mean I'm 636 00:39:48,600 --> 00:39:51,600 Speaker 1: not army. Of course, in France, the women are being 637 00:39:51,640 --> 00:39:53,640 Speaker 1: told oil, you can't go home. You're in the army now, 638 00:39:53,680 --> 00:40:01,480 Speaker 1: you know, stay put until we tell you can. Operator 639 00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:06,600 Speaker 1: General George Squire was one of those people who was 640 00:40:07,320 --> 00:40:11,399 Speaker 1: shocked and dismayed and horrified that these women veterans, who 641 00:40:11,400 --> 00:40:16,480 Speaker 1: had served so honorably and so effectively, they didn't get 642 00:40:16,520 --> 00:40:19,399 Speaker 1: the things that the men they served alongside did get. 643 00:40:21,160 --> 00:40:24,520 Speaker 1: He several times petitioned Congress for the veterans Medals, for 644 00:40:24,560 --> 00:40:28,360 Speaker 1: the Victory Medal, for the disability of benefits, for the 645 00:40:28,400 --> 00:40:31,960 Speaker 1: bonuses that the men got and each time was told no, 646 00:40:33,400 --> 00:40:38,799 Speaker 1: the War Department did not support that effort. Ironically, by 647 00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:41,160 Speaker 1: the way, the War Department was is headed by a civilian, 648 00:40:41,640 --> 00:40:45,520 Speaker 1: so within the army itself there was much more favorable 649 00:40:45,560 --> 00:40:49,520 Speaker 1: attitude towards the women. And then in the administration at 650 00:40:49,560 --> 00:40:54,360 Speaker 1: the executive level, which was supervising the army, one might say, 651 00:40:55,320 --> 00:40:58,520 Speaker 1: beginning in the nineteen twenties, and then in the nineteen thirties, 652 00:40:58,560 --> 00:41:01,120 Speaker 1: and in the nineteen forties, and in the nineteen fifties, 653 00:41:01,120 --> 00:41:03,840 Speaker 1: and in the nineteen sixties, and in the nineteen seventies, 654 00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:08,239 Speaker 1: these women get their local congressmen to introduce legislation. They 655 00:41:08,239 --> 00:41:12,160 Speaker 1: write the president's they write Roosevelt and Truman and Eisenhower 656 00:41:12,280 --> 00:41:15,719 Speaker 1: and Kennedy and Johnson and on all the way up 657 00:41:15,719 --> 00:41:19,239 Speaker 1: through Jimmy Carter, saying all we want is to be recognized, 658 00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:27,560 Speaker 1: so the army just doesn't see them. And over time 659 00:41:27,640 --> 00:41:31,640 Speaker 1: the story gets fainter and fainter, like a bad telephone 660 00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:36,120 Speaker 1: transmission itself, and the static crackles over and the stories 661 00:41:36,320 --> 00:41:39,920 Speaker 1: lost altogether. They get to the point, by the nineteen 662 00:41:39,920 --> 00:41:42,239 Speaker 1: thirties they're telling women who ride in and asking for 663 00:41:42,280 --> 00:41:45,160 Speaker 1: their benefits. They're saying, well, you didn't even swear oaths. 664 00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:47,720 Speaker 1: Now I have to do is look in the records 665 00:41:47,719 --> 00:41:49,640 Speaker 1: as I did, and the personal records, and there's oath 666 00:41:49,680 --> 00:41:53,880 Speaker 1: upon oath upon oath upon oath upon. Merle Egan became 667 00:41:53,880 --> 00:41:57,320 Speaker 1: the leading voice in this charge. As a senior citizen, 668 00:41:57,800 --> 00:42:01,839 Speaker 1: she was still seeking recognition for the Hello Girls. At 669 00:42:01,840 --> 00:42:04,640 Speaker 1: some point, she writes to a friend that people sometimes 670 00:42:04,680 --> 00:42:08,080 Speaker 1: ask me why I am still campaigning for this deep 671 00:42:08,080 --> 00:42:12,120 Speaker 1: into my eighties, Because I love my country, and so 672 00:42:12,160 --> 00:42:16,640 Speaker 1: I want my country to be worth loving. Merle Egan 673 00:42:16,640 --> 00:42:19,200 Speaker 1: would go to elementary schools and she's made this doll. 674 00:42:19,280 --> 00:42:21,080 Speaker 1: It's like a Barbie doll, and she's so's a teeny 675 00:42:21,120 --> 00:42:23,960 Speaker 1: tiny uniform, and she puts her old brass and signey 676 00:42:23,960 --> 00:42:26,560 Speaker 1: on the cap, and she goes to school children. She 677 00:42:26,680 --> 00:42:28,560 Speaker 1: wants to tell them the story of the Hello Girls, 678 00:42:28,880 --> 00:42:32,319 Speaker 1: so that somebody won't forget. People won't forget that there 679 00:42:32,400 --> 00:42:36,240 Speaker 1: were these women who served in World War One. In July, 680 00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:40,759 Speaker 1: the Seattle Times published an article on Merle Egan and 681 00:42:40,840 --> 00:42:44,759 Speaker 1: her campaign. A young attorney named Marco happened to catch 682 00:42:44,800 --> 00:42:48,640 Speaker 1: this story in the newspaper. He reads this article and 683 00:42:48,640 --> 00:42:50,359 Speaker 1: he calls her up, and he said, I think you've 684 00:42:50,400 --> 00:42:52,479 Speaker 1: got a legal case here. Do you need any help? 685 00:42:52,719 --> 00:42:54,600 Speaker 1: And she says, well, yes, young man, I love that. 686 00:42:54,960 --> 00:42:57,279 Speaker 1: So he assembles this case and begins to put it 687 00:42:57,320 --> 00:43:01,200 Speaker 1: together and collects all this documentation. Me while there is 688 00:43:01,200 --> 00:43:03,920 Speaker 1: a paralleled legislation that's underway in the U. S. Congress 689 00:43:03,920 --> 00:43:07,720 Speaker 1: to acknowledge the women of World War Two, these women 690 00:43:07,920 --> 00:43:11,560 Speaker 1: also had been not recognized as veterans. So it's the 691 00:43:11,600 --> 00:43:14,960 Speaker 1: signal core telephone operators and the Women's Air Force Service 692 00:43:14,960 --> 00:43:18,359 Speaker 1: pilots of World War Two. On the same legislation. Mark 693 00:43:18,440 --> 00:43:21,000 Speaker 1: Ho testifies to the US Congress and he makes this 694 00:43:21,120 --> 00:43:27,680 Speaker 1: incredible legal argument which essentially revolves around these uniforms. Do 695 00:43:27,719 --> 00:43:30,960 Speaker 1: you realize that it is against the law to impersonate 696 00:43:31,040 --> 00:43:34,080 Speaker 1: an officer of the United States government. It's against the 697 00:43:34,160 --> 00:43:37,920 Speaker 1: law to impersonate a police officer. So if your government, 698 00:43:38,120 --> 00:43:40,600 Speaker 1: your federal government, gives you a uniform and tells you 699 00:43:40,600 --> 00:43:43,279 Speaker 1: you must never take it off, you must never take 700 00:43:43,280 --> 00:43:45,560 Speaker 1: off that uniform unless you're in bed with the door closed. 701 00:43:45,760 --> 00:43:49,000 Speaker 1: You may never remove those dog tags. You have made 702 00:43:49,040 --> 00:43:52,520 Speaker 1: them into representatives of the American government. You have made 703 00:43:52,520 --> 00:43:55,239 Speaker 1: them into soldiers by telling them they must always wear 704 00:43:55,280 --> 00:44:01,560 Speaker 1: this uniform. Essentially, he says, you know, we're prepared to sue. 705 00:44:02,719 --> 00:44:06,359 Speaker 1: And the US Congress realizes that this is not only 706 00:44:06,400 --> 00:44:08,800 Speaker 1: the right thing to do, but also the Hello girls 707 00:44:09,040 --> 00:44:10,480 Speaker 1: as well as the women of World War who have 708 00:44:10,520 --> 00:44:15,359 Speaker 1: a pretty powerful legal argument. And so finally, in nineteen seven, 709 00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:19,480 Speaker 1: sixty years after the women were initially recruited, this legislation 710 00:44:19,520 --> 00:44:22,440 Speaker 1: has passed. And then in ninety nine they are finally 711 00:44:22,440 --> 00:44:28,520 Speaker 1: given their discharge papers from World War One, which entitled 712 00:44:28,520 --> 00:44:31,480 Speaker 1: them to the flags on their coffin, to their victory medals. 713 00:44:31,760 --> 00:44:34,080 Speaker 1: And Merle Egan, who gets her discharge papers at a 714 00:44:34,120 --> 00:44:37,560 Speaker 1: formal ceremony in Seattle, Washington, she gives us great speech. 715 00:44:38,280 --> 00:44:41,160 Speaker 1: She says, I'm so proud. I'm so excited not only 716 00:44:41,200 --> 00:44:43,959 Speaker 1: to receive my victory medal for serving in World War One, 717 00:44:44,360 --> 00:44:46,759 Speaker 1: but I consider it a medal for having fought the U. S. 718 00:44:46,840 --> 00:44:51,640 Speaker 1: Army for sixty years and winning meal. Eagan passed away 719 00:44:51,640 --> 00:44:58,920 Speaker 1: in she was buried with military honors. In researching this topic, 720 00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:04,640 Speaker 1: Elizabeth On covered diary entries, letters, photographs, army gear, ephemera 721 00:45:04,760 --> 00:45:06,799 Speaker 1: that in some cases had not been seen in a 722 00:45:06,840 --> 00:45:12,000 Speaker 1: hundred years. The National Archives is very very recently released 723 00:45:12,320 --> 00:45:16,120 Speaker 1: film footage, old archaic film footage of World War One. 724 00:45:17,400 --> 00:45:20,680 Speaker 1: Grace Banker's granddaughter calls me one day. She says, I 725 00:45:20,719 --> 00:45:23,680 Speaker 1: think I found my grandmother. Do you think this is Grace? 726 00:45:24,040 --> 00:45:26,279 Speaker 1: And she sends me the link and I go on it, 727 00:45:26,600 --> 00:45:29,120 Speaker 1: and I've actually seen probably more photographs of Grace than 728 00:45:29,200 --> 00:45:31,200 Speaker 1: she has in World War One. I say, oh, my gosh, 729 00:45:31,200 --> 00:45:35,040 Speaker 1: of course that's Grace. And she's talking and laughing and 730 00:45:35,200 --> 00:45:38,920 Speaker 1: connecting phone calls. And then we get footage that shows 731 00:45:38,960 --> 00:45:42,080 Speaker 1: after the armistice, General Pershing at a reviewing stand with 732 00:45:42,760 --> 00:45:46,120 Speaker 1: thousands of men lined up in these long lines you 733 00:45:46,120 --> 00:45:48,960 Speaker 1: know that go off into the distance, and he's up 734 00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:51,200 Speaker 1: there giving a speech to the men about you know, 735 00:45:51,239 --> 00:45:54,040 Speaker 1: this great victory and it's because of you that this happens. 736 00:45:54,080 --> 00:45:55,759 Speaker 1: And we don't hear his voice, we just see him 737 00:45:55,800 --> 00:45:59,399 Speaker 1: speaking because it's silent film. And in the front row 738 00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:02,920 Speaker 1: of the reviewing stand are the women at attention in 739 00:46:02,960 --> 00:46:06,719 Speaker 1: their uniforms in the front row. And then the army 740 00:46:06,840 --> 00:46:10,239 Speaker 1: later can't see them, can't see them at all. They 741 00:46:10,320 --> 00:46:13,480 Speaker 1: just vanish, which is what I think has been the 742 00:46:13,480 --> 00:46:15,520 Speaker 1: record of women in history and the people of color 743 00:46:15,600 --> 00:46:18,200 Speaker 1: to it. It vanishes. Everybody knows it at the time, 744 00:46:18,239 --> 00:46:21,160 Speaker 1: and then it's not documented and recorded, and so we think, well, 745 00:46:21,200 --> 00:46:23,239 Speaker 1: maybe it wasn't very important, maybe they didn't play a 746 00:46:23,320 --> 00:46:26,600 Speaker 1: very significant role, maybe it never really happened. We're all 747 00:46:27,280 --> 00:46:30,000 Speaker 1: people of modern political correctness. We're just kind of amping 748 00:46:30,000 --> 00:46:32,919 Speaker 1: it up. But it's they were there, and they did 749 00:46:32,920 --> 00:46:35,959 Speaker 1: really important things, and if we take the time to look, 750 00:46:36,000 --> 00:47:16,239 Speaker 1: we'll find them say that. I Femeral is written and 751 00:47:16,239 --> 00:47:21,239 Speaker 1: assembled by and produced by Annie Reese, Matt Frederick, and 752 00:47:21,280 --> 00:47:25,720 Speaker 1: Tristan McNeil, with technical assistance from Sherry Larson, and special 753 00:47:25,760 --> 00:47:30,680 Speaker 1: thanks this episode to Gretchen Prairie and Miranda Hawkins. Elizabeth 754 00:47:30,680 --> 00:47:34,000 Speaker 1: Cobbs is the author of The Hello Girls, America's First 755 00:47:34,040 --> 00:47:39,240 Speaker 1: Women's Soldiers, which was adapted into a documentary. Her newest 756 00:47:39,280 --> 00:47:42,800 Speaker 1: book is The Tubbman Command, a novel following Harriett Tubber. 757 00:47:44,200 --> 00:47:46,960 Speaker 1: Find links to all her work at Elizabeth Cobbs dot 758 00:47:47,000 --> 00:47:51,920 Speaker 1: com and links to ours at Femeral dot Show. And 759 00:47:52,000 --> 00:47:55,640 Speaker 1: thanks to work as Folk and musical director Sandra Kerr 760 00:47:55,960 --> 00:47:58,680 Speaker 1: for sharing their rendition of the March of the Women, 761 00:47:59,200 --> 00:48:03,000 Speaker 1: a Suffragist so composed by Ethel smythe in nineteen ten 762 00:48:03,600 --> 00:48:11,919 Speaker 1: thanks on our website. Ways as a very days as 763 00:48:11,960 --> 00:48:21,600 Speaker 1: a dreary sory day by baby have all, as he says, 764 00:48:22,320 --> 00:48:30,560 Speaker 1: wherey may that the break walls lie strike He's to 765 00:48:30,800 --> 00:48:36,320 Speaker 1: our no, it's candy win. But by day and day, 766 00:48:36,560 --> 00:48:42,800 Speaker 1: all that she had done for the work of to 767 00:48:43,040 --> 00:48:52,360 Speaker 1: day grea biry for and realize love device love sure 768 00:48:52,640 --> 00:49:09,320 Speaker 1: is he nuch much, shows shower Friend. Next time on 769 00:49:09,440 --> 00:49:14,880 Speaker 1: a semi two doors, set down at the piano, placed 770 00:49:14,880 --> 00:49:17,240 Speaker 1: the score in the stand, took out a stop watch 771 00:49:17,880 --> 00:49:21,120 Speaker 1: and closed the lid over the keys. He started to 772 00:49:21,120 --> 00:49:25,799 Speaker 1: stop watch. Thirty seconds later, he opened the lid, then 773 00:49:25,800 --> 00:49:28,839 Speaker 1: closed it back over the keys. He did the same 774 00:49:28,880 --> 00:49:32,160 Speaker 1: thing two minutes and three seconds later, turning the pages 775 00:49:32,200 --> 00:49:34,840 Speaker 1: of the score, all the while performing each of the 776 00:49:34,840 --> 00:49:38,280 Speaker 1: actions as quietly as possible. And a minute and forty 777 00:49:38,280 --> 00:49:41,400 Speaker 1: seconds after that, he stood as if to receive applause. 778 00:49:46,880 --> 00:49:55,440 Speaker 1: World nine Man and in Acus and free from shoe 779 00:49:59,520 --> 00:50:04,760 Speaker 1: pack us from imot Radian. These like the irt radio 780 00:50:05,000 --> 00:50:11,160 Speaker 1: or Apple podcasts, you know everythings in your favorite shows