Figure 1 – German soldiers using a field telephone during World War I. From NARA and in the public domain in the United States.

As a follow-up to my post of yesterday commemorating the US entry into World War I, I was perusing on the web today field photographs of the conflict. One sequence contained images of the technology of the day. This was a hybrid. The world was rapidly moving out of a mechanical to an electrical and electronic age. Hence, we have the image of Figure 1 that contrasts so profoundly with modern times that it looks like something out of a Flintstones cartoon. Here a German soldier speaks on a portable telephone as the soldiers with him slowly unwind the cable that presumably connects them back to base. While it may seem prosaic and archaic it truly connects us with cellphones and the internet of today. After all, fifty years previous, during the Crimean and American Civil Wars none of this was possible.

Figure 1 – Halftone color print from a photograph of President asking congress for a Declaration of War on April 2, 1917. From the Wikipedia, original in the US LOC and in the public domain in the United States.

We cannot let the date go unrecognized. One hundred years ago today, April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany and entered the terrible war. It is worth noting that in those days war was war and US presidents asked congress for a declaration. To remember the day there is this wonderful color halftone print from the collection of the United States Library of Congress showing President Wilson addressing congress to ask for the Declaration on April 2, 1917.

The simple text is:

“WHEREAS, The Imperial German Government has committed repeated acts of war against the people of the United States of America; therefore, be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the state of war between the United States and the Imperial German Government, which has thus been thrust upon the United States, is hereby formally declared; and that the President be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial German Government; and to bring the conflict to a successful termination all the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States.”

Figure 1 – Harry Houdini vanishing Jennie the Elephant, 1918. Photograph by White Studio. From the Wikipedia and the US Library of Congress. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c12421, Item in McManus-Young Collection, LC-USZ62-112421 DLC (b&w film copy neg.). In the public domain in the United States.

I was reading today that Friday, March 24 marks the 143rd anniversary of the great illusionist and escape artist, Harry Houdini (1874 – 1926). His exploits have survived the century. At one point he was nicknamed Harry “Handcuff” Houdini or “The Handcuff King” because he would challenge local police to bind him in such a way that he could not escape.Even today his great escapes, which included the “Chinese water torture escape, the suspended straight jacket escape, the overboard box escape, and the buried alive escape fascinate and tillilate. Don’t try any of that at home!

There are many great photographs of Houdini that capture not only the essence of the man but also the Zeitgeist of the early twentieth century. It was a time when people liked heroes and people liked drama. Figure 1 shows Harry at the Hippodrome, in New York City vanishing an elephant named “Jennie.” Other magicians were content to make a rabbit disappear, but in 1918 the great showman took to a well-lit stage fired a gun and a five ton elephant disappeared.

Houdini is arguably most famous today for his dogged crusade to expose fraudulent spiritualists. It is here that he brushes with photography. Figure 2 is an image that Houdini took to illustrate just how easy it was to conjure up a ghost.  It shows the master reading a book to the very attentive “ghost” of Abraham Lincoln.

Figure 2 – Harry Houdini illustrating how one can create fake ghost images. Here he is seen in a self portrait reading a book to Abraham Lincoln c 1920. Image from the Wikipedia and in the collection of the US Library of Congress. In the public domain in the United States.

Figure 1 – Scene from Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments, Photographs of the filming of Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments, PC-RM-Curtis, courtesy, California Historical Society, PC-RM-Curtis_391.

We have spoken in the past about American photographer Edward S. Curtis, who so brilliantly chronicled the decimation of the native peoples of America. We remain perpetually haunted by these beautiful images and the stories they tell.

America today has become barraged lately with challenges to the meaning of truth. As a result, last night I was thinking about the story of Moses and the ten commandments, especially the one that states:

“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.”

This in turn led to my search for early photographs that depict Moses. Well, two points: first that I recognize that this is not a normal activity for a Saturday night (as in get a life, Wolf), and second that despite that we are told that “when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him,” there are no actual photographs of Moses extant. I emphasize the second point because delusion has become a theme of the day.

What I found,  in my little web search, amazed me. There were a set of beautiful cold-tone images by Edward S. Curtis of the filming of Cecille B. DeMille’s 1923 version of “The Ten Commandments.” It seems that Curtis was employed as a black and white photographer on the movie crew. These images are in the California Historical Society on The Commons and can also be seen on Flickr. I have reproduced two of them here. You see immediately the same passion of face that are in Curtis’ native American images. This mas a master of dramatic portraiture.  It is as if we are transported back to the time of the Exodus. The choice of blue-tone gives these images an other worldliness. They seem, as the commandments themselves, written in stone.

This first telling of the Exodus story by DeMille is bifurcated. It tells first the story of Moses leading the Israelites from bondage to the promised land and then it tells a modern day story of two brothers, one who follows the way of good and righteousness, the way of a loving and forgiving God, and the other who is taught by his mother to fear a vengeful God and who falls into evil ways. The evil brother becomes “a corrupt contractor who builds a church with shoddy concrete, pocketing the money saved and becoming very rich. One day, his mother comes to visit him at his work site, but the walls are becoming unstable due to the shaking of heavy trucks on nearby roads. One of the walls collapses on top of the mother, killing her. In her dying breath, she tells Danny that it is her fault for teaching him to fear God, when she should have taught him love.“

All very moralistic to be sure. For his 1956 block-buster version, DeMille abandoned the split aspect of the film in favor of what became one of the truly great epic movies of the twentieth century. This later version also featured a truly incredible cast that included Charleton Heston as Moses and Yul Brenner as the Pharoah. “Etc, etc, etc…”

Figure 2 – Scene from Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments, Theodore Roberts as Moses,Photographs of the filming of Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments, PC-RM-Curtis, courtesy, California Historical Society, PC-RM-Curtis_082.