Harold O.
Well-known member
I'm reading through an old Time Life series of books on aviation history. The volume entitled "Knights of the Air" is about the first fighter pilots. The book does a decent job of telling about the how the pilots got along in such terrible conditions, tells of the airplane development, tactics, that sort of thing.
Then it mentions that a group of aviators from the American 20th Aero Squadron had formed a vaudeville team to help entertain the guys. A close look at the photo shows a ukulele in the hands of one of the men.
A page or so later, I came across some text describing how the late arriving (to the war effort) Americans had brought fresh food and spirit to the front:
..."Soon French and British aviators were arriving in a stream [to the American camp], enjoying not only food but the noisy, incessant dice and poker games and a gramophone that played an endless assortment of ragtime, fox trots, and operas. (The records also included Hawaiian music, which the unit's French commanding officer, Captain Georges Thenault, described as "strange melodies by a sort of banjo called a ukelele.")"...
Wow. That was early 1916.
Then it mentions that a group of aviators from the American 20th Aero Squadron had formed a vaudeville team to help entertain the guys. A close look at the photo shows a ukulele in the hands of one of the men.
A page or so later, I came across some text describing how the late arriving (to the war effort) Americans had brought fresh food and spirit to the front:
..."Soon French and British aviators were arriving in a stream [to the American camp], enjoying not only food but the noisy, incessant dice and poker games and a gramophone that played an endless assortment of ragtime, fox trots, and operas. (The records also included Hawaiian music, which the unit's French commanding officer, Captain Georges Thenault, described as "strange melodies by a sort of banjo called a ukelele.")"...
Wow. That was early 1916.
