The Chronicle rallied the public for big wave

In preparation for the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I — an event that left us with the War Memorial Building and Opera House as civic markers — Ken Maley has been reading through The Chronicle’s archives.

Maley discovered that on Oct. 6, 1918, a month before the armistice, The Chronicle organized the making of a movie. Citizens of San Francisco were invited to come to a location in Golden Gate Park to be filmed waving to the soldiers fighting in France. The headline on a Page One story that ran on Oct. 4: “Entire City Is Aroused Over Chronicle Movie Plan.”

Citizens assembled near the ball field in Golden Gate Park (I think at Seventh Avenue) and then marched together to what was then the Memorial Museum, where filmmakers under the direction of moviemaker Thomas Ince, positioned atop a 40-foot tower, would shoot images of each passerby waving. How were participants to know that they would be seen by the soldier to whom their individual wave was directed? “It is as certain as a United States bond,” said the story. “It is the guarantee of the United States Government that this film, to be taken on Sunday, will be shown in all the rest camps in France.”

The day after “To the Boys Over There From Relatives and Sweethearts Over Here” was shot, The Chronicle said that 150,000 citizens had participated in its making. The writers speculated that the soldiers “somewhere are seeing on the screen the faces they soon will see in fact. That added a poignant and personal touch of genuine drama to the picture showing yesterday and brought years for the unremunerated players in this pageant of patriotic devotion and personal affection . ... The silent kisses that were thrown to the camera’s unblinking eye when the picture was taken, Oct. 6, are mainly from the lips of white-haired mothers.”

P.S. Curious about the credentials of Ince, I did a bit of research and discovered that six years after making this film, the so-called “King of the Westerns” died in somewhat mysterious circumstances, aboard the Oneida, yacht of William Randolph Hearst. His death was the subject of a somewhat fictionalized movie, “The Cat’s Meow.” Did “Alphonso Blunt” just happen to be one of the four Oakland lottery participants who won the right to open a cannabis shop? Thanks for noticing that, Mike Miller. Worthy of mention, but not exactly a Caen-ian namephreak, however, because it seems to have been the product of invention rather than coincidence.

As to other news about names, Allen Matthews was on the Berkeley campus when he overheard a student observe to another, “Whoa! Jerry Brown’s first name is really Edmund.”

Janice Hough, known around here as an enthusiastic contributor of newsbased one-liners, is by day a travel agent. She read in Travel Weekly, a professional newsletter, that there are only two countries with a decreasing number of international travelers: Turkey and the United States.

The same edition of the publication included, “What will happen to undocumented workers? Hotels wait and worry,” a story providing professional insight to an issue much discussed in Congress right now. This is far from a bleeding-heart progressive’s support for Dreamers. It’s about what Wyndham Hotel Group CEO Geoff Ballotti said was the hotel industry’s top issue: How will hotels find affordable staff if cheap labor isn’t available?

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses,” wrote Emma Lazarus, whose message might be amended for the current era, “so they can deliver terry cloth bathrobes and extra pillows.”

“A month into the new year,” writes Lee Don McDuff, “and I am on track with resolutions, except one: stop procrastinating. I plan on tackling this one in March. April at the latest.”

PUBLIC EAVESDROPPING “I didn’t say it was your fault. I said I was blaming you!” Man at Sausalito Yacht Club, overheard by Jim Schock

The news release from a public relations firm hired to publicize February as Gum Disease Awareness Month, carries usual warnings, noting that 80 percent of Americans “suffer from some degree of gum disease.” The release goes on to link the scourge with cancer, strokes ... and, “As if that weren’t enough, systemic connections have also been suggested between gum disease and erectile dysfunction.”

So — because Valentine’s Day is coming up, and following that is Presidents Day and oh, so many reasons for wild celebration — go floss yourself.