Category: Learn History Through Fiction

The Wizard of Oz officially opened 81 years ago today, on August 25, 1939. MGM previewed the movie in Wisconsin two weeks earlier to test its popularity in the Midwest. Viewers were wowed by Technicolor, a film first. Still, production was marred by mishaps and it was a decade before MGM recouped its $3 million investment. Read more about the making of The Wizard of Oz and its “big” and “little” stars in A Brain. A Heart. The Nerve., a fictional biography of the actor who played the Munchkin Coroner (see NOVELS).

In 1918, railroad workers in Butte, Montana were advised that to cure the Spanish flu, “Dip your fingers in salt water and place them on the joints of your arm and legs until the skin is saturated. Influenza in the blood will gather until dark blotches appear. Use a needle to draw out the black blood. Repeat daily until spots fail to appear. Then you are cured.” The proof? “Not a single member of the Butte Chinese community has died of the disease.” Read more about the deadly Spanish flu pandemic a century ago in On the Shore (1917-1925), a tale of conflict between generations in a Lower East Side immigrant family (see NOVELS).

In World War One, British and French soldiers planted gardens in the trenches. Much like today’s COVID-19 pandemic has spurred more interest in gardening for mental and physical health, trench-grown flowers provided beauty amid devastation, while herbs and vegetables relieved the tedium of rations. In times of uncertainty and death, we seek to generate life. Read more about The Great War in On the Shore, a tale of conflict between generations in a Lower East Side immigrant family (see NOVELS).

Unlike President Donald Trump’s frequent pronouncements about COVID-19, President Woodrow Wilson never once spoke publicly about the 1918 Spanish flu or the battle to defeat it. He focused exclusively on a different war, the Great War, afraid that acknowledging the pandemic would lower morale. U.S. soldiers sustained 116,00 casualties in the First World War, but 675,000 Americans died of the Spanish flu. Read more about the deadly Spanish flu pandemic a century ago in On the Shore (1917-1925), a tale of conflict between generations in a Lower East Side immigrant family (see NOVELS).

Fearful of the 1918 Spanish flu, gullible consumers sought magical remedies. One proclaimed, “When the body is exhausted and its resistive powers are diminished, Dr. Oddbody’s Cure All Elixir affords splendid and effectual means of offsetting the tendency toward weakness and protecting strength.” Alas, the elixir’s ingredients are not listed, but the product’s name says it all. Read more about the deadly Spanish flu pandemic a century ago in On the Shore (1917-1925), a tale of conflict between generations in a Lower East Side immigrant family (see NOVELS).

The Stanford World, home paper of a city in central Montana, carried an ad in 1918 for Tanlac, a “stomachic tonic” to ward off the Spanish flu. The laxative, sold locally at Harvey’s Drug Store, would help those who were “weak and rundown (who) become easy victims to widespread epidemic.” The tonic contained nearly 16% alcohol by volume, a bitter drug such as gentian, herbal extracts, licorice and wild cherry flavoring, and glycerin. Read more about the deadly Spanish flu pandemic a century ago in On the Shore (1917-1925), a tale of conflict between generations in a Lower East Side immigrant family (see NOVELS.

[Note: I ended this series on the Spanish flu in May, but a spike in cases during the current pandemic led me to find more missteps and quack cures a hundred years ago. I’ll be posting them in the coming weeks.] A 1919 article on the editorial page of Montana’s Great Falls Tribune showed a photo of a Swedish physician using “powerful electric light and heat” on a patient suffering from the Spanish flu. The therapy was said to produce “excellent results.” No data were presented to further enlighten the newspaper’s readers. Read more about the deadly Spanish flu pandemic a century ago in On the Shore (1917-1925), a tale of conflict between generations in a Lower East Side immigrant family (see NOVELS).

During the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, when the San Francisco Board of Supervisors imposed a mask-wearing ordinance, a group of citizens formed the Anti-Mask League, which demanded a repeal of the ordinance and the resignation of the mayor and health officials. They cited a lack of scientific evidence and violation of their constitutional rights. Upon his arrest, one League member told the judge he was “not disposed to do anything not in harmony with my feelings.” Sentenced to five days in jail, he responded “That suits me fine. I won’t have to wear a mask there.” Read more about the deadly Spanish flu pandemic a century ago in On the Shore (1917-1925), a tale of conflict between generations in a Lower East Side immigrant family (see NOVELS).

The Trump Administration, under the guise of “threatened meat shortages” during the COVID-19 pandemic, lifted regulations in beef, pork, and poultry processing industries. Production lines are sped up and workers must stand closer together, resulting in more injuries and corona virus infections. “We’re very much back in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle,” says David Michaels, former head of OSHA, quoted in The New Yorker (07/20/20), referring to the 1906 expose of the meat-packing plants that led to labor and consumer protection legislation. For a vivid picture, read about the appalling conditions in Chicago’s pork industry a century ago in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).

“Our oldest went to kindergarten in a toolshed. The Board of Education acted like they was doing us a favor adding a room for each grade, up to eighth.” A quote from the historical novel Tazia and Gemma. After the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire in New York City, an unwed immigrant and her young daughter flee west in search of freedom and encounter racism in Kansas in the early 1900s. Read more about the book in NOVELS.