Only a couple of years ago, in 2018, America celebrated the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. Sometimes referred to as "The Great War" or "The War To End All Wars", World War I was a global conflict that pinned Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States (the Allied Powers). For four years, from 1914-1918, new war technology resulted in carnage and destruction beyond anything the world had ever seen before. When it was all said and done the Allied Powers claimed victory, however, more than 16 million people - soldiers and civilians alike - were dead.
In order to help turn the tide of the fighting, the US Army enlisted 223 female, bilingual, telephone operators to serve on the front lines. General John Pershing (played tonight by Senior Ryan Januszek), the top US commander, knew that in order to lead a successful campaign throughout the trenches of France that he’d need the most skilled telecommunications operators to travel with him and maintain contact with all of his troops. What did General Pershing find? Based on their experience in the mostly female dominated profession back home, women could connect calls 6X faster and more efficiently than the Doughboys serving underneath him.
Of the 223 female operators, there was a small group who served at General Pershing’s headquarters, well within the range of German artillery, who was led by Grace Banker (played tonight by Jordan Ivezaj). Tonight we hear about how this small but fierce group of telephone operators transformed into a small but fierce group of soldiers. These women were known as “The Hello Girls” based on the calming effect that they had on their fellow soldiers in the hell-like-conditions of the trenches, simply by saying “Hello”, to them.
Without their service who knows how long this bloody conflict would have continued on for. After an Armistice is reached on November 11, 1918, these brave heroines return home to fight another battle. Although Grace Banker and a few other women received the Distinguished Service Medal, when they returned to their hometowns, they found that they were not able to apply for veterans status or veterans benefits. Thus began a decades long struggle for recognition, from FDR to Jimmy Carter, “The Hello Girls”, looked to receive the recognition that they deserved. Finally, in 1977, six decades after the war ended and after most of these women had died, they were finally recognized as Army veterans.
From New York to Paris, from ragtime to jazz, the Stoney Creek High School Theatre Company proudly celebrates the centennial of these ground-breaking women. “Because history’s affected, by how we’ve intersected, by a million dreams connected, part of one whole.”
