Title:VISIT OF AMERICAN AIRMEN TO SHAKESPEARE'S COUNTRY [Main Title]
Film Number:IWM 304
Other titles:
Summary: Highly disjointed account of a semi-official visit by US airmen to Warwickshire, August-September 1918.
Description: The visit was organised by the Birmingham and District Professions and General Trades Fund for the Wounded. Outside Queen's College, Birmingham, Major-General Higgins (?) inspects the Americans who parade through the streets led by a band and a large dog as mascot. They then arrive in Stratford in a convoy of cars and two lorries draped with the US flag. The Mayor of Stratford addresses them at a reception at Shakespeare's birthplace, making his speech from the top of a set of library steps. A baseball game at Stratford. A British Avro 504 which "just dropped in" (according to the shotsheet) takes off from a farm, cheered by the Americans. The airmen take a trip on the River Avon in a pleasure steamer. In a humorous episode, a British policeman chases one of the Americans who tries to vault the gate of a field - it collapses under him and the policeman lands on top. The men attend an official reception in a park in Leamington Spa, followed by a formal banquet in the Courthouse at Warwick and a procession led by the Mayor of Warwick towards the castle. Inside Warwick Castle the men are addressed by Canon Tovey (?). A posed group of the eight members of the organising committee. The whole party then poses, including Major-General Higgins, the custodian of the castle Mrs Marsh, and her guests the Duke of Rutland and Earl and Countess of Denbigh. Mr J H Francis, the Fund's chairman, is posed on a bench with his wife. Children wave as the lorries carrying the airmen drive off (the film starts to break up at this point). The film ends with a posed scene of an officer of the Royal Flying Corps taking a 'Dutch' light for his cigarette from one of the US aviators, both of them keeping their cigarettes in their mouths. The effect is not unlike a kiss.
Production Details: Ministry of Information (Production sponsor)
Cooper, F (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Higgins, Harold J (person)
Stratford-upon-Avon, Mayor of (person)
Warwick, Mayor of (person)
Tovey (Canon) (person)
Marsh (Mrs) (person)
Rutland (Duke of) (person)
Denbigh (Earl of) (person)
Denbigh (Countess of) (person)
Francis, J H (person)
Francis (Mrs) (person)
United States Army & American Expeditionary Force (regiment/service)
United States Army & Army Air Corps (regiment/service)
Royal Air Force (regiment/service)
Birmingham and District Professions and General Trades Fund (regiment/service)
Keywords: delegations, United States international - goodwill (object name)
buildings, British - historic: castle (object name)
buildings, British - historic: Shakespeare's birthplace (object name)
animals, mammals: dog (mascot) (object name)
recreation, United States military - sport: baseball (object name)
aircraft, British - combat: Avro 504 (object name)
recreation, United States military - tourism (object name)
society, United States military - friendship: [+] (object name)
society, British military - friendship: [+] (object name)
society, British - friendship: [+] (object name)
31/3(41) (event)
Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, UK (geography)
Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, England, UK (geography)
Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, UK (geography)
GB, England & Warwick, Warks <castle> (geography)
propaganda, British (concept)
Children (concept)
