On this page we will look back at life in the city during the war years. Here we will provide the visitor with the stories making the news, what was happening in sports and entertainment, city politics, the social scene and the prominent people at the time. We will also recount the events occurring in the war on that day. So, check back each day for new editions.
To share your family or neighborhood stories, please email PhillyWWIyears@gmail.com
TODAY IN PHILADELPHIA – MONDAY, MAY 22, 1916
Today the skies will be partly cloudy with the possibility of showers moving in overnight and on Tuesday. The winds will be moderate and from the east. Today’s high will reach 74° with the low about 47°.
This morning thousands of young Philadelphians and many not so young lined Broad Street to watch, cheer, applaud and meet Buffalo Bill Cody.
Buffalo Bill Cody
The great western frontiersman, buffalo hunter, scout and Civil War hero led his Wild West Show and Congress of Rough Riders of the World down this city’s main thoroughfare to the delight of all. Most of those cheering know this man only through literature but now here he was, in the flesh. With him on parade were cowboys and cowgirls, Sioux warriors, squaws and their papooses in their native dress, wagons and stage coaches, enormous buffaloes, long horn cattle and more horses than one could count. Accompanying Colonel Cody was Iron Tail, who fought at the Little Big Horn and whose profile adorns the “buffalo” nickel. The show will begin tonight at 19th & Hunting Park Avenue and all children and those young at heart are welcome to come to the grounds and sit around the campfires and meet Buffalo Bill and the other performers and listen to the stories of the old wild west.
The Municipal Band has released its concert schedule for this week. Tonight the Band will be at Stringer Park, 33rd & Reed Streets, tomorrow evening at 11th & Spring Garden Streets. On Wednesday evening, at the Belmont Playground, 21st & Nedro Streets. Thursday night at Fotterall Square, 11th & York Streets and Friday night at Vernon Park, Germantown Avenue above Chelton Avenue.
In baseball over the weekend, here at Shibe Park on Saturday the White Sox smacked 11 hits and scored 11 runs shutting out the Athletics 11 to 0. No game was played on Sunday of course. Today’s game starts a short series with Cleveland and has Elmer Myers taking the mound for the A’s (6-1) against Jim Bagby (3-3). The Phillies had a fine weekend beating the Pirates on Saturday 5 to 1 and the Cubs on Sunday 4 to 2. This afternoon the Phillies continue their series with the Cubs in Chicago as Pete Alexander (7-2) takes the mound.
WAR NEWS
On the Italian front the Austrians have opened a large offensive all along the Trentino line. Reports are that the Italians have retreated under heavy fire and are attempting to regroup. The Austrians had 30 divisions on this front and recently augmented them with 6 divisions from Serbia and 6 more from the Russian front. Supposedly the Austrians have already lost 20,000 men killed, wounded or missing in this action. In the east, reports from Sweden are that a large naval engagement between the German and Russian fleets is occurring off the Swedish port of Kalmar in the Baltic Sea.
GET YOUR COPY OF PHILADELPHIA: THE WORLD WAR I YEARS BY CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW.