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 – SATURDAY, MAY 6, 1916
The dreary, grey, cloudy skies just will not leave. They were over the city again today. The high will reach 76° with the low tonight around 54°.
It is Straw Hat Day in Philadelphia. Every year on the occasion of the Penn-Harvard baseball game the new season’s straw hats are displayed. Not just at Franklin Field but throughout the city men adorned their heads with the oval headgear. They come in all types including Sennets, Canton Splits, Milans and Porto Ricans. Those wearing the hats of winter were mocked. Derbies were derided and some even taken from their owners and dispatched violently. The happy coincidence that Penn was also hosting Dartmouth in a track meet and Swarthmore in lacrosse filled the campus and surrounding areas with even more of these fashionable summertime toppers.
Federal, State and city officials conducted 4 simultaneous raids today netting $5,000.00 worth of cocaine, morphine, opium and heroin in the Tenderloin. This was the largest amount of drugs seized in this city under the Harrison Act. The government agents disclosed that Philadelphia is a hotbed of the illegal “dope” traffic in the country. The dope taken at just on location, 246 North 10th Street, filled 3 suitcases. Four men and one woman were arrested in the raids. In other crime news, more than 20 fruit dealers in this city have been arrested for selling maraschino cherries which were artificially colored and treated with sulphur dioxide. The arrests were made by the State Dairy and Food authorities.
In international news, there are reports from Russia that revolutionaries have started a great fire in Moscow. The reports claim that workmen exploded kerosene and benzene tanks belonging to the government. The explosion set 5000 tons of the tanks filled with the chemicals ablaze. Government buildings close to the explosion are now on fire and adjacent buildings are also in danger.
In entertainment this weekend, on stage at the Garrick, 1330 Chestnut Street, the Polish drama “Through The Ages” opens starting Madame Yorska. At the Walnut, the popular farce “Twin Beds” by Salisbury Field and Margaret Mayo in on stage. There are also some interesting and entertaining photoplays being shown around the city. William S. Hart stars in “Hell’s Hinges” at the Globe, 59th & Market, which also features a new $15,000.00 Kimball Organ. At the Great Northern, Broad & Erie, Dorothy Dish stars in “Little Meena’s Romance”. And at the Savoy, 1211 Market Street, Olga Petrova stars in “Playing with Fire”. And for those wishing to spend time communing with nature while having fun, Woodside Amusement Park in Fairmount Park is now open for the season with Kryl and His Band performing afternoon and evening concerts. And there are fireworks every night.
GET YOUR COPY OF PHILADELPHIA: THE WORLD WAR I YEARS BY CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW.