Sidney D. Light's WWI Diary, Postcards & Letters, 329th Battery Book Accounts

Battery B, due to the Managerial enterprise of Max Leo Corrigan, was the most active in entertainment affairs, but the whole regiment was full of the good old “jazz” and pep when it came to “knitting up the ravelled sleeve” of ennui.

       One of the brightest spots in the show line at Custer was the competitive entertainment put on in the “Y” under Lieutenant Stratton’s auspices.  Battery F won and deservedly so; and who will ever forget that knockout “latrine comedy” of Batter[y] C’s.

        On the boat Corrigan, Thorpe, Hall (well known as the author of “Don’t Let a Slacker Win My Place in Your Heart”) and some others entertained us in lively fashion and helped chased away the seasick blues.

        At Cöetquidan Battery B produced its minstrel show for the first time and made a hit that resounded throughout the A. E. F.

        At Pont-a-Mousson, after the Hippodrome was fixed up, there was a pleasing epidemic of shows, of all sorts.  Never a road show that hit there, however, that had anything on the entertainment made and produced within our own ranks.  Here are some of the regimental shows and performers that made their bow there, mostly under the title “Caisson Road Show.”

        December 14th, 1918, the 329th Band, the Italian Four, Hill, Hulburd and Eddy in a musical act, Corrigan & Co. In “The Irish Court.” Dale, Thorpe, Guessler & Evans in “As You Like It.”  The 328th Jazz Orchestra and the 330th Entertainers appeared on the same bill.

         December 28th the Band was there with bells on again.  DeSmyter tickled them with “12 Minutes at the Piano.: Hanna mystified them with his “Magic Number.”  Pirie & Evans blew in with “Oboe Solos.”  Delmar & Co. Paralyzed ‘em with “Launcelot Gobbo,” and Barsook, DeSmyter, Walsh, Medici and Verrast thrilled with “The Eleventh Hour.”

        December 30th and 31st—Hildred, Harsch & Co. administered to our woes with “Pills.”  Kobel, Williams & Steinke entertained.  The 328th Orchestra again jazzed away our blues, and Evans, Dale, Hall & Co. made a big hit.

        January 2nd and 3rd, 1919—Our Band again.  “Those Two Tumblers,” “The Country Store,” White and Chmylinski in “French Drama” and some Minstrels made an all around pleasing show.

        Jan 6th & 7th—The 115th Engineers put on a rollicking good show.

        Then the big, final blow-out under Corrigan’s direction, “Somewhere in France.”  Battery B furnished the company here but all our popular regimental stars were involved—Thorpe, Goldberg, Nick Hall, Scanlon, etc.  The show was divided into three elaborate parts and was sure a large order for a bunch of buddies to tackle so far from civilization.  It made as big a hit as Ziegfeld’s Follies ever did, however.

        While at Pont-a-Mousson we were also entertained by the 329th Artillery Troop and by the Misses Rubel & Roberts, of New York.

        The whole regiment is indebted to men like Corrigan, Thorpe, Hall, Goldberg, Humphries, Hulburd, Hill, Eddy, Lieutenant Curtiss and Chaplain Sorensen for their untiring efforts to make our time pass more quickly and enjoyably.