One  is never certain that we find all the World War I-themed movies that Turner Classics show within a month, but we have found three for March.

-TCM always loads up on Irish-themed movies on St. Patrick’s Day, so it’s appropriate that they will show the story about the Irish-American unit, The Fighting 69th (1940).  It airs at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 17th, and stars James Cagney, Pat O’Brien, and many other Irish-American actors.  If you don’t know who Joyce Kilmer is, you will after watching this movie.

-On Thursday, March 22nd at 11:00 a.m. the 1940 version of Waterloo Bridge will be shown.  Ballerina Vivien Leigh turns to prostitution when he fiance is reported killed in WWI.  Also stars Robert Taylor.

-The 1933 film The Eagle and the Hawk will be shown at 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, March 25th.  The story about RAF pilots has a cast that includes Frederic March, Cary Grant, and Jack Oakie.

Happy viewing!

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Now for C-SPAN.  Last week and this week we’ve been unable to detect any WWI programming airing on any of the C-SPAN networks.  One should check carefully, however, because it’s always possible the schedule changes, or as happened recently, programming listed simply as “American History TV” turned out to be a program taped at the National World War I Museum and Memorial on Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos.  We will keep watching for WWI-themed shows.

Blair Tarr is the Museum Curator of the Kansas State Historical Society. He oversees the three-dimensional collections of the Society, but has special interests in the Civil War, Wichita-made Valentine diners, and Leavenworth's Abernathy Furniture. In the last few years he has also done a lot of cramming on The Great War. He is a past president of the Kansas Museums Association and the Civil War Round Tables of both Kansas City and Eastern Kansas. He is currently a board member of the Heritage League of Greater Kansas City.