This is one of those borderline posts that may leave you shaking your head wondering, why did he post this?  Well, it’s a good question without a good answer.  Perhaps it’s because it gives me the chance to make a bad joke about how with this movie, you can now get the “reel” history of World War I.

With the occasional posts about WWI films appearing on Turner Classics, you may sense that I like using the popular culture to discuss how our impressions of history–including bad impressions–are formed.

But it’s simply to inject a little Kansas trivia.  The director of the new “Wonder Woman” film, Patty Jenkins, spent her formative years from kindergarten through junior year of high school in that exotic community of Lawrence, Kansas, and she still has some memories of her time spent there.  Here’s an article from the Kansas City Star:  http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/stargazing/article153816134.html

 

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.