Collection search - Ball, Helen - Interview

Record information – Brief

1

Ball, Helen - Interview

Item number (ISN):

379032

Series title:

[The Great War and Canadian Society]

Hierarchical level:

Item (Accession level)

Date:

1974-06-14

Item number (ISN):

379032

Type of material:

Sound recordings

Found in:

Archives / Film, Video and Sound

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Record information – Details

Fonds/collection:

THE GREAT WAR AND CANADIAN SOCIETY PROJECT

Accession:

1975-0098

Media:

Sound

Part:

1 of 1

Production date:

1974-06-14

Production company:

Opportunities for Youth

Production credit:

interviewer, Lori Rotenberg

Description:

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Interview of Helen Ball (Mrs. D. Ball) of Toronto, age 77, who was born in Toronto in 1887. Subjects discussed include: growing up in Toronto; her education; going to business college; Girl Guide activities; playing sports; going to the movies for the first time when she was about 15 years old; the York Theatre and the Royal Alexandra Theatre; working as stenographer until she got married in 1922; working for the Department of Soldiers' Civil Re-establishment; helping war veterans find jobs and housing; summer holidays; working as a farmerette, picking fruit on the farm of a relative; her contentment to be a housewife, raising an child and not working outside the home; the excitement she felt when she heard that the war was starting; the opinion that the war was going to be over in six weeks; military training on the grounds of the University of Toronto; boys she knew going off to war; writing letters to soldiers overseas; check-off postcards from soldiers; winding bandages and sewing for the Red Cross; sending parcels overseas; her mother's work knitting and sewing for the Auxiliary of the Howitzer Battery her brother was in; her brothers' military service; the realization among people, as the war went on, of just what they were up against; recruiting officers on the streets of Toronto; seeing white feathers presented to men who would not enlist; her shame that she cut off a friendship with a woman who married a German internee; British war brides; affection for the British; the British character of Toronto at that time; the election of Robert Borden in 1917; her support for conscription; criticism of French Canadians because of their lack of support for the war; rationing of tea, sugar and meat; her father's annoyance about trade unions trying to form at his company, the N.T. Lion glass company; reading newspapers and magazines such as the Mail and Empire, Saturday Night and The Family Herald; buying war bonds; plentiful jobs during the war; women working in munitions factories; the conversion of factories to war work; her brother getting a government pension for the rest of his life because he was seriously wounded overseas; postwar employment of veterans; the censorship of letters from overseas; the false armistice two days before the real armistice; the celebrations on the armistice in Toronto; a huge bonfire that day and military bands playing at Queen's Park that night; war widows; casualty lists; hearing criticism of Sam Hughes, the Minister of Militia; voting as her father did; the patriotism of her family; anti-German sentiment; hard feelings between Canada and the U.S. because the U.S. entered the war so late; her family opening their house to soldiers training at Exhibition Park; feelings of relief after the war; parties and celebrating during the Flapper era of the 1920s; learning to smoke during the First World War; suspicion of people who were not British or Canadian; the general prejudice against foreigners in Toronto; a Chinese laundry and a black family in the neighbourhood; her religious affiliation; how the war caused a lot of people to lose their faith; the nonsensical claim that God was on their side during the war; views of suffragettes; disdain for the campaign by the Women's Christian Temperance Union against the rum ration for the soldiers; and volunteer work by women during the war.

Language:

English

Notes:

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1. The interviews took place in 1974 and resulted in the publication of a book entitled "The Great War and Canadian Society" edited by Daphne Read - copyright 1978 - New Hogtown Press, Toronto.~2. Release forms, data sheets, and summary analysis/transcripts are available in binders labelled Opportunities for Youth - War and Canadian Society in VSA's audio-visual section.~3. Part of a series of recorded interviews with elderly citizens who lived in Canada during the period of World War I. The interview material consists of their opinions and observations about the war, the war years, and the effect on Canadian society during and after WWI.
~4. The interviewee signed an agreement giving consent for a recording of this interview to be placed in the Public Archives of Canada for the purposes of historical research and also signed a publication agreement allowing any transcribed portions of the interview to be used in the book under the condition that no full names, addresses or phone numbers would be published.~5. Subject description is based on information found in the fact sheet, deposit agreement, publication agreement and summary analysis.

Detailed holdings information:

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Vault ISN:

436347

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

C01376

Vault code:

GAT

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

R/R

Technical description:

POLY

Made from:

FROM LOANED MATERIAL

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

436368

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

C01377

Vault code:

GAT

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

R/R

Technical description:

POLY

Made from:

FROM LOANED MATERIAL

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

438925

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

A1 2007-05-0049

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CD

Duration:

79:28

Status:

REF

Vault ISN:

438976

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

A1 2007-05-0050

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CD

Duration:

79:28

Status:

REF

Vault ISN:

736953

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

1975-0098/067

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CASSETTE

Made from:

DEPOSIT

Status:

ORIG

Vault ISN:

736954

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

1975-0098/068

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CASSETTE

Made from:

DEPOSIT

Status:

ORIG

Vault ISN:

1003812

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

A4 2007-05-0049

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CD

Made from:

C01375
C01376
C01377

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

1003813

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

A4 2007-05-0050

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CD

Made from:

C01376
C01377

Status:

MASTER
Ordering and viewing options

Conditions of access:

Open

Consultation copy number:

A1 2007-05-0049
A1 2007-05-0050

Restrictions on consultation:

No Restrictions / Pas de restrictions

Reproduction access:

With written permission of Copyright Owner / Avec la permission écrite du détenteur des droits d'auteur

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