"Arrival of the American Troops in France"
by Prince's Band and Columbia Male Quartette

The recordings, after a while, came to sound like each other. After an eight- or 16-bar introduction by a brass band playing in a military manner, and an eight-bar vamp, reminiscent of the choreography of the vaudeville routine which many of the songs came from or went to, the singers all launched into songs of soldiers leaving, girlfriends and families being left, bravado from those going or those staying, or messages and descriptives that assured everyone that we were right and there was nothing to worry about. One such descriptive focused on the event of the arrival in France of American troops. There is much ship noise and then a cultivated voice announces: "Ah, boys, there's the shores of France!" which is answered by a huge cheer. When the cheer is quelled, the same voice asks for quiet so that the general can say a few words. The few words include the assurance that "Uncle Sam and his allies are fighting for justice and liberty" and that the troops' motto should be "Victory and peace, forever," at which point the general (played by Henry Burr) is given three cheers before the troops break into song as they haul out the gangplank in preparation for going ashore.

In reality, justice and liberty were Wilsonian agenda items. Europeans, it was generally thought, were fighting for territory and revenge. "Victory and peace forever" is also the stuff of American ideals and the sum of all of Wilson's diplomacy before the war. This is a piece designed to assure Americans that all the Allies were fighting for an American agenda and that our boys were spreading the message. It is the picture assuring the American listener that our troops are the white knight charging to the rescue of poor beleaguered Europe.

When they sing their way off of the ship, "On to Berlin to the tune of Dixie / A half a million strong," they are tying their arrival to approval in the south, they are showing that Teddy Roosevelt big-stickness, and when the vignette ends with a palimpsest of "There's a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" (the old town being Berlin, of course), "Columbia the Gem of the Ocean," "the Marseillaise," "The March of the Grenadiers," and "Hurrah for the Red White and Blue," listeners are reassured of the sanctity of the American presence in Europe, just as surely as the piece of genius which announces, during the fife and drums quotation from their namesake march: "Here come the Grenadiers to welcome us!" The toughest troops in the British Army march to the pier to welcome America into the war? This is a coronation. The piece fades out to "Three cheers for Uncle Sammy's boys" and an almost unnoticed "Vive L'Amerique!" The Americans, "half a million strong" will rush to Berlin with the blessings of all assembled.

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