Captain America
has been saving the world from fictional evil since 1940; the real Captain
America helped save the real world from real evil in 1919.
In 2011, Marvel Studios unleashed Chris
Evans as Captain America: The First Avenger.
In 1943, Republic Pictures launched
the first of fifteen Captain America serial chapters.
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| [View Chapter 1 – “The Purple Death” here.] |
In late-1940, with Europe embroiled in one
year-old war and a full year before Pear Harbor pushed the United States to
join the fight, Timely Comics
(predecessor of Marvel Comics) put
its first issue of Captain America on
sale. With a cover showing the fictional
Captain America punching a comic-book Hitler on the nose, the first issue sold
over a million copies.
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| Captain America No. 1 – Marvel.com. |
But decades before all of that fictional
heroism, a real Captain America gave Kaiser Wilhelm a figurative punch on the
nose, rescuing survivors from a ship torpedoed by a German submarine in World
War I and helping save 200,000 actual children from starvation in the aftermath
of that real war launched by an earlier generation of Germans.
The Real Captain America
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| Captain America |
Captain America, Captain Frank M.
America of the American Red Cross, was an Associated Press journalist from
Buffalo New York who was sent to London in 1917 to cover the war, later joining
the American Red Cross as their Director of Information in Great Britain.
Frank America was in Scotland when
the luxury liner, S. S. Tuscania, then in service as a troop ship ferrying
American troops to Europe, was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine UB-77,
with the loss of 210 lives. He assisted
in the rescue of survivors, participated in the funerals of victims, and
forwarded an American flag, sewn overnight by local women in Scotland, to
President Wilson “where it hung in the capital for some time” before being
placed “in the museum in Washington.”[i]
After his heroics in Scotland, the
American Red Cross recruited him and gave him the rank of Captain. Frank, now Captain America, continued his
good works, nourishing the minds of American and British soldiers by publishing
a daily “single mimeograph sheet of late American news hot from the wireless,”
of which 2,500 copies were distributed daily to the sick and wounded in British
and American hospitals and rest camps.
Later, Captain America published an
illustrated weekly for distribution to the troops. He also organized a photo service to provide
content for his magazine, and made the service available to British and American
newspapers. When publication of his
weekly was discontinued after the war, “Captain America forwarded to the state
department at Washington twelve large folio volumes containing more than 1,000
of these photographs,” which were placed in the national archives.[ii]
After the armistice, Captain America
joined a Red Cross mission delivering aide and supplies to Poland where, partly
through his efforts, they helped save 200,000 Polish children.
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Buffalo Evening News, December 17, 1919, page 2.
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Not quite as cool as punching Hitler
in the nose, but pretty good for real-life.
Captain America’s brother, Private
America, may have been even more heroic, if more anonymous. Private Robert G. America delivered
ammunition to the front lines at night as a member of the 77th
Division, Company B, 302d Regiment Ammunition Train.[iii]
“Captain Americus”
If Captain America was strong, “Captain
Americus” was even stronger. In 1904, “Captain
Americus,” reportedly won the “gold medal at the St. Louis exposition in 1904
for being the champion strong man of the world.”[iv]
He didn’t save the world, but he
could save you from more mundane health problems – “Satisfaction guaranteed.”
Captain Americus School of Physical
Culture.
Nature intended you
should be healthy and strong. If you
have neglected your duty now is your golden opportunity to redeem yourself by
taking a course in physical culture; a positive cure for indigestion and
constipation. Class or private instructions for ladies or gentlemen. Satisfaction guaranteed.
Captain Americus
Or Chicago, Ill.
Fort Smith Times (Fort Smith, Arkansas), April 8, 1906, page 4.
Born in Maryland in 1855, “Captain
Americus,” whose real name was J. L. Taylor, ran away from home at the age of 8
after being whipped by an uncle he lived with.
He fell in with a “troupe of tumblers, who threw him from one to
another, and this hardened his muscles.” [v]
He was still performing in 1911,
billing himself as the “oldest living acrobat” and the “Physical Culture King.” His act included “tearing decks of cards into
several pieces, bending large nails . . . pulling chains apart and bending
large iron bars.”
The most remarkable
feature of Captain Americus is his startling automobile feat. This is one of the nerviest “stunts” that has
ever been shown Charlotte people. A
seven-passenger Packard touring car driven by John Elliott, of this city, will
be filled with passengers and making a total weight of over 4,000 pounds which
Captain Americus will allow to be driven over his body.
The Evening Chronicle (Charlotte, North Carolina), September 27, 1911, page 6.
But as strong as he was, “Captain
Americus” was not invincible. He
suffered a debilitating stroke in April 1914.
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Des Moines Register, October 3, 1915, Commercial and Classified Section, page 6.
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It was too bad; his strength might
have come in handy when World War I broke out three months later.
But luckily for the good guys, there
was a real Captain America to save torpedo victims and Polish babies, a Private
America to deliver ammunition to the front in the dark of night, and all of the
other proverbial “Captain Americas” who joined forces to save Europe from
destroying itself in two world wars.
Now if they could just do something about the Marvel Universe. . . .
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