MILWAUKEE COUNTY

Hello Girls documentary of WWI women phone operators coming to Milwaukee

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A documentary about the American women who volunteered to be phone operators for the U.S. Army in France during World War I will be shown in Milwaukee this week.

Jim Theres, a Racine native, recently unveiled his film "The Hello Girls" in Washington, D.C. It's being shown in Wisconsin for the first time on Thursday at the War Memorial Center at 7 p.m.

It will also be shown at the Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center at 11 a.m. on Friday. Both events are free.

The armband on Hildegarde Van Brunt’s arm shows she was a phone operator with the U.S. Army Signal Corps in France and Germany during World War I. Armbands with a laurel wreath below a telephone meant supervising operator and those with a lightning bolt were for chief operators.

The one-hour film about the American phone operators who served in the Army Signal Corps during World War I shines a spotlight on a group of brave, selfless women who were not officially recognized for their work until it was too late for most of them.

Theres and descendants of Hildegarde Van Brunt, a Milwaukee woman who served in the telephone unit, will participate in a Q&A following the movie at the War Memorial Center, 750 N. Lincoln Memorial Drive. The event is free though registration is requested — warmemorialcenter.org/the-hello-girls/.