August 24, 1930: "All Quiet On the Western Front" Premieres

August 24, 1930: All Quiet On the Western Front premieres, directed by Lewis Milestone, and based on the novel published the year before by Erich Maria Remarque. The original German title was Im Westen nichts Neues, meaning, "In the West, Nothing New."

The film begins with young recruits joining the German Army, ready to serve in "The Great War," as World War I was originally known. They are quickly disillusioned by the conditions of trench warfare. Since the movie was made in America, the cast was entirely American, including Lew Ayers as the lead character, Paul Bäumer.

After recovering from being wounded, Paul is given a furlough, and returns to his home town. There, he is shocked about how little the "home front" knows about the war. Returning to the classroom where his professor had talked him and his classmates into enlisting, he tells the class what war is really like. The professor, who has clearly never been in a war -- the Franco-Prussian War was nearly half a century before -- calls him a coward, and the students go along with this, and Paul has to leave.

In the final scene, Paul is back on the front line. He sees a butterfly just beyond his trench. Smiling, he reaches out for the butterfly. While reaching, however, he is shot and killed by an enemy sniper. A harmonica plays throughout the scene, until the sniper's bullet is heard, at which point Paul's hand and the harmonica both stop. The final sequence shows the 2nd Company arriving at the front for the first time, fading out to the image of a cemetery.

The film won Best Picture, and Milestone won Best Director, at the Academy Awards. It was remade in 1979, starring Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine, and another remake is set to premiere later in 2022, this time directed by German director Edward Berger, and Austrian actor Paul Kammerer as Paul Bäumer.

Erich Maria Remarque, then still using his birth name of Erich Paul Remark, was wounded while fighting for Germany in 1917. In 1933, the Nazis declared his writing "unpatriotic." Copies were removed from all libraries and restricted from being sold or published anywhere in the country. The film was banned in some countries because it was sympathetic to Germany, and in others because it promoted pacifism. It wasn't shown in Germany until 1952.

Remarque's sister was executed for anti-Nazi activities. He married actress Ilse Jutta Zambona, divorced her, then remarried her to prevent her from being deported from Switzerland to Germany, moved with her to New York, and finally returned to Switzerland.

He and Zambona cheated on each other, many times. He had affairs with actresses Hedy Lamarr, Dolores del Rio and Marlene Dietrich. Divorcing Zambona again, he married actress Paulette Goddard, who had been living in Switzerland since the time that she was married to actor Charlie Chaplin. Remarque was still married to her when he died in 1970.

Lewis Milestone lived until 1980, Lew Ayres until 1996.

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August 24, 1930 was a Sunday. Rock and roll pioneer Jackie Brenston was born on that day. And these baseball games were played:

* A doubleheader was split at Yankee Stadium. The New York Yankees won the opener, 5-3. Allen "Dusty" Cooke won the game with a home run in the bottom of the 11th inning. Red Ruffing went the distance for the win. The Cleveland Indians won the nightcap, 4-2. Wes Ferrell outpitched Herb Pennock. Over the 2 games, Babe Ruth went 0-for-8 with a walk, and Lou Gehrig went 6-for-8 with a walk, but no RBIs.

* The New York Giants lost to the Chicago Cubs, 3-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Bill Terry went 1-for-4, Mel Ott went 2-for-4.

* A doubleheader was split at Fenway Park in Boston. The Boston Red Sox won the 1st game, 2-0. Milt Gaston pitched a 3-hit shutout. The Chicago White Sox won the 2nd game, 5-4. Smead Jolley singled Bill Cissell home with the winning run in the top of the 11th inning.

* The Washington Senators beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 7-3 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Rube Walberg went 3-for-4, but still ended up as the losing pitcher, as Alvin "General" Crowder held off the powerful lineup that included Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Cochrane and Al Simmons.

* A doubleheader was split at Redland Field (later Crosley Field) in Cincinnati. The Pittsburgh Pirates won the 1st game, 9-6. Pie Traynor went 4-for-5. The Cincinnati Reds won the 2nd game, 2-0. Ray Kolp pitched a 5-hit shutout.

* The St. Louis Browns beat the Detroit Tigers, 7-5 at Navin Field (later Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium) in Detroit.

* The St. Louis Cardinals swept the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-4 and 6-4 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.

* And the Brooklyn Dodgers (or the Brooklyn Robins, as they were known under Wilbert Robinson's management from 1914 to 1931) and the Chicago Cubs were rained out at Ebbets Field. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on September 27. The Dodgers won the 1st game, 8-2. The Cards won the 2nd game, 7-1.