"Let every day be Armistice Day"

While never called to active duty during WWI (and being too old and ill for WWII),  Lionel Barrymore like many stars of his time supported the national effort but was also appalled by the global conflicts. He recorded a brief note at the end of one of his radio shows that fell around November 11 that his prayer was that "every day be Armistice Day." At 11am local time in Europe on November 11, 1918, the guns of the Great War finally fell silent.

Mr. B had lost at least one relative to the conflict and who knows how many acquaintances. Brother John tried to enlist and was rejected on physical grounds. As far as I can tell, Lionel registered for the draft but did not volunteer--in 1917, when the US entered the war, he and first wife Doris Rankin were either about to lose or had just lost an infant daughter in the flu epidemic.

Lionel Barrymore's World War I draft card

Somewhere on this page is the link to the radio show I'm speaking of, but I'll edit it down for just that section.** In the meantime, especially as a military brat with several active duty family members, I echo the call for each day to be Armistice Day.

"And I hope that some of you have said Amen."

**Here's the radio show--at 17:15 minutes in, you can hear his prayer: November 10, 1938: The Copperhead

The brothers in 1917