Organizers of the Off the Square Screening Room are a bit nervous. Just how many Medford residents will their special event at the Hyatt Place Hotel attract, especially on a busy Saturday night?
“We started doing them in May,” says Mike Oliver, president of Medford Arts Center, Inc. (MACI), which sponsors the movie night. “We’ve generally had about 25 people or so. Tonight we’re hoping for a few more.”
Off the Square Screening Room is held the third Saturday of the month at the Hyatt, offering documentaries and movies followed by a speaker either featured in the film or its director.
On Sept. 21, MACI is screening the PBS documentary, “The Ghost Army,” which tells the true story of the 1,100 men of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops who used the art of deception warfare against the German army during World War II.
During the summer of 1944, the Ghost Army used blow up tanks, planes and artillery, recordings of armored and infantry units and fake radio traffic to create phony operations throughout France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. Their very existence was kept a classified secret for more than 50 years.
“I heard about it on NPR,” says Oliver, eyeing the crowd starting to filter into the room. “When it came out on PBS in May, we started looking at doing this program. I thought we should have a Medford connection…and we do.”
Featured in “The Ghost Army” is none other than Medford’s own John J. “Jack” McGlynn, former mayor, city councilor and state representative. He’s scheduled to speak to the crowd and answer a few questions following the screening.
The room continues to fill and soon it’s standing room only, as 75 to 100 people squeeze in to watch a 70-minute documentary that recounts how a group of men with rubber tanks, a few records and some radio chatter created confusion within the German ranks.
The applause is thunderous at the end of the film and McGlynn takes his place at the microphone. He explains his role in the Sonic Unit, which was charged in blasting out sounds of trucks, troops and tanks moving around.
“I volunteered,” he tells the crowd. “When I finished cryptography, I could’ve gone on to the Pentagon or school, but I heard they were going to have this unit up and running.”
McGlynn explains he was home in Medford when he ran into a distraught mother at St. Joseph’s Church. Her son, he adds, was serving overseas and she was angry he was “safe” at home.
Organizers of the Off the Square Screening Room are a bit nervous. Just how many Medford residents will their special event at the Hyatt Place Hotel attract, especially on a busy Saturday night?
“We started doing them in May,” says Mike Oliver, president of Medford Arts Center, Inc. (MACI), which sponsors the movie night. “We’ve generally had about 25 people or so. Tonight we’re hoping for a few more.”
Off the Square Screening Room is held the third Saturday of the month at the Hyatt, offering documentaries and movies followed by a speaker either featured in the film or its director.
On Sept. 21, MACI is screening the PBS documentary, “The Ghost Army,” which tells the true story of the 1,100 men of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops who used the art of deception warfare against the German army during World War II.
During the summer of 1944, the Ghost Army used blow up tanks, planes and artillery, recordings of armored and infantry units and fake radio traffic to create phony operations throughout France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. Their very existence was kept a classified secret for more than 50 years.
“I heard about it on NPR,” says Oliver, eyeing the crowd starting to filter into the room. “When it came out on PBS in May, we started looking at doing this program. I thought we should have a Medford connection…and we do.”
Featured in “The Ghost Army” is none other than Medford’s own John J. “Jack” McGlynn, former mayor, city councilor and state representative. He’s scheduled to speak to the crowd and answer a few questions following the screening.
The room continues to fill and soon it’s standing room only, as 75 to 100 people squeeze in to watch a 70-minute documentary that recounts how a group of men with rubber tanks, a few records and some radio chatter created confusion within the German ranks.
The applause is thunderous at the end of the film and McGlynn takes his place at the microphone. He explains his role in the Sonic Unit, which was charged in blasting out sounds of trucks, troops and tanks moving around.
“I volunteered,” he tells the crowd. “When I finished cryptography, I could’ve gone on to the Pentagon or school, but I heard they were going to have this unit up and running.”
McGlynn explains he was home in Medford when he ran into a distraught mother at St. Joseph’s Church. Her son, he adds, was serving overseas and she was angry he was “safe” at home.
“I had to volunteer,” he adds at the end of the story. “I didn’t want to come home and have the woman attack me in church.”
McGlynn tells a few more anecdotes and answers a few questions: No, he doesn’t keep in touch with the men in the documentary, as most of them have died since it was made. No, the Ghost Army has never received any special recognition for its role in the war.
But the question everyone wants to know is how he kept his role in the unit a secret.
“They told us the lives of future soldiers depended on it,” McGlynn says. “So, we kept it a secret.”
He elaborates that at the end of World War II, the U.S. knew its deception warfare was a success. And with the Russians a possible future threat, the government wasn’t about to blab how its secret unit had been able to fool the Germans.
It wasn’t until sometime in 2006-7 that even McGlynn’s family knew. Their reaction?
“They thought I was just dad,” he says with a laugh, “and dad does good things.”
After the evening ends, McGlynn is surrounded by well wishers and those who have more questions. He laughs when told he’s a celebrity.
“It was all more than 70 years ago,” he says. “Suddenly, it’s all back.”
McGlynn says interest in the Ghost Army has spread worldwide. He recently did an interview with a reporter from England, where his group was stationed at Walton Hall.
Mayor Michael J. McGlynn says he’s taken his father to about 15 events to speak about the Ghost Army, some of which were to raise money for the film to be made by writer, producer and director Rick Beyer.
“Rick would say they had a member of the Ghost Army and my father would come out and answer all those questions,” the mayor says. “People from the older generation all want to come and shake his hand.”
The mayor is standing in the back of the room, where some of McGlynn’s war artifacts are, including an SS dress sword, which he says his father took off a German officer in Luxembourg. And there’s so much more.
“He has a ton of stuff,” the mayor says. “In fact, as the sergeant in the unit, he was the one who took all the Nazi flags down when they marched into a town.”
As the evening winds down, the mayor watches his father. He says the older McGlynn has been invited to many such evenings, ranging from right here in Medford to film festivals in Luxembourg.
And to think, he never knew.
“We’re obviously very proud of him,” the mayor says. “When it was first declassified, a reporter called me up and asked me if I knew my father was in the Ghost Army. I was offended and I said, ‘My father was in the U.S. army’ and he explained and told me to call my father and ask him.”
The reaction was not what the mayor expected.
“He said, ‘Find out who he is and how he knows,’” he explains. “I told him that he was a reporter and that this stuff had been declassified. There was a long pause and he said, ‘I was in the Ghost Army.’ I said, ‘The heck with the reporter…Dad, why didn’t you tell us?’”
The mayor adds now that the story is out, even more people can find out what his father and all the other men did for their country.
Tony Arena was one of those troops who served in Europe during World War II. And he had his own encounter with the Ghost Army — never knowing one of his hometown friend was a member.
“I served in Germany,” he explains. “We were in the outfit that took over when the Ghost Army left. They won it for us and we got all the glory.”
Arena first learned about McGlynn’s role in the Ghost Army when he saw the PBS documentary.
“I was definitely surprised,” he says. “I actually ended up getting a copy of the movie and gave it to Jack. He said that was the first time he even saw it.”
McGlynn admits seeing the documentary takes him right back to his days in the Ghost Army. And he quietly launches into a story about those years.
In the background, MACI organizers know they’ve scored another successful evening.
“We have more and more people come each time,” says Oliver. “Stay tuned because next month we’re having the Boston Student Arts Network show student films.”
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