Paris May 1, 1945

Paris May 1, 1945 

Roll 0015. Paris City Snapshot on May 1, 1945. Snowy winter day. Few people walking in the snow. Traffic. Armored truck outside a Paris building. Trees and rooftops. Eifel tower and sunnier skies. Father and son have a snow ball fight. Others surround the Eifel Tower, all white promenade. 

Born on July 15, 1920 and raised in West Plains, Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, Hoyt Wayne Jones graduated high school at 16 in 1936. Drafted into the Army in 1942 and commissioned as a second lieutenant, he served in the Signal Corps in Africa, England and France. After filming the liberation of some of the first camps in Germany, he suffered a breakdown which would alter the course of his life. Rebounding by marrying a French girl, he would spend the rest of his life dealing with personal demons, questions of conformity, and culture clash. Hoyt died of Parkinsons at the age of 74 in 1994.