The story of a Hillsdale College graduate who went on to become America’s foremost codebreaker will be told in a documentary called “Hillsdale Student, American Hero: How Elizebeth Smith Friedman Beat the Mob and Won the War.”
The film is being produced by a group of Hillsdale College documentary filmmaking students. The film’s premiere will take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9, at Plaster Auditorium on the Hillsdale College campus.
The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
The premiere is part of an event that takes place every semester called the Hillsdale College Documentary Showcase. In addition to “Hillsdale Student, American Hero,” several shorter documentaries will be shown that night, all of which were produced by Hillsdale College students.
Among them will be a documentary about Sile Doty, an 1800s outlaw who lived in Hillsdale and had a secret cave in the woods where he took his stolen horses – a cave that’s still there today.
“It’s going to be a great night of Hillsdale stories,” said Buddy Moorehouse, who teaches the documentary filmmaking course at Hillsdale College. “The students have done a remarkable job with these documentaries. We invite everyone in the community to join us.”
The highlight of the night will be the premiere of “Hillsdale Student, American Hero,” the story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, a 1915 Hillsdale College graduate who basically invented the science of codebreaking.
“She’s one of the most remarkable women in American history, and her story has only started to be told in recent years,” Moorehouse said.
“She played a key role in World War I and she helped crack codes that were being used by Al Capone’s mob in the 1930s. But her most remarkable work was done in World War II. Elizebeth and her team literally prevented the Nazis from taking over South America by cracking the codes they were using to send messages to their ships. It’s no stretch to say she helped win the war. She’s a true American hero, and she was from Hillsdale College.”
Because all of her work was classified top secret, though, nobody knew at the time just how important a role she was playing. All of the records were sealed by the government until 2008.
“That’s when people finally started to learn exactly how big a role Elizebeth played,” Moorehouse said.
Since then, books have been written and a PBS documentary has been done, but “Hillsdale Student, American Hero” will focus on her years at Hillsdale College and how they helped form this American icon.
The film is being produced by Hillsdale College students Jack Cote, Lindsey Larkin, Christian Peck-Dimit, Lauren Scott, Maggie Wackenhut and Maddy Welsh.
This film is the latest in a series of full-length Hillsdale College documentaries done by the students in Moorehouse’s class. Past films, all of which are available free on YouTube, include:
- “A Better Kind of Glory: The Story of the 1955 Hillsdale College Football Team and the Tangerine Bowl.”
- “Defending Liberty: The Story of Hillsdale College and the Civil War.”
- “Aliens in the Arb: The Incredible Story of the 1966 UFO Sighting at Hillsdale College.”
