Amazing piece of WWII Airforce & Hollywood history on Ebay ($900 BIN). Jimmy Stewart, star of 'It's A Wonderful Life','The Philadelphia Story' actually served in combat during World War II. eBay item number:137085398098 Combat Duty: Transferred to England in the fall of 1943 as part of the 8th Air Force, commanding the 703d Bomb Squadron and piloting B-24 Liberator bombers. Missions: Officially credited with flying 20 dangerous combat missions deep into Nazi-occupied Europe, including leading raids on heavily defended targets. Leadership Roles: Served as Operations Officer for the 453rd Bomb Group and Chief of Staff for the 2nd Combat Wing. Extraordinary American and superb actor. NOTE-John Wayne never served/Ronald Reagan never saw combat because of nearsightedness. PS- By the way, lifelong friends Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart agreed early on never to talk politics !
Enlistment: Stewart enlisted as a private in 1941, becoming the first major American movie star to serve in combat during WWII. PS-Those young fellers knew how to wear a pencil-thin mustache ! God only knows what all those boys went through.
My pleasure Whit. Mr. Stewart and I may not have been in 100% agreement politically but I'll never doubt his integrity or depth of belief. A good amount of todays professional political animals- not so much.
I'm training myself not to drift into Politics-thanks for tutoring me once again. Basically what i'm sayin' is-I can disagree w/ an honorable sincere person about politics,religion,music,etc-but a hypocrite who constructs a position solely for personal gain and changes position depending on which way the wind blows-not so much. Jimmy put his money (and body) where his mouth is. That's why what He did as an American, IMHO- matters a lot right now.
It's an honest question... @wlwhittier Hollywoods politics have always mattered.... so much so that at one time the Gov't used that against them writ large. Many actors , I find to be icons , had political views I was opposed to........but on the silver screen........ they lived large and entertained us all !
Many joined during WW2. My father seen here in '46 receiving the Silver Star in addition to a half dozen other accommodations. He had broken his contract at Paramount Pictures in 1942, joining the Marines, ultimately attached to the OSS. Paramount had told him he'd never work in the film industry again for breaking his film contract - but they re-signed him in '46.
