Hollywood then {WW2} and NOW

What a difference 50 years makes

from JoeUser Forums
Don Adams  - USMC, Contracted malaria on Guadalcanal [Source: Internet Movie Database]
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John Agar - US Army Air Corps, Sergeant.
bullet Gene Autry - Flight Officer, Air Transport Command, 1942-1946
bullet Eddie Albert  - US Navy. Drove Amtracks in several Pacific invasions. He served in the landings at Saipan in 1943, where he rescued wounded and stranded Marines from the beachhead. At Tarawa, he was wounded and lost most of his hearing and earned the Bronze Star.
bullet James Arness - US Army, Wounded at Anzio. Purple Heart and Bronze Star [

B
bullet Martin Balsam - US Army.
bullet James Best - US Army Air Corps.
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bullet Richard Boone - US Navy.
bullet Neville Brand - US Army.
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bullet Ernest Borgnine he served in the U.S. Navy for twelve years, joining before WWII.
bullet Mel Brooks (Melvin Kaminsky) joined army in WWII and became a combat engineer. Cleared German mines after the Battle of the Bulge. He organized shows for the US troops, and when the German army began transmitting propaganda over loudspeakers Brooks is said to have replied with a version of Al Jolson's 'Toot-toot-tootsie'.
bullet Charles Bronson - US Army.
bullet Richard Burton - Royal Navy.

C
bullet Art Carney  - US Army. Carney went to Normandy in July of 1944 as a replacement to the 28th Division in position around St Lô. He was part of a 30 calibre machine gun squad. On 15 August 1944 he had just taken up his position and was hit in the right leg by mortar shrapnel. After receiving field treatment, he was sent back to Britain and then the US. He once said of his military career, "Never fired a shot and maybe never wanted to. I really cost the government money."
bullet Julia Child served with the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) in Ceylon and China during WWII. [Source: They Also Served by Scott Baron]
bullet Jeff Chandller - US Army.
bullet Jackie Coogan  - US Army Air Corps. Enlisted in Army March 1941. After Pearl Harbor, requested transfer to Air Corps as a glider pilot because of his civilian flying experience. After graduating from Glider School, he was made a Flight Officer and  volunteered for hazardous duty with the 1st Air Commando Group. In Dec. 1943, the unit was sent to India where, by using CG-4A gliders, it airlifted crack British troops under Gen. Orde Wingate during the night aerial invasion of Burma (Mar. 5, 1944), landing them in a small jungle clearing 100 miles behind Japanese lines.
bullet Tony Curtis - US Navy joined 1943 at age 17. In Tokyo Bay he watched the surrender ceremonies from the Signal Bridge of the USS Proteus.

DMilitary Surplus for Less
bullet Ossie Davis - US Army
bullet Kirk Douglas - US Navy

E
bullet Maurice Evans  was in a Special Entertainment Unit that toured the South Pacific.

F
bullet Douglas Fairbanks Jr. - US Navy. He joined the naval reserves before the war.  During the war he served on the Battleship Massachuesetts and was a Commando raider sent on several land attack missions. He retired from the reserves, years later, as a full Captain. He wrote about his war years in the book "A Hell of a War" which also covers his duties in helping organize the forerunners of today's Navy Seals.
bullet Henry Fonda  - US Navy. Bronze Star for Valor.
bullet Glenn Ford - US Navy. In addition to his WWII service, he served in the reserves during the Korean War and the Viet Nam War. He retired as a Captain in the US Naval Reserve.

G
bullet Clark Gable - Captain, US Army Air Corps. Although beyond draft age, Clark Gable enlisted as a private in the Air Corps on Aug. 12, 1942 at Los Angeles. He attended Officers' Candidate School at Miami Beach and graduated as a second lieutenant. He then attended aerial gunnery school and in Feb. 1943, on personal orders from Gen. Arnold, went to England to make a motion picture of aerial gunners in action. He was assigned to the 351st Bomb Group at Polebrook and although neither ordered nor expected to do so, flew operational missions over Europe in B-17s to obtain the combat film footage he believed was required for producing the movie entitled "Combat America." Gable returned to the U.S. in Oct. 1943 and was relieved from active duty as a major on Jun. 12, 1944 at his own request, since he was over age for combat
bullet Frank Gorshin - US Army
bullet Shecky Greene - US Navy

H
bullet Alan Hale US Coast Guard during WWII. 
bullet Sterling Hayden USMC
bullet Jack Hawkins - Volunteered to serve in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. He spent most of his military career arranging entertainment for the British forces in India [Source: Internet Movie Database]
bullet David Hedison
bullet Audrey Hepburn, as a child she was a courier for World War II resistance fighters in Holland
bullet Benny Hill - British Army
bullet William Holden - US Army

J
bullet Rick Jason - US Army Air Corps

K
bullet Bob Keeshan - ("Captain Kangaroo") , enlisted two weeks before his 18th birthday. He saw no combat because his enlistment was just two months before the bombing of Hiroshima
bullet Brian Keith - USMC, Aerial gunner
bullet George Kennedy - US Army, served 16 Years
bullet Werner Klemperer - US Army
bullet Don Knotts - USA 1943

L
bullet Burt Lancaster - US Army
bullet Jack Lemmon - US Navy Reserve 1945-1946

M
bullet Strother Martin - US Navy Swimming instructor
bullet Lee Marvin - US Marines, wounded in the battle of Saipan
bullet Patrick MacNee British Royal Navy.
bullet Steve McQueen USMC
bullet Jan Merlin - Enlisted in US Navy April, 1942, served as a destroyer torpedoman until April 1946, honorably discharged. Played Roger Manning, Space Cadet!
bullet Burgess Meredith - US Army Air Corps
bullet Gary Merrill US Army
bullet Robert Montgomery - US Navy Reserve
bullet Audie Murphy - US Army, most decorated soldier of WWII

N
bullet David Niven Royal Army. His relates several charming tales of his war service (including the time he lets a German general slip away) in his autobiography The Moon's a Balloon 

O
bullet Caroll O’Connor - Merchant Marines 1942

P
bullet Jack Palance US Army Air Corps. 455th bomb group. Required facial reconstruction from terrible injuries received in 1943 when his B17 crash landed in Britain.
bullet Dick Peabody - US Navy
bullet Tyrone Power - USMC Pilot in the South Pacific.

Q
bullet Anthony Quayle Royal Artillery

R
bullet Jason Robards Jr - US Navy.  He was a radioman on duty at Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack. He wrote about his experiences in A Hell of a War.
bullet Ronald Reagan  - Captain, US Army Air Corps.  Because of a severe hearing loss, he was not allowed any flying duties.  However, he appeared in training films.  Prior to the war, he was a cavalry officer in the Nebraska National Guard.
bullet Carl Reiner Entered army In 1942 and trained as a radio operator. He later studied French on assignment at Georgetown University to become an interpreter, but became a teletype operator in the Signal Corps where, on the way to Iwo Jima from Hawaii, was assigned to Maurice Evans' Special Entertainment Unit. For 18 months, he toured the South Pacific as a comedian in GI reviews.
bullet Don Rickles - US Navy.  Destroyer duty. He has said of one deployment, "It was so hot and humid, the crew rotted."
bullet  Andy Rooney - (okay, not an actor, but he is a TV personality) Sergeant, US Army. Early in war served with artillery regiment assigned to England. Joined Stars And Stripes in London. In 1943, Rooney is among first correspondents allowed aboard B-17 bombers attacking Germany. He wrote of his war experiences in the book My War.
bullet Mickey Rooney - US Army. PFC. Served 21 months with a unit that entertained the troops []

S
bullet Albert Salmi - US Army.
 
bullet Charles Schultz (cartoonist)  - US Army. Staff sergeant and leader of machine gun squad.
bullet Rod Serling - US Army paratroopers
bullet Robert Stack - US Navy.  Because of his expertise as an Olympic champion skeet shooter, he was assigned to teach anti-aircraft gunnery.
bullet Rod Stieger  - Torpedoman, US Navy. Falsified his age to enlist at 16
bullet Jimmy Stewart - US Army Air Corps.

W
bullet Judge Wapner of The People's Court was saved from a sniper's bullet when it lodged in a can of tuna he was carrying while an Army officer in the Pacific
bullet  Eli Wallach Sergeant US Army Medical Corps as an admin clerk.
bullet  Jack Warden Served in the 101st Airborne during WWII.
bullet

James Whitmore - USMC. WWII interrupted his pre-law studies at Yale. He received his degree while at boot camp and served as an officer in the Marine Corps.

That was then, this is now,

Sean Penn anti American activist

Tim Robbins Anti American activist

Susan Sarandon anti American Activist

Danny Glover Anti American activist and Hugo Chavaz Best friend, also admires Fidel Castro

Micheal Moore Anti American activist, director friend of Fidel Castro

The Dixie Chicks anti American activists

Jane Fonda Anti American activist {two wars}

Can anybody think of a single so called "STAR" of today that has fought for their country?

politics
7,753 views 22 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
sorry mm,,,with few exceptions, most of those were drafted. if there was a draft today, there would be a much different roster in the army. not to mention, ya see any of the army ads today? no "uncle sam wants you" ads that directly called on people to fight the axis. today, we still get the same ads that we got in peacetime that talk about getting money for college and gaining experience for your career. things a wealthy actor really doesn't need. and the military has to continuously lower it's standards just to try to come close to any goals in recruiting. it's not that hollywood isn't signing up...no one is signing up.

58 arabic translators and linguists kicked out during a war for being gay? who did that help? who did that serve except some delusioned right wingers who can't accept it that gay people love theri country too and wish to serve it?

and penn, moore, robbins, et al are not anti american. from what i see, they love this country as much as you or i. i eagerly await the new movie sicko, which got great reviews across the board, including Fox News.

if ya want a "STAR" who fought for their country...try Pat Tillman...and look what happened to him and the way the military f*cked him and his family over.

and from the way the british pulled the plug on the prince serving in iraq, i have a feeling if a major star wanted to serve there, he / she would be turned away because in today's world, it would be a security risk. a lot of those movie stars and celebrities weren't even known in the 40's. many of the people you list were military 1st, then became tv and movie personalities. and others simply weren't well known. and even the best known didn't get the international publicity in other countries anything like the way stars are exposed in today's "flat world." what you do see today is scores of artists, movie stars and personalities doing their job to boost morale with USO tours and such. like al franken has done no less than 4 times.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top

Reply By: Sean Conners aka SConn1Posted: Sunday, June 10, 2007
sorry mm,,,with few exceptions, most of those were drafted.

Ok most were but some enlisted that did not have too, I think I should have added your name to the antiAmerican list along with sean penn, MY GOD Sean you really are starting to get on my last nerve with your constant rhetoric and apoligist attitudes, I think we should just stay out of each others blogs from now on.

You see a list of Bronze star and purple heart winners and all you can say is... "there was a draft" for shame sean.

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Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
monday morning forum push
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
You see a list of Bronze star and purple heart winners and all you can say is... "there was a draft" for shame sean.


no, i'm saying the eras aren't as parallel as you are painting them and a lot of other factors play into that. simply put, all factors aren't even close to being equal, so the comparison is invalid. that doesn't diminish the service of the folks you mentioned, but the context is important if a comparisson is going to be made. you also ignored the point about the difference between celebrity then and now. you also ignored the fact that many of these guys weren't celebrities when they served. make this list in 50 years and we'll see how they compare.

i'm not gonna go thru the whole list by any means, but your 1st example, don adams, didn't even appear on tv until 1954.

eddie albert really didn't become a star until after the war. his work before the war was on radio and broadway.

charles bronson took up acting after the war based on his roomate, jack klugman's advice and didn't even start acting till the 50's.

and that story repeats over and over on your list.

outside of clark gable and maybe a few others, most of those actors are famous today, but weren't then. and the ones that were didn't get nearly as much exposure, and especially international exposure as even C-list celebrities get today.

television wasn't even really in full swing at the end of WWII, let alone before it. and we came into the "golden age of movies" after the war. simply apples and oranges to compare the eras and people.

imagine if a big celeb went and served in uniform over there. imagine the danger they could put everyone else in just because of who they are. the british telling the prince that he couldn't go with his platoon was an example of folks realizing that.

if you don't want me posting on here fine. but at least have a valid reason. don't just call me "anti-american" and then expect no repsonse. that's utter b.s.

calling me or anyone else, a person who loves my country, anti-american, just because i disagree with you on issues, is about as anti american as one can get.

i'm hopin you woke up grumpy again.
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top

Reply By: Sean Conners aka SConn1Posted: Monday, June 11, 2007

Ok yer not anti-american. were done now.

Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top
Pat Tilman. Not Hollywood, but his name belongs with them.
Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
that doesn't diminish the service of the folks you mentioned


so your going to diminish the service of the folks today becouse they might have joined to get a college education. what you think when they signed up they were so stupid not to know that they might be called on to sacrifice.

Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
(Citizen)Dr GuyJune 11, 2007 12:29:56


Pat Tilman. Not Hollywood, but his name belongs with them.


I think the point I was making was the Hollywood of old was filled with patriots, the new Hollywood is filled with anti-American pigs, but somehow that seems lost on some apologists.
Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top
I think the point I was making was the Hollywood of old was filled with patriots, the new Hollywood is filled with anti-American pigs, but somehow that seems lost on some apologists.


I got that point, and dont deny it. I wish I could.
Reply #10 from JoeUser Forums Top
(Citizen)Dr GuyJune 11, 2007 13:49:49


I think the point I was making was the Hollywood of old was filled with patriots, the new Hollywood is filled with anti-American pigs, but somehow that seems lost on some apologists.


I got that point, and dont deny it. I wish I could.


good doc, cause that was the only point I was making. then and now.
Reply #11 from JoeUser Forums Top
Pat Tilman. Not Hollywood, but his name belongs with them.


Doc, I understand why you would think to include him but I personally see a vast difference between the sporting arena and Hollywood. Unless I am mistaken (please show evidence if I am) I have yet to hear any politicizing from the sports arena.

good doc, cause that was the only point I was making. then and now.


I agree with you. Sadly I see many very coveted word definitions such as Patriotism being changed (or at least attempted).

Reply #12 from JoeUser Forums Top

I agree with you. Sadly I see many very coveted word definitions such as Patriotism being changed (or at least attempted).
Reply By: Adventure-DudePosted: Monday, June 11, 2007

sadly to some, today's "patriot", spits on the Flag, embraces Dictators like Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, Demeans the Presidency, Trashes the Country. Blames America for all the worlds woes. Holds up organizations like the U.N. as something to admire and we should be like them. Thinks Europe Secularism is the wave of the future for Americans.

Reply #13 from JoeUser Forums Top
sadly to some, today's "patriot", spits on the Flag, embraces Dictators like Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, Demeans the Presidency, Trashes the Country. Blames America for all the worlds woes. Holds up organizations like the U.N. as something to admire and we should be like them. Thinks Europe Secularism is the wave of the future for Americans.


Precisely! Too many are aMEricans.
Reply #14 from JoeUser Forums Top
I got your point...5X5...the defense that many became celebrities after their service doesn't change the fact that not many of the celebrities we see today served at all before becoming "famous". Many of the famous in the 40s volunteered their services once the war started...even many who were too old to "join up".
Reply #15 from JoeUser Forums Top

Reply By: Big Fat DaddyPosted: Monday, June 11, 2007
I got your point...5X5...the defense that many became celebrities after their service doesn't change the fact that not many of the celebrities we see today served at all before becoming "famous". Many of the famous in the 40s volunteered their services once the war started...even many who were too old to "join up".

How could they, they are to busy making a zillion dollars a movie off the American public so they can turn around and spit in our face.

I love the ones with 25,000 square feet homes, heated barns {ala Babs Streisand} telling me I have got to use less energy too.

The quality of the people in hollywood today could not shine the shoes of the old Hollywood people when it comes to character. {yes there were some screw-ups in the old days too, law breakers, but none were Anti-American}

Reply #16 from JoeUser Forums Top
The America First Committee was the foremost pressure group against American entry into the Second World War.

AFC was established September, 4, 1940 by Yale law student R. Douglas Stuart, Jr., along with other students including future President Gerald Ford, Sargent Shriver and future Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart. At its peak, America First may have had 800,000 members in 650 chapters, located mostly in a 300 mile radius of Chicago. It claimed 135,000 members in 60 chapters in Illinois, its strongest state. [Schneider 198] Few Southern chapters existed. Fundraising drives produced about $370,000 from some 25,000 contributors. Nearly half came from a few millionaires such as William H. Regnery, H. Smith Richardson of the Vick Chemical Company, General Wood, publisher Joseph M. Patterson (New York Daily News) and his cousin publisher Robert R. McCormick (Chicago Tribune). It was never able to get funding for its own public opinion poll. The New York chapter received slightly more than $190,000, most of it from its 47,000 contributors. Since it never had a national membership form or national dues, and local chapters were quite autonomous, historians suggest the leaders had no idea how many "members" it had. [Cole 1953, 25-33; Schneider 201-2]

Serious organizing of the America First Committee took place in Chicago not long after the September 1940 establishment. Chicago was to remain the national headquarters of the committee. To preside over their committee, America First chose General Robert E. Wood, the 61 year-old chairman of Sears, Roebuck and Co.. While Wood would accept only an interim position, he remained at the head of the committee until it was disbanded in the days after Pearl Harbor.

The America First Committee had its share of prominent businessmen as well as the sympathies of political figures like Senator Burton K. Wheeler, Senator Gerald P. Nye, and Socialist Party leader Norman Thomas, with its most prominent spokesman being Charles A. Lindbergh.

Other celebrities supporting America First were novelist Sinclair Lewis, poet E. E. Cummings, author Gore Vidal (as a student at Phillips Exeter Academy), Alice Roosevelt Longworth, film producer Walt Disney and actress Lillian Gish. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright attempted to join, but the board thought he had a "reputation for immorality".

Reply #17 from JoeUser Forums Top

Reply By: Sean Conners aka SConn1Posted: Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Please Sean, I asked ever so politely for you to stay out of my blogs and I said I will stay out of yours. We are way to different to ever get along, long term and I personally do not need the grief.

So I ask again, please stay out of my blogs.

Reply #18 from JoeUser Forums Top
my apologies...this will be my last post / read of your stuff. i thought maybe ya "woke up grumpy" again..guess not.

have a nice day, and i wish only the best to you and yours.
Reply #19 from JoeUser Forums Top

The America First Committee was the foremost pressure group against American entry into the Second World War.

note the operative word here (bolded for those who like to shout).

Now note the content of the article (Hollywood then and now).  No where in the article does anyone mention who was against getting into the war to begin with.  Only what people did once we were in it.

Reply #20 from JoeUser Forums Top

have a nice day, and i wish only the best to you and yours.
Reply By: Sean Conners aka SConn1Posted: Tuesday, June 12, 2007

As I to you, your wife, children and the newest addition to the conners clan.

Reply #21 from JoeUser Forums Top

Reply By: Dr GuyPosted: Tuesday, June 12, 2007
The America First Committee was the foremost pressure group against American entry into the Second World War.

note the operative word here (bolded for those who like to shout).
Now note the content of the article (Hollywood then and now). No where in the article does anyone mention who was against getting into the war to begin with. Only what people did once we were in it.

This is why I asked Sean to not comment any more.. he seems to look for ways to either discount what the article is about or find some small issue {like a few that were not in Hollywood but in T.V. or did not become famous till after the war} to point out how wrong the article is, it just steams me, hence me politely asking.

The fact remains the Hollywood of old was filled with patriots, the new Hollywood is NOT!

Reply #22 from JoeUser Forums Top
If it was up to todays Hollywood we qwould all be speaking Spanish and Castro and Chavez would be ruling the country.