SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - The Hollywood History of the Second World War

Ishmael · 08-25-06, 07:36 PM

I lived in LA/Pasadena for 8 years. I've worked all over Hollywood & Beverly Hills. Hollywood never let the truth get in the way of a good story. That has been the Hollywood way since the invention of the cinema. You're only dealing with recent films about Hollywood. My favorite was Action in the North Atlantic, a 1943 film with Raymond Massey & Humphrey Bogart, purporting to tell the story of our fighting Merchant Seamen. This is the one my Merchant Seaman father saw in Nebraska when it came out & laughed his way through the entire movie. It wasn't shown for decades after the war because it showed the Russians in a positive light, so I only recently got a chance to watch it. The scenes showing a can't-get-out-of-it's-own-way, 12-knot max speed Liberty ship slewing around the ocean like a destroyer was quite humorous. My favorite of recent vintage was the remake of Memphis Belle, where the B-17 pilot makes the entire group go around the target area twice to avoid hitting a school. Yeah...Right. the one salient fact you must remember about LA/Hollywood is that in the Metro LA area there are two airports named after John Wayne, who never served a day in the military and none named after Jimmy Stewart, who flew 25 combat missions over Europe as a B-24 pilot, won the Distinguished Flying Cross & retired from the Air Force as a Brigadier General. When Stewart returned to Hollywood after the war, he forbade the studios from using his war record in any of their publicity. For this, he earned my undieing respect.

08-25-06, 07:36 PM	#15
Ishmael Seasoned Skipper Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Morro Bay, Ca. Posts: 659 Downloads: 79 Uploads: 0	I lived in LA/Pasadena for 8 years. I've worked all over Hollywood & Beverly Hills. Hollywood never let the truth get in the way of a good story. That has been the Hollywood way since the invention of the cinema. You're only dealing with recent films about Hollywood. My favorite was Action in the North Atlantic, a 1943 film with Raymond Massey & Humphrey Bogart, purporting to tell the story of our fighting Merchant Seamen. This is the one my Merchant Seaman father saw in Nebraska when it came out & laughed his way through the entire movie. It wasn't shown for decades after the war because it showed the Russians in a positive light, so I only recently got a chance to watch it. The scenes showing a can't-get-out-of-it's-own-way, 12-knot max speed Liberty ship slewing around the ocean like a destroyer was quite humorous. My favorite of recent vintage was the remake of Memphis Belle, where the B-17 pilot makes the entire group go around the target area twice to avoid hitting a school. Yeah...Right. the one salient fact you must remember about LA/Hollywood is that in the Metro LA area there are two airports named after John Wayne, who never served a day in the military and none named after Jimmy Stewart, who flew 25 combat missions over Europe as a B-24 pilot, won the Distinguished Flying Cross & retired from the Air Force as a Brigadier General. When Stewart returned to Hollywood after the war, he forbade the studios from using his war record in any of their publicity. For this, he earned my undieing respect.