Jimmy Stewart enjoyed success in
Hollywood. Professionally, he won the 1941 Academy Award as Best Actor for The Philadelphia Story. Personally, he
made the conquest of many of his female costars.
With American involvement in war
likely, the draft began. His draft number got him in early, before Pearl
Harbor. He waged his own battle to get into the Air Force. Overseas. In combat.
Not just one token mission, but a sustained combat tour.
Serving their country was a Stewart
family mission. Jim’s grandfather served in the Civil War; his father in the
Spanish-American War and World War I. Alex Stewart expected his son to serve,
too.
Louis B. Mayer of MGM, which had
Stewart under contract, didn’t agree. He wanted to keep Jim out of combat and
suggested he could best serve in the Army Air Corps Motion Picture Unit.
Stewart did make Winning Your Wings,
one of the most successful recruiting films of the war. But he would not allow
it to deter him from serving in combat.
Stewart already had his own plane
and worked toward a transport license as a commercial pilot, doing as much as
he could to increase his prospects and offset his advanced age of thirty-three.
Most pilots were at least ten years younger than he.
He seemed destine to serve as a
flying instructor. A talk with his commanding officer at Gowen Field in Idaho
resulted in the “static” designation removed from his personnel file. A newly
formed B-24 bomb group needed personnel, and Stewart was on his way as an
operations officer of one of the four squadrons.
As a squadron commander in
Tibenham, England, he flew missions in rotation with the other high ranking
officers in the 445th Bomb Group. He shouldered responsibility for
those missions, and saw friends die and planes explode. He wrote letters to the
men’s families.
His hair began turning gray. A
nervous stomach had always made eating a full meal difficult. Now he could
barely eat at all, telling a childhood friends that ice cream and peanut butter
got him through the war. He got the shakes, wrung out by the rigors of war.
Nevertheless, he rose to Colonel in command of the Second Combat Wing.
After the war, Jim Stewart enlisted
in the Officers Reserve Corp because he considered his service years as the
happiest years of his life. And since acting was the only thing he liked to do,
he returned to Hollywood, hoping to resurrect his career. Retaining stardom
wasn’t a given. Many actors served in the military and failed to regain their
momentum. New, younger actors were getting the starring roles.
Stewart was 37 and looked 50, no
longer a probable romantic lead. Detective and murder pictures were now big,
but having just been through the war, he wanted no part in a movie about death.
Louis B. Mayer wanted to make The James
Stewart Story about his war experience, but Stewart said no. His refusal to
relive the war extended to conversation. He never talked about his experiences.
Actors weren’t the only ones having
trouble getting reestablished. Producer/director Frank Capra wasn’t getting
offers, so he went independent and called Jim Stewart about a project he had in
mind called “The Greatest Gift.”
Renamed, It’s
a Wonderful Life saved Jimmy Stewart’s career. What do you remember him best for?
Recommended reading: Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe by Robert Matzen
Recommended reading: Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe by Robert Matzen
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