Actors In That Mad Game The World So Loves To Play

While on the road Corky and I hit the secondhand stores for the pause that refreshes. She is a carnivorous shopper for anything on the cheap that might be workable for a grandchild. I always graze through the used book sections to feed my addiction for fascinating books. In a Sun City West Goodwill store, I blew 50 cents on “World War II: 4,139 Strange and Fascinating Facts” by Don McCombs and Fred L. Worth, published in 1983. The cheap paper was already yellowing with age.

The book is priceless for WWII nuts. I was hooked immediately when I read the saga of Jimmy Baker. Never heard of him? Jimmy enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1943 but was honorably discharged from my Corps seven months after his enlistment. The authorities found out he was twelve.

I used to use the word “blivet” quite a bit in my younger days because Marine drill instructors often used it to describe a clumsy, overweight recruit failing an obstacle course run. I never knew the source of that unusual word. I learned that blivet was a favorite word of General Dwight Eisenhower. It describes graphically “a one-pound bag filled with two pounds of—manure.”

The book is arranged with incidents and facts listed in alphabetical order. When I was about halfway through, I realized that the hundreds of actors we have seen in theaters over the years or presently on such programs as Turner Classic Movies had played significant roles in WWII. They enlisted or had been drafted. Some had cheated to get into the service (as I imagined some had cheated to stay home).

I decided to cover some of the more interesting dramas of the people who have entertained us for more than 60 years. If the reader is younger than forty, you may be wish to skip this column unless you have seen a lot of old movies. In their preface the authors have two quotes about war as an introduction:

Desiderius Erasmus: “War is delightful to those who have had no experience in it.”

Jonathan Swift: “That mad game the world so loves to play.”

Eddie Albert at the age of 34 enlisted in the Navy in 1942, earned a commission, and was in charge of evacuation boats at the Marine invasion of the Japanese stronghold of Tarawa in the Pacific. But prior to his Navy tour he served as a civilian informant for U.S. Army Intelligence in Mexico. You might remember Eddie as Zsa Zsa Gabor’s husband in the TV comedy “Green Acres”, but he played both heavies and lights in many movies.

James Arness, otherwise known as Sheriff Matt Dillion of Dodge, enlisted his six-foot seven-inch body in the U.S. Army and suffered leg wounds at the landings at Anzio, Italy, in 1944. Remember, he was the one who didn’t allow anyone to conceal and carry firearms in Dodge.

Gene Autrey, the “Singing Cowboy,” enlisted in the Army as a staff sargeant and learned to fly on his own time. He later became a pilot in the Army Air Force and spent much of the war flying C-47 transports over the most dangerous flying route in the world, the China-Burma-India theater. Gene was always the one in the white hat, in case you didn’t know him.

Charles Bronson, one of the toughest guys who was always around some miscreant with a death wish, enlisted in the Army and spent the entire war in Kingman, Arizona driving a delivery truck for the 760th Mess Squadron. His PR types put out the word that Bronson flew as a gunner in bombers during the war. Not a word was true.

Marlene Dietrich was the daughter of a German cavalry officer who fought in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and earned an Iron Cross. But she entertained Allied troops around the world and German prisoners in the U.S. throughout WWII. She was later awarded the French Legion of Honor, the U.S. Medal of Freedom, and a Russian medal for her contributions to the Allied war effort.

Brian Donlevy, one of Hollywood’s leading men for years, started his military career as a bugler for General Pershing in the Mexican War of 1916 against Pancho Villa. Later in WWI he flew fighters with the Lafayette Escadrille before the U.S. entered the war. He sold war bonds during WWII.

Kirk Douglas enlisted in the Navy and served as a communications officer on an anti-submarine ship. He was seriously injured by a deph charge that exploded close to the ship, and he was hospitalized for five months. He later received a medical discharge.

Melvyn Douglas enlisted as a private in the Army at age 42 and survived basic training with flying colors. He spent much of the war in the China-Burma-Indian theater entertaining troops at remote posts.

Eddy Duchin, who played the piano in many a musical, enlisted in the Navy in 1942. Because he had perfect pitch, he was assigned to antisubmarine detection units. He could easily tell the difference between a whale and a sub. He served on a destroyer escort during the D-Day invasion of Europe. Later, he participated in the Iwo Jima and Okinawa invasions in the Pacific.

Buddy Ebsen of “Beverly Hillbillies” fame enlisted in the Coast Guard and was assigned to a subchaser in the Aleutian Islands. He served for four years.

Peter Falk, the detective with “one last question,” had lost his right eye to a tumor as a child, but when the war started he wanted to be in the Marines in the worst way. He memorized the eye chart so he could pass the physical—but a doctor noticed his right eye didn’t move! It was glass. The Marines wouldn’t take him, so he joined the Merchant Marine and became a cook.

Tom Ewell played the homely, lonely guy of “The Seven-Year Itch” with Marilyn Monroe. The “skirts up” sidewalk scene is one of the most famous in Hollywood history. He sailed with a gunnery unit on the Atlantic for much of the war. He was also noted for playing the Bill Mauldin character in the movie “Up Front.”

Henry Fonda earned a Bronze Star for his work in Navy Air Combat Intelligence while serving aboard the destroyer U.S.S. Satterlee in the Pacific. When Henry was just a very young boy in Omaha, Nebraska, he witnessed the lynching and burning of a black man.

Glenn Ford served as the commander of a Navy camera unit which photographed the D-Day landings. His crew later filmed the German atrocities at the Dachau concentration camp. Ford also served during the Vietnam War.

Steve Forest, actor and brother od Dana Andrews, was wounded by shrapnel during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944.

Woody Guthrie, the famous folk singer of Depression days, joined the Merchant Marine in 1943, survived two torpedoed ships and took part in three invasions. Amazingly, Guthrie was drafted into the Army on V-E Day in 1945 in preparation for the Pacific campaign. He served for eight months before getting a dependency discharge.

Sterling Hayden, the Hollywood hero of many an epic, was recruited by the OSS (the CIA of WWII) for commando operations before the war. He injured the base of his spine in a parachute accident so he returned to the States and tested PT boats in New York Harbor. After recovering from his accident, he joined the Marine Corps under his real name and went through officer training. He then joined the OSS again to command a supply base in Italy for Yugoslav partisans. He was in charge of 400 tough Yugoslav guerrillas and 22 speed boats. He often made trips behind German lines to deliver supplies and men to Tito’s forces. Because of his experiences with Tito and the Yugoslavs, Hayden joined the Communist Party after the war. He later renounced his membership before the House Un-American Committee. Here was an actor whose life would have made a terrific action film!

Tim Holt, veteran of many a Western oater, served as a bombardier on B-29s bombing Japan. He survived 22 missions, most of them over Tokyo, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, an Air Medal with three clusters, the Victory medal, and the Asiatic Pacific Medal. His aircraft was named Reluctant Dragon.

Rock Hudson, a gay actor who romanced Doris Day through many a movie, enlisted in the Navy and became an aircraft mechanic. One of his instructors in Navy boot camp was an officer named Robert Taylor. Hudson gained fame in the Philippine theater of war when he was taxiing an aircraft and ran into another one. He was then transferred out of his mechanic’s job.

Hedy Lamarr, the glamour girl of many U.S. films, co-invented a torpedo guidance system that was tested by the U.S. Navy but never adopted. Hedy was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler and was known for attending parties in Europe attended by both Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

Norman Lear, the writer and producer of many popular TV sitcoms, served as a radio operator in the 15th Army Air Force and flew 57 combat missions over Europe

Carole Lombard, wife of Clark Gable and a popular movie star, was the first U.S. woman to be killed in action in WWII when her plane crashed into Table Mountain near Las Vegas during a war bond drive.

Clark Gable joined the Army Air Force as a private after his wife was killed, but Gable was soon commissioned and put in charge of making aerial gunnery films. Gable flew in B-17s on missions over Germany while making the films. This was discovered by Herman Goering, who put a $5,000 bounty on Gable’s head. The successful pilot would also get a promotion and a lengthy leave of absence from the war. Gable survived the inducements.