sorry for the crappo excerpt
The author does not mention that Stewart and his wife Gloria went on to lose their adopted son, an Army first lieutenant, in Vietnam. I remember Gloria telling an interviewer how badly she felt that the church organist failed to show up on the day of his funeral.
Yup. He wasn’t the only one that joined. Today’s pampered hollywierdos, few and far between, wouldn’t even consider putting their important selves in harms way.
What a remarkable guy he was and what a remarkable life he led. He was a graduate of my old Alma Mater (Princeton University) and then volunteered for duty as World War 2 unfurled. And then you see stories like this.
By all accounts Stewart was just really a good man. Can’t see how he survived in hollyweird.
Wenchester ‘73 was one of my favorites of his.
Peruse later.
I fondly remember Jimmy Stewart doing a campaign event for William Scranton running for governor of PA in 1962, I believe. He starts off, looking around at the 15-20 thousand in attendance, “You know, they told me they could fit all of the Republicans in Pennsylvania into a single telephone booth...(looks around the stadium)... Some telephone booth!”
My Dad was a B24 tailgunner. Those guys must have endured hell.
Thanks SO MUCH for posting this. Jimmy Stewart has always been a favorite actor of mine and I knew he had risen to Brigadier General in the reserves after the war, but I had no idea of his wartime experiences. This is incredible.
another little known fact about Jimmy- He once helped smuggle out a ‘big foot bone (or hand to whatever it was) from nepal i think it was- some famous explorer wanted the bone, and engaged Jimmy to get it out of the country for him without anyone knowing-
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/saga-of-the-yeti-hand
Reading that article, I had struck by the similarities between General Stewart’s real life experiences and the pilots depicted in the movie “Twelve O’Clock High”.
The ending scene where Gregory Peck’s character has a nervous breakdown was chilling. Evidently not too far-fetched either.
Interesting, thanks for posting.
It’s A Wonderful Life was the first movie he made after leaving the service; his acting shows the trauma of his life during his missions; his emotions were real.
At least he wasn’t misgendered.
Was just thinking last night that Jimmy would have done a much better job in Arsenic and Old Lace than Cary Grant...
Off to read the article.
In-deed. Not your typical actor.