Posted on 02/23/2013 6:45:16 AM PST by Liz
In 1964, the handsome, virile star, Anthony Eisley, emceed a "Project Prayer" rally attended by 2,500 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California.
Eisley played Tracey Steele on the "Hawaiian Eye" series, and appeared 17 times on the eight-year run of ABC's The F.B.I., with Efrem Zimbalist, Jr (another Hollywood conservative).
Eisley was later replaced on Hawaiian Eye by Hollywood icon Troy Donahue (a conservative---and practicing Catholic). Eisley also appeared three times on CBS's Perry Mason during its final three seasons.
The Hollywood gathering sought to flood the United State Congress with letters in support of school prayer, following two decisions in 1962 and 1963 of the United States Supreme Court which struck down the practice as in conflict with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Eisley declared that the nation was facing in 1964 "an ideological crisis. Movie stars and the stars of the entertainment world will tell you what you can do about it. Everything will be from the heart."
Eisley was joined at the event by Walter Brennan, on whose series The Real McCoys he had once been a guest star, Rhonda Fleming, Lloyd Nolan, Dale Evans, Pat Boone, and Gloria Swanson.
Eisely added that John Wayne, Ronald W. Reagan, Roy Rogers, Mary Pickford, Jane Russell, Ginger Rogers, and Pat Buttram would also have attended the rally had their schedules not been in conflict.
Syndicated columnist Drew Pearson claimed in his "Washington Merry-Go-Round" column that Project Prayer had "backstage ties" to the anti-Communist John Birch Society. Pearson noted that the principal author of the prayer decisions, Chief Justice Earl Warren, was a Republican former governor of California and that most mainline denominations endorsed the court's restrictive rulings.
Actor Lloyd Nolan (died 1985 at age 83) played mainly doctors, detectives, and police officers in many Hollywood movies. He played private detective Michael Shayne in the popular movie series which pop up on the nostalgia channel---Antenna TV. Nolan played the doctor in the ground-breaking TV series "Julia" starring Diahann Carroll as his nurse.
In 1964, Lloyd Nolan spoke at the "Project Prayer" rally attended by 2,500 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. The gathering was hosted by Anthony Eisley, a star of ABC's Hawaiian Eye series.
The stars sought to flood the United State Congress with letters in support of school prayer, following two decisions in 1962 and 1963 of the United States Supreme Court which struck down the practice as in conflict with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the US Constitution.
Joining Nolan and Anthony Eisley at the rally were well-known actors Walter Brennan, Rhonda Fleming, Dale Evans (Mrs Roy Rogers), Pat Boone, and Gloria Swanson.
At the rally, Nolan asked, "Do we permit ourselves to be turned into a godless people, or do we preserve America as one nation under God?"
Sylvia Sydney---staunch Republican and conservative.
Memorable co-starring w/ George Raft.
Later appeared in one of the "Omen" sequels.
Film legend Ginger Rogers was another Hollywood
conservative and lifelong Republican and appeared in
the Nixon-Lodge Bumper Sticker Modorcade in LA in 1960.
THE YEAR WAS 1964—CONSERVATIVE HOLLYWOOD STARS SPEAK OUT FOR PRAYER IN SCHOOLS
And in the year 2013, “CONSERVATIVE HOLLYWOOD STARS” is damn near an oxymoron. Along with religious Hollywood stars.
Going through some microfilm of old local newspapers a few years back, I ran into an editorial praising this event, and naming some of the celebrities who were involved. I think Victor Jory was also mentioned.
It’s easy to dismiss Hollywood as always being overwhelmingly lefty, but that’s not really the case. There were more conservatives in old-time Hollywood than some people seem to realize. It was pretty balanced for many decades. Most of the leftists were the ones (actors, writers, etc.) who came from the NY theater crowd, and went to Hollywood from there. Omit that faction, and I’d bet conservatism even had an edge, pre-1960s.
If you can’t trust Mr. Haney (Buttram) who can you trust?
How times have changed for the worse.
Thanks for the great research-—back then even some of the movie moguls were said to be conservatives-—or, at least, knew it was advantageous to “pretend” to be conservative.
In the early 1960s, beauteous Jeanne Crain (mother of
seven) was one of many conservative actors who spent their
time fervently fighting for the Republican cause. Others
included James Stewart, Walter Pidgeon, Jerry Lewis,
Wendell Corey, and Troy Donahue.
Gorgeous Rhonda Fleming--a conservative.
Clearly one of Hollywood's most glamorous stars.
1964 - I was 12 years old and wearing a Barry Goldwater button.
Today there is a blacklist of conservatives in Hollywood by the studios and the DNCenemedia.
If you come out of the conservative closet, you’ll get trashed in news items and not get the Oscar “worthy” roles.
It was nauseating that the Hollywood movie “Lincoln” is receiving accolades-—the idea stolen by Spielberg.
The best-selling book “Killing Lincoln” was written by Fox’s Bill O’Reilly-—his book was made into a highly rated movie shown on the Ntl Geographic Channel and got rave reviews.
Loretta Young was a lifelong Republican. In 1952 she appeared in radio, print, and magazine ads in support of Dwight D. Eisenhower and was in attendance at his inauguration along with Anita Louise, Louella Parsons, Jane Russell, Dick Powell, June Allyson, and comic Lou Costello, among others.
In both 1968 and 1981 she was a vocal supporter of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. She was also an active member of the Hollywood Republican Committee with close friend Irene Dunne as well as Ginger Rogers, William Holden, George Murphy, Fred Astaire, and John Wayne.
Superstar director Leo McCarey was a devout Roman Catholic and deeply concerned with social issues. He was considered the most handsome director in Hollywood---a Cary Grant look-alike.
During the 1940s, McCarey's work became more serious and his politics more conservative. In 1944 he directed Going My Way, a story about an enterprising priest, the youthful Father Chuck O'Malley, played by Bing Crosby, for which McCarey won his second Best Director Oscar.
McCarey's share in the profits of this smash hit gave him the highest reported income in the U.S. for the year 1944, and its follow-up, The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), which was made by McCarey's own production company, was similarly successful.
Going My Way also produced the fanciful hit song sung by Bing, "Would you like to swing on a star."
We prayed every day at my public high school. Daily student prayer meeting at the flag pole. But apparently you want a government employee leading the prayer in class mandatory or it doesnt count?
I lived and went to public school in a conservative town in southern Missouri from 1951-1963 before prayer was “outlawed”. In all those years I never once heard a teacher or student pray.
At the high school graduation ceremony a local Minister did say a short prayer.
Prayer cannot be outlawed until government figures out a way to get inside someone’s head, in the mean time, I don’t ever wish to hear a government approved prayer, it would have to be sensitive to all religions and I don’t want the kids bowing toward Mecca 7 times a day.
Children can and do, pray in school today.
Which only proves the mega success of the planned communist infiltration of our society.
I thought it was a very strange statement, at the time. I remember thinking, "What difference would it make?" Obviously, the agenda had worked on me.
She was a school secretary. So she had seen the revolution first hand.
Gloria Swanson 1922
Swanson's most celebrated role--was as faded silent star Norma Desmond--1950.
In 1980 Gloria Swanson chaired the New York chapter of "Seniors for Reagan-Bush".
In 1964, Swanson spoke at the "Project Prayer" rally attended by 2,500 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Swanson declared, "Under God we became the freest, strongest, wealthiest nation on earth, Should we change that?"
The gathering, which was hosted by Anthony Eisley, a star of ABC's Hawaiian Eye series, sought to flood the United State Congress with letters in support of school prayer, following two decisions in 1962 and 1963 of the United States Supreme Court which struck down the practice as in conflict with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Joining Swanson and Eisley at the Project Prayer rally were Walter Brennan, Lloyd Nolan, Rhonda Fleming, Pat Boone, and Dale Evans.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.