Actor Jimmy Stewart's Not-So 'Wonderful Life' w PTSD, WWII Vet Struggled Filming 1946 Xmas Movie

[appalachiablue]

- Jimmy Stewart stars in "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946).
_____

- 'Jimmy Stewart’s Not-So-Wonderful Life With PTSD,' Truthdig, Dec. 31, *2019. By Maj. Danny Sjursen. -Ed.

Certain Christmas songs have always made me cry. As a largely lapsed Catholic, Bing Crosby’s “Do You Hear What I Hear?” touches a nerve, John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” reminds me of the horror of combat, and after spending 3 holidays fighting in Afghanistan, any version of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” is sure to release the waterworks. Then there are the obligatory Christmas movies: “A Christmas Story,” “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” “A Christmas Carol,” even “Die Hard.”

And while each evokes its own personal response, few have the power to unnerve like “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

The Jimmy Stewart classic must have played 4 or 5 times on Christmas day this year. I know this because we divorced dads (twice, in my case) often end up splitting our holidays and have a bit more time on our hands than is probably healthy. Now, I love old movies and music, which I credit to being raised by my own divorced parents. But this year, my father made a suggestion I won’t soon forget—to research Stewart’s war record and the emotional struggles he experienced during the period when he filmed “It’s a Wonderful Life,” his first feature film after some 4 years overseas. What I discovered will forever color the holiday for me.

Christmas can be a rough time for broken veterans. I can attest that we check on one another profusely, worry sick about our friends, drink a bit too much, and fear, deeply, that we might lose another mate to suicide. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be a lonely condition. Sometimes camaraderie and shared pain—even through historical example—is the only true comfort. Which brings me to Stewart.




- Comparison photos show the price of service. In the photo at left, Second Lieutenant Stewart poses in early 1942. The photo at right shows Major Stewart 2 years later, after having flown 3 months of maximum effort combat missions as a squadron commander.

Prior to the World War II, he had been one of Hollywood’s greatest leading men. Then he joined the Army, not long before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Stewart took commercial flying lessons beforehand so that he could fly bombers in the Army Air Corps. When a Hollywood executive tried to persuade him to avoid military service, the star of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” replied, “This country’s conscience is bigger than all the studios in Hollywood put together, and the time will come when we’ll have to fight.” The military powers that be tried to shuffle him into the Air Force Motion Picture Division in the hopes that he would serve as a recruiting tool for the war effort. Stewart refused, instead demanding a combat assignment just like any other officer pilot...

More, https://www.truthdig.com/articles/jimmy-stewarts-not-so-wonderful-life-with-ptsd/
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*Also: 'How Jimmy Stewart's agony in It's a Wonderful Life came from extreme PTSD he suffered after he lost 130 of his men as fighter pilot in WWII,' Daily Mail, 2016,
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3825552/Jimmy-Stewart-suffered-extreme-PTSD-lost-130-men-fighter-pilot-WW-II-acted-anguish-filming-s-Wonderful-Life.html

[hlthe2b]

1. He was a real war hero. Ditto, Director John Ford and so many others. John Wayne was decidely NOT

despite his encouragement of RW hero worship based on his roles alone.

[Aristus]

2. The harder John Wayne tried to shake the image of a shirker,

the more ridiculous he looked.

‘Ridiculous’ is the word that best describes his ludicrous effort to juice up support for the war in Vietnam, “The Green Berets.”

A sixty-ish Special Forces trooper, running around the jungles of South Carolina carrying his M-16 rifle upside down and watching the sun set in the East.

And yet he, and not Jimmy Stewart, is still upheld as a paragon of American masculinity.

[hlthe2b]

3. Even worse the painting of "nice guy and consummate professional," Jimmy Stewart as

the antithesis --as the wimp. It has ALWAYS infuriated me. That's what the RW does. And the celebration/worship of malignant machismo has brought us to where we are today.

to the memory of Jimmy Stewart. He'll always have my admiration.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

4. Not long after I returned from Vietnam

I saw The Green Berets. It was clearly made by people who had never been anywhere near there. The most obvious example of its stupidity was the closing shot, with Wayne standing on the shore at Cam Rahn Bay, watching the sun set over the South China Sea. I've seen many sunsets, and not once has the sun set in the east.

George Takei said that the only reason he took a role in that movie was that he needed a paycheck.

[appalachiablue]

5. Dutch Reagan worked in films in Calif. during WWII

How Playing a Pilot in WWII Docs Helped Reagan Launch His Political Career. Timing is everything—for an actor, and for a president. History, Jan, 16, 2019.

.. Yet whether or not World War II derailed Reagan’s movie career, it put him on the path to another career, in which he reached greater heights than he ever could have in Hollywood.

Reagan entered the military and was informed that he could do his country the most useful service by continuing to make movies.

His eyesight was too poor to risk assigning him to any active theater of the war.

“If we sent you overseas you’d shoot a general,” an examining doctor told him, as Stephen Vaughn writes in Ronald Reagan in Hollywood. “And you’d miss him,” the doctor’s colleague added.”...

https://www.history.com/news/ronald-reagan-world-war-ii-hollywood-politics

[hlthe2b]

6. Uggh huh. No offense to you, but bullshit.

Why John Wayne Was Labeled a ‘Draft Dodger’ During World War II
https://www.military.com/history/why-john-wayne-was-labeled-draft-dodger-during-world-war-ii.html

According to author Garry Wills’ 1998 book, “John Wayne’ America: the Politics of Celebrity,” the actor received a chorus of boos when he walked onto the USO stages in Australia and the Pacific Islands. Those audiences were filled with combat veterans. Wayne, in his mid-30s, was not one of them.

Around the time the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Wayne was not the big-name actor we remember him being today. He was fresh off the box-office success of the 1939 film “Stagecoach.”

Being drafted or enlisting was going to have a serious impact on his rising star. Depending on how long the war lasted, Wayne reportedly worried he might be too old to be a leading man when he came home.

Other actors, both well-established and rising in fame, rushed off to do their part. Clark Gable joined the Army Air Forces and, despite the studios’ efforts to get him into a motion picture unit, served as an aerial gunner over Europe. Jimmy Stewart was initially ineligible for the draft, given his low weight, but like some amazing version of Captain America, he drank beer until he qualified.

In his 2014 book, “American Titan: Searching for John Wayne,” author Marc Eliot alleges Wayne was having an affair with actress Marlene Dietrich. He says the possibility of losing this relationship was the real reason Wayne didn’t want to go to war.

But even Dietrich would do her part, smuggling Jewish people out of Europe, entertaining troops on the front lines (she crossed into Germany alongside Gen. George S. Patton) and maybe even being an operative for the Office of Strategic Services.

--more--

[appalachiablue]

7. Everyone knows Raygun was no hero, he stayed

around making some promo films. Dont get your post.

[hlthe2b]

8. The whitewash about his supposed poor vision has been a meme for decades.

by those propping him up as a "wanted-to-be "war hero" --if only for... It was a Hollywood PR response with no proof. Not to mention, at worse it would exclude his becoming a pilot. Nothing else. But it keeps being repeated for now more than 70 years.

My point? We should not allow for actual figures like Jimmy Stewart to be painted as "less than" for the sake of the RW's need to worship the created conservative "hero," John Wayne. Nor in today's context, deride the nice guy actors like Tom Hanks to promote the blowhards like James Woods, Chuck Norris, and all the others.

[appalachiablue]

14. Fortunately I don't know anyone who bought into

the 'war/hero' image of actors like Raygun, Wayne or others based on movie depictions.

In WWII my dad was a 1st Lieut. 7th Army AAA, trained on Swedish Bofors. A natural fighter, 24, smart and with 20/15 vision he served well and thankfully survived.

When attacked by a pack of 88s during the Rhineland Campaign, his CO was wounded or flipped out. Dad took over for which he received the Bronze Star. Antifa.

His unit was at the Dachau Liberation, he was treated for battle fatigue, sent to southern France and then stayed on in the Army of Occupation in So. Germany until 1946.

[demigoddess]

15. Something I think about with John Wayne. Early in his career he was a stunt rider and then

rode a lot of horses in his early movies. Riding horses like that can take a real toll on your backbone. When they unearthed the skeletons of men from Custer's last stand, they noted that their backbones were a mess from their time on horses and they were usually 18,19 or 20 years old. I think John Wayne drank every night after shooting his movies in order to kill the pain. Personally, I bet he couldn't pass the physical, but they didn't want that known.

[hlthe2b]

16. WWII enlistment or draft was very early in his career before he was involved in any major roles, so

no. I realize so many want to believe the BS propaganda that surrounds Wayne, but honestly, after all that has come out about his blatant racism, his belief and promotion of white supremacy, his incredible homophobia and misogyny, I have to ask why? Even the SoCal John Wayne airport has been up for renaming with LATimes and WAPO editorials, petitions, and a recently silent family on the matter given all that has come out.

Opinion: Renaming John Wayne Airport shouldn’t be a hard call
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/01/john-wayne-doesnt-deserve-have-an-airport-named-after-him/

Editorial: Renaming John Wayne Airport can help Orange County confront its racist past
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-06-30/rename-john-wayne-airport-orange-county-white-supremacy

Democrats want John Wayne Airport renamed after 'I believe in white supremacy' interview resurfaces
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/28/us/john-wayne-airport-name-change-orange-county-democrats/index.html

As for his supposed pain from riding horses excusing him (even though none of it occurred early in his career, let's take a look at an actual war hero, James Arness (aka, Marshall Dillon for more than 20 years) whose horse-riding scenes quite often did have to be filmed on one day due to the osteoarthritis and pain from his WWII service:

Arness died in 2011 at the age of 88. In his New York Times obituary, they talked about where he got his famous limp. The U.S. Army drafted Arness into service during the middle of World War II. In 1944, he was a part of the U.S. invasion of Anzio, Italy. Unfortunately for Arness, his right leg was badly injured due to machine-gun fire. Arness had to stay in the hospital for almost a year, undergoing multiple operations. He was left with the limp for his efforts. Arness also won the Purple Heart and Bronze Star.

Sorry, but the image you have of John Wayne is 180 degrees reversed from the real man. It was a Hollywood and Conservative Political-created image. You may like him on the screen, but he was not a good man and he certainly was no heroic figure.

[left-of-center2012]

9. His dad owned a hardware store in Indiana, Pennsylvania

I grew up on a small farm outside of there in the 1950s and we would go to town once a month to do our shopping.

My dad always liked to wander around hardware stores so we were often in Jimmy Stewart's dad's hardware store. There were photos of him all over the wall,
both from his movie days and his war days.

He was and still is the town hero.
The store is long gone but as I recall next to the sidewalk is a large rock and metal plaque in memory of the store.

The town library, last I had heard, had a Jimmy Stewart museum inside.

[Historic NY]

10. My father was a WWII vet in the Pacific..

he rarely spoke of the war, but you could tell it was with him. When I applied to get his medals replaced, for free, the Veterans Organization that handles the request told me the with the devices attached to one medal meant he made a number of amphibious assaults, his word hard combat. I grew up around a lot of the Vets and some from WWI. I will tell you that 'the 5th a day' did more damage than bullets, with some that returned. Placing flags on the graves, you can tell many gone within 5yrs a coming home. A few I've researched.

[shrike3]

19. I've met more than a few vets. None of them spoke of the war willingly.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

11. I've always respected Jimmy Stewart!

His quieter disposition, and his deeds, are far more "macho" than frauds like John Wayne or Donald Trump!

[Foolacious]

12. The cited Truthdig article snarks deceptively

Referring to the post-911 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the author writes, in December 2019:

“America has been at war for almost 19 years now, a historical record, yet not one Bush, Obama, Clinton or Romney has served in one of these conflicts.”

Which Bush, Obama, or Clinton does the author think was of service age for those wars? Brenna? Malia? Chelsea? And I can think of one other presidential candidate — who was actually president at the time of writing — who had service-age sons… and they did not serve. But the author omits that name. I wonder why.

[rsdsharp]

13. That Daily Mail article is kinda loose with facts.

It has Stewart as a fighter pilot when he actually flew heavy bombers. It also has him taking a leave of absence during the war to decompress with his good friend Peter Fonda — who was born in 1940. HENRY Fonda, who was Stewart’s best friend, was in the navy, serving on a destroyer during the war. Did he get a leave of absence, too?

[Kid Berwyn]

17. Thank you, appalachiablue!

War is hell: state-sanctioned, state-sponsored, industrial-scale mass murder. Those pictures show what it does to a good man’s exterior. One can only imagine what it does to his inner world.

Jimmy Stewart was a real life hero. When he saw his nation would need him — before Pearl Harbor — he became a pilot and then volunteered.

[appalachiablue]

18. YW, agree it's all horribe. Much gratitude & respect

for Jimmy Stewart. Friends in Pgh are especially proud of this honorable native son.

[shrike3]

20. I always thought there was such darkness in George Bailey

Now I know where it came from.