This makes me like film legend Jimmy Stewart even more:
Screen legend JAMES STEWART worked as a secret agent for notorious FBI leader J EDGAR HOOVER, rooting out suspected communists from Hollywood, according to a damning new biography.
Hoover knew the VERTIGO actor was a Right-wing Republican and asked him to work undercover for the FBI in 1947, because Stewart’s status as a famous, decorated war hero and officer in the American Army Air Force Reserve Corps made him the perfect choice to help flush out subversives in LA, Stewart’s late wife GLORIA HATRICK McLEAN recalled.
And author MICHAEL MUNN’s sensational expose, JIMMY STEWART: THE TRUTH BEHIND THE LEGEND claims the star was so keen to assist Hoover, he spied on his closest friends, including CARY GRANT and director FRANK CAPRA, who directed his hit movie IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE.
McLean says, “Jim went barefoot up the mountain and saw the burning bush – only God’s name was J Edgar Hoover.
“When Hoover realised Jim was willing to fight crime he played on it. Jim would have done anything to get those gangsters out of town.
“But he was concerned about how it would turn out for friends like Cary Grant who’d developed friendships with these people.”
Although McCarthy was definately not the man to have started those trials, he knew it was a problem and as you can now see…it definately was. Now we have the hollywood stars who would not set foot in a uniform of this country, but then we had guys like Jimmy Stewert who when volunteered to fight for his country, and when he was told initially that he could not join he fought to get in:
Almost a year before Pearl Harbor, Jimmy Stewart felt that America soon would be at war. With England fighting Hitler since 1939, radio announcer Edward R. Murrow’s bleak broadcasts from London, and the Pacific war against the Japanese going badly for Britain, Stewart decided that if America entered the war, he wanted to be in uniform and overseas on combat duty. As unselfish as this decision was, Stewart faced two major roadblocks. One came from his boss, MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer, who used every persuasive tactic at his command to persuade Stewart to stay out of uniform and to continue making pictures for MGM. The other roadblock came from the U.S. government. In September 1940, the Selective Service Act became law, and men between the ages of 21 and 36 were required to register. Being 32, Stewart registered and was quoted later as saying, “The only lottery I ever came close to winning was the drawing for the first draft before Pearl Harbor.” However, when Stewart was called up for a physical late in 1940, he was turned down: underweight. That could have ended the whole affair, but Stewart decided to go the volunteer route. He appealed the Army’s underweight decision, embarked on an eating binge, made the weight requirements, and at the age of 32, reported for induction on March 22, 1941 at Fort McArthur, California.
32 years old and willing to join his countries military. Now we all know he could of joined and then helped recruit or do desk work but:
Stewart went to his commanding officer, Col. “Pop” Arnold, commander of the 29th Training Group at Gowen, with his desire for combat duty and fear of being kept in the States as an instructor or perhaps a recruiting officer. Seeing Stewart’s determination, Arnold made a quick phone call to a friend, Col. Robert Terrell, who was at the time forming the new 445th heavy bombardment group of four-engine B-24s in Sioux City, Iowa. “I just felt that if he wanted combat duty this bad, I’d help him,” Arnold said later.
He would go on to serve in combat and distinguished himself well:
Stewart’s war record included 25 combat missions in Europe as a command pilot. He rose to the rank of colonel – the highest ranking actor in military history – and earned the Air Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Croix de Guerre and seven battle stars. In 1959, while serving in the Air Force Reserves, he became a brigadier general.
Now we have Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Alec Baldwin, & George Cloony who would rather sell out this country then to actually step into the boots of our military. With guys like these you have to wonder where are the Jimmy Stewert’s when we need em?
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