Garrison
Donor
How Silent Fall the Cherry Blossoms
- Thread starter Geon
- Start date
- Status
my list on 23 actors (and there owner)
Mickey Rooney, MGM.
Judy Garland, MGM.
Spencer Tracy, MGM.
Katharine Hepburn, MGM.
Humphrey Bogart, Warner Bros.
Cary Grant, Warner Bros.
Peter Lorre, Warner Bros.
Fred Astaire, (out-of-work).
Bela Lugosi, (out-of-work).
Curly Howard, Columbia.
Moe Howard, Columbia.
Shemp Howard, Columbia.
Stan Laurel, Fox Studios.
Oliver Hardy, Fox Studios.
William "Bud" Abbott, Universal Studios.
Lou Costello, Universal Studios.
Bob Hope, RKO Radio Pictures.
Veronica Lake, Paramount Pictures.
Betty Hutton, Paramount Pictures.
Alan Ladd, Paramount Pictures.
Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Marx Bros.(public domain)
Two actors who stay also In Los Angeles.
Charlie Chaplin
Ronald Reagan
Joan Crawford was in time in American Women's Voluntary Services
if ask why are Jimmy steward or Clark Gable not on list, there do service in US forces...
I like that The Three Stooges are on that list (and it would be very in character for them). It also would help them to gain strength in dealing with Columbia's boss (OTL he ordered Curly back to work before he recovered from his stroke, what probably accelerated his death and he so lied about how popular the Stooges were - denied a lot of profits from it).
Also, since they did the very first movie mocking the Nazis, they deserve a better break.
Garrison
Donor
Of course looking at the list of those who came back I'm wondering what's going to happen to those who didn't? It could be very bad for several Hollywood leading men if they're seen,as having been cowards during the bugout? Unfair of course but in Hollywood image is everything. It could have other consequences. I was looking up John Wayne and there was this on his career during WWII at his Wiki page:
Might he now insist on volunteering to serve? In the circumstances the studios could hardly say no.
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Geon
Donor
Speaking of a certain husky voiced German singer/actress
And here's another update. I hope you dont think its too syrupy.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Date: December 22, 1944
Location: A U.S. military hospital in Metz
Time: 6:00 p.m.
The U.S. military hospital at Metz was still receiving casualties from the initial attacks of a few days ago. Men with terrible injuries, many caused by mustard gas, were being brought in or stumbling in having walked several miles from the front and gotten rides to the hospital for treatment. The wards were completely full and several nearby buildings had also been commandeered for use.
The men here were recuperating from numerous different injuries. Many would not recover. A sense of gloom hung over the wards one of the patients later recalled not only were men hurting from the wounds they had received they were hurt because they had been licked. For many of those in these wards this would be their last Christmas, if any of them made it that far.
And yet, in the midst of all this pain there was an angel that moved through the wards. She was incredibly beautiful and spoke with a German accent. But no one thought to stop her or detain her. Indeed had anyone tried they would have found themselves set upon by most of the personnel and patients in the hospital! The young woman helped where she was needed. She served meals, she helped the doctors, and she made sure patients were comfortable; she offered to take letters back home to anxious loved ones. For over two hours she worked in the wards doing anything that was asked of her. Then she would settle down and begin to sing, sometime with a makeshift band with nothing more then an accordion or a piano. She would sing, she would joke with the patients and she would play her “musical saw.” When asked why she did all of this much later in her life she would say, “Because it was the right thing to do.”
Tonight after the show the doctors prevailed on her for one last time. A soldier badly injured was not expected to make it through the night. He was a fan of hers would she be willing to visit him? Marlene Dietrich did not need to be asked twice. She was soon at the soldier’s bedside talking with him. The man was not long for this world and had long been a fan of hers, he told her of some of the films he had seen her in back home in Kansas City where he grew up. He told her he had several photos of her in his foot locker. And then he listened as she began to sing in her beautiful husky voice Lilli Marlene.
She reached the final stanza and apparently the young soldier knew the song by heart for he was singing softly now.
Off the lands of silence, off the earthly ground
in a dream it lifts me, your kiss leaves me astound
When the mist of night swirls into reign
There by the lantern I will be again
Like then, Lili Marlene
Like then, Lili Marlene*
As she finished the soldier, who had been holding the young actress’ hand slowly faltered and his hand began to go limp. Marlene held his hand as he passed and said, “Wait for me by the lantern, I will be along…” She kissed the soldier just on the cheek where his face was not bandaged from chemical burns and quietly arose.
Marlene Dietrich’s actions in helping with and entertaining at the hospital of Metz would not go unnoticed. She would later receive a Congressional Gold Medal, The Medal of Merit, and at the special request of General Patton and because of a petition sent later to President Truman by those soldiers and personnel at the Metz hospital, she would be one of those who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She would later say, “I truly appreciate all of these awards given to me. But for me the greatest reward of all was to sit by that young soldier and hold his hand and let him know in the darkness that he had a friend.” In still later years she would add, “He and I still have a date to keep at that eternal lantern.”
* These are the English translation of the German song “Lilli Marlene,” by Marlene Dietrich from http://lyricstranslate.com/en/lili-marleen-lili-marlene.html
And here's another update. I hope you dont think its too syrupy.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Date: December 22, 1944
Location: A U.S. military hospital in Metz
Time: 6:00 p.m.
The U.S. military hospital at Metz was still receiving casualties from the initial attacks of a few days ago. Men with terrible injuries, many caused by mustard gas, were being brought in or stumbling in having walked several miles from the front and gotten rides to the hospital for treatment. The wards were completely full and several nearby buildings had also been commandeered for use.
The men here were recuperating from numerous different injuries. Many would not recover. A sense of gloom hung over the wards one of the patients later recalled not only were men hurting from the wounds they had received they were hurt because they had been licked. For many of those in these wards this would be their last Christmas, if any of them made it that far.
And yet, in the midst of all this pain there was an angel that moved through the wards. She was incredibly beautiful and spoke with a German accent. But no one thought to stop her or detain her. Indeed had anyone tried they would have found themselves set upon by most of the personnel and patients in the hospital! The young woman helped where she was needed. She served meals, she helped the doctors, and she made sure patients were comfortable; she offered to take letters back home to anxious loved ones. For over two hours she worked in the wards doing anything that was asked of her. Then she would settle down and begin to sing, sometime with a makeshift band with nothing more then an accordion or a piano. She would sing, she would joke with the patients and she would play her “musical saw.” When asked why she did all of this much later in her life she would say, “Because it was the right thing to do.”
Tonight after the show the doctors prevailed on her for one last time. A soldier badly injured was not expected to make it through the night. He was a fan of hers would she be willing to visit him? Marlene Dietrich did not need to be asked twice. She was soon at the soldier’s bedside talking with him. The man was not long for this world and had long been a fan of hers, he told her of some of the films he had seen her in back home in Kansas City where he grew up. He told her he had several photos of her in his foot locker. And then he listened as she began to sing in her beautiful husky voice Lilli Marlene.
She reached the final stanza and apparently the young soldier knew the song by heart for he was singing softly now.
Off the lands of silence, off the earthly ground
in a dream it lifts me, your kiss leaves me astound
When the mist of night swirls into reign
There by the lantern I will be again
Like then, Lili Marlene
Like then, Lili Marlene*
As she finished the soldier, who had been holding the young actress’ hand slowly faltered and his hand began to go limp. Marlene held his hand as he passed and said, “Wait for me by the lantern, I will be along…” She kissed the soldier just on the cheek where his face was not bandaged from chemical burns and quietly arose.
Marlene Dietrich’s actions in helping with and entertaining at the hospital of Metz would not go unnoticed. She would later receive a Congressional Gold Medal, The Medal of Merit, and at the special request of General Patton and because of a petition sent later to President Truman by those soldiers and personnel at the Metz hospital, she would be one of those who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She would later say, “I truly appreciate all of these awards given to me. But for me the greatest reward of all was to sit by that young soldier and hold his hand and let him know in the darkness that he had a friend.” In still later years she would add, “He and I still have a date to keep at that eternal lantern.”
* These are the English translation of the German song “Lilli Marlene,” by Marlene Dietrich from http://lyricstranslate.com/en/lili-marleen-lili-marlene.html
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bguy
Donor
Giving her the Congressional Medal of Honor is way overdoing it. I believe by World War 2, the War Department version of the medal could only be awarded for bravery in combat. (Specifically for the recipient "distinguishing himself conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.") Not to diminish what Ms. Dietrich did here, but she was not in combat and her life was not at risk. Awarding her the Medal of Honor would cheapen the medal and be an insult to all the service members who earned it through showing remarkable courage in combat. (Many at the cost of their own lives.)
RamscoopRaider
Donor
Congress could override that but I'm agreeing with you and saying she shouldn't get it, the 6 civilians who did 5 were civilian scouts who earned it in combat and the 6th was a battlefield surgeon
No, I am not crying, I have allergies.
Powerful stuff, Geon.
Change of subject; we have lists of actors who either didn't bug out, or returned, or were elsewhere, how about a list of actors who had thier career ruined for "fleeing like rats"?
Powerful stuff, Geon.
Change of subject; we have lists of actors who either didn't bug out, or returned, or were elsewhere, how about a list of actors who had thier career ruined for "fleeing like rats"?
Geon
Donor
Actors Who Ran
I may not post a list of those actors who did not return to LA. The list would simply be too long. You may assume one of them was Betty Davis whom I referred to in an earlier posting, as she is not listed. But for the most part the good citizens of Los Angeles are not going to be so much mad at the stars as they are with the movie moguls who decided for them that they would leave. Many of these actors and actresses will redeem themselves later in one form or another. But the movie moguls have seen the first crack as some of you have guessed in the studio system.
Geon
I may not post a list of those actors who did not return to LA. The list would simply be too long. You may assume one of them was Betty Davis whom I referred to in an earlier posting, as she is not listed. But for the most part the good citizens of Los Angeles are not going to be so much mad at the stars as they are with the movie moguls who decided for them that they would leave. Many of these actors and actresses will redeem themselves later in one form or another. But the movie moguls have seen the first crack as some of you have guessed in the studio system.
Geon
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Not likely for Japan. I think the US would not betray Hirohito's assistance in defeating the Japanese militarists by carving up his country - especially if this meant Stalin gets a chunk. I suppose Japan might get federalized along prefecture lines, but I think the allies would keep Hirohito as the symbolic figurehead of all Japan. Also, by now, unless something really unexpected happens, the Japanese don't rank nearly as high on the evil-o-meter as the Nazis. But they have promised Stalin something. My guess is that, in addition to Manchuria, they may have thrown in Korea and all the Kuriles. As for Germany, splitting it up is looking more and more likely.
CAPTAIN Reagan, USAAF-R was in New York JAN-NOV 44 working a War Loan drive. He is in likely in transit back to the 1st Motion Picture Unit (Hollywood) when this starts.
Considering the first weeks in LA, he and the rest of 1st likely were pressed into duty supporting the crisis, out in the streets and the wards. And once the crisis subsides, a spokesman.
Geon
Donor
Update
Okay...[takes out a white flag and waves it]...you win. See if the change I made in the post does better. The Medal of Freedom was established by the way by Truman in 1945. In the meantime...
----------
Date: December 22, 1944
Location: 5 miles south of Littlebruck, Luxembourg
Time: 7:00 p.m.
It was after sundown and General Patton was not a happy man. He was in his headquarters trailer looking at the situation map along with his other tank commanders. He had hoped to be well into Belgium by this point but the Germans had decided to make things more difficult for him by their bombardment of Luxembourg City.
The Germans had used their long range guns to bombard Luxembourg City with a mixture of high explosives and gas. The citizens of the city had of course been thrown into a total panic and were now fleeing westward and southward, right smack into the middle of Patton’s advancing forces.
Patton recalled how furious he had been after all the delays caused by lines of civilian traffic. Even with MPs trying to keep the roads open his column’s pace had been slowed to almost a crawl. At one point the famous volcanic temper of Patton had flared when the forward vehicle he had been in had been stopped for the seeming hundredth time by a stuck wagon ahead. Patton had leaped out of his vehicle angrily ran up to the wagon and prepared to let the driver know exactly what he thought of this latest delay. Patton was drawn up short as he reached the vehicle however seeing a frightened young woman behind the wheel and her two children one in the front and one in the back with their meager possessions stacked in the wagon. Seeing her, seeing the fear in her eyes diffused the anger in Patton. Working with some MPs Patton managed to get the wagon out of the rut it was in and got them safely to the side of the road.
It’s not just the soldiers in this damn war who do the dying! He reminded himself as he remembered the incident. There were a lot of dead in Luxembourg City and there was nothing he or any of his Third Army could do to help them. They had to move quickly or else risk having Montgomery cut off in Antwerp.
Now forward scouts indicated that the Germans had set up defensive lines at the town of Littlebruck in front of him. They already had hurried entrenchments set up and not a few anti-tank guns ready. There was no question to Patton that he could break through; the question was how long it was going to take him and how many tanks and men would he lose doing so.
Patton gave the orders for a nighttime attack. At 7:21 p.m. the Battle of Littlebruck began. It would rage through most of the night and well into the afternoon of the 23rd. And Patton would be minus several tanks and a few hundred men by the time he was able to continue toward Brussels.
Okay...[takes out a white flag and waves it]...you win. See if the change I made in the post does better. The Medal of Freedom was established by the way by Truman in 1945. In the meantime...
----------
Date: December 22, 1944
Location: 5 miles south of Littlebruck, Luxembourg
Time: 7:00 p.m.
It was after sundown and General Patton was not a happy man. He was in his headquarters trailer looking at the situation map along with his other tank commanders. He had hoped to be well into Belgium by this point but the Germans had decided to make things more difficult for him by their bombardment of Luxembourg City.
The Germans had used their long range guns to bombard Luxembourg City with a mixture of high explosives and gas. The citizens of the city had of course been thrown into a total panic and were now fleeing westward and southward, right smack into the middle of Patton’s advancing forces.
Patton recalled how furious he had been after all the delays caused by lines of civilian traffic. Even with MPs trying to keep the roads open his column’s pace had been slowed to almost a crawl. At one point the famous volcanic temper of Patton had flared when the forward vehicle he had been in had been stopped for the seeming hundredth time by a stuck wagon ahead. Patton had leaped out of his vehicle angrily ran up to the wagon and prepared to let the driver know exactly what he thought of this latest delay. Patton was drawn up short as he reached the vehicle however seeing a frightened young woman behind the wheel and her two children one in the front and one in the back with their meager possessions stacked in the wagon. Seeing her, seeing the fear in her eyes diffused the anger in Patton. Working with some MPs Patton managed to get the wagon out of the rut it was in and got them safely to the side of the road.
It’s not just the soldiers in this damn war who do the dying! He reminded himself as he remembered the incident. There were a lot of dead in Luxembourg City and there was nothing he or any of his Third Army could do to help them. They had to move quickly or else risk having Montgomery cut off in Antwerp.
Now forward scouts indicated that the Germans had set up defensive lines at the town of Littlebruck in front of him. They already had hurried entrenchments set up and not a few anti-tank guns ready. There was no question to Patton that he could break through; the question was how long it was going to take him and how many tanks and men would he lose doing so.
Patton gave the orders for a nighttime attack. At 7:21 p.m. the Battle of Littlebruck began. It would rage through most of the night and well into the afternoon of the 23rd. And Patton would be minus several tanks and a few hundred men by the time he was able to continue toward Brussels.
Otis R. Needleman
Banned
Geon,
You're doing one amazing job. At this rate, you should be up for a Turtledove Award.
Otis
You're doing one amazing job. At this rate, you should be up for a Turtledove Award.
Otis
This must be what Churchill and FDR meant by giving Stalin something while also giving him nothing.
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