Hollywood

Tears in the Dark of the Theater (Click Magazine, 1944)

Even the broad-shouldered, steely-hard men who toil daily over this website cry like little girls when exposed to the 1944 home front movie, Since You Went Awaystyle=border:none; for our money it was the best movie Hollywood ever produced about the war years.


That said, we invite you to take a gander at the attached photo-essay from CLICK MAGAZINE in which a spy camera using infrared film was used to capture the weeping masses sobbing in the dark of the theater as they watched that remarkable movie.

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Flight Officer Lawrence Olivier (Photoplay Magazine, 1942)

When the actor Lawrence Olivier (1907 – 1989) first heard that a state of war existed between Britain and Germany, he was enjoying the breezes off the shore of Southern California in a sailboat skippered by Hollywood’s heir expectant, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and it was to Fairbanks that the attached letter was addressed. When this letter was written, Olivier was posted to the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm where he gained the understanding that aeronautics was an acquired taste, and one that he simply could not cultivate. In his book International Stars at War, author James Wise noted that Flight Officer Olivier would soon be judged incompetent by the Royal Navy and released for other duties more in line with his abilities (like writing this highly self-conscious letter to his Hollywood friend).


Fairbanks, on the other hand, played an important roll in the U.S. Navy and by the war’s end was sporting a chest-full of ribbons.

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Hollywood Stars Cope with Food Rationing (Collier’s Magazine, 1943)

If you ever wondered how Lucille Ball, Red Skelton, Barbara Stanwyck, Carmen Miranda, Veronica Lake, Charlie McCarthy or Edgar Bergen prepared their respective meals during the bad ol’ days of food rationing during W.W. II – then you’ll get your answer here:

Hollywood has done a complete about-face and banned the lavish, costly dish…. These days when the inhabitants of Glamor Town take off their faces and sit down to dine, the taste may be varied, but every meal is eaten with the full knowledge that a quarter of a pound of butter or a pound of ground steak is just as rare in Hollywood as Wheeling, West Virginia.

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Shooting Scenes Between Air Raids (Stage Magazine, 1940)

An article about director Gabriel Pascal (1894 – 1954) and all the assorted difficulties set before him, his cast and his crew while filming George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara during the bombing of England in 1940.


Much of the article is composed of diary entries by an anonymous member of the cast:

After dinner we had a script conference off the lot and kept on working through the air raid sirens, relieved to be away from the studio discipline. Tonight the sky was one vast blaze of searchlights, and no sleep for anyone. It’s tough staying up all night and trying to work between raids all day…

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Filming the War (Newsweek Magazine, 1945)

The True Glory is a documentary film about the Allied victory in World War II using actual footage from the war; the film was a joint effort between Great Britain and the United States intending to show the team work that won the war. Beginning with the D-Day invasion of Normandy Beach, the film chronicles the collapse of the Nazi war machine on the Western Front:

This is the sort of film the Germans would never have made – because it shows our victories without gloating and admits setbacks like the Ardennes breakthrough; because it’s peppered with humor and because, at the end, it warns against repetition of such a war.

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Jimmy Stewart – One of the First Volunteers (Newsweek Magazine, 1941)

A few weeks before this article went to press, actor Jimmy Stewart had been told by the hardy souls at the U.S. Army induction center that he was ten pounds under weight – too light for a man of his stature (6’4). A few visits to Chasens, among other assorted Hollywood eateries and he was all set to qualify as the first Hollywood star to enter the U.S. Army Air Corps.

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Errol Flynn on Trial (Yank Magazine, 1943)

During the war years, the boys on the front loved reading about a juicy Hollywood scandal just as much as we do today, and Errol Flynn could always be relied upon to provide at least one at any given time. The closest thing to a Hollywood tabloid that the far-flung khaki-clad Joes could ever get their hands on was Yank Magazine, the U.S. army weekly that also provided them with the news from all battlefronts.


Movie star Flynn was tried by the California courts for having gained a fair measure of carnal knowledge from two feminine California movie fans who were both under the age of 18; said knowledge was gained while on board the defendant’s yacht, The Sirocco.


More about this trial and Flynn’s other scandals can be read here…

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The Hollywood Offerings from Late 1944 (Click Magazine, 1944)

During the last month of 1944 the Yankee movie-goers had a choice of ten new releases to choose from, here are four titles:


• Laura, starring Clifton Webb,

• I’ll Be Seeing You, starring Joseph Cotton and Ginger Rogers

• The Doughgirls, starring Jane Wyman and Ann Sheridan

• Mrs. Parkington, starring Walter Pidgeon and Greer Garson

Each review is illustrated with thumbnail images of the ten films.

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The Best Years of Our Lives (Photoplay Magazine, 1947)

The post-World War II film The Best Years of our lives (1947) is attached herein, reviewed by the senior editor of Photoplay:

Of all the films released since August 1945 it best dramatizes the problems of men returning from war and of their families to whom they return…It eloquently preaches the need for veterans to do their share in the adjustment between home and soldier and between employer and returning worker. It eloquently preaches against the ugly attempts of the few to incite in these chaotic days race and religious hatreds. And it eloquently preaches the truth that physical disability need not cripple a man’s soul or his opportunities.

The Best Years of Our Lives (Photoplay Magazine, 1947) Read More »