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Some Shown Bravely Out Of The Limelight

Sunday, April 6, 2003
LA Times

HOLLYWOOD, Cal.
Inevitably, the more famous movie-star soldiers received special treatment.

Many were assigned far out of harm’s way.

Clark Gable replaced his ill-fitting uniforms with snappier ones made by the MGM costume department.

But some entertainers, such as Marlene Dietrich, sought neither comfort, nor publicity. Nazi agents had tried to persuade her in 1937 to return to her native Germany. Instead, she became a U.S. citizen and signed up for two tours of duty to entertain Allied troops from Anzio, Italy to the Aleutians. She wormed her way to the front by donning a soldier’s uniform, living in the camps with the soldiers, stricken by frostbite. Although never publicized, her efforts were rewarded with the Medal of Freedom.

Some soldiers resented the movie stars among them, according to Jim Wise, co-author of four books on movie stars in the military. He cites the story of how Mickey Rooney once got into a fistfight with a soldier who had complained that the scrappy 5-foot-3 actor got his position of squad leader only because he was a star.

But the truth was that no preferential treatment could shield the entertainers from the real consequences of war. Rooney, the former star of the Andy Hardy films, served in France bringing “jeep shows” to the soldiers at the front.

He also visited MASH units to console the wounded. He once comforted a soldier who was about to lose his leg by telling him the story of Herbert Marshall, an English actor who lost his leg in World War I.

The urbane Marshall, who appeared in many films, secretly wore a wooden leg.

Years later, Rooney and the soldier met by chance in a San Francisco bar.

Rooney told Wise that the two toasted each other:
“You’re a helluva guy.”

Rooney received a Bronze Star.
(Source: The Columbus Dispatch)

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Dan