Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to We *have* prototypical Americans?

Jimmy Stewert
SDG — (archived)

I actually don't remember much about Harvey. Now I'll have to see if I can dig that movie up somewhere.

I was thinking of Jimmy Stewert both as the actor and the man. If you have read anything about his actions during ww2 you would see that the man had a lot of similarity to the charachters he played.

I remember as a kid watching him in an interview on Donahue. He talked about trying to enlist but the doc wouldn't allow it because he was under the weight limit. So he stuffed himself with cheese, but it was no good and still couldn't qualify, so he reasoned with the doctor until he finally won him over. Later I read (may be apocryphal) that as a pilot of B-24s they didn't want him to fly combat missions because of his celebrity status so they made him fly the formation plane. It was an unarmed colorful plane they used to form up on in the air. After the formation was formed Stewert was supposed to land immediatly. Instead he led the formation over Germany unarmed.

I'd be interested in learning more about his life. I haven't seen a biography of the man on the bookshelves, but a quick peek on Amazon.com brought a couple up.

http://www.amazon.com/Jimmy-Stewart-Biography-Marc-Eliot/dp/140005222X/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

http://www.amazon.com/Jimmy-Stewart-Bomber-Starr-Smith/dp/0760328242/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195315293&sr=8-2

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