Quote:
Originally Posted by Krell58
That kid on the left with the curly hair looks like he's only 16 or 17 years old. |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Noircitydame
He might be! My grandfather, a Hollywood kid, went in the Navy in early 1945 when he was 17. His correct birthdate 9-1-27 is on his papers so he didn't lie about his age. They were recruiting at his high school (Fairfax). He never did get his diploma.
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I feel we tend to think the guys who fight in wars are older because 1.) we want to, but, also, 2.) because of World War II Hollywood films that star older actors like John Wayne, who was 38 in 1945, or Cary Grant, who was 41 in 1945. Or the guys who always seemed older in the Combat TV series. Real life World War II Navy volunteers who became Hollywood actors when they got out, Tony Curtis and Rock Hudson, were 20 years old in 1945 when the war ended, for example.
I remember an acquaintance who served in Vietnam had seen the film Platoon when it came out and I asked him his opinion and he said, "It was really good, but I remember everyone being so young, just kids, not like the actors in the film.
Last year there was a WWII film out called Fury and they make a big deal about a character played by Logan Lerman as being really young. And he was probably 21 when he filmed it, but in reality I bet most of that platoon in Fury would have been around his age, give or take a few years. In the film Memphis Belle, some of the pilots in it are 19 years old.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Noircitydame
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There's also another one titled: Men of WWII: Fighting Men at Ease, by the same author.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Noircitydame
This handsome sailor and his date are at Waldorf Cellar, 521 S. Main. I sure hope he made it home safe and got offered a movie contract.
ebay |
This reminded me of a soldier who did eventually get a Hollywood movie contract.
America in WWII
The most decorated soldier of World War II! How old does
he look?
The following info is condensed and paraphrased from an article
HERE, which is well worth reading for an overview of this man's life:
Audie Murphy tried to enlist in the Marines as well as the paratroopers, but they wouldn't have him. He finally enlisted in the infantry at age 18, but his Commanders tried to keep him from combat, suggesting they could get him posted as a clerk or a baker. But he wanted to fight. It was, perhaps, a reaction to a poverty filled childhood and being one of nine surviving children. When he was 16 his father just walked out of their lives and he lost his mother a year later as the family was broken up, the oldest on their own and three younger sent to an orphanage.
Audie Murphy became the most decorated soldier of WWII. He was on the cover of LIFE Magazine in 1945 and, after reading the article, James Cagney invited him to Hollywood, put Murphy up for a time in his Hollywood home and provided him with acting classes, but after two years, the country’s most decorated soldier was broke and living above a gymnasium.
Around this time he met David McClure, a fellow Texan and army man who was working as an assistant to Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. They became friends and together wrote Audie's story in a well received book titled, "To Hell and Back." McClure came to realize that Audie could hardly have been more different from the Audie portrayed in the LIFE magazine story. While the two men worked together on To Hell And Back, Murphy told McClure about an Italian family in Rome that had invited him to dinner one day. Murphy said that before dinner he seduced the two daughters, and afterward, for good measure, he seduced the mother. “Audie seduced more girls than any man I ever knew with the possible exception of Errol Flynn,” McClure said. “He might even have topped Flynn.”
Because of his film connections, McClure helped him get movie roles, starting in 1949. Murphy remained clear-eyed about his abilities. “You must remember I’m working under a handicap,” Murphy told the director in his self-deprecating way. “No talent.”
He made mostly B-Westerns, never able to break out of that, with one exception: playing himself in a film version of his autobiography, "To Hell and Back." (When he was only 30-31, but 10-12 years older than when it took place.) It was a huge success and remained Universal's highest grossing film for twenty years, until Jaws came out in 1975.
Western Clippings Gallery
Caption:
Audie Murphy (second from left) clowns around with some crew members between
scenes of “Showdown” at Universal Studios. Film released in '63.
His personal life leaned decidedly toward the noirish, ending up being killed in a plane crash in 1971. At 47.
Some quotes attributed to Audie Murphy:
I'm strong. I'm too tough for this town [Hollywood]. I won't let it break my heart. I won't let it break me. I'll fight it to the finish. I just wish it was a fight I knew how to fight.
I can't ever remember being young in my life.
Said about him:
In him, we all recognized the straight, raw stuff, uncut and fiery as the day it left the still. Nobody wanted to be in his shoes, but nobody wanted to be unlike him, either.
First wife, Wanda Hendrix:
He had horrible nightmares and slept with a gun under his pillow.
___
Here are the known homes of Audie Murphy in Los Angeles:
Google/Audie Murphy Places
4427 Melbourne Avenue, Hollywood, California. In a letter dated September 12, 1946, to the Cawthons of Celeste, Texas,
Audie Murphy reported that he was living at this residence. House is reported to have been built in 1909. (The address
indicates the house is in (or near) the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles.
Eva Dano/Audie Murphy Places
6233 Orion Avenue, Van Nuys, California. Home of Audie Murphy from 1953 until 1956.
Audie is with his second wife (Pamela Archer) and one of his sons, Terry or James. He
was first married for a few months to an aspiring starlet, Wanda Hendrix.
Audie Murphy Places
4201 Toluca Road, North Hollywood, California. Residence from 1956-1971.
Purchased in 1956 by Audie Murphy.
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