According to the 'rules' of blogging, a blogger or blog editor is not supposed to post twice in one day, but here is another evocative, informative piece by Robert Averch ( a for-real Hollywood type, and from all appearances, somewhat paradoxically, a dedicated family man) writing on one of my favorite subjects-- Hollywood in WW Two. [Disclaimer- you may or may not agree with all of his views or conclusions but his knowledge of Hollywood history and use of archival images is pure art.]
It got me thinking about Linda and Ft. Mac, and her actually pretty decent role in The Good War. She told me the most amazing stories, all corroborated and even expanded upon by her buddies, all still thriving in the late '60s and early '70s.
She told me of spiteful enlisted and officers who would, knowing her religion, cuss in every color of the rainbow to try to intimidate her and insult her ( a female doing man's work in this man's army was not quite the wacky wave-fest one might imagine it to be...)
She told me of nights sleeping on the table in her office, of staying up all of some nights on Coke (ha ha- not that kind,) and I witnessed the ruin her kidneys had become by the '70s.
But what I took away from that was that the years she gave to the United States Army at Conley and at Ft. Mac during World War II were the most exhilarating, meaningful years of her life. She was using her many and extreme talents (she was said later to be able to 'read' the early IBM punch cards at a glance.) in the service of a cause that she knew to be right and true. She solved problems and got the goods through to 'her boys' in Third Army, some of whom would write her gratefully and with specific requests, so great was their confidence in her.
I wanted to have lived in the 1940s, and sat or lay enraptured in front of the TV any time 'Yankee Doodle Dandy' aired on 17, ditto 'Mrs. Minerver' 'This is the Army', and my biggie fave, 'The Best Years of Our Lives.' (All of these can be found at these two sites, as well as at many others--TCM is actually playing another of my all time faves- Sergeant York-yes I know it was about WWI, but it was released in the '40s and of course was certainly "white propaganda" of the most delicious kind.
Linda of course remembered actually seeing these films when they were first released, many of them at Lowe's Grand, or the Fox. She also remembered the Bugs Bunny cartoons I loved so well -as shorts shown before some of these flicks.
The upshot is that I am still emmeshed in the early 20th century, a time when faith in the Lord, hard work, FDR, and penicillin were enough to conquer the world.
Enjoy the freedoms we do have, and sit down and watch one of these excellent movies with your family, and make some brand new Southside Atlanta Memories.
