References to contemporary films & actors in
MASTERS OF THE AIR (2024)
HISTORICAL CONTEXT/SOURCES ↓
Test Pilot is a 1938 drama film starring Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, and Spencer Tracy. The film is about a daredevil test pilot, his wife, and his best friend (Wikipedia).
Rita Hayworth was an American actress and dancer. She is one of the most renowned actresses of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and was the second top pin-up girl for GIs during World War II, after Betty Grable (Wikipedia). These are the photos Brady has of Hayworth:
Bing Crosby was an American singer and actor. One of the first multimedia stars, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide (Wikipedia). During World War II, Crosby made live appearances before American troops who had been fighting in the European Theater. He learned how to pronounce German from written scripts and read propaganda broadcasts intended for German forces. The nickname "Der Bingle" was common among Crosby's German listeners and came to be used by his English-speaking fans. In a poll of U.S. troops at the close of World War II, Crosby topped the list as the person who had done the most for G.I. morale, ahead of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, General Dwight Eisenhower, and comedian Bob Hope (Wikipedia, USO).
Hit the Ice is a 1943 comedy film starring comedy duo Abbott and Costello. The film is about two cameramen chased by gangsters who get jobs as waiters in small-town Idaho (Wikipedia).
Lena Horne was an American singer, actress, dancer, and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years and covered film, television, and theater (Wikipedia). Horne became a fixture at the Tuskegee airbase in Alabama during World War II. There, she did everything from taking flying lessons to eating lunch with cadets to adhering to their early rising schedule. She returned to Tuskegee numerous times to boost morale, and in 1944, she served as a guest of honor at one of their graduation ceremonies (Ms. In the Biz). She also performed with the United Service Organization during the war, but eventually became disenchanted because the Army segregated her audiences and, in one instance, seated German POWs in front of Black soldiers. Horne left the USO in 1944 and financed tours of military bases herself for the remainder of the war (Wikipedia).
(You can watch a newsreel from the event pictured in the bottom left photo here [via Hearst Metrotone].)
The photo Macon has on his bunk wall of Lena Horne with a group of Tuskegee Airmen is one taken in 1945 during one of her many trips to the airbase.
The quote Crosby recites is a line spoken by Spencer Tracy in the film Test Pilot, which also starred Clark Gable.
Side note: Clark Gable enlisted in the US Army Air Forces and reportedly flew five combat missions, including one in Germany, as an observer-gunner in B-17 Flying Fortresses with the 351st Bomb Group between May and September of 1943, earning the Air Medal and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts. After a mission in which his fort was heavily attacked, MGM studio executives urged the USAAF to reassign Gable to desk duty. Many of the men he served with said Gable actually unofficially joined other missions, and the aforementioned five were only a fraction of the total. He was discharged in 1947 as a major (Wikipedia, Defense Media Network).
References to contemporary films & actors in
BAND OF BROTHERS (2001)
HISTORICAL CONTEXT/SOURCES ↓
Mae West was an American actress, singer, comedian, screenwriter, and playwright whose career spanned more than seven decades. Recognized as a prominent sex symbol of her time, she was known for portraying sexually confident characters and for her use of double entendres (Wikipedia). During World War II, Allied aircrews called their yellow inflatable, vest-like personal flotation devices "Mae Wests" partly because, when inflated, the wearer resembled the actress's buxom appearance (Wikipedia).
Mr. Lucky is a 1943 romance film starring Cary Grant and Laraine Day. The film is about an attraction between a shady gambler and a wealthy socialite in the days prior to the United States entering World War II (Wikipedia).
Marlene Dietrich was a German-born American actress and singer whose career spanned nearly seven decades (Wikipedia). She renounced her German citizenship in 1939, and when the US entered World War II in 1941, she was one of the first public figures to help sell war bonds (Wikipedia). Dietrich went on two United Service Organization tours in 1944 and 1945. She traveled first to North Africa and Italy, where she was the first entertainer to reach rescued Allied soldiers in Anzio, and then later to France and Germany, with this second tour lasting 11 months, beginning just on the heels of D-Day. Her performances in the now-famous USO Camp Shows involved singing, dancing, and a comedy routine with a musical saw, and she usually left troops in fits of laughter. She fought off bouts of influenza, slept in tents, and suffered from frostbite, but in the end, Dietrich put on more than 500 performances for Allied troops throughout the war, many of which were on the front lines. When asked why she risked her life to support American soldiers, she responded, “aus Anstand – Out of decency” (USO).
Rita Hayworth was an American actress and dancer. She is one of the most renowned actresses of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and was the second top pin-up girl for GIs during World War II, after Betty Grable (Wikipedia). Nix's comment about Hayworth's marriage is likely a reference to her marriage to filmmaker and actor Orson Welles, whom she was married to from 1943 to 1947. This is also likely an oversight by the show's writers, as the scene takes place in 1945, and a marriage that happened two years prior would probably not be breaking news.
Abbott and Costello were an American comedy duo composed of comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, whose work in radio, film, and television made them the most popular comedy team of the 1940s and 1950s, and the highest-paid entertainers in the world during World War II (Wikipedia).
Seven Sinners is a 1940 American romantic drama film starring Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne. The film is about a torch singer who wows a Navy officer and his shipmates at a South Seas cafe (Wikipedia).
John Wayne was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films that were produced during the Golden Age of Hollywood, especially in Western and war movies (Wikipedia). He also notoriously did not serve during World War II, even though many of his contemporaries did. There are many reasons given as to why Wayne did not enlist, including but not limited to: his age (he was 34 years old at the time of Pearl Harbor), his 3-A deferment (family deferment), an injury he suffered in college, his unwillingless to put his film career on hold, and his infamous affair with Marlene Dietrich he allegedly did not want to give up. The most common reason given is that the studio he was contracted under, Republic Studios, allegedly threatened to sue him if he enlisted. The studio also reportedly intervened in the Selective Service process and requested Wayne's exemption from the draft (Wikipedia). On the other hand, arguably more bankable and more famous actors, such as Clark Gable and James Stewart, enlisted for combat despite pressure from their respective studios not to do so. No matter how much of not enlisting Wayne was personally responsible for, and how much guilt he felt after the fact, he was reportedly not popular with US servicemen during World War II, and he toured with the USO for about three months in 1944 (Slash Film).
Yes, I haven't finished [Harvard]. So the fuck what?
- All right, Web, breathe a little, Jesus. Fuck. It's just the way you always talked, you know? We all figured that… Hey, you know what? You're right. So the fuck what?
David Webster & Joe Liebgott in
BAND OF BROTHERS (2001)
↳ Part Nine: Why We Fight
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