Many viewers have noted that Herbert Marshall starred opposite Bette Davis, not Marlene Dietrich, in "The Letter" (1940.) He starred opposite Marlene Dietrich in "Angel" (1937). I am sorry for the mistake.
Interesting note about Herbert Marshall and his role in "The Little Foxes" with Bette Davis - there is a scene where his character is in the background, struggling to crawl up the stairs after suffering a heart attack (trying to get to his medicine) - while wife Bette Davis is in the foreground allowing him to make that struggled climb - she wants him to die. But - Marshall has been replaced by a double. Because of his missing leg, he would not have been able to perform that scene, not even with the prosthetic leg - and you never see his face. Only those who know he had the missing leg can really notice the difference in how he walks!
Poignant statement at the end, by Ronald Coleman, "We went out. Strangers came back. It was the war that made an actor out of me; that's all I was good for when I came back - acting. I wasn't my own man anymore." Interesting how Hollywood of old responded to the issues of their day. Not like the self-important phonies today. Another gem!
The Ronald Coleman quote moved me as well. I've seen most of his films, albeit many years ago but I was always struck by the expression of soulful melancholy in his eyes. That war changed Europe in ways that even WWII did not and many of the combat veterans of that war remained a group apart in ways no generation of young men had universally been before. It's perhaps most evident in the work of J.R.R. Tolkien who was wounded at the Somme and lost nearly all of his childhood friends in that war.
What saddens me the most is how so many people looked at him and said something like "Oh! What a good actor." without realizing the reality of what made him that way. Nor we're they aware of what he may have lost to get that way. Ironic is the way most people view being a popular actor as being a highly desired job; while Colman viewed it as a last resort. Also sad.
And the merciless pressure of gender & nationalistic attitudes that swept hundreds of thousands of young men to death or disablement for causes that today seem barely comprehensible
The History Guy: Any man considers himself a lesser creature for not having experienced combat. Who is that a paraphrase from? BTW, outstanding work and a very fun channel!
I can indefinably relate. Panama and Vietnam. I didn't come back the same guy. Thank you for all these wonderful snippets. I'm one of your greatest fans!
Claude Rains & Basil Rathbone both played the Phantom of the Opera in 1943. Claude played the Phantom in the 1943 movie, Basil Rathbone played the Phantom in the Lux Radio version of that movie that same year.
They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them. (Laurence Binyon 1869 - 1943)
Claude Rains and Basil Rathbone are two of the best actors from the studio era. Here’s a couple of things about them that you might not know. Before coming to the U.S., Rains taught acting, in addition to working mostly on the London stage. One of his students was Laurence Olivier. Rathbone taught Errol Flynn how to properly fight with a sword. Flynn was not ignorant of the basics of fencing, but Rathbone showed him how to make it look deadly and cinematic.
My favorite scene, and one of the most memorable in film history, was Erroll Flynn and Basil Rathbone sword fighting on winding castle steps in "The Adventures ofd Robin Hood". That part, where their shadow images were filmed against the castle wall, marked true directoral genius and cimematography. My complements to Michael Curtiz.
Also, great British actor Leslie Banks who can be seen in Hitchcock’s’34 The Man Who Knew Too Much. He was severely wounded in the war and suffered paralysis in his face.
Another British actor who suffered some brutal wounds in WWI was Arnold Ridley who played Pte. Charles Godfrey in Dad's Army, the very soft spoken friendly elderly gentleman. His left had was rendered virtually useless for the rest of his life due to his injuries at the Somme, his legs were riddled with shrapnel some of which was apparently left in him until he died, he also recieved a bayonet wound to the groin during a close quarter fight with Germans and got whacked in the head by a Germans rifle butt which caused him to have blackouts for years after the war. Then later in WWII he was in France as part of the BEF as a Conducting Officer who dealt with war journalists and only got to evacuate on the last ship to leave the harbour during the Battle of Boulogne.
"We went out [to war], strangers came back." (Ronald Coleman) Herbert Marshall surviving with "phantom pain" from his amputated leg. Thank you for finding and preserving these very encouraging stories of our "new normal" upon returning from war. I recognize that a tiny part of me "died" in Vietnam, although I escaped the ordeal with minimal "injuries." I have found that those of us who choose to be active in vocations or careers that force us to get outside of our own heads manage our residual issues better than those who become focused on what they lost, rather than what they learned and have left. It can be very helpful to adjusting to our "new normal." Serving others, acting, law enforcement, fire-rescue-EMS, teaching, nursing, etc. Thank you so much, again, for this interesting and encouraging story. Well done!
Brave men indeed. As a proud U.S. NAVY veteran I salute them all. And fine actors they were too. I've enjoyed watching all their films. At ease gentlemen, you have fulfilled your duties in the finest traditions of the London - Scottish Regiment and of Her Majesty's Armed Services. ✌🇺🇸
Claude Rains & Basil Rathbone are two of my favorite actors! Hearing about their service (as well as everybody else mentioned in this video) makes me much more of a fan! Thank you History Guy for remembering them!!! 🙂👍🤘
One of my favorite Coleman movies, Random Harvest, is almost autobiographical as it begins in the trenches of the Great War , as he loses his memory, that sets the plot line in motion. Co -Stars Greer Garson. Excellent movie.
In Hitchcock's "Foreign Correspondent", the director graciously tried to avoid long shots of Marshall walking. But when he did so, a large Great Dane is always seen passing in front of Marshall's legs and obscuring them. Nicely done!
Did you forget Sir Cedric Hardwick? Rains would combine acting talents twice with Peter Lorre, Sidney Greenstreet & Humphrey Bogart, 1942's Casablanca and 1944's Passage to Marseille. In Passage to Marseille, Rains and Greenstreet would play French army officers trying to return to France in May 1940, while Bogart and Lorre play 2 of 5 convicts just escaped from a French prison in the Caribbean who have been picked up by the same French merchant ship with Rains and Greenstreet, only to have news come over the wireless that France has fallen. Greenstreet and some others want the freighter to continue on to France like the orders they have intercepted command them, while Lorre, Bogart, Rains and the rest want to go to Britain and join the Free French. The story is a frame told from Rains perspective to a reporter months later in Britain where he, Bogart, Lorre and the 3 other escaped prisoners are part of an RAF bomber squadron still fighting the war. The reporter is there to interview Bogart's character, but Bogart is on a mission about to launch when the reporter reaches the aerodrome, and Rains refuses to let him interview Bogart before the mission, saying he can wait until afterwards; once the bombers are in the air, Rains takes the reporter around and introduces him to the other escapees. Unfortunately, Bogart's character is killed on this mission, so there is no interview beyond the words the reporter had with Rains and the other 4. Casablanca is another frame story; the Casablanca scenes are "modern day" and the scenes in Paris are a flashback telling the story of Rick (Bogart) and Elsa (Ingrid Bergman)'s love affair. For those of you who did not know this, the Casablanca "modern day" scenes are supposed to be set between 23 Nov 1941 and 7 Dec 1941. There is no mention of the US entry into the war and Rick is allowed to move freely about the city, so it has to be set before Pearl Harbor and I read somewhere those scenes are set in Dec 1941.
This is very interesting to hear because my father was commissioned into the Royal Artillery Territorials in 1940 - his unit was raised In Ayr, Scotland. He served in Burma and then briefly after the war in Germany restarting a winery, no less.
The Prisoner of Zenda Ronald Coleman is one of my all-time favorites. David Niven was in it too and he ended up a Major in the British Army in Round two of the Great European Civil War known as World War II.
David Niven mustered out as a lieutenant colonel. Prior to becoming an actor, he was a professional army officer, graduating from the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He was also friends with General Roy Uruquhart, when they served together as junior officers.
@@chrisholland7367 I used to live in Arnhem. I used to cross the "bridge too far" nearly every day. Operation Market Garden was such a colossal failure on so many fronts. One of my favorite all time actors lived there during the war, Audrey Hepburn. She was actually born in Belgium but had family there. One of the reasons she was as skinny as she was, was due to malnutrition as so many in Holland suffered in this way.
Very interesting. My great uncle fought in one of the territorial units (first battalion, 28th London regiment, Artist's Rifles). He was gassed near Cambrai in September of 1918 and taken prisoner. He returned to the United States, but was functionally blind and died of complications in 1922 at the age of 22.
You inspire me to find my calling, the one thing you do because of love and not for money or any other reason. You are to be admired for your dedication to your art and your Mensa level of intelligence. I remember my school years when I hated History ( and every other class ). Now I am the guy who saves History often to my own financial duress. My calling lately has been watching you too much!
I did a lot of things before The History Guy. Even while I was doing not-history jobs, I loved history. I do now truly believe that you can find success following your passion. I wish you the best of luck!
Well done, H.G.! I thought of something that might be useful to you: The Germans were ahead of the game for much of the 20th century in cameras & optics. Carl Zeiss (the man) began to make microscopes. Wanting to give them more of a Scientific foundation, he went to the University of Jena for help & met Ernst Abba. Ernst Abba came up with lens designs and even the f: stop \ shutter speed system. The two worked with Otto Schott at Schott Glass Works, who experimented with formulas for optical glass. (Hope I am remembering this correctly)! German optics are still good. Mike
I have seen all these actors in the film's you describe. But I had no idea of the connections they had to the Royal Scottish Regiment or the First World War. What is more, I had no idea of the battle wounds they suffered which sent them on a fateful trajectory to become iconic screen stars later in life. This 'History Guy' video is one of your best. It certainly opened my consciousness to the plight of millions of soldiers who gave up so much, including their lives! Yet somehow the survivors made it through, albeit with terrible scars, both physical and psychological to rejoin the living. The resilience of humanity never ceases to amaze me. Much appreciated!
I really enjoyed The Defense of Thala. My father was involved in Operation Torch in Morocco, met my french mother and her family there and stayed. My 3 brothers and I were all born in Morocco, and I was going to suggest Operation Torch as a likely subject. Years later, working for USAID, we lived in Tunisia, and went to the dedication of the American Military Cemetery in Carthage I believe, and found the graves of 2 of my father's childhood friends who were killed at Kasserine Pass. So glad I found your channel! I'd love to learn about the City of Carcassonne in the south of France and about the Cathars.
Hello History Guy ! An actor I know you must be familiar with is one, Victor McLaglin. His real life was even more exciting than his movies. You must be saving him for a show that would be only about him. If I remember correctly, he was 14 years old when he took part in the Boar War. In WW1 he and 7 of his brothers enlisted to fight. There is a British poster from that war for public display showing them all and naming them. At one point during the war, he became Viceroy of Bagdad and no one moved a vehicle unless he said it was ok to do so. His life was very eventful before he came to Hollywood. He was a great boxer, going 7 or so rounds with the world heavyweight champion of the day, which, I think, took place in Canada. You are a much better investigator than I, so I'll leave it up to you to do the rest. YOU GOTTA DO THIS ! I'm looking forward to it.
Thank you very much. I’ve enjoyed these men’s movies for years, but as also a veteran, I had no idea of their military history. I was very familiar with many that served in WWII and beyond but not these men that served during the Great War. It adds much to what they shared on the silver screen.
Ronald Colman and Basil Rathbone also performed together in the 1938 film, "If I Were King". Colman played the poet rascal Francoise Villon to Rathbone's sly King Louis XI.
WOW! I've watched many of the History Guy's reports. This one really touched me! First off I really appreciate each of the 4 actors that he talked about. This gives such insight to their careers!
I am a old movie fan and a fan of all these actors. I am at loss for words. All these people hid there injuries so well. So many movies and rolls went through my head. WOW!!!
A particularly revealing film amongst your many excellent pieces. These familiar faces bring that shattering conflict shudderingly close. A piquant coincidence that Basil Rathbone’s most famous character was supposedly adept at using disguise in order to become inconspicuous amongst a different class or type of folk. A sort of “social camouflage” echoing Rathbone’s wartime heroics.
This piece was, of course, about a specific unit and those four famous actors who were in that specific unit. I see that in the comments below mention is made of Charles Laughton who was, I think, in the Hampshires, but who was severely gassed and so traumatized by the war that he rarely discussed his service in later life. It is often the case that actual combat veterans do not tell tales of battle and glory and adopt a modest attitude to what is frequently acts of heroism. See you at the Menin Gate.
Laughton participated in one of the last bayonet charges of WWI, killing a young German soldier about his own age. His wife, Elsa Lanchester, stated that some nights he would wake up screaming, due to nightmares about the event.
Interesting that you showed Basil Rathbone in the Sherlock Holmes role. His co-star who appears in your clip, Nigel Bruce, remembered forever as nice but dim Doctor Watson, was also wounded during WWI, being shot eleven times in the left leg and spending most of the reset of the war in a wheelchair.
Dean Stuart yes, Nigel Bruce was also an interesting fellow, whose film career included performing in some landmark movies, including the first technicolor film and the first 3-D film. As you noted, he was also a veteran of the Great War, (although not with the London Scottish) and was severely wounded at Cambrai. He and Rathbone collaborated on a whopping fourteen feature length Sherlock Holmes films.
Nigel Bruce enlisted right at the beginning of the war and was in C Company, 1st Battalion of The Honourable Artillery Company when he was wounded by German machine gun fire on 5th January 1915. Due to his injuries he was invalided out of the army in December 1915. He later re-enlisted, joining the 10th Bn Somerset Light Infantry on 1st January 1917 although he was unfit for front line service. The excellent book FAMOUS 1914-1918 by Richard Van Emden & Victor Piuk has more details on Nigel, Basil Rathbone, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and many more.
Dean Stuart Terrible of course. Yet one wonders what Oscar Wilde would have said of a man who gets shot eleven times in the same leg. If it is unfortunate to lose one husband but careless to lose two.....
As a vet (not a combat vet, the Army sent me elsewhere...) and having a degree in history, I enjoy seeing those entertainers who served. Sadly, one actor who has the label of "Hero" given him is John Wayne. Wayne never served in the US Military. He had deferments and made movie during the war. The director John Ford never forgave Wayne for not serving and would give him a hard time while filming war movies. The story goes that Ford relentlessly gave Wayne a hard time during the film shoot. Wayne had opted out of the war, and Ford never let him forget it. Finally Robert Montgomery who had served took the director aside and told him to stop. Then you have other entertainers like the late Red Skelton. Skelton was drafted into the Army and assigned to entertain the troops in Europe. He worked so hard that he eventually have a breakdown but then returned to entertaining his fellow troops. Mickey Rooney did the same and was awarded the Bronze Star. And that list goes on to this day.
Although Basil Rathbone was at first drafted in to the London Scottish he was shortly transferred to the King's Liverpool Regiment( Liverpool Scottish) as a Lieutenant going on to be a Captain.
I knew about Claude Rains being a war veteran. I vaguely remember hearing about Herbert Marshall's war record and loss of part of his leg. But I never knew of Ronald Coleman & Basil Rathbone being veterans of WW1. Thanks for the information. A lesser known American actor of the 1930's & 40's, Chester Morris was a pilot in the Army Air Force in WW2. He won several medals for heroics in battle as a pilot. Director John Ford filmed actual battle scenes during the battle of Midway, and suffered wounds during the battle in WW2.
Before anyone gets any ideas, Ford joined the USN Public Information Office and had been sent to Midway by the Hollywood field office of PIO for, what as far as I can find out, an unrelated assignment. His presence just happened to coincide with the Japanese attack.
Are fans of Ronald Coleman, I strongly recommend the movie Random Harvest, which he actually plays a World War I vet. It’s a great performance and very touching.
A word about the wonderful Claude Rains. After his retirement, he and his wife moved to the tiny village of Center Sandwich, NH, the town immediately adjacent to the town where I attended college, lying between Squam Lake and Lake Winnepesaukie. Raines passed away in June 1968 but in the years before, he became well known to the college's students often providing vehicle rides and donating money to student and community causes. I started at the college in September 1968, and so although I never got to meet Raines I did meet his wife and the many people he had befriended. He and his wife are buried side by side in a Red Hill Cemetery on Bean Road just outside Center Harbor, where decades before he did summer stock theater. It's about as far from the nightmare of Flanders as one can imagine, and perfectly suited for a man who was known locally as a kind and gentle soul, and a decent human being. I regret not having met him, but I often placed flowers on his grave. His house was donated to the town of Sandwich and is today a museum. There grave plots are carefully tended to this day. Raines' tombstone epitaph: "All things once are things forever, Soul, once living, lives forever," chiseled into striking black marble.
Arnold Ridley, great uncle of actress Daisy Ridley also served in both World Wars being wounded on the Somme in 1916 and getting evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940. Many of us think of him as that bumbling kindly old Private Godfrey in Dad´s Army and yet he was an amazingly talented, modest and heroic man who wrote The Ghost Train, a massively successful West End play. How about his story for a video? PS. Sir Michael Caine is a Korean War Veteran having served in the Royal Fusiliers.
Scotland’s sons are always ready to go out and ruin your day, a brute force teamed up with Londoners. Proud to be Scottish 🏴✌🏻 THG, could you maybe do a piece on Scottish inventions? With thanks.
A soldier is a soldier and a bullet is a bullet but Claude Rains served for four years, the Americans served for 12 months and absolutely insisted on fighting on their own, encountering all the problems others had come across and solved. In The Great War regardless of nationality those who took the brunt were those on land. The last person to die in WWI was an American due to General Perishing insisting they fight up to the last second. Others including Americans sat and waited for the eleventh hour of the eleventh day and peace. Americans still fighting due to Perishing's order were met with German's waiving them back and saying "Go back, go back!' However if there is only a few minutes or seconds of the war left and there is somebody coming at you with a gun you are going to shot him. There was an enquiry in to this ridiculous useless order in the US!
In a similar vein, there was a TV actor named Arnold Ridley, who played a character called Godfrey in a TV series called 'Dad's Army', he was a wounded veteran of the first world war, his wounds earned him a medical discharge, who, on the outbreak of the second world war, changed his name and re-enlisted. This outwardly pleasant old gentleman was a true hero, who would probably deserve a story on this channel himself.
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, cursing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest began to trudge, Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of gas shells dropping softly behind. Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!-An ecstasy of fumbling Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime.- Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile incurable sores on innocent tongues,- My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. Wilfred Owen, MC (18 March 1893 - 4 November 1918)
Owen was killed within a week of the 11/11/1918 Armistice crossing a canal hotly contested by the last fanatics of the Kaiser army. The machine gunners. It was a stupid waste. The whole thing was.Two World Wars killed off the best men in Europe, UK and Empire and Russia. And we wonder where all the good men are in today's survivor cultures.
my grandfather was a telegraph boy volunteered in 1914 and joined the 8th battalion London rifles known as the "post office rifles" wounded several times and gassed and went on to survive and live long enough to see me volunteer as well
This was very interesting and highly informative Thank You . Would you consider doing the history of RKO Film Studio or 20th Century Fox studio with its filming ranches and back lots ?
War does change a person. Doesn't matter who you are or how tough you act, it changes you. Ronald Colman's quote "...we went out, strangers came back.." rings very load in me. I can agree that that's 100% accurate from personal experience.
Just discovered and subscribed to your channel. Enjoyed this episode. Thought I'd also mention that Sir Cedric Hardwicke also served in the London Scottish Regiment as a Lieutenant during WW1.
For me this was a particularly satisfying entry to your always excellent content. Claude Rains, Herbert Marshall, Basil Rathbone and at times Ronald Coleman where mainstays at Warner Brothers. To think that the extremely identifiable voice of Rains was the result of gas...
Please do a video about the Airmail pilots that flew by the cement markers on the ground and Captain Jeppesen and his charts. This is history that deserves to be remembered. Just saying but the airport terminal in Denver Colorado is named after him.
Okay everybody quit dumping on John Wayne not serving because you missed the boat. He tried to enlist and was turned down both for age (34 on 7 December 1941) and family reasons (4 children by first wife, who he was estranged from at this time). He tried to get into John Ford's photographic unit but apparently was turned down. He entertained troops with the USO in the South Pacific and carried out a mission with the Office of Strategic Services under New York Attorney and OSS Director William "Wild Bill" Donovan while on that trip in 1943-44.
Leslie Banks who during the First World War served with the Essex Regiment and was wounded, sustaining injuries that left his face partially scarred and paralyzed. In his acting career he would use this injury to good effect, by showing the unblemished side of his face when playing comedy or romance or even better showing the scarred/paralyzed side to great effect as the Evil Count Zaroff in one of my favorite movies, The Most Dangerous Game (1932).
You might note how Charlie Chaplin was criticized for staying in the U.S. and making a fortune in movies, and did not go to fight for England. However he did help on bond drives in the U.S., and did the comedy classic, "Shoulder Arms".
Snipers as a recognized and specifically organized force did not originate with the First World War. Special sniper units (Birge's Sharpshooters, and the 1st and 2nd US Sharpshooter Regiments) were raised in the American Civil War, using special super-accurate rifles and telescopic sights. The British raised the 60th and 95th Rifle Regiments during the Napoleonic Wars, equipping them with Baker Rifles. The Russians and several German States also had special rifle equipped units in the 18th Century. Otherwise, though, I really liked this piece of history. Thank you.
This is very interesting. As I am sure you already know, for all his macho persona, and all the war movies, John Wayne never served his country in the armed forces.
Gary Morris totally true and as far as I’m concerned a black mark on Wayne’s career. In all fairness though he was deferred because of his number of dependents. Several accounts I’ve read suggested that John Ford dissuaded him from joining. Ford himself was a reserve Naval Officer in charge of a motion picture unit and personally filmed the Battle of Midway under fire. Wayne was at Guadalcanal as part of an entertainment troupe so he was in an active combat zone. I think the consensus was that his motion pictures contributed to the general morale of the country and the armed forces and that was important to the war effort. To some degree he talked the talk but didn’t walk the walk, I view his patriotic legacy as mixed. Capt Ronald Reagan commuted from his Beverly Hills mansion as part of the First Motion Picture Unit of the USAFF. Not much difference really except much later he took a bullet for his country.
Although not in the same regiment, Leslie Howard was invalided out for shell shock in WWI. His therapy led him to acting. He always felt he had let his country down, however. In WWII he returned to England to make wartime propaganda movies. They were so effective that he became an Axis target. He gave his life when his commercial flight was shot down over the Bay of Bis- cay in 1943. I think he deserves a "History Guy" spot of his own but it might be hard to keep the 5-10 minute limit
Excellent job as always. SUGGESTION: How about a session on The Czech Legion, which got caught up in the Russian Civil War ? Little known I would say, but interesting :)
Many viewers have noted that Herbert Marshall starred opposite Bette Davis, not Marlene Dietrich, in "The Letter" (1940.) He starred opposite Marlene Dietrich in "Angel" (1937). I am sorry for the mistake.
Wow thanks for making the correction even after so long!
We appreciate the time and effort! Errata is going to creep in occasionally, no one is perfect. Thank you again for all your videos!
Mr Marshall worked with physical therapists and stuntmen to regain his walk to such an extent that one could not notice he used a prosthetic leg.
Interesting note about Herbert Marshall and his role in "The Little Foxes" with Bette Davis - there is a scene where his character is in the background, struggling to crawl up the stairs after suffering a heart attack (trying to get to his medicine) - while wife Bette Davis is in the foreground allowing him to make that struggled climb - she wants him to die. But - Marshall has been replaced by a double. Because of his missing leg, he would not have been able to perform that scene, not even with the prosthetic leg - and you never see his face. Only those who know he had the missing leg can really notice the difference in how he walks!
In this day and age he would be called out for parking with a disabled placard for not looking disabled. He was that good.
Poignant statement at the end, by Ronald Coleman, "We went out. Strangers came back. It was the war that made an actor out of me; that's all I was good for when I came back - acting. I wasn't my own man anymore." Interesting how Hollywood of old responded to the issues of their day. Not like the self-important phonies today. Another gem!
The Ronald Coleman quote moved me as well. I've seen most of his films, albeit many years ago but I was always struck by the expression of soulful melancholy in his eyes. That war changed Europe in ways that even WWII did not and many of the combat veterans of that war remained a group apart in ways no generation of young men had universally been before. It's perhaps most evident in the work of J.R.R. Tolkien who was wounded at the Somme and lost nearly all of his childhood friends in that war.
Gave me a chill when I heard this. What incredible individuals. All those who served, and are serving now, thank you.
What saddens me the most is how so many people looked at him and said something like "Oh! What a good actor." without realizing the reality of what made him that way. Nor we're they aware of what he may have lost to get that way.
Ironic is the way most people view being a popular actor as being a highly desired job; while Colman viewed it as a last resort. Also sad.
Actors are so selfish today. Back then some actors were real people and patriots.
@2manynegativewaves If I understand you correctly you feel we have fewer wars today?
" I was not heroic, I just knew I'd be ashamed of myself if I did not" That's the definition of a hero.
I agree completely.
And the merciless pressure of gender & nationalistic attitudes that swept hundreds of thousands of young men to death or disablement for causes that today seem barely comprehensible
Agreed
The History Guy: Any man considers himself a lesser creature for not having experienced combat. Who is that a paraphrase from?
BTW, outstanding work and a very fun channel!
No, that defines bravery, a hero is socially defined, but I can see where the confusion lies.
That explains the sadness in Ronald Coleman's eyes. They saw things no one should see...
I can indefinably relate. Panama and Vietnam. I didn't come back the same guy. Thank you for all these wonderful snippets. I'm one of your greatest fans!
Claude Rains & Basil Rathbone both played the Phantom of the Opera in 1943. Claude played the Phantom in the 1943 movie, Basil Rathbone played the Phantom in the Lux Radio version of that movie that same year.
They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them. (Laurence Binyon 1869 - 1943)
Colonel K ...we WILL remember them.
. LEST WE FORGET.
Claude Rains and Basil Rathbone are two of the best actors from the studio era. Here’s a couple of things about them that you might not know.
Before coming to the U.S., Rains taught acting, in addition to working mostly on the London stage. One of his students was Laurence Olivier.
Rathbone taught Errol Flynn how to properly fight with a sword. Flynn was not ignorant of the basics of fencing, but Rathbone showed him how to make it look deadly and cinematic.
Thanks for the extra history worth remembering
Huge fan of Rathbone love that I can watch the old Sherlock Holmes movies on TH-cam
According to Niven, Rathbone was one of the most inveterate gigglers in the business.
Basil Rathbone was an amazing swordsman. He starred in The Mark of Zorro with Tyrone Power who was also an excellent fencer.
My favorite scene, and one of the most memorable in film history, was Erroll Flynn and Basil Rathbone sword fighting on winding castle steps in "The Adventures ofd Robin Hood". That part, where their shadow images were filmed against the castle wall, marked true directoral genius and cimematography. My complements to Michael Curtiz.
the casualty counts were amazing for the time...people forget the difference in population compared to even just twenty years later...thanx again
Also, great British actor Leslie Banks who can be seen in Hitchcock’s’34 The Man Who Knew Too Much. He was severely wounded in the war and suffered paralysis in his face.
What an incredible comment by Ronald Coleman - 1 of my favs from that era.
Another British actor who suffered some brutal wounds in WWI was Arnold Ridley who played Pte. Charles Godfrey in Dad's Army, the very soft spoken friendly elderly gentleman. His left had was rendered virtually useless for the rest of his life due to his injuries at the Somme, his legs were riddled with shrapnel some of which was apparently left in him until he died, he also recieved a bayonet wound to the groin during a close quarter fight with Germans and got whacked in the head by a Germans rifle butt which caused him to have blackouts for years after the war. Then later in WWII he was in France as part of the BEF as a Conducting Officer who dealt with war journalists and only got to evacuate on the last ship to leave the harbour during the Battle of Boulogne.
"We went out,
strangers came back!"
_ Ronald Coleman _
That's haunting!
"We went out [to war], strangers came back." (Ronald Coleman) Herbert Marshall surviving with "phantom pain" from his amputated leg. Thank you for finding and preserving these very encouraging stories of our "new normal" upon returning from war. I recognize that a tiny part of me "died" in Vietnam, although I escaped the ordeal with minimal "injuries." I have found that those of us who choose to be active in vocations or careers that force us to get outside of our own heads manage our residual issues better than those who become focused on what they lost, rather than what they learned and have left. It can be very helpful to adjusting to our "new normal." Serving others, acting, law enforcement, fire-rescue-EMS, teaching, nursing, etc. Thank you so much, again, for this interesting and encouraging story. Well done!
Brave men indeed.
As a proud U.S. NAVY veteran I salute them all. And fine actors they were too. I've enjoyed watching all their films. At ease gentlemen, you have fulfilled your duties in the finest traditions of the London - Scottish Regiment and of Her Majesty's Armed Services. ✌🇺🇸
"We went out, strangers came back!"
Ronald Colman.
I always liked that guy.
Claude Rains & Basil Rathbone are two of my favorite actors! Hearing about their service (as well as everybody else mentioned in this video) makes me much more of a fan! Thank you History Guy for remembering them!!! 🙂👍🤘
One of my favorite Coleman movies, Random Harvest, is almost autobiographical as it begins in the trenches of the Great War , as he loses his memory, that sets the plot line in motion. Co -Stars Greer Garson. Excellent movie.
In Hitchcock's "Foreign Correspondent", the director graciously tried to avoid long shots of Marshall walking. But when he did so, a large Great Dane is always seen passing in front of Marshall's legs and obscuring them. Nicely done!
Did you forget Sir Cedric Hardwick?
Rains would combine acting talents twice with Peter Lorre, Sidney Greenstreet & Humphrey Bogart, 1942's Casablanca and 1944's Passage to Marseille. In Passage to Marseille, Rains and Greenstreet would play French army officers trying to return to France in May 1940, while Bogart and Lorre play 2 of 5 convicts just escaped from a French prison in the Caribbean who have been picked up by the same French merchant ship with Rains and Greenstreet, only to have news come over the wireless that France has fallen. Greenstreet and some others want the freighter to continue on to France like the orders they have intercepted command them, while Lorre, Bogart, Rains and the rest want to go to Britain and join the Free French. The story is a frame told from Rains perspective to a reporter months later in Britain where he, Bogart, Lorre and the 3 other escaped prisoners are part of an RAF bomber squadron still fighting the war. The reporter is there to interview Bogart's character, but Bogart is on a mission about to launch when the reporter reaches the aerodrome, and Rains refuses to let him interview Bogart before the mission, saying he can wait until afterwards; once the bombers are in the air, Rains takes the reporter around and introduces him to the other escapees. Unfortunately, Bogart's character is killed on this mission, so there is no interview beyond the words the reporter had with Rains and the other 4.
Casablanca is another frame story; the Casablanca scenes are "modern day" and the scenes in Paris are a flashback telling the story of Rick (Bogart) and Elsa (Ingrid Bergman)'s love affair. For those of you who did not know this, the Casablanca "modern day" scenes are supposed to be set between 23 Nov 1941 and 7 Dec 1941. There is no mention of the US entry into the war and Rick is allowed to move freely about the city, so it has to be set before Pearl Harbor and I read somewhere those scenes are set in Dec 1941.
This is very interesting to hear because my father was commissioned into the Royal Artillery Territorials in 1940 - his unit was raised In Ayr, Scotland. He served in Burma and then briefly after the war in Germany restarting a winery, no less.
The Prisoner of Zenda Ronald Coleman is one of my all-time favorites. David Niven was in it too and he ended up a Major in the British Army in Round two of the Great European Civil War known as World War II.
George Semel Love that movie
David Niven mustered out as a lieutenant colonel. Prior to becoming an actor, he was a professional army officer, graduating from the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He
was also friends with General Roy Uruquhart, when they served together as junior officers.
@@adrianjordan6291 urquhart ended up at Arnhem during operation 'market garden'
@@chrisholland7367
I used to live in Arnhem. I used to cross the "bridge too far" nearly every day. Operation Market Garden was such a colossal failure on so many fronts. One of my favorite all time actors lived there during the war, Audrey Hepburn. She was actually born in Belgium but had family there. One of the reasons she was as skinny as she was, was due to malnutrition as so many in Holland suffered in this way.
Very interesting. My great uncle fought in one of the territorial units (first battalion, 28th London regiment, Artist's Rifles). He was gassed near Cambrai in September of 1918 and taken prisoner. He returned to the United States, but was functionally blind and died of complications in 1922 at the age of 22.
You inspire me to find my calling, the one thing you do because of love and not for money or any other reason. You are to be admired for your dedication to your art and your Mensa level of intelligence. I remember my school years when I hated History ( and every other class ). Now I am the guy who saves History often to my own financial duress. My calling lately has been watching you too much!
I did a lot of things before The History Guy. Even while I was doing not-history jobs, I loved history. I do now truly believe that you can find success following your passion. I wish you the best of luck!
No such thing as too much history!
Well done, H.G.!
I thought of something that might be useful to you: The Germans were ahead of the game for much of the 20th century in cameras & optics.
Carl Zeiss (the man) began to make microscopes. Wanting to give them more of a Scientific foundation, he went to the University of Jena for help & met Ernst Abba. Ernst Abba came up with lens designs and even the f: stop \ shutter speed system. The two worked with Otto Schott at Schott Glass Works, who experimented with formulas for optical glass. (Hope I am remembering this correctly)!
German optics are still good.
Mike
As a history buff, classic movie fan and aspiring actor, thank you very much for making this video.
C. W. Johnson Jr my pleasure!
The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered you’re such a chad that your name doesn’t even fit
I have seen all these actors in the film's you describe. But I had no idea of the connections they had to the Royal Scottish Regiment or the First World War. What is more, I had no idea of the battle wounds they suffered which sent them on a fateful trajectory to become iconic screen stars later in life. This 'History Guy' video is one of your best. It certainly opened my consciousness to the plight of millions of soldiers who gave up so much, including their lives! Yet somehow the survivors made it through, albeit with terrible scars, both physical and psychological to rejoin the living. The resilience of humanity never ceases to amaze me. Much appreciated!
I really enjoyed The Defense of Thala. My father was involved in Operation Torch in Morocco, met my french mother and her family there and stayed. My 3 brothers and I were all born in Morocco, and I was going to suggest Operation Torch as a likely subject. Years later, working for USAID, we lived in Tunisia, and went to the dedication of the American Military Cemetery in Carthage I believe, and found the graves of 2 of my father's childhood friends who were killed at Kasserine Pass. So glad I found your channel! I'd love to learn about the City of Carcassonne in the south of France and about the Cathars.
Hello History Guy ! An actor I know you must be familiar with is one, Victor McLaglin. His real life was even more exciting than his movies. You must be saving him for a show that would be only about him. If I remember correctly, he was 14 years old when he took part in the Boar War. In WW1 he and 7 of his brothers enlisted to fight. There is a British poster from that war for public display showing them all and naming them. At one point during the war, he became Viceroy of Bagdad and no one moved a vehicle unless he said it was ok to do so. His life was very eventful before he came to Hollywood. He was a great boxer, going 7 or so rounds with the world heavyweight champion of the day, which, I think, took place in Canada. You are a much better investigator than I, so I'll leave it up to you to do the rest. YOU GOTTA DO THIS ! I'm looking forward to it.
I will look forward to that and in the meantime , I will do a little searching myself, thanks for pointing this guy out to me.
Thank you very much. I’ve enjoyed these men’s movies for years, but as also a veteran, I had no idea of their military history. I was very familiar with many that served in WWII and beyond but not these men that served during the Great War. It adds much to what they shared on the silver screen.
Ronald Colman and Basil Rathbone also performed together in the 1938 film, "If I Were King". Colman played the poet rascal Francoise Villon to Rathbone's sly King Louis XI.
WOW! I've watched many of the History Guy's reports. This one really touched me! First off I really appreciate each of the 4 actors that he talked about. This gives such insight to their careers!
I am a old movie fan and a fan of all these actors. I am at loss for words. All these people hid there injuries so well. So many movies and rolls went through my head. WOW!!!
A particularly revealing film amongst your many excellent pieces. These familiar faces bring that shattering conflict shudderingly close.
A piquant coincidence that Basil Rathbone’s most famous character was supposedly adept at using disguise in order to become inconspicuous amongst a different class or type of folk. A sort of “social camouflage” echoing Rathbone’s wartime heroics.
This piece was, of course, about a specific unit and those four famous actors who were in that specific unit. I see that in the comments below mention is made of Charles Laughton who was, I think, in the Hampshires, but who was severely gassed and so traumatized by the war that he rarely discussed his service in later life. It is often the case that actual combat veterans do not tell tales of battle and glory and adopt a modest attitude to what is frequently acts of heroism. See you at the Menin Gate.
Laughton participated in one of the last bayonet charges of WWI, killing a young German soldier about his own age. His wife, Elsa Lanchester, stated that some nights he would wake up screaming, due to nightmares about the event.
Interesting that you showed Basil Rathbone in the Sherlock Holmes role. His co-star who appears in your clip, Nigel Bruce, remembered forever as nice but dim Doctor Watson, was also wounded during WWI, being shot eleven times in the left leg and spending most of the reset of the war in a wheelchair.
Dean Stuart yes, Nigel Bruce was also an interesting fellow, whose film career included performing in some landmark movies, including the first technicolor film and the first 3-D film. As you noted, he was also a veteran of the Great War, (although not with the London Scottish) and was severely wounded at Cambrai. He and Rathbone collaborated on a whopping fourteen feature length Sherlock Holmes films.
Nigel Bruce enlisted right at the beginning of the war and was in C Company, 1st Battalion of The Honourable Artillery Company when he was wounded by German machine gun fire on 5th January 1915. Due to his injuries he was invalided out of the army in December 1915. He later re-enlisted, joining the 10th Bn Somerset Light Infantry on 1st January 1917 although he was unfit for front line service.
The excellent book FAMOUS 1914-1918 by Richard Van Emden & Victor Piuk has more details on Nigel, Basil Rathbone, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and many more.
Thank you for the episode. I enjoyed it very much.
Dean Stuart Terrible of course. Yet one wonders what Oscar Wilde would have said of a man who gets shot eleven times in the same leg. If it is unfortunate to lose one husband but careless to lose two.....
I believe Rathbone was a Champion Swordsman and taught alot of his fellow Actors like Eryol Flynn how to Fence 🎩
As a vet (not a combat vet, the Army sent me elsewhere...) and having a degree in history, I enjoy seeing those entertainers who served.
Sadly, one actor who has the label of "Hero" given him is John Wayne.
Wayne never served in the US Military.
He had deferments and made movie during the war.
The director John Ford never forgave Wayne for not serving and would give him a hard time while filming war movies.
The story goes that Ford relentlessly gave Wayne a hard time during the film shoot.
Wayne had opted out of the war, and Ford never let him forget it.
Finally Robert Montgomery who had served took the director aside and told him to stop.
Then you have other entertainers like the late Red Skelton.
Skelton was drafted into the Army and assigned to entertain the troops in Europe.
He worked so hard that he eventually have a breakdown but then returned to entertaining his fellow troops.
Mickey Rooney did the same and was awarded the Bronze Star.
And that list goes on to this day.
Although Basil Rathbone was at first drafted in to the London Scottish he was shortly transferred to the King's Liverpool Regiment( Liverpool Scottish) as a Lieutenant going on to be a Captain.
I knew about Claude Rains being a war veteran. I vaguely remember hearing about Herbert Marshall's war record and loss of part of his leg. But I never knew of Ronald Coleman & Basil Rathbone being veterans of WW1. Thanks for the information. A lesser known American actor of the 1930's & 40's, Chester Morris was a pilot in the Army Air Force in WW2. He won several medals for heroics in battle as a pilot. Director John Ford filmed actual battle scenes during the battle of Midway, and suffered wounds during the battle in WW2.
Before anyone gets any ideas, Ford joined the USN Public Information Office and had been sent to Midway by the Hollywood field office of PIO for, what as far as I can find out, an unrelated assignment. His presence just happened to coincide with the Japanese attack.
Are fans of Ronald Coleman, I strongly recommend the movie Random Harvest, which he actually plays a World War I vet. It’s a great performance and very touching.
A word about the wonderful Claude Rains. After his retirement, he and his wife moved to the tiny village of Center Sandwich, NH, the town immediately adjacent to the town where I attended college, lying between Squam Lake and Lake Winnepesaukie. Raines passed away in June 1968 but in the years before, he became well known to the college's students often providing vehicle rides and donating money to student and community causes. I started at the college in September 1968, and so although I never got to meet Raines I did meet his wife and the many people he had befriended. He and his wife are buried side by side in a Red Hill Cemetery on Bean Road just outside Center Harbor, where decades before he did summer stock theater. It's about as far from the nightmare of Flanders as one can imagine, and perfectly suited for a man who was known locally as a kind and gentle soul, and a decent human being. I regret not having met him, but I often placed flowers on his grave. His house was donated to the town of Sandwich and is today a museum. There grave plots are carefully tended to this day. Raines' tombstone epitaph: "All things once are things forever, Soul, once living, lives forever," chiseled into striking black marble.
May I suggest you make a video of the history of “Scott Air Force Base “. The only Air Force Base names after an enlisted man.
Arnold Ridley, great uncle of actress Daisy Ridley also served in both World Wars being wounded on the Somme in 1916 and getting evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940. Many of us think of him as that bumbling kindly old Private Godfrey in Dad´s Army and yet he was an amazingly talented, modest and heroic man who wrote The Ghost Train, a massively successful West End play. How about his story for a video? PS. Sir Michael Caine is a Korean War Veteran having served in the Royal Fusiliers.
Scotland’s sons are always ready to go out and ruin your day, a brute force teamed up with Londoners. Proud to be Scottish 🏴✌🏻
THG, could you maybe do a piece on Scottish inventions? With thanks.
None of those actors were Scottish . all English that joined a London Regiment.
I love older movies almost as much as history and I have favorites from each of these actors now my appreciation for them has more than doubled thanks
Hats off to the Lost Generation.
Excellent
I didn’t know this. All heros including the ones that never came home.
One of your images of Claude Rains features another WW I veteran: Humphrey Bogart, who served in the US Navy.
A soldier is a soldier and a bullet is a bullet but Claude Rains served for four years, the Americans served for 12 months and absolutely insisted on fighting on their own, encountering all the problems others had come across and solved. In The Great War regardless of nationality those who took the brunt were those on land. The last person to die in WWI was an American due to General Perishing insisting they fight up to the last second. Others including Americans sat and waited for the eleventh hour of the eleventh day and peace. Americans still fighting due to Perishing's order were met with German's waiving them back and saying "Go back, go back!' However if there is only a few minutes or seconds of the war left and there is somebody coming at you with a gun you are going to shot him. There was an enquiry in to this ridiculous useless order in the US!
Bogart was also injured in the war. His trademark lisp was a result of his injuries.
In a similar vein, there was a TV actor named Arnold Ridley, who played a character called Godfrey in a TV series called 'Dad's Army', he was a wounded veteran of the first world war, his wounds earned him a medical discharge, who, on the outbreak of the second world war, changed his name and re-enlisted. This outwardly pleasant old gentleman was a true hero, who would probably deserve a story on this channel himself.
Your quote of Ronald Coleman was quite moving. Buck
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, cursing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge,
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas shells dropping softly behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!-An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime.-
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile incurable sores on innocent tongues,-
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Wilfred Owen, MC (18 March 1893 - 4 November 1918)
Owen was killed within a week of the 11/11/1918 Armistice crossing a canal hotly contested by the last fanatics of the Kaiser army. The machine gunners. It was a stupid waste. The whole thing was.Two World Wars killed off the best men in Europe, UK and Empire and Russia. And we wonder where all the good men are in today's survivor cultures.
J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis fought in the Great War. Some of Tolkien's experiences can be seen in Lord Of The Rings.
BOTH lost close friends. Lewis was seriously wounded, best friend killed.
my grandfather was a telegraph boy volunteered in 1914 and joined the 8th battalion London rifles known as the "post office rifles" wounded several times and gassed and went on to survive and live long enough to see me volunteer as well
Fascinating segment on the unknown-til-now history on four of my favorite actors.
Excellent episode! I find the Great War and the men who fought it, most interesting.
This was not only informative but, for me, truly one that deserves to be remembered...thank you.
Such superb teaching. You could draw even the most jaded kid today into History. You are unusual.
Subscribed and enjoying your videos. All these actors, Can you cover Glen Miller’s passing?
Maybe-- it is a surprising story.
This was very interesting and highly informative Thank You . Would you consider doing the history of RKO Film Studio or 20th Century Fox studio with its filming ranches and back lots ?
War does change a person. Doesn't matter who you are or how tough you act, it changes you. Ronald Colman's quote "...we went out, strangers came back.." rings very load in me. I can agree that that's 100% accurate from personal experience.
Just discovered and subscribed to your channel. Enjoyed this episode. Thought I'd also mention that Sir Cedric Hardwicke also served in the London Scottish Regiment as a Lieutenant during WW1.
For me this was a particularly satisfying entry to your always excellent content. Claude Rains, Herbert Marshall, Basil Rathbone and at times Ronald Coleman where mainstays at Warner Brothers. To think that the extremely identifiable voice of Rains was the result of gas...
So happy I found this video. I've been thinking about this for years.
Gives me a new appreciation for Ronald Coleman and the role he played in Random Harvest. Thank you.
Very interesting set of facts. Really good episode!
Thank you, love your channel.
I'd love an episode on Christopher Lee. What a fantastic story there!
These a really remarkably well done thank you so very much..
I find myself listening to them on my morning commutes
Very good episode thanks . You always hear about actors in the Second War but rarely in the Grear War
Thanks for producing such an informative video. I also greatly enjoyed Thomas Custer. I will make an effort to watch them all.
Love your shows. Maybe you should think about doing one on the Donora smog of 1946, several people died during this.
Incredible story! Thanks for sharing this.
This is amazing. And these details really enhance our understanding of these men.
Please do a video about the Airmail pilots that flew by the cement markers on the ground and Captain Jeppesen and his charts. This is history that deserves to be remembered. Just saying but the airport terminal in Denver Colorado is named after him.
I will say that Ronald Colman quote at the end is a sad statement but a true one I think.
Wow! This is my favorite video so far. Interesting stuff!
Okay everybody quit dumping on John Wayne not serving because you missed the boat. He tried to enlist and was turned down both for age (34 on 7 December 1941) and family reasons (4 children by first wife, who he was estranged from at this time). He tried to get into John Ford's photographic unit but apparently was turned down. He entertained troops with the USO in the South Pacific and carried out a mission with the Office of Strategic Services under New York Attorney and OSS Director William "Wild Bill" Donovan while on that trip in 1943-44.
I absolutely love Claude Rains!!!! He was SOOOOO handsome!
Good heavens that was very moving. Thank you very much.
Great actors, interesting stories. Thank you for sharing.
A video of modern actors as war heroes would probably be the shortest on TH-cam.
Again another great story. I knew about Marshall but not the others. Learn something new every day I say. :)
Rathbone only volunteered for the daylight observation patrol was because he had learned that his brother had been killed and was angry about it .
This makes my Patreon membership well worth it.
Thank you!
Have you done an episode on John Singleton Mosby, the Grey Ghost? His story during and after the Civil War is quite interesting...
Basil Rathbone also tried to get back in the service during WWII but couldn't due to his age.
Aussum History Guy another good one thank you. please keep it up. I'm awaiting the next.
Beautiful and SO True lines at the end.
Great video. How is Guernica going? Waiting for it.
Leslie Banks who during the First World War served with the Essex Regiment and was wounded, sustaining injuries that left his face partially scarred and paralyzed.
In his acting career he would use this injury to good effect, by showing the unblemished side of his face when playing comedy or romance or even better showing the scarred/paralyzed side to great effect as the Evil Count Zaroff in one of my favorite movies, The Most Dangerous Game (1932).
Love your show and presentation.
You might note how Charlie Chaplin was criticized for staying in the U.S. and making a fortune in movies, and did not go to fight for England. However he did help on bond drives in the U.S., and did the comedy classic, "Shoulder Arms".
Charlie tried to enlist but was too underweight.
Walter Brennan's distinctive voice was also a result of a WWI gas attack. (He didn't serve in the Scottish Regiment, though, afaik.)
Is there a second part to this? Cool video, thank you.
As always, great stuff!!
Snipers as a recognized and specifically organized force did not originate with the First World War. Special sniper units (Birge's Sharpshooters, and the 1st and 2nd US Sharpshooter Regiments) were raised in the American Civil War, using special super-accurate rifles and telescopic sights. The British raised the 60th and 95th Rifle Regiments during the Napoleonic Wars, equipping them with Baker Rifles. The Russians and several German States also had special rifle equipped units in the 18th Century. Otherwise, though, I really liked this piece of history. Thank you.
This is very interesting. As I am sure you already know, for all his macho persona, and all the war movies, John Wayne never served his country in the armed forces.
Gary Morris totally true and as far as I’m concerned a black mark on Wayne’s career. In all fairness though he was deferred because of his number of dependents. Several accounts I’ve read suggested that John Ford dissuaded him from joining. Ford himself was a reserve Naval Officer in charge of a motion picture unit and personally filmed the Battle of Midway under fire. Wayne was at Guadalcanal as part of an entertainment troupe so he was in an active combat zone. I think the consensus was that his motion pictures contributed to the general morale of the country and the armed forces and that was important to the war effort. To some degree he talked the talk but didn’t walk the walk, I view his patriotic legacy as mixed.
Capt Ronald Reagan commuted from his Beverly Hills mansion as part of the First Motion Picture Unit of the USAFF. Not much difference really except much later he took a bullet for his country.
Worse, he imagined himself a hero.
Although not in the same regiment, Leslie Howard was invalided out for shell shock in WWI. His therapy led him to acting. He always felt he had let his country down, however. In WWII he returned to England to make wartime propaganda movies. They were so effective that he became an Axis target. He gave his life when his commercial flight was shot down over the Bay of Bis-
cay in 1943. I think he deserves a "History Guy" spot of his own but it might be hard to keep the 5-10 minute limit
Excellent job as always. SUGGESTION: How about a session on The Czech Legion, which got caught up in the Russian Civil War ? Little known I would say, but interesting :)