Category: Real People
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“That’s What The Best Dressed Man In Harlem Will Wear”
Ollie: “The guys arranged for me to come on set and watch them shoot their number — “That’s What The Best Dressed Man in Harlem Will Wear.” It’s a song about soldiers trading in their smart civilian clothes for army khaki. Joe Louis is part of it, doing a workout on a speed bag…” This…
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The Hollywood Canteen
Ollie: “So the next night I headed off to the Canteen by myself… There was a long line of servicemen waiting to get in… it struck me just how young most of us were, and how, -eager and rambunctious, we weren’t much different from a bunch of high schoolers on a field trip, goofing off,…
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Ted Geisel aka “Dr. Seuss”
Ollie: “I saw a man I recognized… and never thought I’d see in Hollywood. It was the cartoonist who publishes under the name Dr. Seuss. And he was in uniform with captain bars!“ Ollie: “… I made sure I read every cartoon you did for PM. I admired the way you took a stand against…
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“This Is The Army” – The Movie
Reagan: “You are thus being temporarily attached to the company performing the Irving Berlin muscial revue “This Is The Army.” Its cross-country tour over, it’s in town for the for the production of the film version over at Warner Brothers, to which you will report immediately…” This morale-raising cinematic ode to the U.S. Armed Forces…
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Sound Editor Ray
Ollie: This morning, for instance, this sound editor named Ray offered to show me how he uses a machine called a Moviola to put in a sound effect and sync it with the action… I created the character of sound editor Ray to honor my father, Raymond Bomba, who worked as a film and TV…
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Ronald Reagan
Ollie: That’s when it dawned on me. This was that actor, Ronald Reagan. … here he was, a lieutenant in the Army Air Force and some big cheese at this base. While there are many websites that detail Reagan’s military service during the war, this article from the National Museum of the United States Air…