Quote:Collierville man recalls Stewart

Actor was 'so down to Earth'
By Michael Lollar
August 13, 2007


The Postal Service's 13th "Legends of Hollywood" stamp honors actor James Stewart.

The country knew him as Jimmy Stewart, although in more than 100 Hollywood films he was always billed as James Stewart.

It was Stewart's familiarity and "aw-shucks" demeanor that led Army Air Force engineer-gunner John Harold Robinson of Collierville to refer to Stewart as "so down to Earth, so human. Once in your lifetime, you run across somebody that you can never forget, and Stewart was one of those people."

The Postal Service will issue a 41-cent James Stewart stamp Friday, celebrating the actor who has shown up every Christmas season since 1946 as George Bailey in "It's A Wonderful Life." It was a classic Stewart role that met the actor's guidelines for making movies: "I have my own rules and adhere to them. ... A James Stewart picture must have two vital ingredients: it will be clean and it will involve the triumph of the underdog over the bully."

Those were some of the qualities that drew Robinson and much of the wartime Army Air Force to Stewart, who died in 1997. He was one of the few Hollywood actors to turn war into a personal mission. "The crew would follow Jimmy Stewart to hell and back," says Robinson, who was drafted in 1942 while working as chief engineer for the old Claridge Hotel. Robinson wanted to become a pilot, but was steered into an engineering role.

Robinson, now 85, says the Army Air Force tried to steer Stewart, a pilot, into a noncombatant entertainment role, but he refused. They then assigned him as a squadron commander, then an operations officer. "That way he wouldn't have to fly more than one out of five missions," says Robinson, whose own aircraft usually flew in formation on Stewart's tail or left wing.

Stewart defied his commanders by flying mission after mission. "He led the Eighth Air Force on a couple of missions," says Robinson who, as a young soldier, went by the nickname "Robbie."

In one conversation with Stewart, Robinson says the actor told him, "'Robbie, how can I send somebody to their death without me knowing what it's like myself?' He had the American flag wrapped around his neck," says Robinson. Stewart's motives were never a secret. "God and country," says Robinson.

Robinson wrote a book, "A Reason To Live," in 1989, self-publishing it with stories of Stewart intertwined in the now out-of-print wartime tale. He has remained active as secretary-treasurer and newsletter editor for the Tennessee Chapter of the Eighth Air Force.

He says Stewart remained in the reserves until 1968, and, according to a biography on the Internet Movie Database, Stewart was allowed to fly as a nonduty observer on a B-52 mission over North Vietnam in 1966. One of Stewart's sons, adopted after his marriage to Gloria Stewart, was killed in Vietnam while serving in the Marines in 1968.

In Hollywood and in his air skirmishes over Europe, Stewart developed a reputation as an archconservative and staunch supporter of Republicans from Barry Goldwater to Bob Dole. A close friend and ally of former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, he cooperated as a spy and had a serious falling out with longtime friend and former roommate Henry Fonda over Stewart's possible role in the blacklisting of Hollywood celebrities suspected of Communist activities.

It was part of a patriotic zeal that in wartime helped earn him the rank of colonel, then, as part of the Air Force Reserve, the role of brigadier general. It was one of the highest ranks achieved by an actor. Ranking higher were actor-director John Ford, who became a rear admiral in the Naval Reserve, and Ronald Reagan, who became commander-in-chief.

Stewart was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian award, by President Reagan in 1985.

Robinson, discharged in 1945, returned to civilian life as an engineer for HumKo, which produced vegetable oils. Stewart returned to an acting career.

While Stewart had won a best-actor Oscar for "Philadelphia Story" and became an American icon in "It's a Wonderful Life," Robinson says his favorite Stewart movie was "Strategic Air Command" in which he played a baseball player recalled to service as a pilot to help form the Strategic Air Command as a Cold War deterrent.

The photograph of Stewart for the new postage stamp is taken from a portrait of Stewart based on a publicity photograph for the 1949 movie "The Stratton Story" about a major league baseball pitcher forced to play in the minors after losing a leg in a hunting accident.

Like every Stewart role, it was familiar to his fans. Stewart, who never studied acting, once admitted his range was limited. "I am James Stewart playing James Stewart. I couldn't mess around with the characterizations. I play variations on myself."

-- Michael Lollar: 529-2793