World War II

Douglas Fairbanks Jr

Bill Thompson

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Was born into one of Hollywood’s first royal families. His father, Douglas Fairbanks senior, was a swashbuckling movie star. His stepmother was Mary Pickford. The two of them were among the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences, you know, the people that give out the Oscars.

But, as you are about to hear, Douglas Fairbanks Jr was by no means a born actor

One the acting bug bit, he became as big a star as his father had been. Douglas Fairbanks Jr made his movie debut 100 years ago this month, in 1923, in a silent picture called “Stephen Steps Out.”. He made a few more silent pictures before becoming a major star in the 1920s and 30s in the talkies.

Douglas_Fairbanks_Jr._and_mother

He was married three times, including a fiery relationship with actress. Joan Crawford.

He also served with distinction in the navy during world war II. But his military service was not his only contribution to the war effort, as you’ll hear in a few minutes.

Finally, in 1988, at the age of 79, Douglas Fairbanks Jr wrote his autobiography — at least, volume1 of his autobiography, a book. He called The Salad Days.

So I had the rare opportunity, which I was not about to pass up, to actually shake hands with and converse with a real life silent movie star.

So here now, from 1988, Douglas Fairbanks Jr

Douglas Fairbanks Jr died in 2000. Hewas 90.

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Art Spiegelman

Bill Thompson

While there have been thousands of books written about the Holocaust, and Nazi Germany, and the horrors of the concentration camps, few have been as powerful in the telling as Art Spiegelman’s Maus.

Originally a serialized comic strip, Spiegelman published Maus in book form in 1986, with volume 1, and in 1991 with volume two.

And despite its unusual format — it is nonfiction — It is the story of the Holocaust as told to Art Spiegelman by his father, a Polish Jew who survived the a concentration camps.

While it has been labeled history, biography, autobiography, and more, spiegelman himself doesn’t quite know how to categorize it.

I first met Art Spiegelman in 1991, upon publication of the second volume of the Maus story.

So here now, from 1991, Art Spiegelman.

Art Spiegelman celebrated his 74th birthday last month.

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Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Jr.

Bill Thompson

Benjamin O. Davis Jr. played a key role in World War II.

Not only were his combat accomplishments extraordinary, but his leadership helped shape the United States Air Force for decades to come.

Davis was the leader of the famed Tuskegee Airmen.

As commander of the 99th Fighter Squadron and 332nd Fighter Group in Europe, Davis demonstrated that African-American pilots were just as skilled as their white counterparts.

Benjamin O. Davis flew sixty missions in the war.

He later became the first African-American general in the U.S. Air Force.

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Pearl Harbor Remembered

Bill Thompson

On a quiet Sunday in early December, millions of Americans went about their usual routines.

Folks went to church. Children played out in the yard. Teenagers went to movies. Families went to dinner. People listen to football games on the radio.

And then everything changed.

On the radio came the horrible news that the U.S. military base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii had been attacked by forces from Japan

And just like that, America was plunged into World War II.

Back in 1991 as the nation was preparing to mark the 50th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, I took the opportunity to ask anyone I interviewed that year who was old enough to remember, where they were and what they were doing on that day.

You’re about to hear from men and women who on December 7th 1941 were children or teenagers or young men and women, but who later became major figures in American culture and society. Journalists broadcasters, actors, mystery, writers, military leaders and sports heroes.

You are also going to hear some words and terms and songs that by today’s standards are rude, offensive, and unacceptable. We were a nation that had just been punched hard in the face and our anger was fresh and raw.

Maxene Andrews

Bill Thompson

This weekend marks the 76th anniversary V-J Day, the day that the Japanese surrendered to the United States to end World War II.

And the interview you’re about to hear includes one of the most moving and poignant stories associated with that day. More on that in a minute…

For the entire duration of the war, America’s entertainers provided an invaluable service to their country, by putting on literally thousands of shows for servicemen and women in the US and abroad.

And one of the most popular entertainment Acts what’s The Andrews Sisters, a trio from Minnesota that included Laverne, Maxine, and Patti. To this day, they are known for a number of hit songs…

I met Maxine Andrews a 1993, when she wrote a book about The Andrews Sisters and their experience in the USO during World War II.

Along with her co-author, writer Bill Gilbert, Andrews described the long days and weeks and months of performing, which no one complained about.

And I promise you, the story Maxine Andrews tells about V-J day is a story you will always remember.

So here now, from 1993, Maxine Andrews.

Maexene Andrews died two years after this interview. She was 79.

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David Brinkley

Bill Thompson

Young journalist David Brinkley first came to Washington, D.C. in 1943, just as World War II was transforming the nation’s capital.

The sleepy Southern town that had been home to a small federal government suddenly burgeoned into a major city filled with office buildings, bureaucracy, lobbyists, and lots of money.

After the wa, in 1956, NBC paired Brinkley with Chet Huntley to co-anchor their nightly news.

After leaving NBC in the 1970s, Brinkley joined ABC, where he was the founding host of the Sunday morning show “This Week.” He retired in 1997.

It was in the late 1980s that Brinkley wrote his first book, on account of the War years called Washington Goes to War. It became a major bestseller. And that’s when I met him.

So here now, from 1989, David Brinkley.

David Brinkley died in 2003. He was 82.

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Charles Osgood

Bill Thompson
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

A few days ago on Now I’ve Heard Everything, I featured an interview that I had done many years ago with one of my broadcasting Heroes, the late Larry King.

Today, another one: longtime CBS radio and TV news personality Charles Osgood.

Osgood grew up in Depression-era, World War ii-era Baltimore. And in 2004, he wrote a memoir recalling those years, called Defending Baltimore Against Enemy Attack.

So here now, from 2004, Charles Osgood:

Charles Osgood celebrating his 88th birthday last month. Today he lives in the New York City area.

Bob Greene

Bill Thompson
BG PAUL W TIBBETS JR

Tomorrow, August 6th, is the 75th anniversary of the first-ever use of a nuclear weapon in war, when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.

At the controls of the B-29 called the Enola Gay was a young pilot named Paul Tibbetts.

After the war, Tibbetts returned to a very humble and private life in Ohio.

Bob Greene

As the 1990s were drawing to a close, Chicago Tribune columnist and author Bob Greene was finally, after years of trying, to get Paul Tibbetts to talk about his history-making flight.

The result was Greene’s book “Duty.”

So here now, from 2001, Bob Greene.

Paul Tibbetts died in 2007 at age 92.

Bob Greene is 73 now. He left thre Chicago Tribune in 2002. His last book was publsihed in 2009.

Peter Z. Malkin

Bill Thompson
Peter Z. Malkin

Sixty years ago this week, May 1960, a team of Israeli Mossad agents quietly traveled to Argentina, where they found and captured Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi officer who was instrumental in organizing the extermination of millions of Jews during World War II.

A key member of that Israeli team was a young man named Peter Z. Malkin.

I met him in 1990, around the 30th anniversary of that famous episode. He had just published a book called “Eichmann In My Hands.”

Adolf Eichmann

And as he told me in that interview, the man he had been sent to capture had escaped from post-war Germany in the first place because of a mispronunciation of his name.

So here now, from 1990, Peter Z. Malkin:

Adolf Eichmann was brought back to Israel by Malkin and his team. Eichmann was tried and found guilty of war crimes, and was executed by hanging in 1962.

Peter Z. Malkin spent his final years in New York with his wife and children. He died in 2005 at age 77.