Jimmy Stewart - by Starr Smith (Paperback)

About the Book

Of all the celebrities who served their country during World War II--and they were legion--Jimmy Stewart was unique. "Bomber Pilot" chronicles his long journey to become a bomber pilot in combat.

Book Synopsis

Of all the celebrities who served their country during World War II -and they were legion -Jimmy Stewart was unique. On December 7th, when the attack on Pearl Harbor woke so many others to the reality of war, Stewart was already in uniform - as a private on guard duty south of San Francisco at the Army Air Corps Moffet Field. Seeing war on the horizon, Jimmy Stewart, at the height of his fame after Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and his Oscar-winning turn in The Phadelphia Story in 1940, had enlisted several months earlier.

Jimmy Stewart, Bomber Pilot chronicles his long journey to become a bomber pilot in combat. Author Starr Smith, the intelligence officer assigned to the movie star, recounts how Stewart's first battles were with the Air Corps high command, who insisted on keeping the naturally talented pilot out of harm's way as an instructor pilot for B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators. By 1944, however, Stewart managed to get assigned to a Liberator squadron that was deploying to England to join the mighty Eighth Air Force. Once in the thick of it, he rose to command his own squadron and flew twenty combat missions, including one to Berlin.
"My father would feel honored by this book." --Kelly Stewart Harcourt, daughter of Jimmy Stewart
"We would have made Jimmy a group commander [equivalent to an army regiment] if the war had lasted another month." - General Jimmy Doolittle.

"An excellent biography of a distinguished airman and fine human being." - Roger Freeman, author of The Mighty Eighth: A History of the U.S. 8th Air Force.

"How wonderful it is that Starr Smith has finally directed a literary light on the personal history of Jimmy Stewart. . . . I welcomed Starr's book. It is needed and wanted. Bravo!" - Gay Talese.

"This is a very well researched and written book. . . . It fills a place in history about no mere actor but a courageous and selfless man, Brigadier General Jimmy Stewart, USAF." - General Michael E. Ryan, former Chief of Staff of the Air Force.

"I have met a few movie stars, but of them all, I think that Jimmy Stewart was most like those modest heroes he portrayed. Now journalist Starr Smith has raised the curtain on Stewart's gallant service as a bomber pilot and air combat commander in World War II." --Walter Cronkite, from the Foreword

From the Back Cover

Of all the celebrities who served their country during World War II, Jimmy Stewart was unique. At the height of his fame, Jimmy Stewart enlisted in the army several months before the Pearl Harbor attacks woke Hollywood and the rest of the nation to the reality of war. "It's a true story of personal knowledge," writes Walter Cronkite in the foreword, "and is told with skill, respect, and admiration." Author Starr Smith chronicles for the first time Stewart's long journey to becoming a bomber pilot in combat, including: - Stewart's battles with the Air Corps high command - His assignment to a Liberator squadron in England with the famed Mighty Eighth Air Force - His twenty combat missions--including one to Berlin--in command of his own squadron in the 445th Bomb Group - Later, Stewart's promotion to group operations officer for the 453rd Bomb Group "I have met a few movie stars, but of them all, I think that Jimmy Stewart was most like those modest heroes he portrayed. Now journalist Starr Smith has raised the curtain on Stewart's gallant service as a bomber pilot and air combat commander in World War II." --Walter Cronkite, from the foreword "My father's experiences during World War II affected him more deeply and permanently than anything else in his life. . . . He would feel honored by this book." --Kelly Stewart Harcourt, daughter of Jimmy Stewart "Smith's clear admiration for Stewart comes through on every page, but with an understatement that even George Bailey could have lived with." --Publishers Weekly" "How wonderful it is that Starr Smith has finally directed a literary light on the personal history of Jimmy Stewart. I welcomed Starr's book. It's needed and wanted. Bravo!" --Gay Talese, noted journalist and author of A Writer's Life" and Honor Thy Father" "This is a very well-researched and written book. Starr Smith has filled it with personal anecdotes about a World War II hero. It fills a place in history about no mere actor, but a courageous and selfless man." --General Michael E. Ryan, USAF (ret.) and former Chief of Staff of the Air Force "Jimmy Stewart was that rare public man who performed his duty without calling attention to himself. Stewart has found his biographer in Starr Smith, a man who knew Stewart, who knew the World War II Army Air Corps, and who surely knows how to write." --Wayne Flynt, professor of history, Auburn University "This is an excellent biography of a distinguished airman and fine human being, not a Hollywood star in uniform but a dedicated officer whose primary interest was the campaign of the Eighth Air Force. It is the work of a very accomplished writer, one who really knows his craft. When you turn the last page, you cannot but have a clear understanding of Jimmy Stewart's character." --Roger A. Freeman, air power historian and author, The Mighty Eighth" "Several senior-officer mentors, recognizing Stewart's competence as more than merely respectable, secured him combat assignments when Hollywood and the air force would probably rather have kept him making training films. . . . Smith dishes no dirt, possibly because, like other Stewart limners before him, he found none to dish." --American Library Association, Booklist"

Review Quotes

"It goes without saying that James Maitland Stewart was one of Hollywood's greatest and most enduring stars. Be he was also an American patriot of the first order ... Veteran journalist Starr Smith has captured the true essence of the man in this superbly written and profusely illustrated biography ... With so many of the current generation of Hollywood stars decidedly antiwar and antimilitary, this book is a refreshing, nostalgic look back at a time when personal fame, money and safety took a back-seat to the ideals of duty, honor and country. Not to be missed." - WWII History

About the Author

Starr Smith is an international journalist and author who has chronicled his adventures to more than one hundred countries. Smith was a combat intelligence officer with the Eighth Air Force in England during World War II, and later served on General Eisenhower's press staff at his London and Paris headquarters.

After the war, Smith worked with the military's top brass, including Anderson, Arnold, Doolittle, Eaker, Kenney, Spaatz, and other great World War II leaders and generals. He has been a correspondent for NBC Radio, a reporter for Newsweek, and his byline has appeared in newspapers and magazines from six continents.

Smith's books include Only the Days are Long and Starr Smith's Southern Scenes. He lives in Montgomery, Alabama.