James Stewart, 1908-1997: He Starred in Some of the Best-loved American Movies

Source: www.voanews.com

I'm Shirley Griffith. And I'm Rich Kleinfeldt with the VOA Special English program,PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we tell the story of actor James Stewart. His movies were loved by people around the world.

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James Maitland Stewart was born in the small eastern town of Indiana, Pennsylvania in nineteen-oh-eight. His father had a hardware store that had been owned by the Stewart family since the eighteen fifties.

During high school, Jimmy played football, and acted in plays. He also learned to play the accordion. He took the accordion with him to college at Princeton University, where he joined a musical group called the Triangle Club. Through the club, he met students interested in performing.

Jimmy studied architecture at Princeton. He graduated in nineteen thirty-two. Just before graduation, a friend asked him to join an acting group for the summer. Jimmy agreed because he thought it would be a good way to meet girls.

Jimmy Stewart said later that if his friend had not asked him to join the summer theater group, he would never have been an actor. He would have returned home to help his father in the store. Instead, he met a number of good young actors while performing that summer in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. One was Henry Fonda, who would be a friend throughout his life.

Jimmy Stewart performed in Broadway plays in New York City until the Metro Goldwyn Mayer movie company gave him an acting job. He moved to California in nineteen thirty-five. He acted in more than twenty-four movies over the next six years. He appeared in all kinds of movies: funny ones, sad ones and musical ones. He even sang a song in the movie "Born to Dance. " It is called "Easy to Love":

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The movie that made Jimmy Stewart a real Hollywood star was "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. " It was released in nineteen thirty-nine.

JIMMY STEWART:

"It's a funny thing about men, you know. They all start life being boys. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if some of these Senators were boys once. And that's why it seemed like a pretty good idea to me to get boys out of crowded cities and stuffy basements for a couple of months out of the year and build their bodies and minds for a man-sized job, because those boys are gonna be behind these desks some of these days."

The next year, he won an Academy Award for best actor in "The Philadelphia Story. "

The night he won the Academy Award, his father called him on the telephone from Pennsylvania. "I hear you won some kind of an award," Alex Stewart said. "You had better bring it back here and we'll put it in the window of the store. " Jimmy Stewart's Oscar statue stayed in the window of Stewart's hardware store in Indiana, Pennsylvania for twenty-five years.

Jimmy Stewart was already an established and successful actor when World War Two started in Europe. Early in nineteen forty-one, he tried to join the Army. But he was rejected because he did not weigh enough. So he started eating high fat foods and tried again. This time, he was accepted for military service.

The Army put him in the Air Corps because he already knew how to pilot a plane. In nineteen forty-three, he went to Europe as commander of an Air Force bomber group. He flew more than twenty combat missions, leading as many as one thousand planes at a time over Germany. He returned to the United States in nineteen forty-five as a colonel.

Jimmy Stewart won several military awards for excellent performance under very dangerous conditions. He remained in the Air Force Reserve after the war. In nineteen fifty-nine he was made a general. Each year, he took part in two weeks of active military duty. In nineteen sixty-six, he requested combat duty and took part in a bombing strike over Vietnam.

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After World War Two, Jimmy Stewart returned to Hollywood. He found that his new movies were not as popular as his earlier ones had been. One example was "It's a Wonderful Life." It was released in nineteen forty-six. The movie was not a success at first. But over time it has become one of the best loved American movies.

JIMMY STEWART:

"Can't you understand what's happening here? Don't you see what's happening? Potter isn't selling. Potter's buying! And why? Because we're panicky and he's not. That's why. He's pickin' up some bargain. Now, we can get through this thing     all right. We've, we've got to stick together, though. We've got to have faith in each other."

Jimmy Stewart said in later years that "It's a Wonderful Life" was the movie he liked best. It tells the story of a small town man who feels the world would have been better if he had never lived. An angel comes to him and shows him that this is not true. The movie celebrated values like loyalty and love of family.

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Jimmy Stewart decided to play other kinds of parts after what seemed to be the failure of "It's a Wonderful Life. " He was a reporter in "Call Northside Seven Seven Seven" the next year. He was a suspicious head of a school in the murder movie "Rope" in nineteen forty-eight. In the nineteen fifties, he appeared in many western movies such as "Winchester Seventy-Three" and "Broken Arrow. "

Jimmy Stewart enjoyed his greatest popularity in the nineteen fifties. In nineteen fifty-nine, he won awards from the Venice Film Festival, the New York film critics and the Film Daily writers. The awards honored him for his performance in the movie "Anatomy of a Murder. " He was the defense attorney for an army officer accused of murder. He was nominated for an Academy Award for that movie. He was also nominated for an Academy Award for playing a man who has an imaginary rabbit friend, in the movie "Harvey. "

Jimmy Stewart is well known for his work with the famous director of mystery movies, Alfred Hitchcock. These movies included "The Man Who Knew Too Much," "Rear Window" and "Vertigo. " Mr. Stewart also played real heroes in several movies. He was band leader Glenn Miller in "The Glenn Miller Story. " And he was pilot Charles Lindbergh in "The Spirit of Saint Louis. "

Jimmy Stewart appeared in fewer films in the nineteen sixties. He was a senator in the Old West in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance."  In "The Shootist" he was a doctor in a small town. He also appeared on television. But his two television shows were not successful.

Mr. Stewart began experiencing health problems as he aged. He had heart disease, skin cancer and hearing loss. But he found time to travel. And he published a book of poetry in nineteen eighty-nine. It sold more than three hundred thousand copies.

In nineteen eighty, Jimmy Stewart was honored by the American Film Institute with an award for his lifetime work. Three years later, he received a Kennedy Center Honor for his work. And in nineteen eighty-five, President Ronald Reagan gave him the nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

People who knew Jimmy Stewart did not praise him just because he was a good actor and a war hero. They said Jimmy Stewart was one of the nicest people they had ever met. He was a man who lived by the values he was taught as a child in that small town in Pennsylvania.

He went back to Indiana, Pennsylvania, in nineteen eighty-three, for his seventieth birthday. The town held a huge celebration in his honor. President Reagan sent planes to fly over the court house. Parades were held. And a statue of him was placed in the town center.

Jimmy Stewart married Gloria Hatrick McLean in nineteen forty-nine. She had two sons from an earlier marriage. Jimmy raised them as his own. One of the boys was killed during the Vietnam War while serving in the Marine Corps. Jimmy and Gloria also had twin daughters.

Gloria Stewart died in nineteen ninety-four. Friends said Jimmy Stewart was never the same after that. They said he withdrew into his house because he did not know what to do without her. His health got worse. He died on July the second, nineteen ninety-seven.

Jimmy Stewart's daughter Kelly Harcourt spoke at his funeral in Beverly Hills. She reminded mourners of the message of her father's favorite movie, "It's a Wonderful Life:" No man is poor who has friends.

"Here's to our father," she said, "the richest man in town."

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This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt. And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week at this time for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on VOA.

9/10 Children of Israel, Palestine

Source: goooodmorningfriends

Support strongly for this cause, if you support for Freedom let me know, remember Zionists and racists comments I don't accept here, they are moderated. By the way, Zionism is not a religion but an anti-Semitic group who spread angry against Palestinian people and Muslims. 

GET TO KNOW THE SERIDO'S REGION

                         

                  
Furna do Messias, Rock art paintings located about 15 kilometres away the downtown. 

Make yourself at home

Get to know the Seridó Region and enjoy the hospitality and you make feel comfortable. History, Culture, Old building, Religious, legends and Eco tourism find themselves in the Seridó Region.

It’s mountainous and surrounding by cliffs, waterfall (during the winter season) and a rich biodiversity find in the Caatinga Biome.

Everything is an invitation for visitors to travel to the countryside, after you have enjoyed the Sun and Sea for its famous beaches you have the opportunity to know beautiful, clean and safe towns in the Seridó Region Carnaúba dos Dantas, Parelhas, Acari, Currais Novos, Jardim do Seridó, Caicó, Cero Corá and Lagoa Nova take part of The Seridó Pole one of the newest tourism destiny of Rio Grande do Norte State.

In addition, the IPHAN (The Artistic and National Historic Heritage) provides a good infrastructure of Old Historic Museum Chamber and Jail from Acari, the restoration of Igreja do Rosário (Rosario’s Church), Baroque Style and also the IPHAN has been constructed walkways in the Archaeological Sites in Carnaúba dos Dantas, also there are plans to construct the infrastructure in Parelhas.

In conclusion you have options to travel to Serido we will waiting for you with arms wide open. Get to visit SERIDO and enjoy the local gastronomy. See you the next blog entry.  

Movie, Museum Exhibits Shine New Light on US Civil War

Photo: AP/Library of Congress

A photograph of fugitive blacks crossing the Rappahannock River in Virginia in August 1862

Source: www.voanews.com 





DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

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I'm Doug Johnson. This week, our program is all about the Civil War -- in a new film and museum shows, and music from the new band the Civil Wars.

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"The Conspirator"

DOUG JOHNSON: The United States is holding events in remembrance of the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of the start of the Civil War. And Hollywood also is taking a look. A new film from director Robert Redford explores the plot that resulted in the murder of President Abraham Lincoln. Mario Ritter has more.

MARIO RITTER: On April fourteenth, eighteen sixty-five, a gunshot is fired at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC. The bullet hits President Abraham Lincoln. He dies within hours.

The shooter is John Wilkes Boothe, an actor. He is angry about the freeing of slaves and the South’s loss in the Civil War. But John Wilkes Booth did not carry out the assassination alone.

The new film, “The Conspirator,” tells the story many Americans do not know about. The action surrounds the military trial of Mary Surratt, one of the accused plotters, and the mother of another.

MARY SURRATT: “I am a Southerner and a devoted mother. But, I am no assassin.”

Robin Wright plays Mary Surratt. She says the movie is about more than facts.

ROBIN WRIGHT: “It’s about humanity. It’s not so much about historical evidence. It’s a real piece about human behavior.”

Mary Surratt was a businesswoman in the eighteen sixties. She operated a boarding house, a home where visitors stayed. Her boarding house, however, was also used by her son and several other people as a meeting place to plot the murder of the president. All the plotters have been arrested except her son, who has disappeared.

A lawyer named Frederick Aiken decides to defend Mary Surratt. He does not necessarily think she is innocent. But he hopes to make sure she gets a fair trial. James McAvoy is Aiken.

FREDERICK AIKEN: “Mary you have to tell us where your son is.”

MARY SURRATT: “Us? I’m have to tell us?...Whose side are you on.”

FREDERICK AIKEN: “I’m trying to defend you.”

MARY SURRATT: “By suggesting I trade my son for myself?”

Historian Fred Borch was an expert adviser to the filmmakers.

FRED BORCH: “What I think the movie is trying to do is to show you that guilt or innocence aside, she didn’t get a fair trial and neither did the others because the government was so afraid that if they didn’t stomp on this conspiracy, that there might be more attacks by the Confederates coming.”

Julie Taboh

James McAvoy, Robert Redford and Robin Wright at the premiere of "The Conspirator" at Ford’s Theatre in Washington last Sunday

The first showing of “The Conspirator” was to a group gathered at the same theater where President Lincoln was killed. Director Robert Redford says he hopes the movie will make people think of the assassination in a new way.

ROBERT REDFORD: “I’ve never deluded myself into thinking that films change anybody’s opinion, or has an impact that’s going to change policy or anything like that, but I would think that being aware of what happened and seeing how that process has repeated itself, might strike a chord. I would hope so."

Civil War Exhibits

DOUG JOHNSON: One hundred fifty years ago today, President Abraham Lincoln approved an order for the services of seventy-five thousand militiamen. It was just a little over a month since he had taken office. And it was three days after the Confederate Army of the southern states attacked federal forces at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. The American Civil War had begun.

Slave John Washington wrote about the situation in his hometown of Fredericksburg, Virginia:

“The war was getting hotter every day. The town was now filled with rebel soldiers and their outrages and dastardly acts toward the colored people can not be told. It became dangerous to be out at night. The whites was hastening their slaves off to safer places of refuge. A great many slave men were sent into the rebel army as drivers, cooks, hostlers and anything else they could do.”

John Washington was among almost thirteen hundred slaves in Fredericksburg. There were about four hundred twenty free blacks and more than thirty-three hundred whites.

The stories of many of these men and women and their experiences during the Civil War can be found at the Fredericksburg Area Museum and Cultural Center. The stories are part of a permanent exhibit called “Fredericksburg at War” and in another show called “Letters and Diaries of the Civil War.” That show continues through July.

A Civil War-era photo of the Kenmore Avenue Canal, looking west from Fredericksburg, Virginia

Sara Poore is the director of education and public programs at the museum. On Tuesday, she led about thirty eighth-graders from a school in North Carolina on their visit to the Civil War exhibits.

She told them how it was that slave John Washington could write his memoirs.

SARA POORE: “It was against the law to teach your slaves to read and write unless it had something to do with religion. Then you could teach them to read the Bible. John Washington’s mother taught him to read and write when he was a young boy.”

On April eighteenth, eighteen sixty-two, Union soldiers started moving into Fredericksburg. Sarah Poore describes what happened.

SARA POORE: “They could be seen across the river, the Rappahannock River. John Washington recorded that moment. He said ‘the glistening bayonets of the Union Army can be seen. I am sure of my freedom now. All the white people are in the streets scared. All the manservants are on the rooftops joyous that freedom in near.”

Then Sarah Poore gives the students more to think about with words from a white Fredericksburg resident, Maureen Breckenridge.

SARA POORE: “She wrote in her diary: ‘The union solders are near. We will be destroyed. They will take our land, they will take our property. We are all full of fear.’ Two very different perspectives of the exact same event.”

Sara Poore told the students to remember these different images as they went through the exhibit. She said the military action of the Civil War is very important. But she said the experiences of civilians affected by the conflict were central to understanding the period in American history.

During the Union occupation of Fredericksburg, thousands of escaped slaves fled through Virginia on their way North.

WW Wright was an engineer and superintendent of military railroads at the time. He wrote about the fleeing slaves in an official military document.

READER: “During the last two days the contrabands fairly swarmed about the Fredericksburg and Falmouth Stations, and there was a continuous black line of men, women and children moving north along the road, carrying all their worldly goods on their heads. Every train running to Aquia was crowded with them.

"They all seemed to have perfect confidence that if they could only get within our lines they would be taken care of somehow. I think it is safe to estimate the number of contrabands that have passed by this route since we took possession of the road at ten thousand."

John Washington was among the fleeing slaves. In a recording at the Fredericksburg Museum and Cultural Center, an actor reads from Washington’s life story.

SOUND: “A most memorable night was the soldiers assured me that I was a free man. Before morning I had began to feel like I had truly escaped from the hands of the slave master. And with the help of God I would never be a slave no more. I felt for the first time in my life that I could now claim every cent that I should work for as my own. Life had a new joy awaiting me.”

We talked with Sara Poore about visitors’ reactions to the Civil War exhibits. She said what surprises them most is when she states firmly that the Civil War was, in fact, about the fight over slavery. She says states rights, economic and social inequalities between the South and North and other issues were debated. But Sara Poore says major historical documents clearly show that slavery was the central issue of dispute.

"Barton Hollow" by the Civil Wars

DOUG JOHNSON: Musicians Joy Williams and John Paul White are the Civil Wars. Their first album, “Barton Hollow,” is number two on Billboard Magazine’s Folk Rock chart. One newspaper calls the musical connection between Williams and White “seriously joyful.” Katherine Cole has more.

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KATHERINE COLE: That is “Twenty Years,” the first song on the Civil Wars’ first album, “Barton Hollow.”

Joy Williams and Paul John White have known each other for only a few years. They met on a music writing project in Los Angeles.

On the Civil Wars’ website, Paul John White says his connection with Joy Williams was immediate. It was, he says, “like we’d been in a family band or something for most of our lives.”

Joy Williams had been singing Christian music until she met White. She told the Los Angeles Times newspaper that she has found new creative freedom working with him. She says now she knows she can write about any subject.

“My Father’s Father” is a moving song about a return to one’s roots.

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John Paul Williams comes from Alabama. Joy Williams is a native Californian. Now, the two live and work in the home of country music, Nashville, Tennessee.

We leave you with, “I’ve Got a Friend,” from the Civil Wars album, “Barton Hollow.”

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DOUG JOHNSON: I’m Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Julie Taboh and Caty Weaver, who was also the producer.

Join us again next week for music and more on AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English

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