Dietrich was known to have strong political convictions and the mind to speak them. In the late 1930s, Dietrich created a fund with Billy Wilder and several other exiles to help Jews and dissidents escape from Germany. In 1937, her entire salary for Knight Without Armor ($450,000) was put into escrow to help the refugees. In 1939, she became an American citizen and renounced her German citizenship.[2] In December 1941, the U.S. entered World War II, and Dietrich became one of the first public figures to help sell war bonds. She toured the U.S. from January 1942 to September 1943 (appearing before 250,000 troops on the Pacific Coast leg of her tour alone) and was reported to have sold more war bonds than any other star.[38][39]
During two extended tours for the USO in 1944 and 1945,[38] she performed for Allied troops in Algeria, Italy, the UK, France and Heerlen in the Netherlands,[40] then entered Germany with Generals James M. Gavin and George S. Patton. When asked why she had done this, in spite of the obvious danger of being within a few kilometers of German lines, she replied, "aus Anstand"—"out of decency".[41] Wilder later remarked that she was at the front lines more than Dwight Eisenhower. Her revue, with Danny Thomas as her opening act for the first tour, included songs from her films, performances on her musical saw (a skill taught to her by Igo Sym that she had originally acquired for stage appearances in Berlin in the 1920s) and a "mindreading" act that her friend Orson Welles had taught her for his Mercury Wonder Show. Dietrich would inform the audience that she could read minds and ask them to concentrate on whatever came into their minds. Then she would walk over to a soldier and earnestly tell him, "Oh, think of something else. I can't possibly talk about that!" American church papers reportedly published stories complaining about this part of Dietrich's act. [34][38]
In 1944, the Morale Operations Branch of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) initiated the Musak project, musical propaganda broadcasts designed to demoralize enemy soldiers.[42] Dietrich, the only performer who was made aware that her recordings would be for OSS use, recorded a number of songs in German for the project, including "Lili Marleen", a favorite of soldiers on both sides of the conflict.[43] Major General William J. Donovan, head of the OSS, wrote to Dietrich, "I am personally deeply grateful for your generosity in making these recordings for us."[44]
At the war's end in Europe, Dietrich reunited with her sister Elisabeth and her sister's husband and son. They had resided in the German village of Belsen throughout the war years, running a cinema frequented by Nazi officers and officials who oversaw the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Dietrich's mother remained in Berlin during the war; her husband moved to a ranch in the San Fernando Valley of California. Dietrich vouched for her sister and her sister's husband, sheltering them from possible prosecution as Nazi collaborators.[45] However, Dietrich later omitted the existence of her sister and her sister's son from all accounts of her life, completely disowning them and claiming to be an only child.[46]
Dietrich received the Medal of Freedom in November 1947, for her "extraordinary record entertaining troops overseas during the war".[47] She said this was her proudest accomplishment.[42] She was also awarded the Légion d'honneur by the French government for her wartime work.[48]
The Hollywood Canteen operated at 1451 Cahuenga Boulevard in the Los Angeles, California, neighborhood of Hollywood between October 3, 1942, and November 22, 1945 (Thanksgiving Day), as a club offering food, dancing and entertainment for servicemen, usually on their way overseas. Even though the majority of visitors were US servicemen, the canteen was open to servicemen of allied countries as well as women in all branches of service. A serviceman's ticket for admission was his uniform and everything at the canteen was free of charge.
The Canteen was co-founded by stars Bette Davis and John Garfield.
The East Coast counterpart was the New York City–based Stage Door Canteen, which featured Broadway stars and was also celebrated in a film, Stage Door Canteen.[1]
A direct descendant of Union General Philip Henry Sheridan, Clara Lou Sheridan—the youngest of her mechanic father and homemaker mother’s five children—was born February 21, 1915, in Denton, Texas.
After completing Denton Junior High School, Sheridan enrolled in North Texas State Teachers College where she studied art, but eventually found her calling in the drama department.
In 1932, Paramount Pictures held a contest, a publicity stunt for the studio’s upcoming film Search for Beauty. Sheridan—her sister Kitty had signed her up—was one of 30 selected for a Hollywood screen test, which resulted in 10 seconds of fame in the movie and a six-month contract paying $50 a week.
Not particularly fulfilling, the remainder of the contract included appearances in plays staged for studio executives. One of those plays, The Milky Way, started her Hollywood star climbing, but it was suggested that Clara Lou Sheridan perform under a name that fit better on a marquee. She adopted her character’s name, becoming Ann Sheridan.
Her movie career was sporadic. Her relationship with Paramount ended in 1935. She made one film with Universal before landing at Warner Brothers working opposite the likes of Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney in Angels with Dirty Faces.
In 1939, another movie studio publicity stunt—this time by Warner Brothers—earned her a nickname that stuck. The studio’s motivation for the contest was gossip columnist Walter Winchell’s comment that Sheridan had “umph,” after seeing Angels with Dirty Faces. Warner Brothers assembled a team of judges charged with finding America’s “Oomph Girl.”
Though her competitors were beauties—Carole Lombard and Hedy Lamarr among them—the judges declared Sheridan the winner of the contest. The title made her a favorite pinup, but didn’t sit well with the actress who said the nickname was the sound an “old man makes when bending to tie his shoes.”
During her years with Warner Brothers, she toured with the USO to entertain GIs overseas. During a stop in China, she impressed one pilot, signing his plane in chalk rather than the “short snorter bill” he’d offered.
Another China stop brought her the ultimate compliment from the men of the 491st Bombardment Squadron, 341st Bombardment Group. Technical Sergeant Francis E. Strotman was charged with painting Sheridan’s likeness on a B-25, using house paint and a frayed rope on a stick for a brush, according to a recounting his son, retired Air Force Master Sergeant Tony Strotman, posted on ArmyAirForces.com.
“I had no photo of Ann Sheridan, but I knew she was a sexy red head and my paint job emphasized that hair. … As the jeep passed by … there she was, in all her glory—an unkempt dishwater blonde,” the senior Strotman remembered.
As Sheridan approached the 1950s, she shifted her artistic efforts to television, appearing in the daytime soap opera Another World, before landing a role on the 1966 CBS sitcom Pistols ‘n’ Petticoats, though she didn’t finish the first season of the show after a diagnosis of esophageal cancer that claimed her life January 21, 1967.
Monday, February 13, 2023. THE NATION is so broke and corrupt, it's using interns to churn out bad copy and we're all suffering as a result.
ADDED: MARCI E-MAILED TO REMIND ME THAT I FORGOT TO NOTE ROSEANNE BARR'S COMEDY SPECIAL DEBUTS TONIGHT ON FOX NATION. THANK YOU, MARCI. (SEE "Libya, Roseanne.")
A little over 90 minutes ago, THE NATION published a piece by Zurie Pope:
If a State of the Union Address holds any real purpose, it is for the president to amplify his past accomplishments while giving a preview of what’s to come. Although President Joe Biden largely accomplished that goal on Tuesday, some topics were, of course, given more time than others. Biden rightly used his speech to alleviate concerns about inflation and corner Republicans on Medicare. But, unfortunately, as the right’s crusade against queer people intensifies, LGBTQ rights were scarcely mentioned.
Though the address lasted more than one hour, the totality of Biden’s comments on the subject could be found in two lines: asking Congress to pass the Equality Act, to ensure that “LGBTQ Americans, especially transgender young people, can live with safety and dignity,” and referencing the recently passed Respect for Marriage Act. “While the legislation was intended as a buttress against right-wing attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, activists have criticized the Respect for Marriage Act for writing Republican religious liberty exemptions into law and focusing on an issue that impacts only a small and wealthy portion of the LGBTQ+ community,” wrote Theia Chatelle in The Nation last month.
We've already called out Joe for those two sentences -- and we noted them when we covered the State of the Union Address. We didn't, like Theia Chattelle, play a dumb bitch.
Marriage equality does not just effect "a small and wealthy portion of the LGBTQ+ community." What a stupid ass thing to write. We were kind when it was posted and ignored because it was so stupid. It's very telling that idiot Theia didn't write of the same legislation that it only "impacts a small and wealthy portion of the interracial marriage community."
See, the bitch is stupid, but she's not that stupid.
And maybe an undergraduate at Yale is the last person to talk about anything in terms of history or, for that matter, in terms of wealth. In other words, zip up your pants, Theia, your dangling wealth and privilege are hanging out.
Entitled and stupid, that's Theia -- a PUFFIN FOUNDATION winner on top of everything else. The entitlement reeks off Theia like body odor.
I was on the phone with a friend at THE NATION who had e-mailed saying, "Please highlight" the article we linked to and that THE NATION was finally going to take LGBTQ+ issues seriously.
Bout damn time but THE NATION's still not quite there.
Maybe that's the problem when you highlight the immature?
First off, Joe Biden made a huge mistake in the SOUA by refusing to seriously take on the attacks on the LGBTQ+ community. It was the victory lap that he took for the 'meaningless' (to Theia) that helped his polling (briefly) climb. Then came more stupidity from Joe with the classified documents being mishandled and people slowly grasping that the original claims put forward and attributed by Joe's lawyers were not accurate. That brought Joe back down to his low polling numbers.
The speech could have influenced the numbers if Joe had spoken seriously about the LGBTQ+ community. No, it wouldn't have won over the right-wing or the Jimmy Dore and Aaron Mates who hate gay people. You're never going to win those freaks over. But there is the segment of middle America that does not condone hate, that rallies against attack on LGBTQ+ people.
They recoil in disgust when they read a report like this one by Daniel Villarreal (LGBTQ NATION):
A Catholic school teacher says the local archdiocese fired her after seeing a photo of her kissing her same-sex partner.
Maggie Barton wanted to share values from her religious upbringing with future generations, so she became a technology and media teacher at the All Souls Catholic School in Englewood, Colorado. For six years, she taught kindergarten through 8th-grade classes. She called the school community her “second family.”
She was fired after someone sent the archdiocese an image of her kissing her same-sex partner. The image was taken from the partner’s social media account, Barton said. While the archdiocese said it won’t fire Catholic school teachers for having same-sex attraction, it apparently will fire them for acting on it.
“The school found it necessary to conclude the teacher’s employment because she did not honor the commitments she agreed to in her contract with the school,” the archdiocese said in a statement to CBS Colorado.
In Barton’s employee contract, she agreed to “personally exemplify the characteristics of Catholic living” and “[refrain] from taking any public position or conducting … herself in a manner that is contrary to the teachings of the Catholic church.” Her relationship violated that agreement, the archdiocese said.
Of course, she disagrees.
“I don’t think that being in a same-sex relationship or someone’s sexual orientation hinders your ability to [embody Catholic values],” she said. “It is hard for me to wrap my head around how these issues are still possible and things like this can still happen.”
This stuff took place all in the time in the past. Lillian Hellman's THE CHILDREN'S HOUR was first staged in 1934, after all. And Americans were bothered by it then -- not the lesbian teacher, but how she is treated because of who she is. And Americans today are bothered by the firing of the teacher.
Last week, when AOC noted the attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, she rightly said of the GOP, "This is the party that cannot pick on anyone their own size." (Words are easy for AOC. We haven't seen any follow up or action from her.)
Joe was seen as fighting for something important -- unless you're the dismissive Theia who doesn't know about life because she's so immature -- and Americans liked that and the polls registered it. When giving a State of the Union Address, a smart president plays to their strengths. Joe didn't. And no one cared. The phony talk of how he landed a home room or accomplished anything were revealed, within 24 hours, as hollow lies. The rating weren't there, the people just didn't care enough to tune in the way they had the year before.
That's on Joe. He had a home run with the legislation and he failed to capitalize on it.
Newsflash to THE NATION, I don't need to hear from mental midgets in their sophomore years of college about LGBTQ+ history. You damn well better believe that I had lived and I had read before I started weighing in on feminism. The ahistorical approach doesn't cut it for me. Nor does having to put in the work by myself. Yes, after we hit over and over for two weeks here on the reality that the ludicrous 'grooming' charges were a revival of Anita Bryant's hate mongering in the 70s, we did see some people begin to work that into their own writing. But honestly, as always, I'm still thinking, "If I was smart enough to bring it up -- me, the dumb one -- how stupid is everyone else?"
I do not understand why this issue is being farmed out to glorified interns. I do understand, at this moment and time, when we need to grasp history and roots, THE NATION employees useless (and elderly) writers like Joan Walsh and Kattha Pollitt but can't find anyone 30 or over to write about LGBTQ+ issues?
Because those are our issues. I say "our." I'm not a lesbian. But these issues impact my life, impactmy understanding of democracy and equality.
And I don't some little simp who thinks they're being brave by knocking something like marriage equality and claiming its only for the rich. You stupid idiot, you deeply stupid idiot.
Rights are fought for and won and it allows other rights to emerge.
I shouldn't keep calling these children stupid. Clearly the stupid people are the one who waived these juvenile pieces of writing into print and online publication.
The article that I linked to by Pope is less stupid than the one he cites by Theia. But it's still deeply stupid. He wants to talk about how gay voters can't or won't go anywhere else with their votes. That's not really the issue even if we're talking solely campaign politics -- which is all the young and stupid can conceptualize because that's all the left media offers as action (voting).
Even if you're going to stay on his tiny island of a topic, the reality is that the Dems don't fear losing the votes. What they fear is losing the money. And they do lose money.
In 1988, a Dukakis staffer was speaking to me and two other women -- all of us donors. She elected to tell us about this 'ridiculous' woman she met the other day and how that woman wanted to help and how that woman volunteered to do this and that and this and that and . . .
It was all so ridiculous, we were told, because the woman was clearly a d**e.
And the staffer (also a woman) then paused for the laugh.
None was forthcoming. As I again introduced the staffer to the woman on my left, I added, "You may have missed it but she's an out lesbian."
Yeah, the party's learned over time that they can't get away with that.
Because lesbians like my friend won't let them and because allies like myself won't let them.
THE NATION needs to stop farming out serious work to interns. If they have no other choice, they need to ensure that they are editing the pieces. The ones that THE NATION have aren't smart enough -- not informed enough, not analytical enough -- to write for a national magazine not named SASSY. That I have to point that out, is really sad. Then again, I may be the only one who bothered to read their work.
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, after trying for 10 years, is on the cusp of getting Congress to repeal the authorizations that led the US into war against Iraq in the early ’90s and again in the early ‘00s.
Along with a Republican, Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, Kaine has support from the White House and a bipartisan coalition. He and Young told CNN’s Jake Tapper about their proposal on “The Lead” on Thursday.
Ten years. Ten years and they can't end the authorization. Let alone bring US troops back home.
Kat's "Kat's Korner: Carly Simon LIVE AT GRAND CENTRAL" went up Sunday. The following sites updated:
-
-
Kenny Beats: Tiny Desk Concert2 hours ago
-
Media: The Problem5 hours ago
-
-
-
-
The deeply stupid Anya Parampil1 day ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
Seymour Hersh2 days ago
-
-
-
