Winning Your Wings

With the US launched into World War II, Hollywood began working with the armed forces to get people to join. An example is John Huston's Academy Award-nominated "Winning Your Wings", featuring Jimmy Stewart talking about the Air Force, the enlistment process, and who all participates in operating the planes.

Obviously the sheer level of propaganda comes across as corny nowadays, especially with the archaic gender relations. My favorite propaganda shorts from the era were the cartoons portraying Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck battling Nazis (not surprisingly, many of them got pulled from circulation after the war).

Anyway, this short works well as a time capsule. Entertaining, if nothing else.

As with most short or documentary films, "Winning Your Wings" doesn't have a plot that might be divulged. But, these comments will provide some of the information from this short for those who may be interested but not able to find this film to watch. I also give some background information on Jimmy Stewart's military service, and on the pay amounts during World War II.

While he didn't do any Hollywood movies during the war, James Stewart did star in one short featurette. He made this recruiting film in May 1942. It was a joint project of the Army Air Forces and Warner Brothers. Stewart was a lieutenant in the Air Forces at the time. The Air Forces then badly needed more men to train as pilots and for other aviation positions. So, a group of Hollywood people serving on active duty was put together to make this recruiting film.

John Huston was a captain in the Army Signal Corps at the time, and was making films for the Army. He directed "Winning Your Wings." Stewart got the lead role. He plays himself as an Army Air Forces pilot. An opening scene shows planes flying, landing and then Stewart getting out of the cockpit of a plane. He narrates the rest of the film with various film clips. A number of actors appear in the film as civilians in high school, college, or at work. Only a few have a line or two. Those include Don DeFore, Charles Drake, Harry Lewis and Ray Montgomery.

The U.S. had only been in the war five months when this film was made. The Air Forces were in dire need of trained pilots and other aviation positions. Stewart gives some interesting figures. He said the U.S. was producing 65,000 fighter planes this year (1942) and 100,000 next year. That will require two million men to keep them flying. "It takes 38 men on the ground to keep a B-17 bomber in the air," Stewart says. The film touches on the ground support, but its main emphasis and appeal is for men to man the bombers.

Stewart says that the Army Air Forces need 15,000 captains, 40,000 lieutenants and 35,000 flying sergeants. He gives some pay figures, and says that a 2nd Lieutenant earns $245 per month. Most 2nd Lieutenants in the Army were then receiving $150 per month. The only ones at $245 were officers on flight status and airborne officers. The differences were flight pay and jump pay. So, again, that amount applied only to the officers who served as pilots, co-pilots, bombardiers and navigators. Stewart says that captains are paid $430 per month. Again, that's for officers on flight status. Most captains – those who were not flyers or paratroopers, were paid $350 per month.

Toward the end of the film, Stewart says, "By the time you finish your training, America will have overwhelming superiority in the air." This recruiting film was highly successful and apparently resulted in some 150,000 enlistments for flying positions. Some sources regard this film as propaganda (i.e., Wikipedia on 26 December 2016). The primary distinction of propaganda is its attempt to influence people's opinion (Cambridge dictionary). If this film is propaganda, then every public service or private or other project that tries to get people to pursue a medical field, educational career, or and other profession must also be propaganda. I think most people can clearly distinguish job, professional or career recruiting films from propaganda.

Jimmy Stewart is very good, as are all those with small parts. This featurette is well done and received an Academy Award nomination for best short in 1946.

Stewart's last movie before the start of World War II was "Ziegfeld Girl" that came out on April 25, 1941. His first movie after the war was "It's a Wonderful Life" that came out in December 1946. During those 5.5 years between, Stewart's Hollywood career was on hold while he served in the U.S. Army Air Forces.

Stewart entered the Army in March 1941 as a private, although he had more than 400 hours of flying time before the war. He applied for aviation and was accepted as a 2nd Lieutenant. At the end of the war, he held the rank of Colonel. His rise from private to colonel in just four years is a record that no one is likely to repeat or beat. Because of his experience, Stewart's first assignments were in flight instruction. But, by 1943 he was assigned to American Air Force units in Europe. He flew 20 combat missions in Europe as a bomber pilot, and held various command positions. He stayed in the reserves after the war, and served an active stint during the Vietnam War. He retired in 1968 as a general. He has another record as the movie actor to reach the highest rank in military service.

Newly-minted LT Jimmy Stewart gives a folksy appeal to guys from 18 to 26 to join up and fight the axis!

Jimmy would go on to make an admirable career in the Air Force Reserve and become the recognizable face of the Strategic Air Command in the 1950's--- here you can get a first glimpse of this enthusiasm. Winning Your Wings is aimed at recruiting officers--- more specifically at what must have been hordes of guys with the qualities but not necessarily the educational credentials to make the cut. Don ("Hazel") Defore does a bit as a 26-year old married gas station jockey who's not sure he's qualified. There's a run down of what must have been virtually unknown commissioned positions (navigators, meteorologists) and a run down of the 9-man crew of a B-17, all framed within Stewart's likable homespun drawl. Look for a nearly unrecognizable Peter Graves in the Flying Fortress. And go for Captain, they knock down $450 a month!

Jimmy Stewart appears in one of the many Warner Brothers' short subjects hyping the Army Air Corps. Stewart uses his casual charm and his stage training to hype the Force, and talks about training, and how women love a pilot. It's all done in good humor, and makes it seem like a lot of fun, with no risk mentioned and $400 a month, with room and board!

Stewart had been drafted into the Army as a private in 1940; since he was already a pilot, he was assigned to the Air Corps --after being rejected twice as underweight -- first as an instructor, then on combat missions in Europe. He left the War a Colonel, and as a Reserve officer, retired with the rank of Brigadier General.

James Stewart is absolutely charming as "Wild Blue Yonder" plays and he taxis up the run-way and hops out of a B17 bomber in uniform complete with wings. He is the sole voice of this 20 minute short from 1942 about why young men should sign up for the Army Air Corps ASAP. He talks to actors portraying college students, high school students, men who didn't finish their college degrees, and an average Joe working at a gas station.

Stewart tells all of these guys that their stations in life - no college, some college, waiting to get out of college - is no bar to getting into the Army Air Corps. But he does mention that business of getting your name pulled out of a fish bowl - aka "drafted" - as a kind of added incentive to join up. One surprising fact - that in this "greatest mass mobilization in history" you could join the Air Corps and finish your degree as a reservist, then become a regular airman.

The short shows much of how America wanted to see itself in 1942 - Stewart shows a dramatization of a young man who just signed up leaving home. He says goodbye to his parents, his aunt, his sister, and "that sweet young thing" next door. Hey, did we just segue into an Andy Hardy film? Nope, the airman to be is too tall to be Mickey Rooney.

Stewart then goes into detail about the jobs that must be done on the ground and in the air to keep 'em flying. On board the plane - radio man, engineer, navigator, bombardier, photographer. He mentions that all get their wings, and all are an important part of a team. This is probably to not get the recruit's hopes up that he will be a pilot.

Stewart was a great salesman for joining up. After all, a tremendously popular actor in 1941, he quit his movie career to join the Army Air Corps himself, having to practically make himself ill eating pound cake and drinking milk so he would meet the minimum weight for enlisting. He retired as a brigadier general in 1968.

This is worth your time to see the tremendous charm of James Stewart and how his love for the Air Corps comes shining through, and as a bit of history on what the Air Corps looked like at the beginning of WWII.