This edition was a couple days later...
I can't believe what I'm about to write about was 25 years ago! On the 50th Anniversary of D-Day in 1994 I attended an AMPAS program at their Samuel Goldwyn Theater hosted by Bob Hope. A film historian showed how Hollywood depicted the events of WWII, with an emphasis on D-Day, using several various films and clips from the films, and some people reminisced about their experiences in Los Angeles and how they came to know of these events working in Hollywood. I remember that Robert Stack was one of the participants.
Bob Hope talked about what it was like working that day at all of the radio stations in Hollywood, particularly along Vine Street, where everyone was following the news happening such a long ways away. Remember, while there was talk of an invasion, no one knew when or where it was to happen and while all this was going on the people at the time had no idea what the outcome would be for a long time and many knew of those participating in the invasion, while servicemen on leave in Los Angeles were all called back to their bases and such while everything was being assessed.
Also, a soldier was present who had been involved in the D-Day event and he related some of his experiences. The man, in a wheelchair, happened to be pretty feeble and meandering, but Bob Hope helped him along when he began rambling, a bit incoherently. (Something I learned later on...actor Charles Durning served in Normandy on D-Day. I spoke to him once when they had a screening of The Sting at AMPAS, and I didn't really know if I should bring that up or not.)
Some info below is taken from:
https://blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/2...season-finale/
Being Los Angeles was 8 or more hours behind the events taking place, people in the city began hearing about it the night before in the late hours, so many were up all night listening to the radio reports. On the evening of June 6, 1944, Bob Hope was to do the finale of his "Pepsodent Show's" sixth season. As he had for much of the previous three seasons, Bob would broadcast this show from a United States military base, which in this case was Van Nuys Army Airfield, where P-38 fighter pilots received training.
A photo of the airfield:
MilitaryMuseum.org
With the news from abroad, the show had to be entirely revamped. This is Hope's opening monologue for that evening's radio show:
“Folks, this is Bob Hope speaking from a P-38 air field near Van Nuys, California. We’ve looked forward to being with these men, and doing our regular show here, but of course nobody feels like getting up and being funny on a night like this. But we did want to go through with our plans and visit these fellows because these are the same kind of boys that are flying those eleven thousand planes in our big effort. What’s happened during these last few hours not one of us will ever forget. How could you forget? You sat up all night by the radio and heard the bulletins, the flashes, the voices coming across from England, the commentators, the pilots returning from their greatest of all missions…newsboys yelling on the street…and it seemed that one world was ending and a new world beginning…that history was closing one book and opening a new one, and somehow we knew it had to be a better one.”
The singers sang appropriate songs and the entire cast then led the USAF audience in singing the “Air Corps Song” (aka “Off we go into the wild blue yonder”…). After some brief closing remarks from Hope, the show ended with a new version of Hope’s theme song:
“Thanks for the memory
Of D-Day over there
On land, on sea, in air,
Our boys tonight defending right of freedom everywhere
And we thank them so much.”
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