There is a certain tendency, logical on the other hand, to contemplate the figure of Adolf Hitler from a monolithic prism:that of a dictator and genocide incapable of having a human feeling.
It is a common view that also occurs in serial killers, for example, because his criminal actions inevitably dominate any story.
Only relatively recently has a broader and complementary vision begun to emerge. of this type of character, as some filmmakers have done, showing the hidden face of the monster, sometimes familiar, sometimes funny, sometimes almost endearing, in the figure of the gangster.
It is something that, likewise, is already done with the Nazi leader thanks to the information provided by former collaborators, thus reviewing details such as that he used to get up at midnight to eat sweets in fits of gluttony that did not fit much with his vegetarianism, his love for animals in general and dogs in particular or, what concerns us here, his taste for cinema.
Like any fan, he had his favorite stars in the seventh art and among them were those who occupied the top in those thirties:Greta Garbo , which had fascinated him in The Lady of the Camellias , and Clark Gable , who was known as the King since Spencer Tracy proclaimed him that way in 1938, with sardonic shouts, when a crowd of fans prevented him from accessing the Metro studios because they surrounded the car in front, occupied by the protagonist of Gone with the Wind .
Later, the film critic Ed Sullivan collaborated in the dissemination of the nickname to the same extent that his fellow students staged a humorous coronation ceremony . In short, the Führer adored the King and neither of them imagined that, shortly, their lives would be related for posterity in a curious anecdote.
The Second World War he didn't get that name for no reason. It was a conflict on a global scale that involved countries from all over the world, some as belligerents and others as a mere stage, but also the most diverse people.
In that sense, the reader may be surprised to learn that most of the most brilliant actors in Hollywood They also took part and voluntarily, some in the rear used as propaganda, in the case of Glenn Ford, and others in more or less safe destinations, such as Rock Hudson, who was an aviation mechanic. But there were on the front line :Charlton Heston was a radio operator on a B-25, Charles Bronson was a gunner on a B-29 (and received a Purple Heart, as did Lee Marvin, a marine on Saipan), Jack Palance flew a B-24 (which also turned out to be shot down and scars have molded his face ever since), Alec Guinness enlisted in the Royal Navy and participated in the invasion of Sicily, Mel Brooks was a deminer…
The list is long and several of them reached high ranking when peace came, the case of James Stewart (who was a squad leader, had Sergeant Walter Matthau under his command, was awarded a few medals and ended up named lieutenant general in 1956) or David Niven (lieutenant colonel of riflemen, decorated by Eisenhower in person), among others.
Clark Gable was also one of those who left the comfort of his privileged Hollywood life to march to the front. In 1939 he had married another of the most famous actresses of the moment, Carole Lombard . She was already her third wife but he considered her the love of her life (although later she would remarry two more times) and her own friends attested to this.
Tragedy broke that marriage in 1942, when she died in a aviation accident her while she flew to Indiana aboard a DC-3 to support the sale of war bonds with her presence, as other celebrities did . Ironically, in his last film, To be or not to be (whose plot took place in Poland invaded by Germany), he had a dialogue in which he said «What can happen to you on a plane?» which was removed from the final cut.
That death hit Hollywood hard and President Roosevelt declared Carole Lombard the first American lady to fall in the war , awarding him the Medal of Freedom.
Gable was plunged into a strong depression that encouraged him to drink too much and finally decided to honor his wife by accepting the suggestion that she had made him on one occasion, to collaborate in the propaganda, although he had not been able to due to the refusal of MGM. Faced with the new situation, the executives had to give in and he temporarily abandoned acting to join the armed forces and do his bit against the Nazis.
Since he was already forty-one years old , age that exceeded the authorized limit, he had to pull friendships to achieve his goal, even writing a telegram to Roosevelt in that regard. It was his friend Paul Mantz who arranged for him an interview with Colonel Luke Smith in Phoenix, thanks to which General Henry H. Arnold offered him a artillery position , and he was able to enlist in the USAAF (United States Army Air Force). He did it accompanied by the director of photography Andrew McIntire , whom Metro commissioned to watch their backs at all times.
Both received the corresponding training in Florida for thirteen months; Gable was number seven hundred in a class of two thousand six hundred cadets and graduated as a Second Lieutenant . His first assignments, along with McIntire, were shooting movies encouraging enlistment for the Air Force, rising to captain in the process.
But in 1943 he was posted to England and, tired of that job, he insisted on being assigned a position as a gunner on board a B-17 . He succeeded and completed a total of twenty-four missions; in five of them he entered combat, thanks to which he won the Air Medal and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
His presence in Europe did not go unnoticed by the Germans. The popularity of theKing of Hollywood It was not limited to the US but had reached the whole world and had in Adolf Hitler one of the great admirers of him . So much so that word soon began to spread that the Germans would soon have the chance to see Clark Gable in person, hoping they could capture him. .
That was resized until it became something larger and more surprising:the Führer himself would have had the idea that he be captured alive to the actor, which would be a propaganda coup and, incidentally, would fulfill his fondness for him. Consequently, there was talk of a plan to kidnap him and take him to Berlin, which in the end did not materialize because the German General Staff saw it as impossible to carry out. Then, Hitler would have offered a substantial reward for the one who could catch him unscathed.
Actually, there does not seem to be any official document about it, so it is unknown whether or not this happened and, if it did, to what extent it was taken seriously. In any event, the bomber Gable served on was hit in two of those raids -one of them on a mission over Germany as well- and he escaped death by very little , as the anti-aircraft shells passed through the fuselage, killing two crew members and grazing his head.
This alarmed the Metro executives, who began to manage the transfer of him to the rear. Indeed, in October he was made to see that if he fell into enemy hands they would turn him into a fairground monkey, exhibited everywhere, and he ended up accepting his replacement in October 1943. his advanced age for the average fighter made things easier.
Thus, the following month he returned to the US with more decorations . He brought with him all the material shot for the city's propaganda film, but it was no longer necessary because now, given the positive evolution of the war, there were plenty of artillerymen, even so, it was edited and released under the title Combat America.
In May 1944 he was promoted to major and in June he was definitively released from active service; Interestingly, the documents were signed by a captain who was also an actor named Ronald Reagan .