by Ted Sherman

Created on: February 25, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

When you suddenly go from out-of-work ham to spoiled, pampered, overpaid movie star, you lose all perspective about your importance. It changes you when people fawn over you, follow you around with with mics and cameras, and dote on every brilliant word you utter.

You begin to believe the puffed-up publicity, and you come to expect everyone to agree with you and take care of your every need. Soon, although you may have been a high-school dropout, your opinions and public statements are considered holy writ.

This Hollywood royalty phenom and its political clout started at the time of World War I, when superstars of the silent film era, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, were sent throughout the country by the government to sell war bonds. They led rallies, gave patriotic speeches, sang at the camps and posed with the troops. There wasn't one Hollywood word of dissent in that era about whether America was justified in going to war.

The political actions during World War II were even more enthusiastic. Stars volunteered to serve "the boys" in Hollywood canteens, entertain at camps and war fronts and sell war bonds in person and in movie propaganda films. An added boost to the star image was made by famed actors who joined up, like Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable, Tyrone Power and an obscure young thespian named Ronald Reagan. Again, in this war, no one in Hollywood said a word against it.

I served in the Korean War, and can't remember any public dissent or anti-war marchers. There may have been some, but I never saw them before I shipped out and after I returned. There were no rumblings from Hollywood for or against the war. The most prevalent emotion was when a guy returned from Korea. As he visited the neighborhood bar, his welcome home greeting was usually something like, "Hey, ain't seen you around for a year. Where the hell have you been?" I do rememeber the USO was there for us again, and Bob Hope and other Hollywood men and women entertained, as they had in WWII.

The Hollywood anti-war movement started a decade later, when America was mired in Vietnam. As the war dragged on, anti-war rallies, campus dissent, sign-carrying marchers influenced Hollywood thinking. Actually, the seed of the movie community swinging to the left were started between the Korea and Vietnam eras by the McCarthy hearings. Rightly or wrongly, the political hoopla destroyed many Hollywood careers, including some actors and writers who were accused of Communist Party membership.

The

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