Monday - May 07, 2012

OBIT …. WW2 POSTER GIRL MARGIE STEWART … AN AMERICAN

The Telegraph is very well known for it’s obituaries, and although the focus is quite naturally on the homeland, they are still international in scope.
They have covered Americans I never heard of, including this lady. I am tardy in posting it for which I am sorry. But better late then not at all.
For one brief speck in time here on the net, her story is told briefly to a generation that is being introduced for the first time.

Margie Stewart an American. RIP

Margie Stewart, who has died aged 92, was the official US Army poster girl during the Second World War, with millions of her pin-up photos distributed to American GIs around the world.

Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, she “dutifully” accepted the US government’s invitation, posing for the Hollywood portrait photographer George Hurrell, who shot pictures for three posters, each of which bore the legend: “Please get there and back. Be careful what you say or write.”

More posters were printed bearing Margie Stewart’s girl-next-door image than those of the Hollywood sirens Ann Sheridan and Betty Grable combined, an estimated 94 million circulating between 1943 and 1945.

The wartime First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, tried unsuccessfully to get them scrapped on the ground that Stewart’s wholesome image might make soldiers feel homesick. But despite Mrs Roosevelt’s best endeavours, GIs asked for more and wanted to know who the pretty girl was. Nine more posters were ordered showing Margie Stewart, pen in hand, writing letters urging American servicemen to buy war bonds and to save money to buy homes after the war.

In all, a dozen different posters featuring Margie Stewart were produced, each version carrying an encouraging message to servicemen in the US forces overseas.

By the end of 1943 she had become one of the most familiar faces in America, mobbed by soldiers on leave as well as by their wives, who approved of Margie Stewart’s wholesome, unerotic image (unlike those of Hollywood stars such as Betty Grable with her “Million Dollar Legs”; Ann Sheridan, the “Oomph girl”; the cantilevered Jane Russell; and the “peek-a-boo girl” Veronica Lake).

On a visit to London in June 1945, “Uncle Sam’s Poster Girl” — as The Daily Telegraph dubbed her — caused gridlock at Hyde Park Corner, traffic backing up Park Lane and into Oxford Street as crowds tried to catch a glimpse of her. During her stay she became a regular with the bandleader Artie Shaw at Rainbow Corner, the American Red Cross Club near Piccadilly Circus, entertaining US servicemen.

Margery Stewart was born on December 14 1919 at Wabash, Indiana. After a year studying at Indiana University, where she was elected Freshman Princess, she became a photographic model at a department store in Chicago. In 1941 she moved to Los Angeles and modelled at another store on Wilshire Boulevard. When RKO signed her to a contract in 1942, she made 20 films in short order.

Her career began with a series of small parts in Here We Go Again, The Falcon Strikes Back, Gildersleeve’s Bad Day (all 1942), and Bombardier (1943) with Pat O’Brien, Randolph Scott and Eddie Albert. Other film roles included Mexican Spitfire’s Blessed Event (1943), with Lupe Velez; Gildersleeve’s Ghost; the Frank Sinatra musical Step Lively; Road to Victory, with Cary Grant; and Music in Manhattan (all 1944), with Anne Shirley and Dennis Day.

But she never became a star. “My agent in Hollywood once asked an RKO casting director why he wasn’t giving me better parts,” she recalled. “He was honest in his response: ‘Every time I look out she’s talking to a grip, an electrician or a group of extras. That doesn’t look like a star to me.’ The truth was I never wanted to be a star. I still wanted to be me.”

When her contract with RKO was cancelled, Margie Stewart embarked on a European tour in June 1945, entertaining US troops in England, France, Belgium and Germany.

In later life Margie Stewart worked in the music industry and produced shows at the Hollywood Bowl featuring The Beatles, Barbra Streisand and The Beach Boys.

Margie Stewart married, in July 1945, Jerry Johnson, with whom she had a son.

Margie Stewart, born December 14 1919, died April 26 2012

Posted by peiper     on 05/07/2012 at 10:23 AM   
Filed Under: • OBITITUARIES • USA •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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