Spencer Tracy – The Intelligent Collector Magazine

Even before his World War II mission, Jimmy Doolittle and his aviation exploits made him an American hero. He was featured on this 1933 Goudey Sport Kings card, which sold for $1,553.50 in May 2015.

By Jim O’Neal

Spencer Tracy was the first actor to win back-to-back Oscars for Best Actor – in 1937 for Captains Courageous and 1938 for Boys Town. In 1944, he played the role of Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle in the movie Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, based on the true story of the Doolittle Raid.

The Doolittle Raid occurred on April 18, 1942, four months after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. This precipitated the United States’ formal declaration of war against Japan and led to the nation’s entry into World War II. Sixteen U.S. Army Air Force B25B Mitchell bombers (named in honor of Major General William “Billy” Mitchell) took off from the decks of the USS Hornet. They were loaded with bombs to be dropped on Tokyo, Kobe, Yokohama, Osaka and Nagoya on Honshu Island in Japan.

They were launched from deep in the western Pacific Ocean, beyond fighter escort range, to demonstrate that the Japanese homeland was vulnerable to American air attacks and cast doubt on claims that Japan’s leaders could defend their home islands.

Doolittle would later write: “There was a second and equally important psychological reason for this attack … Americans badly needed a morale boost.”

Doolittle led the raid and his remarkable flying career included being the first person to be awarded the Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s two highest honors. Other commendations included two Distinguished Service Medals, the Silver Star, three Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Bronze Star, and four Air Medals. Other honors poured in from Great Britain, France, Belgium, Poland and Ecuador.

In 1989, he was in the inaugural group of inductees to the Motorsports Museum & Hall of Fame for his exploits in air racing.

Since the Doolittle Raid bombers were unable to return and land on the Hornet, the plan was for the pilots and crews to land in mainland China, however, they were forced to bail out. Luckily, Doolittle and his crew were guided to safety by John Birch, the 27-year-old missionary turned intelligence officer. His name was appropriated by Robert Welsh when he founded the ultra-right wing conservative John Birch Society. Birch had become a symbolic hero after being shot by the Chinese Red Army.

Welsh had made a fortune selling candy and his company originated the famous Sugar Daddy sucker that me and my boyhood friends enjoyed (they are now made by Tootsie Roll Industries). Using the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” theory, I guess we weren’t too separated from our hero Jimmy Doolittle.

Small world.

Intelligent Collector blogger JIM O’NEAL is an avid collector and history buff. He is President and CEO of Frito-Lay International [retired] and earlier served as Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo Restaurants International [KFC Pizza Hut and Taco Bell].

Stanley Kramer’s 1961 film about the trial of Nazi war criminals, *Judgment at Nuremberg,* featured some of the best actors working in Hollywood, including Burt Lancaster, Marlene Dietrich, Spencer Tracy and Maximilian Schell.

By Jim O’Neal

The 34th Academy Awards ceremony was held on April 9, 1962, to honor films from 1961. West Side Story dominated the field with 11 nominations and 10 Oscar winners.

Another strong contender was Judgment at Nuremberg with 11 nominations, including two for best actor: Maximilian Schell (winner) and Spencer Tracy for his portrayal of Chief Judge Dan Haywood, a fictionalized character. Many moviegoers (and probably others) naturally assumed this was the extent of post-war judicial actions. In fact, the film only represented the third (“The Judges’ Trial”) of 12 trials for German war crimes.

Even before Germany surrendered, the Allies had planned to establish courts to try Nazi military and political leaders for their actions during the war. On May 2, 1945, President Harry S. Truman selected Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson to organize the proceedings and represent the United States.

Judge Jackson started by developing the London Charter, which established the International Military Tribunal and trial procedures. It was agreed to hold the trials in Nuremberg, where the Nazis held their annual rallies. Much of the city was damaged, but the huge Palace of Justice and a prison remained intact.

On Nov. 20, 1945, the Nuremberg Trials began.

“The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so devastating that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being repeated.” – Justice Robert Jackson, November 1945

In the first trial, 22 Nazis faced one or more charges of war crimes, crimes against peace or crimes against humanity. The defendants included Luftwaffe Commander Hermann Goering, Adolf Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess and the Fuhrer’s successor Admiral Karl Donitz. (Martin Bormann was tried in absentia and Hitler, Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler had committed suicide.)

Over the next 10 months, prosecutors offered evidence of propaganda movies, vivid films of concentration camp liberations and damning testimony from many eyewitnesses. The evidence was so overwhelming, the 250 journalists attending the trial were often heard weeping in the courtroom or sobbing in the hallways.

On Oct. 1, 1946, the court handed down the verdicts.

Twelve high-ranking men, including Goering, were sentenced to death by hanging. Three more were sentenced to life sentences in prison. Four got prison sentences of 10 to 20 years and three minor political figures were acquitted.

The Nazi leaders had been tried in courtroom 600 of the Palace of Justice, where all proceedings were recorded. Some were broadcast in radio reports. Many people still claim it was the first time they learned of Nazi atrocities, the concentration camps or the gas chamber horrors (“The Final Solution”).

What is interesting, at least to me, is just how much more the Germans have accomplished through economic development than they ever did with guns, planes and tanks. Just ask the Greeks.

Tag: Spencer Tracy

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