Show I 1 1 1 11 1 I 1 I 1 4 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 by JACK LAIT pinch this we A for walter winchell I 1 memo from manhattan alt with 1 h rny my son gon paratrooper dav wah correspondent george aalt I 1 saw al ai private projection of the story kofl 0 01 31 joe which then had not yet opened in new york this Is a film centered around some borne of the famosi activities of ernie pyle we both have a gentl sentimental m interest tn in ernie emle I 1 knew him when he be was waa an inconspicuous desk drudge on a washington ton newspaper a nice little guy who I 1 gave no indication of 0 the im immortality he was to attain in our probes pro tesi slon on but george knew him more i intimately than he knows his brother they crossed together in a tiny tub to lisbon new lew from there to london shared a little flat during the murderous blitz they went together gether to africa and shared tents jeeps and foxholes during the adversities adan di versi ties of the british defeat an and retreat and through the triumphs of the allies from el to coll conquest of the desert and the mediterranean they were side ld by side ld in sicily and in italy george had caught rna malaria larla in the desert and came back here for a spell of rest after that he went through campaigns campaign in new guinea sal pan through the bitter fighting on leyte he made battle lumps jumpa with the eleventh airborne dl DI vision and was about to go do on to luzon when the malaria caught up with him again gen macarthur ordered him flown back on en tick sick leave meanwhile ernie pyle had come home hom 6 to ret rest and recuperate at his hi house in albuquerque e N M I 1 met george georga lat at my beverly hills retreat the day after he be landed in san francisco and while we were there ernie visited us he was now cow I 1 on his way to cover the fighting in the afie pacific by this time he was the most widely syndicated reporter in t the h e world the only nan man in knowledge ever top bestsellers best bet sellers on the book markeli a at t once and ho could have commanded princely prices to lecture write tor for magazines or take any of a score ol of broadcasting otters offers george who had been through plenty w with ith him told him he was bound for stuff much worse and more dangerous than he had ever known george pointed out to him his situa tion on top of the world and literally I begged him not to go but er ernie n e said the very fact that he be had built up so large a following was a me mandate date and an obligation ho he quit in the middle he hadl bad i a L hunch he would never come backs back but he insisted he should go on i 1 ernie aks a light slight blight chap chal who was always alway cold wore wora two suits aulta of long lone heavy flannel uni during the earlier cami I 1 As we shook hands with him and he started off on the journey from which he was I 1 never to return he chuckled andi and said to george anyway fellow down there I 1 wont freeze to I 1 death I 1 the story of d d i jot joe takes himl him only as lar far as his turning to t thai h e road to rome 7 burgess meredith who gives an uncanny i tion studied under george and others who knew ernie well and acquired his little intimate mannerisms makes even evea those who knew pyle think he be looks like him but though he be Is a star and playing a greater one GI 01 too joe Is the hero collectively ot of thil this brave film I 1 call it brave because lester cowan put two and a halt million dollars into it though he had bid pledged ernie riot not to glorify him gave his principal character no suggestion of any sort of romance and contracted to let ernie emle throw out any scenes he be like he did discard several wb which ich were quite costly because they made too much of him and too little of the men he loved and who loved him perhaps it was this spirit and bacu facu faculty I 1 ty that lifted ernie pyle above lany other reporter of his generation lany IHO ile was a self effacing little fellow I 1 inot not physically brave who sweated and shuddered during action but who not only never ducked it but went weary and woebegone to seek it george tells we me that during the nightly nazi raids on london pyle would be panl panic stricken yet e he was the first one at his typewriter L when it stopped he had a lot of resistance as many wiry little men mea have with the kind of he be wrote he could have almost as well worked miles back of the front but the reporter in him drove him right to where things were thic thickest kesL after many long years at eva every i angle of the business I 1 am scarcely la a r tarry starry eyed worshiper of a mal man 11 1 simply imply because ho he does a newba newspaper per ejob job well devoting all my space i I 1 this week to ernie pyle makes th the e first time I 1 have done that since i 30 years ago this week I 1 wrote au an obituary tribute on paul armstrong I 1 who was the exact antithesis of the I 1 man I 1 deal with here that bear i out a theory which has long seem seemed ed 1 sound to to cie ea e a man to Is judged to in the I 1 direct ratio of what he accomplishes to what be attempts I 1 I 1 I 1 |