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4.5
I really appreciate the excellent seller....basementseller101...the book I ordered was so very carefully wrapped...protected....just like the author wanted to protect our country...and did....I am so glad to have this book....and others in my collection...to be reminded to be profoundly grateful for our country. Thank you!!The first 20% of the book recounts Douglas' life prior to WW2. Apparently this was extracted from a previous book, "Salad Days". Even though I bought the book for his story of WW2 activity I found this background information equally fascinating. There seems to be no end of famous names that Jr. or his dad were involved with.Just prior to WW2 he volunteers for military service, realizing that the US would be involved shortly. From the way he describes it he tried to be as inconspicuous as possible and learn the jobs he was assigned, but everywhere he goes someone recognizes him. Most of his time was spent in the Mediterranean working for Mountbatten, who of course he knew prior to the war. His descriptions of his adventures are vivid, but without maps and such there is no attempt at a complete history of anything.At the end of the book and the way, we find that Jr.'s father knew Hirohito so Jr. had insight and suggestions on the surrender of Japan and permitting Hirohito to remain on the throne. Incredible stuff!This book is a lot fun, especially if you know a little about WW2 in the Mediterranean, otherwise you will want to have a globe or map handy.I read the first volume of Mr Fairbanks memoirs and liked it. My review can be found at that page. A wonderful autobiography of a man who challenged himself and created a new kind of warrior, the Seals. Not by himself of course, but he kept up a campaign for a type of "special effects" fake battlefield sets during a real war and with real and exceptionally dangerous enemies, the crack German navy, army and air force. It's fascinating reading to learn about what was "new" and of course, kept secret from the populace, like me. He had a double hazard, he was young and had been privileged and was of course a famous actor's son who became a famous actor in Hollywood. The Navy brass et al. leaned on him while his shipmates (he started as a Lieut. j.g. USNavy), were in awe at first; his enlistment began before the U.S. had entered the war in Europe. He admits in the book to "terror" a number of times during his service; acting a hero in films was easier; you could quit after a short while and re-shoot. I was so impressed by his recounting his appalling lack of naval experience and his fears and his dogged persistence to do the best job he could and of course stay alive even with the handicaps and the inevitable twists of fate that confront all who fight in a war. I must say despite being convinced that he deserved a medal or two, that I was amazed at all the medals he received from the U.S. and its allies.So was he. All the Americans not in the European Theatre or in Great Britain during WWII will be unable to comprehend the privation and the fears that the population underwent constantly. He puts us in the front view and stays for the duration, as "one of the fellows" fighting the war, in his very good book. And one does have the impression that like most "special intelligence" chaps, there remains many facts he did not relate or was not permitted to reveal even at this late date.Starts off a little boring and I probably wouldn't have continued on had I not known of his beach jumpers history. Glad I stayed with it as it just keeps on getting better. He was a true hero and the story needs to be told.Written as a sequel to his Film career, this book then includes the first quarter recounting some of the more amusing elements of this period of his life. It encourages you to skip it, if you have earlier read the book 'Salad Days', but as it was many years ago, I decided to recap, and was mildly amused. The remainder of the book proceeded in the same jaunty style, with Fairbanks managing to involve himself on the periphery of a great many major military events during the Atlantic (ie non-Pacific) side of the Naval war, where US was more ably supported by the British. He did get involved in a great many things, but it appears, thro name-dropping than pure ability.Having said that, compared to other Holywood stars, he did get closer to the action than the majority, and did appeared to have guns pointed at him, and I can only remember reading of Jimmy Stewart being in more obvious danger, and David Niven. When then got me thinking that the book did remind me of a poor shadow of the great biographies of Niven, and apart from their close friendship, their war career seemed to follow a similar course, however Niven's book 'The Moon's a Balloon' is a far superior read.By the end I was slightly tired of the name-dropping, but overall an easy unchallenging read.A really interesting, touching and amusing war story. I wish I had read it sooner.A remarkable contribution from one who did much, even before the war, to alert the US to the dangers building in Europe.The last part of his previous book, Salad Days, tells how he had the ear of FDR and, on his behalf, toured South Americato spread the word before USA joined in.This book - the second part of Fairbanks' autobiography - starts off badly. For anyone who had not read the first part of his autobiography, `The Salad Days' he devotes the first 66 pages of this second book as a truncated version of the first.The rest of the book deals purely with his war service - nothing else - and it becomes clear from this (and other publications in which this aspect of his life is dealt with) that he was generally not very well liked. Fairbanks did have a tendency to show-off, dress in inappropriate uniforms and exaggerate and although he tried to write this book in a self-deprecating fashion, it does end up as being self-serving, instead.During his lifetime, he received very many awards from different countries and therefore he is at pains to show that the decorations he received for his wartime service were for valour or had been received `in combat'. I certainly don't seek to detract from that; but to endlessly keep on about it does tend to get wearisome.Like his first book, this one is not well-written and as his naval service ends, so does the book with the optimistic words, `to be continued'. But it never was. Fairbanks' career in films took a dive but he had a television series and was involved in many charitable works. It's a pity that Fairbanks didn't produce just one, straightforward autobiography - or better still, commission someone to write it as a biography. Brian Connell did this in 1955, in his book `Knight Errant' when Fairbanks was aged 45, but then he lived for another 45 years.I believe Fairbanks was a very interesting character and that for every fault he possessed, he also had a virtue. Perhaps one day, someone will write a decent biography, from beginning to end about the man who was the famous son of a famous father.I have to agree with the first reviewer that this is not a well written book.It is frustrating that one quarter of theis book is devoted to the period encountered in his first book "Salad Days".What i really dislike about this book is his continuous namedropping.For example on page 165 he says that on his way back from base he dropped in on Noel where Larry and Viv were weekending..There doesnt seem to be any importance merely a chance to drop their names.At the end of the book he returns to his film career.He says that Anthony Quinn was marreied to Cecilia De Mille whereas he was married to Katherine DeMille.He states that in 1947,Pandro Berman was head of RKO,whereas he had moved to MGM in 1940.With that degree of accuracy maybe its better he never got around to another book.
