Page 6 - FF Spring 2022 Final

Page 6 Falcon Footnote

Tom Julian and Hollywood’s Golden Age

The busy studios needed shift. Like the others, his face Young Tom was also heard
more than the “stars” who was covered with simulated on the radio. Cecil B.
attracted people to their thea- “coal dust,” produced by DeMille was the host of Lux
ters. Non-speaking “extras” lampblack patted on top of Radio Theater, broadcasting
filled out scenes of all sorts. mineral oil. from Hollywood. Tom had
If you were at home when lines in the productions of
Central Casting called, you You can catch a glimpse of “The Sidewalks of London”
had a welcome source of him, depending on the print, starring Charles Laughton
Due to changes in American income for a short period, as Ronald Colman’s dying (November19, 1939) and
society, the background of one usually a day or two. Tom’s son in Clive of India (1935), “Goodbye Mr. Chips” with
early member of the Depart- extra work made a welcome one of Horatio Nelson’s sib- Lawrence Olivier (February
ment is unlikely to be duplicat- contribution to his family’s lings in Lloyd’s of London 12, 1940). For a season in
ed. The story of his early years income. (1936), as a young museum 1936, he was also a cast
helps illuminate one of our . visitor in Raffles starring Da- member of “The British Play-
country’s most dramatic peri- In the 1930s the Holly- vid Niven (1939), and as one ers Present” that broadcast a
ods, the Great Depression, and wood studios produced large of five English children being weekly original drama.
the entertainment industry that numbers of films with Eng- evacuated from London by
helped Americans get through lish settings. They provided truck under Diana Barry- Jack Schlight, another
early member of the Depart-
the hard times. employment for a very nu- more’s control in Eagle ment, told Tom that while he
Squadron (1942).
merous colony of British was finishing his Ph.D. at
Retired Colonel Tom Julian, expats led by C. Aubrey He also played one of the Princeton, he heard that Clive
a Naval Academy graduate Smith. A world class cricket- students in the memorable of India would be screened on
(Class of 1952) taught in the er before arriving in Holly- This Land is Mine (1943). Set late night television. He set
Department from 1959 to 1963. wood, he was the very stere- in German-occupied France, aside his research and
During a tour in Vietnam he otype of a British army colo- Charles Laughton and watched the program with his
won a Distinguished Flying nel. Prominent actors of the Maureen O’Hara are school- wife. Cuts had reduced the
Cross, and after finishing his time -- Ronald Colman, Bas- teachers as the Nazis seek to view of Tom to a quick view
doctoral dissertation, he again il Rathbone, Herbert Mar- shape students for their new through an open door of an
served in DFH from 1967 to shall, Cedric Hardwicke, and order by ripping pages that unidentifiable figure in bed.
1970 as Colonel Al Hurley’s Claude Raines -- had all celebrate French history out
deputy before leaving to attend been members of the London of their textbooks. In the face That marked the end of
the National War College. Scottish Regiment, and Col- of bombings and German Tom’s brief career that
man still carried a trouble- police, Laughton is a coward, moved on to more serious
Tom was the son of recent some leg wound suffered at and his students – “Tommy pursuits. Tom was an airlifter
immi grants. Although he was the first battle of Ypres. Martin” among them – run in both French Indo-China
an Armenian, his paternal roughshod in the classroom. and Vietnam, DCO and Vice
grandfather had been a surgeon This trend benefited Tom. But German cruelty gradually Commander of the largest
in the Ottoman Army. Coming Central casting listed him as stiffens Laughton’s resolve, wing in the Military Airlift
to America in 1913, the family “an English type” and he and in the last few moments Command, and Air Force
lived in Hollywood, California used a stage name, “Tommy before his arrest, “Tommy Fellow at the Council on For-
in the 1930’s. This was Holly- Martin,” borrowing the sur- Martin” and the other students eign Relations in New York.
wood’s “Golden Age,” and name from his Irish mother, stand in respect, and their In Europe he was chief of the
while Tom attended school, he born Margaret Martin of teacher delivers one last les- SHAPE Nuclear Policy Sec-
could also work as an extra or Carrackmacross, County son on the rights of man. It’s tion and the senior Special
Assistant to the Chief of Staff
bit player in films. Monaghan. deeply moving. under General Alexander
Haig. He was also director of
In 1943, when Tom was thir- Tom, quite anonymously, the Air Staff’s NATO Initia-
teen, 60 percent of the U.S. appeared in the celebrated tives and Action Division,
population went to the movies John Ford film, How Green one of the founding cadre for
weekly. Before there was tele- Was My Valley (1941), the NATO Staff Officers’
vision, the internet, social secu- which won the Oscar as Best Orientation Course at Nation-
rity, and unemployment insur- Picture. During several al Defense University, and
ance, going to movies was one weeks of work, Tom ap- NDU’s Director of Command
way to escape, for a few hours, peared in scenes as a “pit and Control Research. [DMB]
the economic realities of the boy” marching down a hill
Great Depression. from the colliery with other
“Welsh” miners after their “Tommy Martin” in the classroom