Lew Ayres: Conscientious Objector
I just watched the entire Dr. Kildare series and really enjoyed them. I never had much interest in Lew Ayres, probably because I just hadn't seen enough of his films, but I came to like him through the Dr. Kildare series, and therefore wanted to read up on him a bit. Apparently he was a sincere and kind man in real life, and I guess the gentle calmness he exudes on the screen is a natural result from his own character. He often portrayed doctors in his film career and was very well suited for these parts because of his intellectual appearance and distinguished manner. One thing that constantly came up while reading about him (apart from his acting career and his marriage to Ginger Rogers) was his choice to be a conscientious objector during World War II. I will write a bit about this here.
Born on 28 December 1908, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as an only child to parents who divorced when he was four years old, little Lew was very close to his paternal grandmother. She was a music teacher who taught him how to play the piano and introduced him to the world of silent cinema. Lew was only seven years old when he decided he wanted to become a movie star. (It was the music business, though, that started his professional career.) With roles in the acclaimed All Quiet on the Westerfront, the Dr. Kildare series and Holiday (starring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn), his star and popularity were rising. Then the war happened and his film career was seemingly over.
Born on 28 December 1908, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as an only child to parents who divorced when he was four years old, little Lew was very close to his paternal grandmother. She was a music teacher who taught him how to play the piano and introduced him to the world of silent cinema. Lew was only seven years old when he decided he wanted to become a movie star. (It was the music business, though, that started his professional career.) With roles in the acclaimed All Quiet on the Westerfront, the Dr. Kildare series and Holiday (starring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn), his star and popularity were rising. Then the war happened and his film career was seemingly over.
When the United States entered World War II, many Hollywood actors (like Clark Gable, Tyrone Power, David Niven, Kirk Douglas and James Stewart) felt the need to serve their country in combat. But Lew, being a pacifist, objected to participating in killing. When he was drafted, he was willing to serve but not in active combat. He requested to be classified as an conscientious objector (CO) and to serve in non-combatant duty in the Army Medical Corps. The military could not guarantee his CO classification since he did not belong to any church or religious organisation nor a pacifistic sect (and also objected to joining one). Lew asked to be recognised as a CO on religious grounds, claiming he had a religion of his own.
I read several articles and publications on the internet about Lew's conscientious objector case, and many of these publications claim that his decision to become a CO resulted from the experience of making the anti-war film All Quiet On the Westerfront. Lew's biographer Lesley Coffin states that his decision not wanting to participate in active combat was not a direct result from the above-mentioned film. His pacifistic beliefs had gradually formed over the course of many years through studying religion and philosophy, and his convictions were a result from quiet self-discovery and simply wanting to live by his own beliefs and moral views. He felt very strongly about living his own truth and this meant that he was willing to fully accept the consequences for his film career. At the time he was at the height of his popularity, being the star of the Dr. Kildare series.
Without a CO classification, Lew could be drafted for combat duty and could face a 5-year prison term if he would refuse and stand by his principles. When the Selective Service Board finally accepted his CO application (they were impressed by his sincerity), it still left the matter of CO category. The enlightening article The "Good" Conscientious Objector Lew Ayres (on HistoryNet) helped me to get a better understanding of Lew's CO classification and assignment to different camps. Lew had requested to serve as a medic. He should have been classified as I-A-O, the category for conscientious objectors who were available for non-combatant military service. For some inexplicable reason they gave him IV-E status, a category which was meant for those who objected to all military service. (IV-E status was for conscientious objectors who were available for or assigned to civilian work of national importance.) Lew was sent to a CO camp, also called CPS (Civilian Public Service) camp, at Cascade Locks, Wyeth, Oregon, where he arrived on the 1st of April 1942. The camp was operated by the Brethren and Mennonite churches. These first CPS projects were in rural areas where the men worked in agriculture and forestry, doing lumber work and felling trees. Lew served on the emergency first-aid staff.
The CO case of Lew Ayres was front page news. The general public was outraged with him for not willing to take up arms while their sons were out there fighting for their country. Variety magazine said Lew was "a disgrace to the industry"; Nicholas Schenck, president of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, released him of his contract and movie theaters banned his films. Fortunately there was also support, among others from a number of colleagues (Lionel Barrymore, Donna Reed, Humphrey Bogart and Olivia De Havilland). Also gossip columnist Hedda Hopper was sympathetic towards Lew and wrote about his courage. Many of these liberal-minded people would later object to the McCarthy witchhunt.
According to biographer Coffin, Lew had always insisted that he was unaware of the public outcry at the time since there was limited access to the press in the CO camp. But it was inevitable that the publicity reached the board in Washington who had made the error of the IV-E classification. General Lewis B. Hershey, who also served as the second Director of the Selective Service System, gave immediate orders to the California Board to consider reclassifying Lew. This also went down the wrong way with the public, because they felt Lew received unfair preferential treatment if he was allowed to transfer. Even the American Legion wrote an official letter to General Hershey protesting any reclassification of Lew. They believed civilians shouldn't be allowed to request their assignment of duty.
Still, the California Board rectified its error and reclassified Lew as I-A-O. On 18 May 1942, he was sworn in as a soldier during an induction ceremony for the army in Portland, Oregon. When he had sworn his oath, he made it clear to the attending press that his views and beliefs had not changed. He was still a Conscientious Objector but he wanted to work with the Army Medical Corps. He left for his basic army training at Hood River in California. He would follow the same training as his fellow soldiers but never with a gun in his hand.
The army could still assign I-A-O soldiers to other non-combatant jobs, not just medical ones. Lew knew this but he had insisted that the Medical Corps was the only branch that matched with his principles and beliefs. The government was cooperative and his Medical Corps assignment was a fait accompli. He was sent to Camp Barkley, Texas, for another training. Now a private eye, he was trained as a hospital ward attendant. Soon he was promoted to sergeant and also to first-aid instructor in the medical training center.
Some time elapsed. Having enough of teaching and wanting to do something constructive, Lew applied for a job overseas. He accepted a position as a medic and chaplain's assistant in the Pacific which requested a drop in rank. In May 1944, Lew arrived in New Guinea, where he was assigned to an evacuation hospital. Here in the Pacific he could really make himself useful. A couple of months after his arrival, on 20 October 1944, American troops landed on the island Leyte in the Philippines and the full extent of the war became evident. There were many civilian casualties and Lew was there to help. He was one of 16 medics to set up the evacuation hospital. He was also present at Luzon in January 1945 where he contracted dengue fever, a serious illness that was widespread in the Pacific during the war. It took a considerable time for him to recover but he did.
After almost two years overseas, Lew set foot again on American soil. A survivor of three beach landings in Hollandia (Kota Bharu), Luzon, and Leyte, he was awarded with three battle stars for his admirable work and bravery. He had served a total of three-and-a-half years in the Medical Corps (from 1942 to 1946). He had tended to wounded soldiers and civilians in the Philippines and New Guinea. Together with other medics he had also performed most of the burials. On top of that, he had donated his full army salary to the American Red Cross.
Lew resumed his work as an actor after the war but never reached the same status of his early stardom. Still, he did some of his best work in The Dark Mirror (1946) and Johnny Belinda (1948), and even earned an Academy Award nomination for Johnny Belinda, clearly an indication that Hollywood had accepted him back. A lot had to do with public opinion and the fact that he had earned himself the admiration of the public for serving honourably as a non-combatant medic.
Looking back on his life, Lew would belittle his contributions to cinema and there were even periods when he regretted becoming an actor. The only project he was really proud of and the one he considered to be his life's work was the documentary series Altars of the East (1956). He spent more than a decade working on the series and re-edited them into the documentary film Altars of the World (1976), bringing his Eastern philosophical beliefs to the screen and earning him a Golden Globe for Best Documentary in 1977. He continued working in film and television and died in 1996 at the age of 88.
Coming to the end of this post, I want to add I enjoyed reading about Lew Ayres. People who'd worked with him or knew him thought positively of him. Sincere, helpful, friendly, are among the many adjectives that were attributed to him. He must have been a remarkable man. I think that if the war had not happened and his film career would have become even more successful, he probably would never have gotten the same satisfaction out of his film career as the fulfilment he got from serving as a medic. The man who starred in the greatest anti-war movie (that I still need to see for the first time!) became a symbol for peaceful resistance.
Main sources:
*The "Good" Conscientious Objector Lew Ayres, article on HistoryNet, by Joseph Connor, February 2018;
*Q&A-interview with Lesley L. Coffin on Silver Screen Oasis;
*excerpts from Lew Ayres: Hollywood's Conscientious Objector (November 2012) by Lesley L. Coffin, via Google books;
* Selective Service System Classifications
PHOTOS IN THIS POST FROM TOP TO BOTTOM:
*The "Good" Conscientious Objector Lew Ayres, article on HistoryNet, by Joseph Connor, February 2018;
*Q&A-interview with Lesley L. Coffin on Silver Screen Oasis;
*excerpts from Lew Ayres: Hollywood's Conscientious Objector (November 2012) by Lesley L. Coffin, via Google books;
* Selective Service System Classifications
PHOTOS IN THIS POST FROM TOP TO BOTTOM:
*Lew Ayres in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930);
*Lew Ayres in Johnny Belinda (1948);
*Lew Ayres in the Army Medical Corps, 1942;
*Lew Ayres leaves Wyeth and joins the line at the induction center, 1942;
*Lew Ayres getting the requisite vaccinations, 1942; (2 photos)
*Lew Ayres treating a wounded Japanese prisoner in Leyte in a hospital set-up during the war in the Philippines;
*Lew Ayres treating a native in the Pacific during WWII.