One for the boys

There appears to be only one thing missing from a new exhibition opening today in Hollywood and devoted to Tinseltown and its relationship to the military: war movies.

Jan-Christopher Horak, curator of the Hollywood Entertainment Museum, knew it would be an ideological hot potato for “USO Presents Hollywood Salutes the Troops” to include war movies and the wide-ranging perspectives on war they’ve offered over the decades.

“I could not do this subject justice as a kind of a sidebar,” says Horak. “Hollywood’s relationship, support or lack of support for the military really depends on your ideological point of view and that becomes a very contentious issue. So I mostly focused on the USO and Hollywood without getting into the production of war films.”

The exhibition, mounted in partnership with the United Service Organizations, visually explores the relationship between show business and the American Armed Forces from 1941 through Afghanistan.

The impetus was not the war in Iraq.

“It started out really as a little show,” says Horak. “It was kind of a PR appetizer for our big fund-raiser on May 10 for Johnny Grant’s 80th birthday.” Grant, the honorary mayor of Hollywood, has tirelessly entertained troops for the USO since World War II.

“The exhibit just got bigger and bigger,” says Horak. “I think all together there are about 80 images alone. It turned from this little exhibit that was to run for two months to an exhibit that runs all summer.”

While there aren’t any war movies, actors who’ve starred in many are well-represented. One of Horak’s favorite items is a World War II shot of Henry Fonda after he’d finally succeeded in joining the Navy.

Fonda, born in 1905, was too old to enlist, yet “he tried over and over and over to get in,” says Horak. “Finally, he got into the Navy but only as a seaman. I have a photo of him getting his physical with his shirt off!” Horak found the snapshot in the L.A. Herald Examiner collection at the USC Library.

Mostly the material revolves around performers and their interactions with military personnel via the USO, which was born in 1941 shortly before the United States got involved in World War II.

“President Roosevelt probably knew we would get involved in the war,” says Horak. “In 1940, they started the draft. All of a sudden there was an army and navy of professionals, but also with a lot of civilians. Roosevelt felt there was a need to find some way to make the transitions [into military life] for all of these young recruits more palatable.

“There were quite a number of entertainers who really went to the front lines and were in harm’s way, like Marlene Dietrich and Bob Hope.” The latter, Horak adds, “went into the deepest jungles of Vietnam to do shows.”

One part of the exhibit pays tribute to actors who served in the military during wartime.

“There were the Ronald Reagans and the John Waynes who were only in military uniforms in the back lot,” Horak says. “Then there were the real soldiers, like Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable, who signed up and went overseas and flew combat missions. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. won six medals and was in heavy combat in the Navy.”

Hope has donated a golf club, ever-present during his USO shows; actor Jimmy Hawkins, who as a child appeared in “It’s a Wonderful Life” and later in “The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet,” has donated items from his USO tours of Vietnam.

“He has some great stuff, including his guitar and his banner,” says Horak. There is also Dorothy Lamour’s collection of letters from soldiers and photographs from her work at the Hollywood Canteen, selling war bonds and even christening ships.

“I have a couple of costumes from the TV series ‘JAG,’ ” Horak adds. “And even [comedian] Martha Raye’s combat boots!”

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‘USO Presents Hollywood Salutes the Troops’

Where: Hollywood Entertainment Museum, 7021 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood

When: Open daily except Wednesday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. through Memorial Day; daily, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., from Memorial Day through Labor Day

Cost: $8.75, adults; $5.50, seniors; $4.50, students; $4, kids 5-12. Active military personnel with ID, free; veterans with proof of military service will be admitted free on May 17 for Armed Forces Day.

Info: (323) 465-7900 or www.Hollywoodmuseum.com