Came across this list by Bonnie Boyd Heath of movie stars who were Jehovah's Witnesses. Thought some of you might find it interesting.
http://www.watchtowerdocuments.com/downloads/1940s-JW_Movie_Stars_by_Bonnie_Boyd_Heath.pdf
Bonnie Boyd Heath's JW Movie Star List
by Kenneson 9 Replies latest jw friends
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Kenneson
P.S. Bonnie Boyd Heath had some connection to Judge Rutherford. I tried to post the link "Rutherford Exposed: The Story of Berta and Bonnie," found on this forum, but I keep getting an error.
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Farkel
I've seen that list. I forget where.
What is interesting is why there is even a list about movie stars who were JWs. Mickey Spillane became a major disappointment when he rejected the religion and went back to writing his "racy" novels. Shoot, his novels would be "G" rated today!
When it comes to Bonnie Boyd-Heath, I am one very informed person on that one. If you don't already know that, or don't believe me, just say so!
Farkel
Farkel
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Leolaia
"When it comes to Bonnie Boyd-Heath, I am one very informed person on that one."
LOL, you almost sounded like McCain for a second ;)
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Leolaia
Kenneson...The thread got corrupted, unfortunately. But thanks to the foresight of some JWDers, 99.9% of the content was saved and I was able to format it as a PDF. The "Berta & Bonnie" thread can be accessed here:
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Kenneson
Thank you so much Leolaia. I appreciate that very much.
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Farkel
Leolaia,
You simply must marry me.
Farkel
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DNCall
Thanks for the list.
Bonnie's account of a close relative of mine on the list was especially interesting, inaccuracies and all.
DNCall
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Juan Viejo2
Here is a later link to the original Bonnie Heath list of movie stars. Barbara's website has been updated during the past two years, so some of the original links have been modified.
http://watchtowerdocuments.org/documents/1940s-JW_Movie_Stars_by_Bonnie_Boyd_Heath.pdf
and here for those of you who use Google Docs:
JV
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Juan Viejo2
I have no idea why this popped up at the top when I logged in, but I notice that no one had commented on this for seven years.
In any case, I've found that there were actually many other JW celebrities who were known during the 30s-60s. Some were in and well-known. Others were only rumored to be JWs.
Bonnie's list included a couple that I was aware of, but had forgotten about over the years.
We all know about Mickey Spillane becoming a JW, but the strains on his career and the constant criticism of his profession as a murder mystery paperback writer made it tough for him to function. It didn't help that as he was getting deeper into the JW religion - at the same time his books became more popular and both TV and motion pictures were buying his books and making them into popular series. He fought through the criticism from both sides for quite a while, but finally fell out for a few years and was reportedly disfellowshipped. However, it was also reported that he "repented" a few years before his death and died "faithful."
One that was not mentioned in Bonnie's list was "Our Miss Brooks" - Eve Arden. Very popular TV actress in the 1950s, she was reportedly seen attending several circuit and district assemblies in the Los Angeles area. My mother reported that she saw and spoke to Ms. Arden while using the ladies room during a convention and found her very friendly and open - and funny. But she would not do autographs during assemblies.
However, after I added her to one of my celebrity lists on Ex-JW.com ( http://ex-jw.com/celebrities-jws-2 ), her son wrote me and took issue with the reports of Ms. Arden ever being a JW. His position was that she was Christian Scientist and always had been. However, Jim Penton also included her name in his first "Apocalypse Delayed" book - so there must have been something going on with her at the time.
One name that Bonnie included was "Pioneer" Wally Ruth. No one remembers him anymore. However, back in the late 1940s and early 1950s, he was the most popular member of Spade Cooley's western band that was first on TV in Southern California and later nationwide. There were several unique characters that were a part of that show, but Wally could play any instrument and could sing both funny hee-haw songs and beautiful ballads. However, he was best known as "Lottie/Lotta Chatter." He would put on an old baggy and shapeless house dress and a wild wig with a hat full of pins. He'd come out and tell a few jokes or pull a prank on the guest star or Spade Cooley himself. His schtick was to take over another person's sentence and turn it completely around or into a joke. According to Bonnie's account he brought in a lot of converts. He is all but forgotten now - as is Spade Cooley - once the most popular musical show and TV celebrity until Liberace came along.
I'm sure that there were many more among the thousands of movie extras, stage hands, writers and production staff. My mother told me a story about a somewhat famous JW (name escapes me) who was a supporting actor. He turned down many of the roles that were available at the time for guy actors like him during the early 1940s - soldiers, sailors, preachers, priests, gangsters, bad cowboys. Supposedly he had appeared in uncredited rolls in "Mutiny on the Bounty" and "Gone With the Wind." But his career was over and he supposedly became a JW missionary to Mexico or South America.
Slightly off-topic: What is little known but was mentioned a few times in my Kingdom Hall during the 1950s was the problems facing many JW male converts after WW2.
Many USA soldiers became JWs after the end of WW2 after serving their country during the war. However, some were called back into service during the Korean War and faced imprisonment for being conscientious objectors and refusing to answer the call back.
I only knew of one personally. He had served as a Marine combat photographer and had been through many battles in the Pacific just before the end of the war. He worked for the movie studios and for local LA TV stations as a cameraman. In 1950, he was called back into military service and was ordered to report to El Toro Marine Base. He refused and explained that he was now a JW "minister." They turned down his excuse - pointing out that he was actually a photographer and the Marines would need combat photographers for the Korean War. He stood his ground. They were going to arrest him and throw him in the base brig. Fortunately, in his case he had a child after the war, so they finally gave him a differment for that reason, not because of his new "ministerial exemption" - but he could have faced up to 4 years in prison in spite of his previous service.
JV