Winning Your Wings
About Winning Your Wings
A BT trainer lands. The pilot walks up to the camera and is James Stewart, an Army Air Forces officer. He takes questions from a college student, a high-school student, and a 26-year-old worker with a family, and tells each he can join and keep those commitments. The rest shows the physical exam, cadet training, and flying lessons.
Cast & crew
More about Winning Your Wings
John Huston directed this recruitment short for the U.S. Army Air Forces. Jack Warner produced it at Warner Bros. Alfred Newman wrote the music. It runs 18 minutes and opened in theaters in late May 1942. James Stewart narrates in uniform. Don DeFore plays the worker, uncredited. The article says the short brought in 150,000 recruits. No African American flyers appear, though the Tuskegee program was already training pilots.
Themes
Background
Released in late May 1942 as an Army Air Forces recruiting short.
Making
Huston stages the pitch as Stewart answering three men, then cuts to the training line.
Music
Alfred Newman wrote the music.
Preservation
Preserved in 2013 by the Academy Film Archive and the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
Notes
- Stewart's first line is that he wants to talk about the Army Air Forces.
- Crew from the short later formed the core of the First Motion Picture Unit.
- The Academy Film Archive and the UCLA Film and Television Archive preserved it in 2013.
- A copy is on the Internet Archive as WinningYourWings.
Scenes
- Stewart walks off the BT trainer and starts the talk.
- The worker with a family asks if he can still join.
Also available
- Internet Archive (WinningYourWings)
Quotes
I want to talk to you all today about one of my favorite subjects, the Army Air Forces.
