Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Bombs and Babies A War Bride's Diary by Peter J. Cooper Robert Armstrong (actor) Robert Armstrong (November 20, 1890 – April 20, 1973) was an American film actor remembered for his role as Carl Denham in the 1933 version of King Kong by RKO Pictures. He uttered the famous exit quote, "'T'was beauty killed the beast," [1] at the film's end. Contents. Early years [ edit | edit source ] Born Robert William Armstrong [note 1] [2] [3] [4] [5] in Saginaw, Michigan, lived in Bay City, Michigan until about 1902 and moved to Seattle, Washington. He attended the University of Washington, where he studied law, [5] and became a member of Delta Tau Delta International Fraternity. [6] Armstrong gave up his studies to manage his uncle's touring companies. Career [ edit | edit source ] In his spare time, Armstrong wrote plays, which eventually led to him appearing in one of them when it was produced. Armstrong served in the United States Army in World War I, and upon his return home after the war, Armstrong discovered his uncle had died while he was away. In 1926, he went to London and appeared for a season on the British stage. Armstrong's silver screen career began in 1927 when he appeared in Pathé's silent drama The Main Event . [7] He appeared in 127 films between 1927 and 1964; very prolific in the late 1920s and early 1930s, he made nine movies in 1928 alone. He is best known for his role as director Carl Denham in King Kong . Months later, he starred as Carl Denham again in the sequel, Son of Kong , released the same year. He resembled King Kong producer and adventurer Merian C. Cooper, and Cooper used him in several films as more or less a version of himself. The Most Dangerous Game was filmed at night on the same jungle sets as King Kong , which was shot during the day, with Armstrong and Fay Wray simultaneously starring in both pictures. In 1937, Armstrong starred in With Words and Music (also referred to as The Girl Said No ), released by Grand National Films Inc. He also worked throughout the 1930s and 1940s for many film studios. Prior to World War II, in 1940, Universal Pictures released Enemy Agent , about countering a Nazi spy ring. In the film, Armstrong co-starred with Helen Vinson, Richard Cromwell and Jack La Rue. In 1942, he was reteamed with Cromwell in Baby Face Morgan, a notable B movie for PRC (Producers Releasing Corporation). Later in that decade, Armstrong played another Carl Denham-like leading character role as "Max O'Hara" in 1949's Mighty Joe Young. This film was another stop-motion animation giant gorilla fantasy, made by the same King Kong team of Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. In the 1950s, he appeared as Sheriff Andy Anderson on Rod Cameron's syndicated western-themed television series, State Trooper . Armstrong made four guest appearances on Perry Mason during its nine-year run on CBS: in 1961 he played the title character and murder victim Captain Bancroft in "The Case of the Malicious Mariner"; in 1962 he played defendant Jimmy West in "The Case of the Playboy Pugilist"; and in 1964 he played murderer Phil Jenks in "The Case of the Accosted Accountant." Marriages [ edit | edit source ] (August 1920 - April 17, 1925; divorced) Ethel Virah Smith (June 12, 1926 - July 27, 1931; divorced) Gladys Dubois (January 10, 1936 - December 31, 1939; divorced) [8] Claire Louise Frisbie (January 1, 1940 - April 20, 1973; his death) [8] Death [ edit | edit source ] Armstrong died of cancer in Santa Monica, California. He and King Kong' s co-producer, Merian C. Cooper, died within sixteen hours of each other. [9] Sleeping with the enemy: The British women who fell for German PoWs. With each step they took, hand in hand along the bomb-ravaged streets of Southampton, the sight of June Tull and her boyfriend incited insults and fury. "Aren't our boys good enough for you?" yelled one woman. Another ran up to June and punched her. Others spat in her face. How could she, they asked, fraternise with the enemy when their own fathers, husbands and sons had been killed by the Germans? For 18-year-old June's boyfriend was German prisoner of war Heinz Fellbrich, 25, a fact which was advertised wherever they went by the PoW's brown uniform with orange felt patches he had to wear at all times. "There was a lot of hostility towards us," recalls June, now 79. "I could understand it because people had lost loved ones in the war, but all that mattered to me was that I loved Heinz. "However, it wasn't easy. We tried to go to quiet places when we were together so people wouldn't see us. "My father Frank was all right about it, but my mother was against the relationship. She worried about what people would think." Especially when four months into the courtship - which began at the end of January 1947 - June, who was by this time sleeping with the enemy having written a "Dear John" letter dumping her Royal Marine boyfriend, became pregnant. "I was scared stiff," says June. "Falling pregnant outside marriage was bad enough - but with a German PoW! Scroll down for more. "I dread to think what would have happened if Heinz hadn't wanted to marry me." Three months pregnant, June married Heinz on August 14, 1947, at the Civic Centre in Southampton - much to her mother Winifred's chagrin. June wore a blue suit borrowed from a friend, and other German PoWs had made Heinz a brown suit without the orange patches. June was the first British woman to marry a German PoW following Clement Attlee's postwar government's decision to lift the ban on fraternisation and marriage - an event so controversial it made newspaper headlines. At the reception at the Labour Hall, there was a German Oompah band - made up of other PoWs - and guests ate a simple buffet prepared the night before by June and a girlfriend, after her mother refused to help. When they emerged, they were greeted by the pop of flashbulbs from newspaper photographers. At 10pm sharp, Heinz was back behind the barbed wire at the PoW camp - having been given permission to marry by the camp commandant - and June begged him not to slip out to meet her later, which would be punished by solitary confinement. Their "wedding night" took place the following day at June's home, when Heinz was allowed to visit his new wife. He was released from the PoW camp one week before their eldest son Peter was born. This week, June and Heinz celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary with 70 family members and friends at the Methodist Hall in Eastleigh, Hampshire, and today will fly to Hamburg to celebrate again with Heinz's German family. They have six children - four boys and two girls - 12 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren, and say they are as in love today as the first moment they caught sight of each other back in 1947. Theirs is a remarkable love story, especially when set against the intense hostility and bitterness towards the British women who fell in love with German PoWs. "After our wedding we received two sackloads of hate mail. "I didn't read it all because I knew what people would say. But there was one lovely letter which said: "You can't choose who you fall in love with, just be happy," says June. "I refused to let it bother me and I'm glad of that. We have been incredibly happy. "I don't regret falling in love with Heinz, although for a long time we felt very isolated." Heinz adds: "The British people were much harder on June than they were on me, but once they got to know me, the fact I was German became irrelevant. "Of course I was sorry for the suffering of the people who'd lost loved ones or their homes, but the German people had suffered, too. It is the nature of war. "Since falling in love with June, I have never once felt homesick for Germany. "This is my home. I like the people, the country and being here. We have been very lucky." It was in late 1939 that the first prisoners of war arrived in Britain and were held in two camps. Their numbers remained small as the Government was reluctant to accept PoWs while the threat of Nazi invasion was imminent - but by the end of the war there were more than 600 camps. Each camp was given a number and was either a disused building, such as a factory, or was made up of specially constructed corrugated iron buildings known as Nissen huts. More than 400,000 German PoWs were still being held in Britain in 1946, the year after World War II ended, with Attlee's government refusing to repatriate the Germans until well after the war was over. During 1946, up to one-fifth of all farm work in Britain was being done by unpaid German PoWs, and they were also employed on road works and building sites. When the ban on fraternisation was lifted just before Christmas 1946, many British people chose to put the war behind them and welcomed PoWs into their homes. By the end of 1947, around 250,000 German PoWs had been returned home. The last were repatriated in 1949, but approximately 24,000 decided to stay in Britain - either because they'd met a British girl or because their home towns were now in Russian-held territory and they feared another spell of imprisonment in Soviet hands.