August 2, 1939: "Beau Geste" Premieres

Left to right: Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston

August 2, 1939: Beau Geste premieres, directed by William Wellman, and based on P.C. Wren's 1924 novel of 3 English brothers joining the French Foreign Legion in the years before World War I.

Gary Cooper, Ray Milland and Robert Preston star as the brothers. Among the other actors are Susan Hayward, Albert Dekker, Broderick Crawford, and, just 13 years old, Donald O'Connor as the child version of Cooper's character, Michael "Beau" Geste.

This film was yet another reason why 1939 was Hollywood’s greatest year -- but the trailer's tag "Savage Desert Tribesmen!" shows that this was well before the era of sensitive American movies.

It had first been filmed in 1926 (silent, of course), and would be again in 1966 (the 1st color version). It has been parodied many times, including by Laurel & Hardy (Beau Hunks, 1931), the Carry On films (Follow That Camel, 1967), and the Peanuts comic strip (one of Snoopy's many fantasies). In 1977, a parody film was made, The Last Remake of Beau Geste. In spite of that title, the BBC would make a serious miniseries (or a "serial," as they'd say in Britain) in 1982.

The French Foreign Legion (Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army created to allow foreign nationals into French service. The Legion was founded in 1831, at a time when many people in Europe were trying to escape a hard life in their own countries.

Legionnaires are today renowned as highly trained soldiers whose training focuses on traditional military skills and on the Legion's strong esprit de corps, as its men come from different countries with different cultures. Consequently, training is often described as not only physically challenging, but also very stressful psychologically.

Legionnaires may apply for French citizenship after 3 years' service, or immediately after being wounded in the line of duty. This latter provision is known as "Français par le sang versé": "French by spilled blood."

In the English-speaking world, the Legion is best known from old movies such as Beau Geste. But in the rest of the world, it has never recovered from its reputation of being part of the Armée d’Afrique, committing terrible acts in the Algerian War of 1954 to 1962.

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August 2, 1939 was a Wednesday. Horror film director Wes Craven was born. So was someone who made a true horror: George  W. Bush's Secretary of the Treasury, John W. Snow.

This was also the day that Albert Einstein and Leo Szilárd sent their letter concerning the building of an atomic bomb to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. And it was the day the Hatch Act became law. I have separate entries for those events.

These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 7-2 at Yankee Stadium. Bill Dickey hit a home run, but Atley Donald did not have good stuff.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-0 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Joe Bowman pitched a 5-hit shutout.

* The New York Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 12-2 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Mel Ott went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* A doubleheader was split at Fenway Park in Boston. The Cleveland Indians won the opener, 8-2. The Boston Red Sox won the nightcap, 5-4. Red Sox rookie sensation Ted Williams went 0-for-6, although he did draw 2 walks.

* A doubleheader was split at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Athletics won the 1st game, 13-4. The Chicago White Sox won the 2nd game, 2-1.

* The Washington Senators beat the St. Louis Browns, 2-1 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The St. Louis Cardinals were supposed to play the Boston Bees (as the Braves were known from 1936 to 1940) at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, but were rained out. It was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day. The Cards swept, 5-1 and 4-3.

* And the Philadelphia Phillies were supposed to play the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field in Chicago, but were rained out. It was rescheduled as part of a doubleheader on September 14. The Cubs swept, 13-1 and 5-2.