The MMOB Daily Quote - Jimmy Stewart

James "Jimmy" Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997)

Today The MMOB Daily Quote brings us words from the great American actor Jimmy Stewart. It's difficult to come up with enough superlatives to do justice to the guy who helped make classics of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Philadelphia Story, Harvey, It's a Wonderful Life, Rear Window, Rope and Vertigo. Simply put: Wow!

What you may not know is that Mr. Stewart enrolled in the Army as a Private during WWII. By the time it was over, he had piloted many dangerous missions, reportedly quite a few of them were over the heart of Nazi Germany, and reached the rank of Colonel. He continued to serve in the Air Force Reserve following the war, and achieved the rank of Brigadier General in 1959.

While he starred in many great, and some not-so-great, films I've always been partial to his roles in Westerns, especially the 1962 John Ford classic How the West Was Won. Here's a YouTube clip of the famous train robbery sequence so you can get a taste of the film.

And now, here are some quotes from the one and only Jimmy Stewart to get us started on a Wednesday morning.

“Never treat your audience as customers, always as partners.”

“I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, and I'm happy, Doctor, I finally won out over it.”

“When it came to kissing, Harlow was the best.”

“I was going to be an architect. I graduated with a degree in architecture and I had a scholarship to go back to Princeton and get my Masters in architecture. I'd done theatricals in college, but I'd done them because it was fun.”

“After the awards, I didn't win, my father called me up and told me that the man from Johnstown had put all kinds of signs in the theatre saying, 'This year's Academy Award winner... ' because my father had said I was going to win. And I didn't. But this guy asked if it would be alright if he took the Oscar and put it in the lobby and put a sign saying, 'This is what it would look like if he had won'.”

“My mother approved, my father just didn't accept the idea of my being an actor. I think that's the reason he kept the hardware store in operation, because I think he was pretty sure that I was going to be found out sooner or later, and he wanted to have a job for me to come back to.”

“It's well done if you can do a part and not have the acting show.”

“I always told Hitch (Alfred Hitchcock) that it would have been better to put seats around the set and sell tickets.”

Cheers! - Jason