“Forgotten Hollywood”- Goodbye Vietnam…
Manny P. here… 
“`Adrian Cronauer was the broadcaster whose military radio antics inspired the character played by Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam. Robin made the refrain famous in the 1987 film, loosely based on Cronauer’s time in Saigon. ADRIAN CRONAUER —>
“`Cronauer was Pittsburgh native, the child of a steelworker and a schoolteacher. He attended the University of Pennsylvania’s law school, which let to employment in communications law, and then, handling prisoner-of-war cases for the Pentagon. After the military, Adrian worked in radio, television and advertising.
“`The military brass wanted conservative programming. American youths, however, were not into sterile announcements with middle-of-the-road music, and a battle over the airwaves was in full swing. In the movie, Williams quickly drops Perry Como and Lawrence Welk from his 6a playlist in favor of the Dave Clark Five.
“`This flick was a departure from other Vietnam war movies that focused on bloody realism, such as the Academy Award-winning Platoon. Instead, it was about irreverent youth in the 1960s fighting the military. The production was inspired after Cronauer watched Apocalypse Now and determined that his service had little to do with combat.
“`Initially, producers nixed an idea of developing a screenplay about the subject matter. The film was pivotal in changing the way Americans thought about the Vietnamese and the war; similar to a style of comedy presented in M*A*S*H and WKRP in Cincinnati. For his role, Williams received an Oscar nomination.
“`During his service as a United States Air Force sergeant in 1965 and 1966, Cronauer opened his Armed Forces Radio show with the phrase, Good morning, Vietnam! He loved the movie, but said much of the film was Hollywood make-believe.
“`Adrian Cronauer was 79.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 19th, 2018 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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