Inspiration for Gary Kidney’s The Eagle Scout Picture
One Against War, the story of Jeannette Rankin
As Gary Kidney, Author, I have a passion for World War II stories. Especially ones that few people knew.
I grew up studying American History from the atate-approved textbooks, like most U.S. citizens. But outside of class, the buzz of conspiracy theories told me there was more to the start of the war than school was willing to admit.
Watching the film Pearl Harbor (2001) made me wonder how to separate history from myth. Boys playing baseball at 7:55 AM on a Sunday morning? Highly unlikely. A Japanese-American getting a trans-Pacific phone call asking about the weaher? If that was possible, why did the U.S. have to send telegraph cables instead of picking up the phone? I knew about two pilots who managed to engage the fight that day-heroes Ken Taylor and George Welch, but they didn’t go on to fly in the Doolittle Raid.
So, I dove into a study of how the U.S. reacted to Pearl Harbor. I found a little known story of Jeannette Rankin, who was the only dissenting vote on the declaration of war against Japan, and decided to tell it.
You can read my non-fiction article about what I learned.
Posted March 1, 2025
Inspiration and More
Jud Suss, the movie that fueled the holocaust
As Gary Kidney, Author, my journey began with a passion for storytelling, leading to the creation of The Eagle Scout Picture.
Writing The Eagle Scout Picture was a daunting task. I’m not talking about setting down the words or researching a ton of history. I’m referring to the deep psychological state of having to inhabit the character of an American who must be Nazi. Some scenes haunted my sleep. I’m told I woke up from nightmares shouting in German, a language I do not know.
I was troubled by understanding how a typical German could fall for the Nazi propaganda. On a trip to Germany in 2011, I finally understood.
I had the opportunity to tour the “Topography of Terror” museum at a very famous Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse address – the headquarters of the Gestapo and the SS. As I followed along the panels documenting the history of persecution against the Jews, I found a panel that mentioned Goebbel’s propaganda films and their role in catalyzing the holocaust. The section on Jud Suss and Veit Harlan mentioned that he was the only filmmaker charged with crimes against humanity following the war. I was familiar with Leni Riefenstahl and her films Olympia and Triumph of the Will. Both had been shown in my college history classes as examples of Nazi propaganda, but there was no tie to the Holocaust. I thought I knew quite a bit about pre-war Germany, but, obviously, not enough. I had never heard of Jud Suss or Veit Harlan. I felt compelled to watch and learn. Only then did I fully understand how the Holocaust could have happened,
You can read my non-fiction article about what I learned.
Posted December 22, 2024
