After returning from the war in Europe, actor turned war hero Colonel Jimmy Stewart chats on the phone in his father’s hardware store while his father speaks with a customer in 1945. Besides all the usual hardware goods, the store also boasted the actor turned war hero’s “Philadelphia Story” Oscar on display. Stewart won his Oscar for his work in the Philidelphia Story prior to joining the war effort. After taking the award in 1940, his father phoned him and said “I hear you won some kind of award. What was it a plaque or something? Well, you better bring it back here and we’ll put it in the window of the store. The Oscar would be displayed there for 25 years alongside other family awards and military medals. Stewart would become the first major American movie star to enlist in the United States Army to fight in World War II and was one of very few Americans to rise from the rank of Private to Colonel in less than five years. As a result of the 20 combat missions he flew over Germany as leader of a squadron of B-24’s, Colonel Stewart was awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses and the Croix de Guerre.
