The Story of G.I. Joe | Figurine of "Ernie Pyle" War Correspondent seated at his typewriter

The Story of G.I. Joe (1945) is a war film directed by William Wellman, starring Burgess Meredith and Robert Mitchum. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Mitchum's only nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

The story is a tribute to the American infantryman ("G.I. Joe") during World War II, told through the eyes of Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Ernie Pyle, with dialogue and narration lifted from Pyle's columns. The film concentrates on one company, ("C Company, 18th Infantry"), that Pyle accompanies into combat in Tunisia and Italy. The friendships that grow out of his coverage lead Pyle to relate the misery and sacrifice inherent in their plight and their heroic endurance of it. Although the company has the designation of an actual unit, that unit did not participate in the combat in Italy that makes up the preponderance of the film, and actually represents the units of the 34th and 36th Infantry Divisions that Pyle did cover in Italy, and thereby all American G.I.s.

Although filmed with the cooperation of Pyle, the film premiered two months to the day after he was killed in action on Ie Shima during the invasion of Okinawa. In his February 14, 1945, column "In the Movies", Pyle commented: "They are still calling it "The Story of G.I. Joe." I never did like the title, but nobody could think of a better one, and I was too lazy to try."

I discovered this terrific figurine of "Ernie Pyle" War Correspondent seated at his typewriter who wrote the classic "The Story of G.I. Joe"

The "companion piece" to DD076 is our seated at his typewriter "Ernie Pyle" War Correspondent. This terrific little figure is full of character another "tribute" to the war correspondent Ernie Pyle who wrote the classic "The Story of G.I. Joe" which was later made into a great WW2 movie starring Robert Mitchum and Burgess Meredith as Pyle himself. Sadly, Ernie was killed later in the war. MORE»