John Baum in Living Color ?

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

Rare colour footage of John Baum ? You be the judge....

[Bil]

That's how I always pictured him,but without the confused look.I know he wears a pink hat to the shows,I had assumed the helmet was pink,too.PS-be careful with the funny pictures,DA-there are some of you still around..... ---bil

[JBaum]

Excellent picture. Another 50 pounds heavier and gray hair, and I could make a hell of an impression.

John Banner (Sgt. Schultz) was a refugee from Austria from before the war. He certainly was smarter than Colonel Klink, but was sharp enough to know who really ran things. Knowing when to keep your mouth shut is an asset of his that I always admired, too. He did his job without malice, but did the best he could under the circumstances. In real life he posed for an Army recruiting poster in 1942, long before he got chubby.

Werner Klemperer was offered the job as Col. Klink several times, but always refused. When they asked him what it would take for him to play the part, he told them it would have to be in his contract that if the Germans ever came out on top in an episode, that if they ever looked like anything but bumbling idiots, he would quit. His contract was written as such, and so it went.

LeBeau (Richard Clary) actually was a French Jew who still has the concentration camp serial number tattoo on his arm which he received as a boy. (The rest of his family died in the camp.) He appeared on a TV show once where someone disputed that the concentration camps existed. He rolled up his sleeve to show the tattoo, and said "Don't tell me it didn't happen, I was there!"

I think these three examples of casting the perfect personality for the part were a major contribution to the success of the series, along with Bob Crane as the smart alec senior officer.

Now for a bit of history to the uninitiated in such things. Since Hogan's Heroes were all shot down aviators, it was the Luftwaffe who guarded them. The German army ran the stalags for Army captives. The Luftwaffe uses yellow collar tabs, and brown leather gear instead of black leather like the army had. If you're going to do a Luftwaffe impression, you'll need to find a brown belt, ammo pouches, etc. to be correct.

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

All the actors on that show seemed to be larger in REAL life than their characters. Thanks for the Hogan's Heroes lesson, John! BTW... you got any pictures of Bil ?

[Bil]

Here ya go!! California dreamin'. ---bil

[JBaum]

Here's a favorite picture of me... no the FG isn't mine.

Also a favorite picture of my car... yes, the RoadRunner is mine - I bought it new in 1973.

[Bil]

Sweet!![the gun and car! ] I will still picture you as Schultz,though! ---bil

[42rocker]

Interesting old post about the translator of the German books into English and a few things about Hogans Hero's Any of these pics still out there??

Later 42rocker

[JBaum]

I still have the picture of me with the FG42 first model, and the picture of my car. Still have the actual car, too.

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

That car should make even Bil jealous.

[Gulfstream4]

Thanks for the history lesson. You rarely read about the sacrafices that todays "entertainment" overpaid hollywood types do. I was watching the history channel and saw that Eddie Albert Heimberger, star of many movies and the Green Acres TV series was taunted at school during WW1 as the enemy because of his German name. During WW2 he was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat "V" for his actions during the invasion of Tarawa in November 1943, when, as the pilot of a U.S. Coast Guard landing craft, he rescued 47 Marines who were stranded offshore (and supervised the rescue of 30 others), while under heavy enemy machine-gun fire.

I cannot name one movie star that served during Vietnam, Iraq, or Afganistan. Can anybody?

[42rocker]

Served, not at this time. Gave a Lot- Bob Hope and the stars that went with him.....

Interesting how a lot of Hollywood wants to tell us how to vote without having been there done that..

John your looking good in front of that old car. Wait that was the car you owned when you were a teen. Sorry about the old car statement....LOL....

Later 42rocker