A gift for Yountville veterans came with VIP passes to the new film ‘Jimmy’
Eddie Moynahan has a photograph with Rocky Marciano. After more than 70 years in boxing in one capacity or another, the 102-year-old World War II veteran has pictures with other champions, too. Following a Veterans Day screening of a new film, “Jimmy,” in Yountville, he thought of one more photograph he wished he could have taken.
“I would have loved to had a picture with Jimmy Stewart,” Moynahan said. “Wouldn’t that have been something? That would have been the pinnacle of my life.”
at The Estate Yountville for a special screening of the film “Jimmy.” Lisa Adams Walter photo
Moynahan was among about 112 veterans who gathered on Nov. 11 in the Barrel Room at The Estate Yountville for “A Hollywood Salute to Our Veterans,” a special screening of “Jimmy” for residents of the Veterans Home of California-Yountville.
Directed by Aaron Burns, the film stars KJ Apa as James Stewart and Max Casella as director Frank Capra. It follows Stewart from his Oscar win for “The Philadelphia Story” through his service as an Army Air Corps pilot and his return to Hollywood as George Bailey in Capra’s 1946 film “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
The Tug McGraw Foundation organized the screening with Burns & Co., the film’s production company, and The Estate Yountville and its owner, Gary Jabara.
“I think the film was true to nature. I mean, true to Jimmy Stewart,” Moynahan said. “He was evidently a wonderful man. And I’m sorry I never got to meet him.”
Jennifer Brusstar, president and CEO of the Tug McGraw Foundation, said the screening began with an invitation from the producers for the foundation and Tim McGraw to attend a premiere event with veterans in Nashville. Instead, Brusstar asked if residents of the Veterans Home could see the movie in Yountville. The producers sent her an advance copy.
“When I watched the advance copy, I saw our residents in it,” Brusstar said. “It’s the story of a man who served, came home changed and had to find his way back into everyday life.”
Brusstar considered the Cameo Cinema in St. Helena and the Napa Valley Museum before thinking of the Barrel Room, where the Napa Valley Film Festival held screenings. Its open floor plan offered more room for people using wheelchairs and walkers.
The Estate supplied the space, screen sound and refreshments, and its staff worked alongside foundation volunteers. Burns & Co. provided the film, and the foundation arranged bus transportation and brought aviator sunglasses, VIP passes and Moon Pies, creating a Veterans Day gift for those who served.
The glasses were a nod to World War II bomber pilots and to the aviators in the room, Brusstar said. The Moon Pies, which she said can be seen on a diner counter in the film, went with another detail on the VIP passes. On the back, organizers printed a line from “It’s a Wonderful Life” about lassoing the moon.
“It was our way of tying the afternoon back to a film so many of them love, and of telling them, in a small way, that they deserve the moon,” Brusstar said.
Napa Valley vocalist Kellie Fuller began the event by singing the national anthem.
part of the Veterans Day gift for attendees.
Lisa Adams Walter photos
In a video message before the screening, Jabara thanked the veterans for their service and the staff and volunteers who put the event together. “Our home is your home,” he said. “So, let’s see if we can make this the first of many movie nights in our Barrel Room.”
Stewart had been a civilian pilot before entering the Army Air Corps in 1941. He trained at Moffett Field in California, commanded a B-24 bomber squadron based in England and flew 20 combat missions, according to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. He remained in the Air Force Reserve after the war and was promoted to brigadier general in 1959.
His daughter, Kelly Stewart Harcourt, an executive producer of “Jimmy,” told “CBS News Sunday Morning” in a segment that aired on Nov. 1 that her father did not speak to his family about his military service and experienced nightmares, depression and anxiety after the war.
Those symptoms are now associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). During World War II, the military used terms such as “battle fatigue” for combat stress. PTSD became a formal diagnosis in 1980, informed in part by research on veterans returning from combat, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Center for PTSD. It has since become a central issue in veterans’ mental health care.
Brusstar, whose partner is a combat veteran, said a scene in which Stewart’s friend tries to pull him out of his thoughts stayed with her. “Many veterans carry an almost unbearable guilt about having survived when others didn’t, and the people who love them watch them carry it,” she said.
Navy veteran Elizabeth Stewart had tears in her eyes when the film ended. “My grandpa fought in World War I,” she said. “My dad fought in World War II in France and Germany and foxholes and trenches, making sure the last of the Germans were out of there. They didn’t talk much about war.”
Brusstar said another veteran told her the movie reminded him so much of his father that it made him cry. After a scene in which Stewart tells his squadron its crews will have to fly 30 missions instead of 20, another attendee told Brusstar his father had been among the men whose required missions increased.
“Moments like that show you how close this history still is for the people in that room,” she said.
The Tug McGraw Foundation is headquartered at the Veterans Home in Yountville, where its work with residents includes the Brain Food Garden and the Mixed Nutts softball team. Its namesake, World Series pitcher Tug McGraw, served in the Marine Corps Reserve during the Vietnam era, Brusstar said. The foundation grew out of his experience with brain cancer and now works with people facing brain health challenges, including brain injury and post-traumatic stress.
“An afternoon like this is brain health work,” Brusstar said. “Isolation is one of the hardest things a veteran can face, especially later in life, and connection, purpose and shared experience are some of the most powerful medicines we have.”
After the screening, veterans asked whether they could get together again over the holidays to watch “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Brusstar said the foundation is working on it. She said “Jimmy” had already changed how she sees the film she used to know.
“When I watch George Bailey, I see Jimmy Stewart himself, a man who had just come back from war and was struggling to find joy again,” she said.
Editor’s note: Gary Jabara and The Estate Yountville are part of the parent company that owns the Yountville Sun.
