Winged Victory (play)

Winged Victory is a play and, later, a film by Moss Hart, originally created and produced by the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II as a morale booster and as a fundraiser for the Army Emergency Relief Fund. Upon recommendation of Lt. Col. Dudley S. Dean, who had been approached with the idea by talent agent Irving Lazar and Lt. Benjamin Landis, Air Forces Commanding General Henry H. Arnold commissioned famed playwright Hart to create a stage drama that would depict both the training and work of airmen and also the commitment and devotion to duty with which they carried out this work. Arnold gave Hart complete access to Air Forces resources.

Hart traveled the United States visiting Air Forces bases and seeing firsthand how training was carried out. He then wrote an extremely patriotic and uplifting stage play based on his research. Hart partnered with Irving Lazar to produce the play and to gather actors for the huge (nearly 300) cast. Casting calls went out not only to well-known names but to Army units around the country for Air Forces personnel with theatrical or performing background. All male personnel involved with the show were service members of the U.S. Army Air Forces and were billed with their actual ranks. Among the then-notable or eventually-to-become-notable members of the cast and crew were Keith Andes, Alan Baxter, Don Beddoe, Whit Bissell, Sascha Brastoff, Red Buttons, Lee J. Cobb, Mario Lanza, Mark Daniels, Leonard De Paur, Brad Dexter, John Forsythe, Peter Lind Hayes, Harry Horner, Richard Travis, Karl Malden, Billy and Bobby Mauch, Kevin McCarthy, Gary Merrill, Ray Middleton, Barry Nelson, Edmond O'Brien, Walter Reed, George Reeves, Martin Ritt, Archie Robbins, David Rose, Henry Rowland, Alfred Ryder, Howard Shoup, Henry and Jack Slate, Claude Stroud, Don Taylor, and Victor Sen Yung. Most of the relatively few roles for women in the play were portrayed by wives of the actors.

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