The Next Voice You Hear

Generation Exploitation had a great post on the 1950 movie The Next Voice You Hear. The premise James Whitmore) is listening to the radio one evening when his regularly scheduled program is suddenly interrupted by the voice of the Christian God. As Generation Exploitation puts it: "One can't help wondering, given the year and the context in which the film was made, if this was MGM's attempt to get the House of Unamerican activities off their back. As in, 'See, we believe in God and America - we ain't no commies!' "

Of course, the irony of all this is Whitmore is actually an atheist. In a recent interview on XM Radio's Bob Edwards Show, Whitmore told Bob about how he grew up a very pious young man, an altar boy. However, after serving as a Marine officer through some of the worst fighting in the Pacific, Whitmore came home a changed man. He said that after seeing the things he saw in the war, there was no way he could believe in God anymore. Kind of sad, but it makes an interesting story.

Oh, and another piece of Whitmore trivia -- he played football at Yale, where his coach was his future President Gerald Ford. I remember Whitmore saying that they were related somehow, but I can't find any attribution for this.