Eyman is one of the premier Hollywood/film historians working today and this biography of a Fonda and Stewart' friendship is a paean to a lost time - Hollywood's golden era, WWII - and the recounting of an enduring relationship between two very different seeming movie stars. The book explores Hollywood and the broadway theater and the interesting circle of actors, playwrights, directors and producers in Fonda and Stewart' s orbit. Fascinating and well written. Highly recommended.

I’d always heard about Henry Fonda’s poor relationship with his daughter, Jane, but didn’t understand why it was so. I still don’t. Jane describes him as a pent-up guy, but his friendship with Jimmy Stewart was as intimate as he ever got with anyone. Together, they relaxed and had fun, which they couldn’t do separately.
They were both tall and skinny, laconic and shy, loners, with the same sense of humor―wry and goofy. They shared an apartment in New York in the 30s with Myron McCormick and Josh Logan, subsisting on rice. They attended art openings and gorged on hors d’oeuvres. Together, they built model airplanes.
Much has been written about Stewart’s war years as a B-24 pilot. Fonda served as an naval intelligence officer aboard the USS Curtiss in the Pacific. When a kamikaze was shot down and crashed twenty-five yards from the Curtiss, Fonda and two sailors dived on the plane and recovered maps and flight plans. Fonda determined the kamikazes launched from Pagan Island in the Marianas. An air strike stopped them.
Fonda had been aloof before the war; afterwards, he was remote. The silence during car rides or at the dinner table unnerved his children. He rediscovered his dad’s hobby of kites in the Navy, and began flying them, as large as possible, after the war. He’d be quiet and stressed until the kite was airborne, then become exuberant as a kid.
Both actors took a while to re-establish their acting careers. Fonda preferred the stage in New York and could go for years without making a movie. Stewart preferred making movies in California. Years could pass without them seeing each other.
In his later years, Fonda stitched complicated needlepoint patterns he designed himself. Most needlework on chairs and pillows in his home were his work. He also made macramé baskets. Like Stewart, he was an avid gardener and also kept bees.
Little is said about Fonda’s relationship with his parents, who both died in the 1930s. Stewart’s father never lightened up with his son, even when Jim was in his 50s. Many people remembered Fonda as cold. Stewart was easy-going, but no one really got to know him. Only when they acted did they show emotion.
A fascinating look at two long-gone screen icons.

Two well-known men were best friends for their entire adult lives. We knew them as Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart on the silver screen, but their lives behind the scenes were like a movie about another "Odd Couple." Only this odd couple had a lot in common. They were animal lovers - when Henry Fonda came from New York out to LA to work in films out there, he arrived with three hats piled on his head, to keep them safe, and a newly weaned kitten named George that he'd fed by hand all the way across the country on the train. The twosome were also devoted to model airplanes, and their first model, a Martin B-26, had a custom box constructed to keep it safe during the New York-LA move.

Once in LA, they got a rental house next to Greta Garbo. Soft-hearted animal lovers, they found a pack of feral cats on the property, and the cat population continued to increase, despite their vows to cut back. The flea population was commensurate with the cat population, and they decided to cut a hole in the fence into Garbo's backyard, hoping some of the cats would move there. What actually happened was that they broke a water pipe and flooded her backyard! Garbo moved soon afterward. The cats continued to breed. Jimmy even tried dying one cat purple, thinking to frighten some other cats into fleeing the property. He handed the purple cat to Henry, who gave him a look that we've all seen in scores of movies. Disgust, dismay, aggravation, all expressed in a look that indicated someone had just handed him a purple cat.

Incidentally, Stewart and Fonda were not gay, just roommates and soulmates. Living together saved money, and they could share what they learned about their craft with each other.

Later on, when Stewart returned from his stint as a bomber pilot stationed in Great Britain, his house, sublet to a tenant, wasn't available for four months, so he moved into the small playhouse at Fonda's home. Built for Jane and Peter, the small house also housed a flock of cats and smelled to high heaven. Later Jane would joke that she knew Jimmy Stewart when he lived in a cat house. Uncle Jimmy was a welcome visitor any time, whether it was for a day, a month, or whatever.

I really enjoyed the vignettes about life in old Hollywood, before the Manson slaughter put fear in everyone, when you might see a movie star on his front lawn or in his garden. Jimmy Stewart and his wife Gloria lived near Jack Benny and many other Hollywood personages, including Lucille Ball, who was rather angry at him for a while. Stewart had bought the house adjoining his and torn it down to create more garden space. It was infested with rats, who promptly moved in with Lucy. Lucy developed a very close relationship with her exterminator, and took a while to forgive the Stewarts for what they had done. Meanwhile they would take bags of garden produce to all the neighbors.

In later years, Henry Fonda began keeping bees, and would show up at the Stewart door with honey. In turn, Jimmy would hand him a bag of vegetables. Each said only one word. "Hank." "Jim." Bags exchanged, they would turn around, the door would close, and that would be it for another visit.

There is some interesting background regarding some of the movies done by both men, their motivations, their lives from day to day, and their families. Both loved animals. Gloria and Jimmy traveled extensively on photo safaris to Africa, and supported zoos. The Fondas kept a lot of pets. In fact, both men did.

In later years, Jimmy would appear on Johnny Carson's show and recite his poetry. His poem about his old dog brought tears to all, and his poetry was published in a popular book. By this time he was alone, Gloria having passed away, and no longer working.

Fonda worked as long as he could, despite illness and age. Both lived their lives to the max.

This is a great book, but keep your kleenex handy.