A "potpourri" of EGA discussions

[Leatherneck72]

Here you go, four of the rarest Marine insignia known. Two of these insignia aren't even in the Marine museum's collection. He only has sold about 100 of each one. How do you like the odds of this guy having 100 each of the rarest insignia known to Marine collectors? Here you can have all in one buy!!!!! What a crock of crap.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Marine-Corp-Helmet-Ins...=item27b48aad8d

 

C'mon now, everyone knows that shako plates, tar bucket eagles, and 1892 spiked helmet EGA's grow on trees. BTW your inbox is full.

[usmcaviator]

Here is a seller that sells the same stuff, minus the pee aging, for about $20.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Indian-Wars-US-Marines...=item19beff81a8

[Bob Hudson]

Every few years we drive a couple hours north and spend a weekend in LA (the city not the state) playing tourist and eating at some of the great old greasy spoons in the City of Angels.

 

This year for the first time we visited some museums along Hollywood Blvd. and Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

 

Hollywood Blvd. is always an interesting place. If you've seen the movie 1941 then you've seen Hollywood Blvd. and much of the skyline is still the same as it was back in the 1930's and 1940's:

 

 

Grauman's Chinese Theatre has been part of the boulevard since 1927 and somewhere over the years you have probably seen footage of a movie star putting their hand and foot prints in the cement sidewalk in front of the theater. Now this is not the same as the as stars in the Hollywood Blvd. Walk of Fame that honor over 2,000 showbiz folks.

 

 

Only 200 people have been honored in front Grauman's Chinese Theatre with hand and foot prints and signatures scrawled into the cement by each person honored.

 

I have to say that I was shocked to see that one of the 200 had this:

 

 

Well that square turned out to be the work of one William "Bill" Lundigan. He didn't have a huge movie career but he was doing well and like many Hollywood actors who went off to war he was really never able to get his movie career back in gear after the war. He served in the Marines as a combat photographer at Peleliu and Okinawa.

 

 

After the war he did a lot of TV and on December 29, 1950 he made his mark outside the Chinese Theatre:

 

 

I found a photo showing he had a little help in making his imprint with his little tribute to the Marines:

 

 

And last but not least here he is in the Pacific:

 

[teufelhunde.ret]

An amazing story!

[Bob Hudson]

I found some more photos. If you've watched a lot of old (like pre-1950's movies) who may recognize him.

 

He played a young pilot vying for the attentiion of Wallace Beery's daughter in the 1943 Salute To The Marines, based on the fall of the Philippines. That's him in the middle:

 

 

This 1949 film is described as: "Foreign Service officer matches wits with a Chinese warlord to try to save American citizens threatened with execution."

 

 

Lundigan said poor script choices made him a "B" movie star, but he did get to kiss Marilyn Monroe long before the Kennedy brothers:

 

 

And his starring role as Colonel Ed McCauley in the 1959-60 TV series Men Into Space landed him on a lunchbox:

 

 

He is the uncredited narrator on the 1944 documentary "With the Marines at Tarawa" according to the book Stars in the corps: movie actors in the United States Marines by James E. Wise and Anne Collier Rehill:

 

 

You have to wonder how many thousands of people over the last 60 years have looked at the EGA he scrawled into the sidewalk and wondered, "What the heck is that?" I would also say that in the last 40 or so years they would also look at his name and wonder, "Who is he?" (Most of the 200 names in front of the Chinese Theatre are instantly recognizable).

 

I suppose that if you could answer that last question, you could say, "He's a Marine who made his mark on Hollywood...literally."

[Steve Brannan]

US Marine HARRY CLEMENTS was in Shanghai in 1937-38 according to this plaque. Could one you good forum members with access to Ancestory.com tell me what unit he was assigned to? I would appreciate it.

[Steve Brannan]

[teufelhunde.ret]

He enlisted May 1935 - left service in July 1935. Made PFC a few months before leaving. No mention of GCM. While in China was assigned to Hq Co 2nd Bn, 6th Marines, 2nd Marine Brigade.

[Steve Brannan]

Thanks for the info. Could you clarify the discharge date???

[teufelhunde.ret]

He was discharged on July 24, 1939.

[USMCRECON]

I just got this in the mail. It's my first Spanish American War era EGA. I was told that it's for the blue cover. It looks pretty decent to me except that one of the prongs is missing off the back. :crybaby:

 

I welcome any and all comments on it.

 

 

[Alec]

EGAs for the EM cap during SpanAm would have been a post style due to the adoption of a grommet in the front of the EM caps as of 1897. Your EGA dates earlier but could well have been used in conjunction with the brass ornamental plate on drums or on caps. The EGA experts would know better about what this went with, but not a SpanAm period cap. So bad news it is an earlier piece.

 

Horstmann delivered the first post EGAs to the Marine Corps.

[USMCRECON]

Here's something you don't see just every day. I don't even remember where I got this anymore but it's a large EGA door knocker; at least that's what I think it is. The EGA itself is made of cast brass (rough finish on the underside) and is about 7 1/2" long by about 7" wide at the widest point. The mount is two 3/16" pieces of cast brass strip wended into a "T" shape with an integral hinge cast in the top of the vertical strip.

 

 

[USMCRECON]

One last shot of the underside.....

 

[jeremiahcable]

Oh man, you need to mount that on the front door while the Mrs is out!

[Jason G]

Man, I'd mount that on MY door in a heartbeat! Very cool

[Brig]

I believe they're available in Sgt Grit, if you guys want to order one next time the wife is out

[TLHSS]

I've looked thru the reference section, but I still have a newbie question ....

 

Were there clutch-back EGAs during WWII?

 

Thanks .... Tim

[Jason G]

I don't believe so, more of a 1950's thing.

[teufelhunde.ret]

"Officially" in 1951 the Enlisted Khaki Service Jacket was phased out and a tropical Garrison Khaki shirt was authorized and prescribed the use of clutchback emblems as the collar ornament. By 1963 they were phased out.

 

Here is a pinned EGA topic on clutchbacks:

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ind...?showtopic=4965

 

The earliest clutchbacks were used by Marine Officers, here is a topic on these dating to the 1920's:

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ind...showtopic=81393

[TLHSS]

Thanks very much for the posting, and the reference pages.

 

Very much appreciated!

 

Tim

[DavidBliss]

I managed to muddle through and find an EGA exactly like mine. Its appearently an M30 EGA

My question is - What is the meaning of the reverse "S" on tha back.

 

So far no one seems to know. If I'm worng on the year or anything please let me know!

[Bob Hudson]

You've got the era correct on that: the backwards "s" is also shown in another thread but I don't know if anyone has pinned it down yet: http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ind...?showtopic=7617

[bobgee]

FYI - A little different EGA post. I got this interesting Droopy wing, M1926 USMC Jacket patch from a Marine who enlisted in 1939. This patch, the design of which was long obsolete by that time, dates to that era. Enjoy......Semper Fi......Bobgee

 

[Brig]

lost this on eBay...interesting portrait with unauthorized EGA on the pistol badge and the M20 clipped wing EGAs in wear. Amazingly, one is completely cocked to the side and no one corrected him!